“To the masses!”

This slogan has been the starting point of the tactics of the 3rd International and thus also of the KPD for years. Today, after 4 years of practicing this tactic, we see the effects of this slogan from Lenin, which was given at the 3rd World Congress in Moscow. We aim to examine here whether the fruits it has borne are in the interest of the revolution.

Purely externally, any organization can adopt this slogan, as it has set itself the task of winning the proletariat for its tactics and goals. However, it depends on the content given to this slogan, i.e., what the principles of the organization look like. The KAPD and AAU have also set themselves the task of educating the masses, preparing them for revolutionary struggle, and leading them in the fight. However, the KPD's tactics differ from the KAPD in the means used to win the masses. We consider the method applied by the 3rd International and the KPD to reach the masses to be opportunistic, more in the interest of a certain party policy than the necessary class struggle policy.

If, in the conquest of the masses, quality suffers or is replaced by quantity, it misses its purpose. A victorious revolution presupposes that the masses are seized by it. The masses must be permeated with communist principles. A mass movement that merely chases an illusion and is internally unclear about the consequences of the proletarian class struggle will disintegrate like chaff in the wind at the decisive moment of the struggle. Who does not remember the demonstrating masses of 1918 and 1919? There were truly masses in motion back then, and they lacked impact because they were unclear in revolutionary thinking and action. The large masses of the SPD were also largely against the war in 1914, yet at a hint from the party leaders, they willingly marched to the slaughterhouse for imperialism.

From this, we see that masses without self-consciousness are merely extras for parliamentary parties. A proletariat with such immaturity that independent action is foreign to it will always be cheated of the fruits of the revolution. Therefore, our goal must be to develop a thinking proletariat. The prerequisite for the revolution is not masses at any cost, regardless of their mental state, but to develop thinking masses capable of directing their own destinies. It is easy to win the masses for a reformist slogan, but much harder to convince them of communism. Nevertheless, we must take the difficult path, as only it leads us to the proletarian revolution.

Unfortunately, the largest masses of the working class are still under the spell of bourgeois, social-democratic ideology. They still believe in parliamentarism and the improvement of their living conditions within capitalism. From a communist standpoint, there can be no connection to this mood of the masses, as it would mean a link to the illusions of the liberation of the working class within the existing state order. For us, it can only mean the destruction of this state and the illusions associated with it that currently cloud the masses. Eradication of the proletariat's superstition in capitalism. Ruthlessness towards the masses is necessary, as any half-measures carry the seeds of devastating setbacks. We must not march behind the masses but in front of them.

The trade unions and the SPD have been mass organizations for decades. Yet their masses, which they have as members, are insignificant for the class struggle, are not a revolutionary factor. They are, in the truest sense, an obstacle to the revolutionary liberation of the working class. These masses of the counterrevolutionary, reformist trade unions and SPD can only be freed from these chains if a revolutionary ideology is opposed to them. They must see new paths of class struggle, but they will never see these new paths by having their cherished reformist ideas slightly radicalized. The KPD has been pursuing this radicalization of reformist demands with great zeal since 1920, yet the masses have remained reformist. The lack of success of this cell activity is due to the fact that the masses cannot be freed from their social-democratic spell with pseudo-revolutionary means.

Since its split from the USPD, the KPD has developed into a mass party. Today, we can state that it is what the USPD was in 1918. It is the left wing of social democracy. Organizational independence fundamentally changes nothing about this. Through parliamentarism, the KPD has united large voter masses, it has gained masses behind it, but ones that are not imbued with communist thinking or the revolutionary class struggle. Masses that cast their vote for the KPD in the ballot box are not the quantitative expression of the revolutionary class struggle; they do not demonstrate the will to act but expect help from parliament. Unfortunately, this psychology of the masses is still predominant today and will remain so as long as the KPD continues its previous tactics. When discussing with KPD members, they often reply: "We share your communist principles, but we cannot tell the masses that; they would not follow us." This is precisely where the KPD's failure lies, in fearing the reformist spirit of the masses. Whoever abandons their communist principles just to win masses abandons themselves. In the end, you have masses but no principles. With the KPD, we can progressively observe the constant abandonment of former principles. If you look at how the KPD once entered parliament and compare it to its current practical parliamentary work, you can see the path it is taking. All these adjustments, of course, for the sake of the masses. If the SPD was once accused of supporting capitalist governments, the KPD has now gone so far as to directly and indirectly support the Prussian and other governments and even holds official capitalist administrative posts in part. This social-democratic, state-preserving tactic is naturally justified by saying the masses would not understand if the KPD overthrew the Prussian government.

The slogan "to the masses" has thus made the KPD an opportunistic party. The proletariat must draw lessons from this if it does not want to sink further into the social-democratic swamp. Winning the masses must not be as easy as the KPD makes it, as this tactic promotes the dumbing down of the masses and is a piece of counterrevolution. The preparation of the proletarian revolution requires hard work and the necessity of a fundamentally firm, clarified class struggle party. Communist revolutionaries must uphold their principles, even if the successes are not immediately expressed in numbers. The KPD has grown in numbers, but this size negates the necessary clarity. Herein lies the sickness of the slogan "to the masses."

For us, conquering the masses means fighting against the trade unions and parliamentary parties, as we want to win masses for the revolutionary struggle. Only masses free from trade union and social-democratic ideology can accomplish the proletarian revolution. The masses may not follow our call at the moment and still run after the sweet melodies of political pied pipers, but history will prove us right. One day, the masses must realize that they cannot fight for a new world with trade union and parliamentary methods. Then our struggle, even if it is not yet the struggle of the masses, will not have been in vain.

First clarity, then majority!
Only then will victory be ours!