100 years of the Third International

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By Carlos Quadros*

The Third International, also called Communist, stems from two combined processes: the great revolutionary agitations, which occurred in the midst of the imperialist war that began in 1914, and the dissolution of the Second International - called Socialist - due to the support of its main parties and leaders to the efforts and declarations of war by their respective nations.

As a result of the First War, the Communist International had its existence abbreviated precisely because of the unfolding of the Second World War. The government of the Soviet Union, in an effort to collaborate with the allied countries in facing the Nazi-fascist war machine, promoted, in 1943, its dissolution. 

Its foundation, in 1919, can be understood as a result of the transformations that were taking place within the labor movement, as well as the geographical displacements of the agitations it led.

The First International – International Association of Workers – had London and Paris as its centers of reference, although with the protagonism of Marx and Engels, two Germans in exile. The Second International was founded in Paris in 1889, with the Social Democratic Party (SPD) coming to prominence. The Third, significantly, not only was born in the recent capital of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, it proposed more radical goals ("the founding of an international Soviet republic", in Lenin's words) and, especially, a much broader arc of involved in their revolutionary action, far beyond “only […] white-skinned people”.

Eric Hobsbawm described the importance of the legacy of the Communist International thus: “The October Revolution produced by far the most formidable organized revolutionary movement in modern history. Its global expansion is unparalleled since the achievements of Islam in its first century. Barely thirty or forty years after Lenin's arrival at Finland Station in Petrograd, a third of humanity found itself living under regimes directly derived from the 'Ten Days That Shook the World', and Lenin's organizational model, the Communist Party”.

The form of the Third International shaped that of its respective national sections, the Communist Parties: discipline and centralization. It had seven Congresses during its existence. The developments of its Congresses are an indication of its historical grandeur: they express colossal successes and mistakes, disputes in the revolutionary hosts that still haunt the broad field of the Marxist left, even decades after the death of its protagonists, but, above all, they manifest the impetus heroic of those who proposed themselves as the world army of revolution.

Its end did not mean the end of proletarian internationalism, nor the end of Soviet preeminence with the Communist Parties. The socialist field expanded greatly with the Chinese Revolution of 1949 and with the multiple revolutionary movements for national liberation that took advantage of its example, also the result of an imperialist war of unprecedented dimensions. Arising in a world where the Communist International no longer existed, they are consequences of the profound historical transformations that acted in the gestation of the International, but which also suffered the action of its greatest collective protagonist: the working class.

One hundred years after his birth, we live in a very different world, even though Marx and Engels' prediction of a social simplification resulting from a cleavage between capitalists and workers is very current. There is still something to learn from the gigantic experience of those who dared the world revolution.

*Carlos Quadros (PhD student in Economic History at USP)

International symposium: 100 years of the Communist International

Date: October 16th to 18th, 2019
Location: Department of History (FFLCH-USP)

Address: Av. Lineu Prestes, 338, University City, Sao Paulo

PROGRAMME

WEDNESDAY - OCTOBER 16

9:00 (AH): SOCIALIST INTERNATIONAL, RUSSIAN REVOLUTION AND THIRD INTERNATIONAL: Osvaldo Coggiola – Discussant: Rodrigo Ricupero

9:00 (AG): THE COMMUNIST PARTY IN THE HISTORY OF BRAZIL: José Salles – Augusto Bonicuore – Sofia Manzano – Lucca Maldonado – Frederico Falcão

9:00 (ANS): THE ARCHIVES AND THE STUDY OF THE COMMUNIST INTERNATIONAL: Bernhard Bayerlein – Discussant: Daniel Gaido

9:00 (AMS): COMMUNIST INTERNATIONAL AND LATIN AMERICAN REVOLUTION: Deni Rubbo – Yuri Martins Fontes – Claudia Romero – Mariano Schlez

14:00 (AH): ANARCHISM AND THE COMMUNIST INTERNATIONAL: Ricardo Rugai – Acácio Augusto – Marly Viana – Felipe Correa – Elvio Rodrigues Martins

14:00 (AG): COMMUNISM AND BRAZILIAN INTELLECTUALITY: Francisco Alambert – Marcelo Ridenti – Paulo Barsotti – Marcos Antonio Silva – Pedro Pomar

14:00 (ANS): THE EDITORS OF THE COMMUNIST INTERNATIONAL: Dainis Karepovs – Marisa Midori – Lincoln Secco – Flamarion Maués – Felipe Lacerda

