Source: Published in Toward the United Front: Proceedings of the Fourth Congress of the Communist International, 1922 (https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/897-to-the-masses), pp. 1013-1016.
Translation: Translations by John Riddell
HTML Markup: David Walters & Andy Blunden for the Marxists Internet Archive, 2018
Copyright: John Riddell, 2017. Republished here with permission.
a. Central Committee. Given the acute crisis created by the Paris congress, and as an exceptional measure, the Central Committee will be formed on a proportional basis, on the basis of the [Paris] congress vote on its leading bodies.
The numerical representation of each faction will be as follows:
Centre: 10 members, 3 alternate members.
Left: 9 members, 2 alternate members.
Renoult tendency: 4 members, 1 alternate member.
Renaud Jean minority: 1 member.
Youth: 2 members with decisive vote.
The political bureau will be formed on the same basis. The factions will receive: Centre 3, Left 3, Renoult tendency 1.
In order to avoid any personal disputes which could lead the crisis to flare up once again, members of the Central Committee and the Political Bureau and other more important central leadership bodies will be designated by the factions in Moscow. The list worked out in this fashion will be presented to the National Council by the delegation sent to the Fourth Congress. The delegation accepts a commitment to champion this list before the party. The Fourth Congress notes this statement and expresses its conviction that this list is the only one through which the party crisis can be overcome.
The list worked out by the factions for the new Central Committee is as follows:
Members:
Frossard – Secretary, delegate to the Executive
Louis Sellier
Marcel Cachin – Acting secretary
Jacob – Secretary of the Textile Workers Federation
Garchery – Paris city councillor
Lucie Leiciague – Stenographer
Marrane – Mechanic, secretary of the Seine [party] federation
Gourdeaux – Employee of the postal and telegraph administration
Laguesse – Unemployed teacher, secretary of the Seine et Marne federation
Paquereaux – Lathe operator, secretary of the Seine et Oise federation
Pierpont – Textile worker
Dupilet – Treasurer of the United Mine Workers[1] Federation (pending approval in Paris)
Plais – Telephone worker
Members:
Rosmer – Employee
Treint – Unemployed teacher
Vaillant-Couturier – Deputy
Souvarine – Journalist
Tommasi – Chauffeur and pilot
Christen – Mechanic
Amédée Dunois – Journalist
Cordier – Barber
Bouchez – Mechanic
Alternate members
Salles – Metalworker
Depoorter – Weaver
Members
Barberet – Metalworker
Fromont – Automobile and airplane worker
Dubus – Miner in Pas-de-Calais
Werth, Roger Gérard – Metalworker
Alternate member
Lespagnol – Employee
This list is to be ratified by a meeting of the National Council, acting with the powers of a congress, by the second half of January at the latest.[2]
Until then the provisional Central Committee named by the Paris congress remains in office.
The congress approves the rules for the press that have already been decided upon: 1. The Political Bureau will assume direction of the newspapers. 2. Editorials will appear without signature, making known the opinions of the party to the readers on a daily basis. 3. Party journalists are forbidden to work for the bourgeois press.
Director of l'Humanité: Marcel Cachin
General secretary: Amédée Dunois
Both enjoy equal rights. That is, every conflict between them will be brought to the Political Bureau for decision.
Editorial secretariat: One member of the Centre and one of the Lefts.
The editing of Bulletin communiste will be entrusted to a comrade of the Left.
The editors who resigned will be once again taken into the editorial staff.
During the preparation of the National Council meeting, each tendency will enjoy the right to express its views in the party newspaper.
The party secretariat will be composed on a parity basis by a comrade of the Centre and a comrade of the Left; conflicts will be arbitrated by the Political Bureau.
Member: Frossard. Alternate members: Louis Sellier and Treint.
In order to establish fully normal and friendly ties between the Executive Committee and the French party, the congress considers it to be absolutely necessary that the two most significant tendencies be represented in Moscow by their most able and authoritative members, that is, by Comrades Frossard and Souvarine, for a period of at least three months, until the French party has overcome the crisis that it is now experiencing.
The representation of the French party in Moscow by Frossard and Souvarine will offer an effective guarantee that the entire party will approve of every motion of the Executive made in agreement with these two comrades.
On the motion of the Daniel Renoult faction, Comrade Duret was elected to represent this faction for three months as an alternate member of the Executive Committee.
With regard to the income of party staff, editors, and so on, the party will set up a commission consisting of comrades that enjoy the full moral trust of the party, in order to resolve this issue from two points of view: (1) Eliminating any possibility of multiple salaries, something that arouses justified indignation among the party’s working masses; (2) Creating a situation where all comrades whose work for the party is absolutely necessary are in a position that enables them to devote all their energies to the party’s service.
1. L'Humanité administrative board: 6 comrades of the Centre; 5 of the Lefts; 2 of the Renoult tendency.
The congress is agreeable that the proportional representation system be utilised for other commissions as well, on an exceptional basis.
2. Trade union secretariat. One secretary of the Centre and one of the Left; every conflict between them is to be investigated by the Political Bureau.
g. Contentious issues
Disputes arising from the application of the organisational decisions taken here in Moscow must be resolved by a special commission made up of a representative of the Centre, one of the Left, and one from the Executive, who will act as chair.
The posts from which former Freemasons are barred will be those whose occupants are empowered to present the ideas of the party to the working masses orally and in writing in a more or less independent fashion.
If disagreements between the two factions arise over assignments to these posts, this will be resolved by the commission mentioned above.
If technical difficulties bar the reappointment of the editors who resigned, these problems will be resolved by the commission mentioned above.
All decisions, except for those relating to the composition of the Central Committee, are to be carried out immediately.
1. The German text identifies Dupilet’s union as one of ‘canal workers'; the Russian, as ‘agricultural labourers’. However, the biography of Dupilet in Maitron (1964 – 1997) states that in 1922 he was treasurer of the CGTU ‘Fédération unitaire du sous-sol’ (United Federation of Mines), whose strength was concentrated in the Nord department where he was based.
2. Omitted from this listing is the central committee position allocated to the Renaud Jean tendency, which was filled by Renaud Jean himself.