showed how all these tendencies work in practice and how they must be handled. First and foremost, everywhere, comes the "right" reformers, diverting all working class protest into futile demands for empty reforms. They are enemies, definite counter-revolutionaries, and must be fought openly upon all occasions. Likewise the "centrist" phrase-mongers: They are the type who are full of big words, but when the decisive moment arrives they cannot pass from the realm of revolutionary theory into that of revolutionary practice. They are always fatal to action, and must be fought. The "lefts" are of many varieties: the "pure" Communists, who spin fine doctrinaire webs and are afraid of contact with the masses; the dual unionists, who quit the old trade unions and found sterile revolutionary unions; the "putschists," who turn insignificant disputes into hopeless and fatal struggles; the Syndicalists, who object to political action, and the Anarchists, who oppose all sorts of centralization. The attitude to be taken towards these revolutionary but mistaken "left" elements is one of patient instruction and co-operation. In a masterful way, Radek outlined the parts played by these various groups in the big revolutionary struggles since the end of the war.
Throughout the congress much concern was shown over the trade union question; it cropped up under nearly every order of business. The Communist attitude on this matter is very different to what it is on the political question. In the political field, as this is counted the major one, the essential thing is to have an organization that clearly expresses the Communist conceptions and program. Hence the policy is to capture the old Socialist Parties and to expel the "right" and "centrist" elements; or, if this cannot be done, to split the old parties and to form new ones. But on the industrial field splits are rigidly avoided. Labor unions are recognized as mass organizations which are bound to reflect the mass psychology. The policy of Communists breaking away from the old unions and starting new ones was sharply condemned from the standpoint of both theory and practice. Such a course has always resulted in isolating the Communists in little outside groups and in leaving the reactionaries in undisputed control of the old organizations. Consequent upon this conception, revolutionaries all over the world were
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