Intervention by Council Communists at the Founding Party Congress of the KPD against Participation in Elections

“Leave your colorful butterflies and lay your axe to the edifice of the capitalist economic order.”
— Eugen Leviné

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The entire controversy on "Left-Wing Communism" is today well known in the International Communist Movement, with its historical background tracing all the way back to the German Revolution and Lenin's “Left-Wing” Communism: an Infantile Disorder. In Germany, this manifested in the struggle between the Bolshevised KPD with Moscow's backing and the Council Communist KAPD, which was formed after expulsion of the majority left-wing oppositionists at the Heidelberg Congress of the KPD due to Paul Levi's demagogic manoeuvres.

Several of us are well acquainted with this and it is present in several history books too. However, historical accounts often fail to track the history of the KPD and the Council Communists before the Heidelberg Party Congress i.e. when the Party and most of its membership were still Council Communist. A lot of party members would however abandon their Council Communist positions under the pressure from right-wing leaders and the Comintern. Anyways, to partially overcome this neglect of the Council Communism of the early KPD, I've translated the following collection which is a selection of interventions by various individuals, who adhered to Council Communism at that point of time, at the Founding Congress of the KPD against participation in elections. Out of them, some would join the KAPD whereas some would abandon their positions and remain with the KPD.