“We are on the field of battle. The audience in the hall is divided in two sections: it is as if
a knife has cut them sharply in two. Two parties are present.”
Grigory Zinoviev’s description of the Halle congress of the Independent Social Democrats (USPD) in October 1920. Would the USDP and its 700,000 members opt for the Third International or attempt to stay a halfway house floating uneasily between communism and official social democracy? The Halle congress would decide.
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Person Reviewed This Product
By CPGB
Sep 15, 2011
"Should the German communists join the Communist (or Third) International? If the question no longer sounds very pressing, many of the arguments and answers that emerged from both sides in this debate have proved remarkably relevant to everything that has happened since. A political drama of the highest order ... I could not put this book down." Professor Bertell Ollman, department of politics, NYU, author of 'How to take an exam and remake the world' and 'Dance of the dialectic: steps in Marx's method' "Ben Lewis and Lars Lih are to be commended for making available to a new generation these speeches at the 1920 Halle congress of the USPD, one of the most remarkable moments in the history of the European socialist movement." Peter Hudis, co-author of 'The Rosa Luxemburg reader' "At a time when the left still remains far too often ignorant of the events of the German revolution and its aftermath from 1919-1923 it is a great thing when a young scholar and... More > activist like Ben Lewis makes available the record of the Halle congress in English." Ted Crawford, 'Revolutionary History' Editorial Board "An important contribution to the history of communism by a promising young scholar working alongside the highly-respected Lars T Lih." Daniel Gaido, National Research Council (Conicet), Argentina. Co-editor with Richard B Day, 'Witnesses to permanent revolution: the documentary record'< Less
