Sixth Congress of the Communist International, Theses on the International Situation and the Tasks of the Communist International. August 29, 1928

Excerpts. These theses, drafted for the Third Congress of the Comintern in 1921 by Leon Trotsky and the economist Eugen Varga, marked a turn from the early expectation of imminent European revolution toward a more sober appraisal. They argued that capitalism had regained a measure of “temporary stability” after the postwar crisis and that Communist parties might have to operate defensively, preparing for a longer, uneven revolutionary process rather than a rapid chain reaction. The document thus reflects a key adjustment in Comintern strategy after the failures of 1919–21: less prophecy, more analysis, and a growing emphasis on tactics, organization, and timing.

Source: Communism and the International Situation. Thesis on the international situation and the tasks of the Communist International (New York: Workers Library Publishers, 1929), pp. 5-6.

After the first world imperialist war the international labor movement passed through a series of historical phases of development, expressing various phases of the general crisis of the capitalist system.

The first period was the period of extremely acute crisis of the capitalist system, and of direct revolutionary action on the part of the proletariat. This period reached its apex of development in 1921, and culminated, on the one hand, with the victory of the USSR over the forces of foreign intervention and internal counter-revolution and with the consolidation of the Communist International. On the other hand, it ended with a series of severe defeats for the Western European proletariat and the beginning of the general capitalist offensive. The final link in the chain of events in this period was the defeat of the German proletariat in 1923. This defeat marked the starting point of the second period, a period of gradual and partial stabilization of the capitalist system, of the restoration of capitalist economy, of the development and expansion of the capitalist offensive and of the continuation of the defensive battles fought by the proletarian army weakened by severe defeats. On the other hand, this was a period of rapid restoration in the USSR, of extremely important successes in the work of building up socialism, and also of the growth of the political influence of the Communist Parties over the broad masses of the proletariat. Finally came the third period, which, in the main, is the period in which capitalist economy is exceeding the pre-war level, and in which the economy of the USSR is also almost simultaneously exceeding the pre-war level ... For the capitalist system this is the period of rapid development of technique and accelerated growth of cartels and trusts, and in which tendencies of development towards State capitalism are observed. At the same time, it is a period of intense development of the contradictions of world capitalism ... This third period, in which the contraction of markets become particularly accentuated, is inevitably giving rise to a fresh series of imperialist wars; among the imperialist States themselves, wars of the imperialist States against the USSR, wars of national liberation against imperialism and imperialist intervention, and to gigantic class battles. The intensification of all international antagonisms (antagonisms between the capitalist States and the USSR, the military occupation of Northern China - which is the beginning of the partition of China - the mutual struggles between the imperialists, etc.), the intensification of the internal antagonisms in capitalist countries (the swing to the left of the masses of the working class, growing acuteness of the class struggle), and the wide development of colonial movements (China, India and Syria), which are taking place in this period, will inevitably lead - through the further development of the contradictions of capitalist stabilization - to capitalist stabilization becoming still more precarious and to the severe intensification of the general crisis of capitalism.