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to belong to the Third International, but we reject the dictatorship of Moscow."
Such was the main line of argument adopted by all the Right Independents. Why did the over-wise leaders of the Right Independents try to turn the discussion on to that ground? The answer is obvious. They cannot accept battle with the Communist International on points of principle. The overwhelming majority of the German workers are on the side of the Russian Revolution, on the side of the Soviet Government, on the side of the Communist International. To tell the workers openly that they are against Soviet Russia, against the dictatorship of the proletariat, against the programme of the Communist International—means to lose nearly all support from the rank and file of the workers. This is welll understood by the Right leaders of the Independents. They could only harp on one string—i.e., the question of organisation. But in this respect the Right spared no efforts in exaggerating their case. They pandered to the lowest nationalist instincts of the workers. They did not disdain to appeal to the very sentiments, which played such a fatal part at the beginning of the imperialist war. The Right Independent papers displayed headlines like—"The Moscow Knout," "Despots from Moscow," "The Moscow Dictatorship," etc. Only references to the "Cossacks" were missing to make the picture complete.
If the Right Independents succeeded in obtaining a considerable minority at the congress, it was due to the fact that at the preliminary discussions before the congress they avoided all arguments based on principle and even proclaimed their agreement in principle with the Third International, thus sidetracking the dispute to the famous twenty-one conditions, which they thoroughly misinterpreted and distorted in a most cynical manner.
Absolutely everything within human power was done by the leaders of Right Independents to confuse the real difference in principle existing between the Communists and the Right Independents. The leaders of the Right Independents seem to have entered into a conspiracy to conceal the truth from the workers at all costs. The deception of the workers is carried out systematically and reduced to a fine art. When I saw the
