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  Organisation and Structure of the Communist Party

Guidelines on the Organizational Structure of Communist Parties, on the Methods and Content of their Work Adopted at the 24th Session of the Third Congress of the Communist International, 12 July 1921
 

 

VIII. ON THE STRUCTURE OF THE PARTY ORGANISM 

 

43. The Party organisation, spreading out and fortifying itself, must not be organised upon a scheme of mere geographical divisions, but in accordance with the real economic, political and transport conditions of the given district. The centre of gravity is to be placed in the main cities, and the centres of large industries. 
 

In the building up of a new Party, there usually manifests itself a tendency to have the Party organisation spread out at once all over the country. Thus, disregarding the fact that the number of workers at the disposal of the Party is very limited, these few workers are scattered in all directions. This weakens the recruiting ability and the growth of the Party. In such cases we saw an extensive system of Party offices springing up, but the Party itself did not succeed in gaining foothold even in the most important industrial cities. 
 

44. In order to get the Party activity centralized to the highest possible degree, it is not advisable to have the Party leadership divided into an hierarchy with a number of groups, subordinate to one another. The thing to be aimed at is that every large city, forming an economic, political or transportation centre, should spread out and form a net of organisations within a wide area of the surroundings of the given locality and the economic political districts adjoining it. The Party committee of the large centre should form the head of the general body of the Party and conduct the organisational activity of the district, directing its policy in close connection with the membership of the locality. 
 

The organisers of such a district, elected by the district conference and confirmed by the Central Committee of the Party, are obliged to take active part in the Party life of the local organisation. The Party committee of the district must be constantly reinforced by members from among the Party workers of the place, so that there should be close relationship between that committee and the large masses of the district. As the organisation keeps developing, efforts should be made to the effect that leading committee of the district should, at the same time, be the leading political body of the place. 
 

Thus the Party committee of the district, together with the Central Committee, should play the part of the real leading organ in the general Party organisation. 
 

The boundary lines of the Party districts are not naturally limited by the area of the place, The determining factor should be that the district committee be in a position to direct the activities of all the local organisations, within the district, in a uniform manner. As soon as this becomes impossible the district must be divided and new Party districts formed. 

 

It is also necessary, in the large countries to have certain intermediate organisations serving as connecting links between the Central Committee and the local. Under certain conditions it may be advisable to give to some of these intermediary organisations, as for example, an organisation in a large city with a strong membership, a leading part, but as a general rule this should be avoided, as leading to decentralisation. 
 

45. The large intermediary organisations are formed out of local Party organisations: country groups or of small cities and of districts, of the various parts of the large city. 
 

Any local Party organisation that has grown to such an extent that it is existing as legal organisation, it can no longer conduct general meetings of all its membership, must be divided. 
 

In any Party organisation the members must be grouped for daily Party activities. In large organisations it may be advisable to combine various groups into collective bodies. As a rule such members should be included in one group at their place of work or elsewhere and have occasion to meet one another in their daily activity. The object of such a collective group is to distribute Party activity among the various small or working groups, to receive reports from various officials and to train candidates for membership. 

 

46. The Party as a whole is to be under the guidance of the Communist International. The instructions and resolutions of the Executive of the International, on methods affecting the affiliated parties, are to be directed firstly, either (1) to their Central Committee of the Party, (2) through this Committee to some special committee or (3) to the members of the Party at large. 
 

The instructions and resolutions of the International are binding upon the Party, and naturally also upon every Party member. 
 

47. The Central Committee of the Party is elected at a Party Congress and is responsible to it. The Central Committee selects out of its own midst a smaller body consisting of two sub-committees for political activity. Both these sub-committees are responsible for the political and current work of the Party. These sub-committees or bureau arrange for the regular joint sessions of the Central Committee of the Party where decisions of immediate importance are to be passed. In order to study the general and political situation and gain a clear idea of the state of affairs in the Party, it is necessary to have various localities represented on the Central Committee whenever decisions are to be passed affecting the life of the entire Party. For the same reason differences of opinion regarding tactics should not be suppressed by the Central Committee if they are of a serious nature. On the contrary, these opinions should get representation upon the Central Committee. But the smaller bureau (Polit-Bureau) should be conducted along uniform lines, and in order to carry on a firm and sure policy, it must be able to rely upon its own authority as well as upon a considerable majority of the Central Committee. 
 

Carried on such a basis, the Central Committee of the Party, especially in cases of legal parties, will be able in the shortest time, to form a firm foundation for discipline requiring the unconditional confidence of the Party membership and at the same time manifesting vacillations and deviations that make their appearance done away with. Such abnormalities in the Party may be removed before reaching the stage where they should have to be brought up before a Party Congress for a decision. 

 

48. Every leading Party committee must have its work divided among its members in order to achieve efficiency in the various branches of work. This may necessitate the formation of various special committees, as for example, committees for propaganda, for editorial work, for the trade union campaign, for communications, etc. Every special committee is subordinated either to the Central Committee, or to the District Committee. 
 

The control over the activity, as well as the composition of all committees, should be in the hands of the given district committees, and, in the last instance, in the hands of the Party Central Committee. It may become advisable from time to time to change the occupation and office of those people attached for various Party work such as, editors, organisers, propagandists, etc., provided that this does not interfere too much with the Party work. The editors and propagandists must participate in the regular Party work in one of the Party groups. 

 

49. The Central Committee of the Party, as also the Communist International, is empowered at any time to demand complete reports from all Communist organisations, from their organs and individual members. The representatives of the Central Committee and comrades authorized by it, are to be admitted to all meetings and sessions with a deciding voice. The Central Committee of the Party must always have, at its disposal, plenipotentiaries (i.e., Commissars to instruct and inform the leading organs of the various districts and regions not only by means of their circulars and letters, but also by direct and verbal and responsible agencies on the questions of politics and organisations). 

 

Every organisation and every branch of the Party, as well as every individual member, has the right of communicating his respective wishes, suggestions, remarks or complaints directly to the Central Committee of the Party or to the International at any time. 
 

50. The instructions and decisions of the leading party organs are obligatory for the subordinate organisations and for the individual members. The responsibilities of the leading organs and duty to prevent either delinquency or abuse of their leading position, can only partly be determined in a formal manner. The less their formal responsibility (as for instance, in illegalised Parties), the greater the obligation upon them to study the opinion of the Party members, to obtain regular and solid information, and to form their own decisions only after mature and thorough deliberation. 

 

51. The Party members are obliged to act always as disciplined members of a militant organisation in all their activities. Should differences of opinion occur as to the proper mode of action, this should be determined, as far as possible; by previous discussions inside the Party organisation, and the action should be according to the decision thus arrived at. Even if the decision of the organisation or of the Party committee should appear faulty in the opinion of the rest of the members, these comrades in all their public activity should never lose sight of the fact that it is the worst form of undisciplined conduct and greatest military error to hinder or to break entirely the unity of the common front. 
 

It is the supreme duty of every Party member to defend the Communist Party, and above all, the Communist International, against all the enemies of Communism. He who forgets, on the contrary, and publicly assails the Party or the Communist International, is a bad Communist. 
 

52. The statutes of the Party must be drawn in such a manner as not to become a hindrance but rather a helping force, to the leading Party organs in the Communist development of the general Party organisations and in the continuous improvement of the Party activity. The decisions of the Communist International must be promptly carried out by the affiliated Parties even in the case when corresponding alterations in the existing statutes and Party decisions can be adopted only at a later date.