We are sending you the draft resolution of the ECCI Presidium on the dissolution of the Communist International. We request your directives.

The historic role of the Communist International, founded in 1919 as a result of the political collapse of the overwhelming majority of the old prewar workers' parties, was to protect Marxist teaching from vulgarization and distortion by opportunist elements in the workers' movement, to contribute to the unification of the vanguard of workers in a number of countries in genuine workers' parties, to help them mobilize the masses of toilers to protect their economic interests and political rights, and to struggle against fascism and the predatory war launched by it. The Communist International early on exposed the real meaning of the “anti-Comintern pact” as a tool in the preparation of war by the Hitlerites. Long before the war [broke out], [the CI] had exposed the foul subversive work of the Hitlerites in other countries that was masked by their phrases about the supposed intervention of the Comintern in the internal affairs of those countries.

But long before the war it was becoming clear that as the internal and international situation of certain countries was becoming more complex, the resolution of the problems of the workers' movement in each individual country would meet with insurmountable obstacles.

The specific historical paths of development of different countries, peculiarities of their social systems, differences in the level and pace of development of their productive forces, differences in the level of consciousness and organization of the workers and of the forms of development of the workers' movement in turn shaped the different tasks facing the working class of individual countries.

All the events of the past quarter-century and the accumulated experience of the Comintern have clearly shown that the organizational form of uniting the workers chosen by the First Congress of the Comintern, which corresponded to the needs of the initial period of the revival of the workers' movement, became outdated as this movement grew and its tasks in individual countries became more complicated, and it became a hindrance to the further strengthening of the national workers' parties.

The world war unleashed by the Hitlerites exacerbated further the difference in the situation of individual countries, by creating a deep divide between the countries that became spreaders of the Hitlerite tyranny and the freedom-loving peoples who have united in a powerful anti-Hitler coalition. Although the main task of the workers, toilers, and all honest people in the countries of the Hitlerite bloc is to contribute in all possible ways to the defeat of this bloc by undermining the Hitler military machine from within, to contribute to the overthrow of the governments responsible for the war, in the countries allied against Hitler the sacred duty of the broad masses, and in particular of progressive workers, is to give all possible support to the military effort of the governments of these countries for the sake of the prompt defeat of the Hitlerite bloc and protecting the commonwealth of nations based on their equal rights.

At the same time, the war for liberation against the Hitler tyranny waged by the freedom-loving peoples, which set in motion wide popular masses who are uniting, regardless of their nationality, party affiliation, or religion, into a powerful anti-Hitler coalition, has clearly demonstrated that the national upsurge and the struggle of the masses, who are organized statewide, have outgrown the organizational framework of the CI. [The war] has demonstrated that this powerful mobilization of the masses can best contribute to the earliest possible victory over the enemy with the best results through the vanguard of the workers' movement in each individual country, in accordance with the best historical traditions of the national-liberation struggle of each given country.

The Seventh CI Congress, which took place in 1935, taking into consideration changes that took place both in the international situation and in the workers' movement that required more flexibility and independence for its sections to resolve the tasks facing them, has already stressed the importance for the Executive Committee of the Comintern, while resolving all questions of the workers' movement, to “proceed from the specific conditions and peculiarities of each country and to avoid, as a rule, direct interference in the internal organizational affairs of the Communist parties.”

The CI was guided by similar considerations when it considered and approved the November 1940 decision of the Communist Party of the USA to withdraw from the Communist International.

Guided by the teachings of the founders of Marxism-Leninism, Communists have never been supporters of organizational fetishism, have always subordinated organizational structure and methods of work of the workers' movement to the vital political interests of the workers' movement as a whole, to the particularities of the specific historical situation, and to the tasks that directly derive from this situation. They remember the example of the great Marx, who united the vanguard workers in the ranks of the International Workingmen's Association and, after the First International had accomplished its historical mission by creating a basis for development of the workers' parties in Europe and America, dissolved the First International, since that form of organization no longer corresponded to the new level of the workers' movement.

Starting from these considerations and taking into account the growth and political maturity of the Communist parties and their leadership in the individual counties, the Presidium of the ECCI, having no chance of convoking a Congress of the CI in the situation of world war, submits the following proposal for ratification by its sections:

To dissolve the Communist International as the leading center of the international workers' movement and to relieve its sections of the obligations ensuing from the statutes and decisions of the CI congresses.

The Presidium of the ECCI calls on all the supporters of the CI to concentrate their forces on the fullest support of and active participation in the war for liberation waged by the peoples and states of the anti-Hitler coalition for the earliest possible defeat of the deadly enemy of the toilers—German fascism and its allies and vassals.

Only the complete victory over this rabid enemy of mankind will make possible a new upsurge of the workers' movement, the rebuilding and expansion of the economic and political gains of the working class, the consolidation of the cause of freedom and peace among nations, thus achieving such social and international relations that the resurrection of fascism and the recurrence of its predatory wars would be impossible.