John Riddell – Vijay Prashad – Nazeef Mollah, eds. Liberate the Colonies! Communism and Colonial Freedom 1917–1924.

Contents

INTRODUCTION

Vijay Prashad

CHAPTER 1

SOVIET RUSSIA PROCLAIMS NATIONAL SELF-DETERMINATION

Declaration of Soviet Government on Rights of Peoples of Russia

Appeal to All toiling Muslims of Russia and the East

CHAPTER 2

MANIFETO OF THE COMMUNIST INTERNATIONAL TO THE WORKERS OF THE WORLD

CHAPTER 3

SECOND WORLD CONGRESS DEBATE ON ANTI-COLONIAL REVOLUTION

‘Our basic idea: The difference between oppressor and oppressed nations’ / V.I. Lenin

Supplementary Theses on the National and Colonial Questions / M.N. Roy

Supplementary Report on the National and Colonial Questions / M.N. Roy

‘Only social revolution will free the enslaved Black people’ / John Reed

‘All Latin America is a colony of the united States’ / Louis Fraina

‘Practical support needed for struggle in colonies’ / Karl Radek

‘The first thorough discussion of the Colonial Question’ / Avetis Sultanzade

‘Not “support” but “active interest”’ / Antonio Graziadei

‘China: A wide field for revolution’ / Liu Shaozhou

‘Korea: A most unhappy country’ / Pak Chin-Sun

‘Channel support through Communist groups’ / Roderic Connolly

‘British Labour has failed to understand Ireland’ / Eamonn MacAlpine

‘A liberation movement has arisen in Turkey’ / Ismael Hakki-Pasha

‘A religious movement against evils of capitalism’ / Maring

‘Take into account national minorities’ / Mariya Frumkina

‘Help all movements against British rule’ / William McLaine

‘Work in the colonies: The test of every party’ / David Wijnkoop

‘Oppose anti-Jewish pogroms’ / A.N. Merezhin

‘Assure rights of national minorities’ / Michael Kohn

Theses on the National and Colonial Questions

Greetings from the Toiling poor of Khiva / Baba Akhunde Samilov

Excerpts from Related Second Congress Resolutions

From the Statutes of the Communist International

From the Conditions of Admission to the Communist International

CHAPTER 4

BAKU CONGRESS OF THE PEOPLES OF THE EAST

Summons to the Congress

Session 1: Tasks of the Congress

‘Two worlds are meeting here today’ / Nariman Narimanov

‘We summon you to a holy war’ / Grigorii Zinoviev

Session 2: World Political Situation

‘The East is rising hand in hand with Russian workers’ / Buniatzadeh

‘Ottoman Turkey had no predatory aims’ / Bahaeddin Shakir

‘Turkey acted as a tool of imperialists’ / Haydar Khan Amu Ughli

Session 3: Turkestan and the Mountain Republic

‘We must speak frankly of the real situation in [Soviet] Turkestan’ / Narbutabekov

‘The Mountain poor stand ready for battle’ / Jalaluddin Korkmasov

Session 4: India and Turkey

Indian revolutionaries appeal for aid, Declaration by the Indian Revolutionary Association in Turkestan

‘We march with the Third International’ / Enver Pasha’s Declaration

‘Anatolia accepts the hand of Soviet friendship’ / Statement by Ibrahim Tali of the Ankara Government

‘Carry Turkish emancipation through to the end’ / Resolution adopted by the Congress Delegates

Session 5: The National and Colonial Questions

Election of Women to Congress Presidium

‘The proletariat brings cultural assets to the East’ / Discussion: Matushev on the National Question

‘Only social revolution brings liberation’ / Discussion: Ryskulov on the National Question

Session 6: Soviets and the Agrarian Question

‘Soviets: So the poor can build their own destiny’ / Theses on Soviet Power in the East

‘Refuse obligations towards feudal landlords; overthrow their power’ / Theses on the Agrarian Question

