Communist union

The Union of Communists ( German: Bund der Kommunisten ) is a secret revolutionary organization, an international political party, created in 1847 in London . Its basis was the Union of the Just , which, under the influence of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, adopted the Marxist theory. He ceased to exist in 1852 (formally dissolved after the trial of 11 of its members in Cologne), however, despite this, he became a forerunner for socialist and communist parties around the world and inspired with his activity the creation of the International Workers' Association .

  This Union began its activity when in the most developed countries of Europe the class struggle between wage workers and the bourgeoisie came to the forefront of the revolutionary processes in capitalist society.  To eliminate the spontaneity of the market and the monopoly of capital, Marx and Engels came to the conclusion that in order to overthrow the rule of capital and take power into their own hands in order to build a society of social justice and equality, wage workers need their own party.

  Starting to prepare for its creation, Marx and Engels organized the Brussels Communist Correspondent Committee in January 1846 and called on their supporters to create similar committees in other countries.  At the same time, Marx, Engels and their followers had to determine their attitude to similar organizations that arose independently of their activities, primarily to the “Union of the Just”.

  The “Union of the Just” was heavily influenced by Blanquism and in order to achieve their transition to the rails of the “Union” it was necessary to ideologically defeat all varieties of utopian socialism and equip the workers with revolutionary theory.  Was this theory of socialism less utopian?  March 30, 1846 at a meeting of the Brussels Committee were sharply criticized Weitling's views.  At the meeting of the Brussels Committee held on May 11, 1846, the petty-bourgeois, philistine character of "true socialism" was revealed, one of the ideologists of which was German Krieg.  An extremely important role in completing the ideological defeat of Weitlingianism and “true socialism” in Krieg was played by Engels' trip to Paris: under the influence of Engels, most German emigrant workers in Paris accepted the principles of Marx's communist ideology.  Already in February 1847, the leaders of the Union of the Fair, falling under the influence of Marxist theory and tactics, invited Marx and Engels to join the Union, to take part in the development of its program and in its reorganization.  Marx and Engels determined their consent by the requirement to remove from the charter of the “Union” everything that contributed to sectarianism, conspiratorialism and blind worship of authority.

  In June 1847, the first congress of the Union of Communists was held in London on the basis of the "Union of the Just", where its Charter was adopted.  At the suggestion of Engels, the first article of the charter was approved, which read: “The purpose of the Union is: the overthrow of the power of the bourgeoisie and the establishment of domination of the proletariat, the destruction of the old, based on the antagonism of the classes of bourgeois society and the founding of a new society, without classes and without private property” (K. Engels F., Soch., 2nd ed., Vol. 4, p. 524).

  The following Union structure was adopted: the primary organization is the community;  communities united in districts, districts - in a leading district;  the supreme organ of the Union was congress; in between congresses, executive power was vested in the Central Committee.  The charter strictly carried out the principle of electivity and turnover.

  The democratic organization of the Union hindered the development of a conspiratorial tendency requiring dictatorial centralism.  Congress expelled Weitling's supporters from the Union and, on the initiative of Marx and Engels, the Union of the Fair was renamed the Union of Communists.  The former motto of the Union “All Men are Brothers”, reflecting its old direction, was replaced by the call “Proletarians of all countries, unite!” Put forward by Marx and Engels.  At the Congress, it was decided to create a printed organ of the Union.  On the basis of this decision, the new Central Committee of the Union issued in early September 1847 a trial (and only) issue of the journal Kommunistische Zeitschrift.  The seat of the Central Committee was established in London.  The vast majority of the "Union of Communists".  made up apprentices;  the Union also included intellectuals who participated in the labor movement, and a small number of factory workers.

  Brussels became the center of the party’s development, one of the first communities of the “Union of Communists” was founded there and the Brussels District Committee was created, chaired by Marx.  Thanks to the efforts of Marx and Engels, Deutsche Br; sseler Zeitung, which appeared in Brussels, actually became the printed organ of the Union of Communists.  Under the influence of Marx and Engels, most members of the “Union of Communists” came to the conclusion that it was necessary to adopt a new program freed from elements of sectarianism and utopian socialism.  To this end, the Central Committee decided to convene the 2nd Congress of the "Union of Communists."  In the Paris communities of the Union of Communists, Engels proposed his initial draft of a program called The Principles of Communism, which was approved by the governing Paris district and was to some extent the basis of the future program of the Union of Communists.

  On November 29, 1847, the 2nd Congress of the Union of Communists began in London, lasting about two weeks.  It was attended by delegates from Germany, France, Belgium, England, Switzerland, Poland.  The delegates of the Brussels communities were Marx and Engels.  The chairman of the congress was K. Schapper, and the secretary, Engels.  At the congress, the new charter of the “Union of Communists” was finally adopted, taking into account all the proposals put forward by the communities.  Congress instructed Marx and Engels to draw up the program of the “Union of Communists”, and this program was the “ Manifesto of the Communist Party ” published in February 1848, in which the idea of ​​the dictatorship of the proletariat was put forward.

