There are important parallels in the approach of the Spanish and Chinese communist parties in the national liberation wars in the 1930s. In this document José Díaz argues for the establishment of a New Democratic parliamentary republic in the struggle against the Spanish Fascists. This was a necessity to unify the various political forces who were opposed to fascism but not necessarily supporters of revolutionary democracy. In the time of Lenin the tactics of revolutionary parliamentarism had been elaborated prior to the Russian revolution and these were universally adopted among communists at the Second Congress of the Communist International held in 1920. While the Baltic Republics in 1940 and the Czechoslovak revolution in 1948 are taken as major examples of the application of Leninist revolutionary parliamentarism, the instances of Spain and China are not normally taken into account. Let us recall that Mao and the CPC leaders participated for a period in the government together with Chiang-Kai shek in the national liberation struggle as did the Communist Party of Spain in the struggle against fascism. Today the writings of José Díaz are largely not part of the revolutionary equipment of the communist movement which is why it is valuable to have access to his writings in the Archival Materials of Revolutionary Democracy. Similarly the writings of Mao on revolutionary parliamentarism are not circulated. Such were the innovations of José Díaz in Marxist theory that some Russian historians have regarded him as the founder of People’s Democracy. The basis for this is that José Díaz during the course of the national liberation struggle in Spain between 1931-1939 considered that the ‘parliamentary republic of a new type’ could lead to a specific type of state where power would be shared in a coalition with the ‘left section of the bourgeoisie’ in the People’s Front which would play a decisive role in society. The parallels with the notion of New Democracy projected in Eastern Europe after the defeat of Fascism and the views of Mao in the national liberation struggle against Japanese imperialism after 1935 are unmistakeable. The views of José Díaz further may be seen in the application of revolutionary parliamentarism visible in the Czechoslovak revolution and the suggestions of J.V. Stalin for the formation of People’s Democracy in the ‘Anglo-Saxon’ countries such as Britain, the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. These superceded the earlier notions of revolutions based on immediate Socialist revolution in the imperialist states founded on Soviet power which had been prevalent before 1935. It is instructive to note that after the Second World War Stalin and the CPSU (b) recommended that in all countries, whether imperialist, medium level capitalist states or in the colonial and dependent countries the immediate stage of revolution, emerging from the people’s and national liberation fronts would be of a people’s democratic character.

Vijay Singh.

Readings:

A. Badayev. ‘The Bolsheviks in the Tsarist Duma.’ www.revolutionarydemocracy.org/archive/bad0.htm

The Communist Party and Parliament, Theses Adopted by the Communist International,1920, Kamgar Prakashan, 2015.

Interview Given by Mao Tse-tung to Mr. Wang Kung-Tah, Correspondent of the Associated Press. http://www.revolutionarydemocracy.org/rdv11n2/mao.htm 

Jan Kozak. 1961. ‘How Parliament Can Play a Revolutionary Part in the Transition to Socialism and the Role of the Popular Masses.’ Archival Materials, Books and Pamphlets, www.revolutionarydemocracy.org/

José Díaz Archive, www.revolutionarydemocracy.org/archive/

T.V. Volokitina, G.P. Murashko, and A.F. Noskova. ‘Narodnaya demokratiya: mif ili realnost?’ Obsheshtvenno-politicheskie protsessy v vostochnoi evrope 1944- 1948 g., Moskva, ‘Nauka’, 1993, ctr.3.

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<>We Fight for a New Type of Democratic Parliamentary Republic

