A thought exercise

Here are a few remarks of Georgi Dimitrov. They are a small part of a report he made to the Communist International in 1935. Dimitrov was a Bulgarian Communist leader, who distinguished himself in the fight against Hitler fascism. They remain good advice for the progressive and left movements in present circumstances. As a thought exercise, substitute the Biden administration and its progressive demands in the place of Social Democrats and their demands and left and progressive movements for communists. And then ask yourself if the substitution is apropos.

“Formerly many communists used to be afraid it would be opportunism on their part if they did not counter every partial demand of the Social-Democrats by demands of their own which were twice as radical. That was a naive mistake. If Social-Democrats, for instance, demanded the dissolution of the fascist organizations, there was no reason why we should add: “and the disbanding of the state police” (a demand which would be expedient under different circumstances). We should rather tell the Social-Democratic workers: We are ready to accept these demands of your Party as demands of the proletarian united front and are ready to fight to the end for their realization. Let us join hands for the battle.

Thus, in countries having Social-Democratic governments, the Communists, by utilizing appropriate individual demands taken from the platforms of the Social-Democratic ministers as a starting point for achieving joint action with the Social-Democratic Parties and organizations, can afterwards more easily develop a campaign for the establishment of a united front on the basis of other mass demands in the struggle against the capitalist offensive, against fascism and the threat of war.”