Colonies and Semi-Colonies :
The Immediate Tasks of the Communists : Difficulties in Colonial Countries
The building up and development of the Communist Parties in the colonies and semi-colonies , the removal of the excessively marked lack of correspondence between the objective revolutionary situation and the weakness of the subjective factor , represents one of the most important and primary tasks of the Communist International . This task comes up against a whole host of objective difficulties , determined by the historical development and social structure of these countries . Corresponding with the weak development of industry , the working class in these countries is still young and , for their population , relatively small in numbers . The colonial regime of terror , as also the presence of illiteracy , numerous different languages , etc ., renders difficult the organisation and development of the working class in general and the rapid development of the Communist Party in particular . The fluidity of composition and the large percentage of women and children are characteristic features of the colonial proletariat . In many places seasonal workers predominate , and even the basic ranks of the proletariat still have one foot in the village . This facilitates the connection between the working class and the peasantry , but makes more difficult the development of the class-consciousness of the proletariat .
Experience has shown that , in the majority of colonial and semicolonial countries an important if not a predominant part of the Party ranks in the first stage of the movement is recruited from the petty bourgeoisie and , in particular , from the revolutionarily -inclined intelligentsia , very frequently students . It is not uncommon that these elements enter the party because they see in it the most decisive enemy of imperialism , at the same time not always sufficiently understanding that the Communist Party is not only the Party of struggle against imperialist exploitation and oppression , but , is the November - 2021
Party which , as the Party of the proletariat , leads a decisive struggle against all kinds of exploitation and expropriation . Many of these adherents of the party in the course of the revolutionary struggle will reach a proletarian class point of view ; another part will find it more difficult to free themselves to the end from the moods , waverings , and half-hearted ideology of the petty bourgeoisie . It is precisely these elements of the party that find it especially difficult at the critical moment to estimate correctly the role of the national bourgeoisie and to act consistently , and without any kind of vacillation , in the questions of the agrarian revolution . The colonial countries do not possess socialdemocratic traditions , but neither do they possess Marxist traditions . Our young parties in the process of struggle , in the process of building up the Party , will have to overcome the relics of national petty-bourgeois ideology in order to find the road to Bolshevism .
These objective difficulties make it all the more obligatory for the Communist International to give an absolutely special attention to the tasks of building the Party in the colonial and semi-colonial countries . An especially great responsibility in this connection lies with the Communist Parties of the imperialist countries . This demands not only assistance in the matter of working out the correct political line , accurate analysis of experience in the sphere of organisation and agitation , but also systematic education of the party ranks , the creation of the certain minimum of Marxist-Leninist literature and its translation into the languages of the different colonial countries , most active assistance in the matter of study and Marxist analysis of the economic and social problems of the colonies and semi-colonies , and in the creation of a party press , etc . The Communist Parties in the colonial and semi-colonial countries are bound to exert all their efforts for the creation of a cadre of party functionaries from out of the working class itself , utilising members of the party — intellectuals — in the role of leaders and lecturers for propagandist circles and legal and illegal party schools , so as to educate from the leading workers the necessary agitators , propagandists , organisers and leaders permeated by the spirit of Leninism . The Communist Parties in the colonial countries must become genuinely proletarian parties also in their social composition , including in their ranks the best elements of the revolutionary intelligentsia , becoming steeled in the process of the daily struggle and of big revolutionary fights . The Communist Parties must give their chief attention to the task of strengthening the Party organisation in the factories and mines , among the transport workers and among the semi-slaves in the plantations . Everywhere where capitalism herds together the proletariat , the Communist Party must establish its nuclei , including the working class tenements , the big working class barracks of the factories , and the barrack-like plantations so strictly guarded from working class agitation . Nor should work be neglected among the journeymen , apprentices and coolies employed in small handicraft workshops . The native workers and the workers who have come from the metropolis must unite together in one and the same Party organisation . The experience of the older Parties in the matter of a correct combination of legal and illegal work must be utilised in accordance with the situation in the different colonial countries , in order as far as possible to avoid that which took place , for example , in China , where the vast mass organisations were broken up comparatively easily and without any great internal resistance under the blows of the reaction , thus greatly weakening the connection between the Communist Party and the masses . �
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