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When we speak of the character of the present struggle, we have to establish this point: against whom and against what did the fascists raise the rebellion on July 18? The fascists rose up in arms against the whole of the Spanish people, against the will of the people, clearly expressed in the elections of February 16. In order to justify their criminal act, the rebels tried to claim that they had begun a “preventive revolution” in order to hinder the establishment of communism in Spain. But the programme of the Frente Popular, which constituted the basis on which the struggle was carried onwhich led to the victory of February l6, cannot be reproached with resembling communism in any way whatsoever. The electoral struggle simply aimed at defending the democratic republic and its institutions, and at creating the conditions necessary for satisfying the urgent demands of the Spanish people. In order to make clear to all my view of the character of our struggle against fascism, I will remind you of the fact that a month after the beginning of the rebellion, our Party launched the slogan of extending the Frente Popular, of uniting the whole of the Spanish people, for the civil war—the conflict between democracy and fascism—had become a war for national independence, a war for national liberation. Our struggle, the content of which is profoundly national, has also a clearly expressed international character. A concise and brilliant definition of the international character of our struggle was given by our great Comrade Stalin and expounded at greater length by Comrade Dimitroff. Comrade Stalin said in his historic telegram to the Central Committee of our Party: “The working people of the Soviet Union are only doing their duty by giving every aid in their power to the revolutionary masses of Spain. They realise that the liberation of Spain from the oppression of the fascist reactionaries is not the private affair of the Spaniards, but the common cause of all advanced and progressive mankind.” Commenting on the definition of the international character of our struggle, as given by Comrade Stalin, Comrade Dimitroff in an article published at the beginning of the year wrote: “At the same time it must not be forgotten that to hasten and facilitate the victory of the Spanish people, who are defending with their blood not only their own freedom and independence, but also the democratic liberties of other peoples and also the cause of peace, it is necessary still further to increase the actions of solidarity of the international proletariat and of all democratic forces.” In these few words, the international character and significance of our struggle in Spain is splendidly explained. There is no doubt that a victory by Spain over fascism will serve as a tremendous impulse for the development of democracy not only in Spain, but in France, England and other countries. Our victory will also exercise a tremendous influence on the political situation in Germany, Italy and all countries which are now under the rule of fascism, because it will show them the road to liberation from fascist tyranny. On the contrary, if we were to lose the war, it would be a terrible blow for democracy everywhere, not only in Spain, but throughout the world. Defeat would mean an advance, if only temporary, of international fascism, and a wave of terror and barbarism which would spread over the whole world, driving all the peoples into the abyss of war. Therefore, in face of the tasks laid upon us by the war, and in view of the tremendous sacrifices which we shall have to make in order to win it, we want rapidly to create the necessary conditions for victory. We are fighting for a democratic republic, for a new type of democratic parliamentary republic. The struggle in Spain does not aim at forming a democratic republic of the French type or like the republics of other capitalist countries. No, the democratic republic for which we are fighting is a different republic. We are fighting to destroy the material foundation on which reaction and fascism were based, for unless this foundation is destroyed, it will be impossible to have genuine political democracy. In our struggle, we are striving to bring about the destruction of the material basis of semi-feudal Spain, in order to root out fascism once and for all. We must liquidate the class of big landowners, who have participated to a man in the military-fascist rebellion. We must nationalise their estates, and turn them over to the agricultural labourers and peasants, for cultivation either individually or collectively, according as they desire. It is necessary to destroy the economic and political power of the church, which was the centre of the conspiracy against the interests of the masses, and one of the strongest mainstays of semi-feudal Spain. To this end the property of the church must be confiscated and nationalised. The struggle against the semi-feudal economic and political rule of the church does not by any means signify a fight against religion. On the contrary, only a republican and democratic Spain, a free and progressive Spain, will ensure freedom of religion in our country. We must also set about putting an end to the remnants of the caste spirit of the old army, which served semi-feudal Spain and was used to suppress progressive tendencies. We must put an end to the financial oligarchy, to the bankers and manufacturers who were closely connected with the landowners and the church and hindered the development of the national economy. We must proceed to the nationalisation of the Bank of Spain and the chief industries of the country. This is the only means of satisfying the needs of the front and the rear. In addition to these main points, the solution of which will lead to the disappearance of the semi-feudal castes which were dominant in Spain, and will lead to the reorganisation of the material and social basis of our new, democratic, parliamentary republic, we must introduce genuinely universal suffrage and secure the participation of the entire people in the political and economic life of the country. Such is the new type of democratic and parliamentary republic being fought for by our Party, and together with it, by the entire Spanish people. In all the provinces under the rule of the government there are no longer any landlords, big bankers or big manufacturers, while the church no longer exists there as a ruling power. This is the actual state of affairs, and the fact that arms are in the hands of the people, in the hands of the really anti-fascist people, in the hands of the workers, peasants, intellectuals and the petty bourgeoisie is a guarantee that all that we have won will remain for all time. This is the greatest guarantee that the past can never return. And precisely because we have a guarantee which secures what we have won, we should not lose our heads and skip over reality, trying to carry out experiments of “Libertarian Communism” (Anarchist) or “socialisation” in the factories or in the countryside. The stage of the development of the democratic revolution through which we are passing requires the participation in the struggle of all anti-fascist forces, and these experiments can only result in driving away a very important section of those forces.