14:00 (AMS): THE COMMUNIST INTERNATIONAL AND CHINA: José Rodrigues Mao Jr – Andrea Longobardi – Aldo Sauda – Francisco Prandi

14:00 (CAPH): EDUCATION IN THE COMMUNIST INTERNATIONAL: Carlos Bauer – Panelists: Cássio Diniz and Ítalo de Aquino

17:30 (AH): THE COMMUNIST INTERNATIONAL AND THE ARAB COUNTRIES: Soraya Misleh – Discussant: Reginaldo Nasser

17:30 (AG): GRAMSCI, THE ITALIAN CP AND THE COMMUNIST INTERNATIONAL: Bernardo Ricupero – Alvaro Bianchi – Deise Rosalio – Lincoln Secco

17:30 (ANS): THE COMMUNIST INTERNATIONAL AND THE BLACK ISSUE: Wilson H. Da Silva – Panelists: Eduardo Januário and Gisele Sifroni

17:30 (AMS): LUIS EMILIO RECABARREN AND THE CHILEAN COMMUNIST PARTY: Horacio Gutiérrez – Discussant: Gabriela Pellegrino

19:30 (AH): THE COMMUNIST INTERNATIONAL BETWEEN LENIN AND STALIN: Bernhard Bayerlein – Debater: Osvaldo Coggiola

19:30 (AG): HUNGARY 1919: THE REPUBLIC OF WORKERS' COUNCILS: Tibor Rabockzai – Discussant: Milton Pinheiro

19:30 (ANS): THE COMMUNIST INTERNATIONAL AND THE 1935 INSURRECTION: Marly Viana – Gilberto Maringoni – Elizabeth Cancelli – Maria A. de Paula Rago

19:30 (AMS): INTELLECTUALS AND COMMUNIST INTERNATIONAL: Deni Rubbo – Alessandro Soares – Muniz Gonçalves Ferreira – Marcos Del Roio

THURSDAY – OCTOBER 17

9:00 (AH): THE COMMUNIST INTERNATIONAL OF SPORTS (SPORTINTERN): Flávio de Campos – Discussant: Benedito Carlos Libório Caires Araújo

9:00 (AG): COMMUNIST INTERNATIONAL AND GERMAN REVOLUTION: Valério Arcary – Ricardo Musse – Felipe Lacerda – Edgardo Loguercio

9:00 (ANS): COMMUNISM AND THE ARTS: Rafael Padial – Flo Menezes – Andrea Duprat – Clara Figueiredo

9:00 (AMS): THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF THE SOVIET UNION (CPSU) AND THE COMMUNIST INTERNATIONAL: Angelo Segrillo – Debater: Henrique Canary

14:00 (AH): WOMEN IN THE COMMUNIST INTERNATIONAL: Daniel Gaido – Diana Assunção – Daniela Mussi – Marcela Piloto Proença – Erika Andreassi

14:00 (AG): THE COMINTERN, JULIO ANTONIO MELLA AND THE CUBAN REVOLUTION: Luiz Bernardo Pericás – Joana Salém – Ramón Peña Castro – José Rodrigues Mao Júnior – Pedro Monzón

14:00 (ANS): THE COMMUNIST INTERNATIONAL AND THE NATIONAL AND COLONIAL QUESTION: Lúcio Flávio de Almeida – André Kaysel – Angelica Lovatto – Muniz Gonçalves Ferreira

14:00 (AMS): THE PORTUGUESE COMMUNIST PARTY AND THE ESTADO NOVO: Lincoln Secco – Eloísa Aragão – Maria Candelária Volponi Moraes – Ildefonso Garcia

14:00 (CAPH): THE COMMUNIST PARTY IN URUGUAY: Nicolas Marrero – Discussant: Frederico Bartz

17:30 (AH): FROM THE THIRD TO THE FOURTH INTERNATIONAL: Eduardo Almeida – Daniel Gaido – Pedro Gava – André Ferrari – Ítalo de Aquino

17:30 (AG): THE COMMUNIST INTERNATIONAL AND THE JEWISH QUESTION: Saul Kirschbaum – Debater: Nachman Falbel

17:30 (ANS): WILLI MÜNZENBERG, THE COMINTERN AND THE ANTI-IMPERIALS LEAGUE: Bernhard Bayerlein – Discussant: Rosa Rosa Gomes

