(Pieck: He tried to co-operate.)
But, comrades. if you think that we would so readily agree to a split, you are wrong. Muslov and Fischer have their failings, but we have always said we must have patience.
(Pieck: Until the Party is shattered.)
The Party is not going to be shattered. Radek runs around among the students meetings in Moscow where the discussions are taking place. At these meetings Radek says that the Executive, and I particularly, have corrupted the German Party. I do not fear this charge. It would be a very pretty German Party if it could be corrupted from Moscow.
(Radek: I have never said that. I said that you broke up the Central Committee.)
A nice Central Committee if it allows itself to be broken up.
(Radek: Yes, if it was a Russian Committee.)
I have never broken up the Central Committee. It is true that a few days.after the departure of the representatives of the Communist International from Germany, the majority on the Central Committee found a correct and independent policy. How did I break it up? I can assert that I have not written a word either to Rammele or anyone else, although I had a right to do it. But it is true that the Central Committee, which was broken up from Moscow, found approximately the right policy without our having anything to do with it. What is the matter with the majority on the Central Committee ? Between ourselves, it is that it lacks determination, the will to power in the Party. It is necessary to have that in order to govern a Party. One must have the conviction that "I am right; I will lead the Party; I will convince it." The majority is somewhat anemic. It is still seeking words and formula that will suit Jacob Walcher. Of course we like Walcher. We will march with him, but the revolutionary policy of the Party is dearer to us than Jacob, and it would be good for him to understand that indefinite formulæ "on the one hand," "on the other hand," &c., are no use. The time for them has gone by.
Comrades, we have this majority on the Central Committee. In general we will march with it. A new attitude must be adopted towards the Left, different from that of Radek and Brandler. Radek's attitude towards the Left recently has been wrong. He has allowed his temperament to carry him away, and he is labouring under a false impression.
You say that the Left represents only a quarter, but you cannot lead the Party without this quarter. You speak of the bad people in Berlin, of the officials, &c. Comrades, I am at the head of the Leningrad organisation, and I know what it means to lead 25,000 to 35,000 men. This cannot be done mechanically, or by compulsion.
(Pieck: Muslov.)
However fallible Muslov may be, there are the tens of thousands
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