Session 7: Concluding Remarks

‘Organize the activists in the East’ / Resolution on Council for Propaganda and Action

‘Peoples of Bukhara have been freed at last’ / Report by Rodzhabov on triumph in Bukhara

‘We will prove your most loyal comrades . . . we are not afraid’ / Najiye for Women of the East

‘A bright sun has reached us’ / Bibinur for Women of Turkestan

‘Workers of the world and oppressed peoples, unite!’ / Closing remarks by Zinoviev

Correcting Abuses of Soviet Power in Turkestan

Communist Tasks Among Eastern Peoples

Manifesto of the Congress to the Peoples of the East

Composition of the Congress

CHAPTER 5

THIRD CONGRESS OF THE COMMUNIST INTERNATIONAL: RESOLUTIONS FROM INDIA, CHINA AND IRAN

Draft Resolutions Submitted to the Third Congress on the Colonial Question

‘Poor peasants and proletarians are the forces of revolution’ / M.N. Roy (India)

‘We must ally but not merge with national movements in colonies’ / Avetis Sultanzade (Iran)

‘We must free the masses from bourgeois leadership’ / Zhang Tailei (China)

CHAPTER 6

THIRD CONGRESS OF THE COMMUNIST INTERNATIONAL: FROM THE MINUTES

Significance of the Anti-Colonial Movement

Inadequacies of the Congress Discussion

CHAPTER 7

BLUEPRINTS FOR UNITY: CHINA AND DUTCH EAST INDIES

Conditions for Support of National-Democratic Movements / G.I. Safarov

Forging an Anti-Colonial United Front

‘I come from the Indies; I have travelled forty days’ / tan Malaka

CHAPTER 8

FOURTH CONGRESS OF THE COMMUNIST INTERNATIONAL: FROM THE MINUTES

‘The world proletariat greets the strivings of Islamic peoples’ / Willem van Ravesteyn

‘For an anti-imperialist united front in the colonial countries’ / M.N. Roy

‘Japanese workers are awakening’ / Sen Katayama

Call for Japan’s Withdrawal from Russian Sakhalin

‘Pseudo-Communists compete for French bourgeoisie’s high regard’ / Tahar Boudengha

Protest Against Reduction of Speaking Time

‘We must link up with revolutionaries in the colonies’ / Harry Webb

‘For a united front with the Guomindang’ / Liu Renjing

‘The red flag will wave over the pyramids’ / Husni el-Arabi

‘For a pan-Pacific congress of workers’ / William Earsman

‘Unify all the efforts of colonial revolution’ / G.I. Safarov

‘Communists in the motherlands have neglected their duties’ / Orhan

‘The Second Congress resolution exists only on paper’ / Karim Nikbin

‘We face a vast organizational, political, and intellectual labour’ / Karl Radek

CHAPTER 9

FOURTH CONGRESS OF THE COMMUNIST INTERNATIONAL: RESOLUTION

Theses on the Eastern Question

1 – The Rise of the Revolutionary Movement in the East

2 – The Conditions of Struggle

3 – The Agrarian Question

4 – The Workers’ Movement in the East

5 – The General Tasks of Communist Parties in the East

6 – The Anti-Imperialist United Front

7 – The Tasks of the Proletariat in Countries of the Pacific

8 – The Tasks of the Metropolitan Parties toward the Colonies

CHAPTER 10

FOR GLOBAL BLACK LIBERATION

Reports on the Black Question

‘Awaken the consciousness of the Black masses’ / Billings

‘The situation of Blacks is horrendous and fraught with danger’ / Claude McKay

Theses on the Black Question

CHAPTER 11

FIFTH CONGRESS OF THE COMMUNIST INTERNATIONAL: HO CHI MINH ON THE NATIONAL AND COLONIAL QUESTIONS

‘What our European parties have done for the colonies is almost worthless’

Victims of colonialism are ‘ripe for insurrection’

THE LONG MARCH TO COLONIAL FREEDOM

John Riddell’s Reflections

Glossary

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