17:30 (AMS): THE COMMUNIST INTERNATIONAL AND THE ECONOMIC CRISIS OF 1929: Artur Araújo – Sofia Manzano – Fernando Leitão – Luiz Eduardo S. de Souza

19:30 (AH): TROTSKY AND THE COMMUNIST INTERNATIONAL: Jorge Altamira – Discussant: Gilson Dantas

19:30 (AG): THE COMMUNIST INTERNATIONAL AND THE BRAZILIAN REVOLUTION: Marly Viana – Luiz Bernardo Pericás – Carlos Fernando de Quadros – Murilo Leal Pereira

19:30 (ANS): THE COMMUNIST INTERNATIONAL AND THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR: Antonio Rago – Ana Lúcia Gomes Muniz – Fernando Camargo – Horacio Gutiérrez – Ramón Peña Castro

19:30 (AMS): MARIGHELLA AND THE COMMUNIST INTERNATIONAL: Emiliano José – Takao Amano – Edson Teixeira – Milton Pinheiro – Yang B. Chung

FRIDAY - OCTOBER 18

9:00 (AH): MARIÁTEGUI: AN INDO-AMERICAN COMMUNISM? John Kennedy Ferreira – Discussant: Henrique Carneiro

9:00 (AG): THE COMMUNIST INTERNATIONAL AND THE SECOND WORLD WAR: José R. Mao Jr – Rodrigo M. Zagni – André Ferrari – Diogo Fagundes – Roberio Paulino

9:00 (ANS): FROM THE WORKERS UNITED FRONT TO THE POPULAR FRONTS: Daniel Gaido – Antonio Carlos Mazzeo – Martin Hernández – Marcos Del Roio

9:00 (AMS): THE ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE OF THE COMMUNIST INTERNATIONAL: Edgardo Loguercio – Discussant: Mauro Iasi

14:00 (AH): THE INTERNATIONAL SINDICAL RED (PROFINTERN): Antonio Bertelli – Julio Turra – Ruy Braga

14:00 (AG): KOMINFORM AND THE COLD WAR: Henrique Canary – Rodrigo Medina Zagni – Aldo Sauda – Breno Altman

14:00 (ANS): 1931: THE FIRST COMMUNIST PARTICIPATION IN SCIENTIFIC EVENTS IN THE WEST: João Zanetic – Discussant: Gildo Magalhães

14:00 (AMS): THE COMMUNIST INTERNATIONAL AND FASCISM: Regina Gadelha – Jorge Altamira – Maurício Parisi – Valério Arcary

14:00 (CAPH): FROM EUROCOMMUNISM TO NEOLIBERALISM: Luiz Renato Martins – Milton Pinheiro – Luiz Motta

17:30 (AH): THE COMMUNIST INTERNATIONAL IN ARGENTINA: Mariano Schlez – Panelists: Fernando Sarti Ferreira and Eduardo de Souza Cunha

17:30 (AG): JOHN REED AND THE COMMUNIST INTERNATIONAL IN THE USA: Sean Purdy – Discussant: Luiz Bernardo Pericás

17:30 (ANS): THE COMMUNIST INTERNATIONAL AND WORKERS' RELIEF INTERNATIONAL: Bernhard Bayerlein – Debater: Nicolás Marrero

17:30 (AMS): ROSA LUXEMBOURG AND THE COMMUNIST INTERNATIONAL: Isabel Loureiro – Rosa Rosa Gomes – Gilson Dantas – Diana Assunção

17:30 (CAPH) THE COMMUNIST YOUTH INTERNATIONAL: Dainis Karepovs – Discussant: Fernando Garcia

19:30 (AH): PROLETARY INTERNATIONALISM TODAY: Valter Pomar– Jorge Altamira – Edmilson Costa – Plinio de Arruda Sampaio Jr – Virginia Fontes

19:30 (AG): THE ECONOMISTS OF THE COMMUNIST INTERNATIONAL: Apoena Cosenza – José Menezes Gomes – Daniel Feldmann – Alberto Handfas – Luiz Eduardo Simões de Souza

19:30 (ANS): STALIN AND THE COMMUNIST INTERNATIONAL: Breno Altman – Mauro Iasi – Gilson Dantas – Everaldo Andrade – Marcos Del Roio

19:30 (AMS): COMMUNISM AND CINEMA: Thyago Vilella – Marcela Fleury – Peterson Pessoa – Fernando Frias

REGISTRATIONS: www.internacionalcomunista.usp.br

Support: PPGHE (Postgraduate Program in Economic History)

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