  Immediately after the beginning of the February Revolution in Paris on February 27, 1848, the Central Committee of the Union of Communists decided to transfer its powers to the Brussels District Committee, which was entrusted with the creation of a new Central Committee.  A new Central Committee was created, but in view of the Belgian persecution.  On March 3, the police decided to dissolve and constitution the new Central Committee in Paris.  Arrested and then expelled from Belgium, Marx arrived in Paris on March 5 and formed here a new Central Committee, which included Engels.  The Central Committee adopted the document "Requirements of the Communist Party in Germany" written by Marx and Engels, which was a program of action by the Communists in the German revolution.  Its basis was the demand for a single, inseparable German republic as a necessary condition for the future proletarian revolution.

  During the days in Paris, the Central Committee of the Union of Communists did a great job of exposing an adventurous plan to create an armed legion of German emigrants, who was supposed to invade Germany in order to provoke a revolution there.  Marx and his supporters most resolutely opposed the "export of revolution", opposing this idea with a plan to return the German workers and communists individually to their homeland in order to act in the interests of the movement.  In this way, 300-400 people were sent to Germany, among whom the majority of the "Union of Communists" were members.  In April 1848, the Central Committee of the Union was transferred to Germany, where it attempted to create new communities, to contact local communist organizations in order to revitalize the Union.  However, in the conditions of the popular movement that unfolded during the outbreak of the revolution, the small Union, whose members were scattered throughout Germany and had little connection with each other, turned out to be too weak an instrument of influence on the masses.  Most workers were still under the influence of bourgeois democrats.  Marx and Engels came to the conclusion that in such an environment it would be most advisable to carry out the general management of the labor movement through the German revolutionary newspaper.

  The center of the activities of Marx, Engels and other communists was the New Rhine Newspaper, created by Marx and Engels, the first issue of which was published on June 1, 1848 in Cologne.  The editorial board of the newspaper actually replaced the Central Committee of the Union, and the newspaper itself became the platform with which the communists addressed the people.  Taking a leadership role in defining the tactical line of the “Union of Communists”, Marx and Engels sharply criticized A. Gottschalk’s sectarian-leftist tactics and S. Born’s narrowly trade-union policy, which led the workers away from solving the fundamental problems of the revolution.

  The Communists, who until April 1849 were on the extreme left flank of the revolutionary movement, took energetic measures to unite and organize proletarian and democratic forces: they created labor unions, exposing the indecision and cowardice of petty-bourgeois democrats.  During the revolution, the working class gained the experience of political struggle, its political activity and consciousness increased;  this allowed the Communists to raise the question of a break with the petty-bourgeois democrats, of creating an independent organization of the proletariat.  In April 1849, all the members of the "Union of Communists", who were still part of other democratic societies, left them and began preparations for the convening of a general German congress of labor unions in order to create an independent workers' party.  The defeat of the revolution and the triumph of reaction thwarted the implementation of these plans.

  After the defeat of the revolution, almost all the members of the Central Committee of the Union gathered in London and began to reorganize the Union.  The most important element of this reorganization was the activities of the Communists in the Social Democratic Committee for Assisting Emigrants: the committee not only provided assistance to the immigrants in need, but also restored, which was extremely important, the relations between the members of the Union of Communists.  Attracting some of them to the organization of assistance to exiles, he united his supporters around Marx in London and thereby contributed to the creation of the largest community there, which played a decisive role in the reorganization of the Union.

 At the beginning of 1850, the New Rhine Newspaper magazine began to be published.  Political and Economic Review ”, on the pages of which Marx and Engels summed up the past revolutionary events, outlined revolutionary prospects, developed the strategy and tactics of the proletarian party in the new conditions.  The Central Committee’s appeal to the Union of Communists, written in March 1850, served the same purpose.  In the spring of 1850, the Communists entered into a cooperation agreement with representatives of the left wing of Chartism and the extreme left faction of the French emigration in England - the Blanquists. 

  In developing the political line of the Union, Marx and Engels proceeded from the assumption that in the context of the economic upsurge that began after the crisis and depression, a new revolution in the near future is impossible.  This sober understanding of the situation caused discontent among the minority of the Central Committee members (A. Willich, Schapper), which defended adventurous, putschist tactics.  Things came to a split, which occurred at a meeting of the Central Committee of the Union on September 15, 1850.  Most of the Central Committee decided to move his seat to Cologne.  The Willich-Schapper faction organized its Special Union.  Attempts by the Cologne Central Committee to intensify the activities of the Union in Germany were unsuccessful.  One of the reasons for this was the intrigue of the Willich-Schapper faction;  among the members of the faction there were many police spies who contributed to the mass arrests of members of the Union in Germany in May 1851.  The Prussian government, with the help of fakes, forgeries, provocations, staged, under the direct instructions of Friedrich Wilhelm IV, the Cologne Communist process of 1852. This process, as Engels pointed out, ended the first period of the German communist movement.  On November 17, 1852, at the suggestion of Marx, the Union of Communists announced its dissolution.