From International Press Correspondence, Vol. 3 No. 16, 15 February 1923, pp. 129–130.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for the Marxists’ Internet Archive.
Public Domain: Marxists Internet Archive (2021). You may freely copy, distribute, display and perform this work; as well as make derivative and commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet Archive” as your source.
Dear Comrades!
The joint appeal of the Comintern and the Profintern on the fight against Fascism is being sent you by today’s post
The fundamental questions are dealt with in the appeal. Here we shall only emphasize the necessity of practical organizatory work in the struggle against Fascism. (Demonstrations, mass meetings, systematic press campaigns, etc.) The labor organizations in Italy’s neighbour slates have a special responsibility. Thanks to their proximity, these labor organizations can do much lor the struggle against Fascism, and for their Italian comrades.
In addition to this, it is imperative that every possible material aid be lent to the Italian workers in their fight against their oppressors. The Comintern and the Profintern have decided to create an international fighting fund against Fascism. Every organization affiliated to the Comintern is called upon to devote a lump sum to this purpose, and to organize continuous collections of money for this fund. The money will be given to those organizations which are carrying on revolutionary work against Fascism.
The Committee of Action of the Comintern and Profinfern will issue further instructions as to how and to whom the money collected is to be delivered.
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With communist greetings, |
Moscow, January 18, 1923
1. In accordance with resolutions passed at a joint session of the executives of the Communist International and the Red International of Labor Unions, an international fighting fund against fascism is formed.
2. The object of the fighting fund is to raise the means for energetically fighting Fascism, and to lend pecuniary support to all proletarian organizations and revolutionary groups engaged in direct combat with Fascism. At present, only the Italian labor organizations are involved in the active fight against Fascism.
3. Money for the fighting fund is to be raised:
4. All proletarian organizations, in all countries, are to be appealed to, to take part in the collection.
5. A committee is to be formed in every country to organize the collection of money, on which every labor organization of whatever political tendency participating in the’ collection shall have at least one representative.
6. Only these national committees have the right to issue collection forms, which must be numbered and provided with a stamp. All monies and subscription forms must be delivered up io the national committee in each country. The receipt of the money collected on the collection lists is to be publicly acknowledged in the labor press of the country in question.
7. The headquarters of the international fighting fund are in Berlin. The Executive Committee consists of one representative each from the various political and trade union internationals taking part in the collection. The central committee appoints two general treasurers and the auditors, and assumes the duty of administering the fund and of publishing periodical accounts of the monies received.
8. The national committees have to pay over all their monies to the central committee.
9. The central committee decides on the expenditure and distribution of the monies.
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The R.I.L.U. has already opened the fund with a contribution of 10,000 gold roubles (about 5,000 dollars).
A so-called “United German-Lithuanian Socialist Labor Party for the Memel district, III. International” has made its appearance in Memel, and has instigated an uprising for the purpose of affiliating the Memel district to Lithuania.
The Executive Committee of the Communist International proclaims io the general public, and especially to the workers of the Memel district in Lithuania, that there exists no such organization of the Third International in the Memel district. It is solely a despicable provocation on the part of the Lithuanian nationalists, who do not venture to come forward in their own names, but hope to serve their purpose better by acting under the cloak of the Third International, whose followers are persecuted in Lithuania with greater severity than in Tsariat times, and who are tortured in the prisons.
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The Executive Committee of the Communist International |
Last updated on 8 July 2021