In the stages theory, all of the institutions and organisations of bourgeois-democracy, created under pressure from the ruling-class, constitute a great historical stage, to which the policy must adapt, even though all of these institutions represent a “barrier for the revolutionary class movement.” (p 62) For the opportunist, they represent ends in themselves, much as with the bourgeois demand for national self-determination, and means by which the workers obtain breathing space, rather than acting to derail and divert the actual revolutionary movement.
And, the tailist nature of this opportunism is reflected in the fact that it sees this breathing space as necessary for as long as the workers have, themselves, not gone beyond it, to a revolutionary consciousness, as though this is something that materialises spontaneously, at some future appointed time, rather than being something that is generated by the interaction of the masses and their material conditions, with the revolutionary party, and its programme.
“Once we set out on this road, our policy must be inevitably transformed from a revolutionary factor into a conservative one. The course of the Chinese revolution and the fate of the Anglo-Russian Committee are an imminent warning in this regard.” (p 62)
By accepting the idea of non-interference, the Stalinists strengthened all of the backward and reactionary sentiments, not only in the global labour movement, but in the USSR too. Its no wonder that, given the travails of Russian workers in the previous decade, a certain war weariness set in. The concept of building Socialism In One Country appealed to it. Stalin said, basically, if imperialism will leave us alone, we can get on with the job of building Socialism, here, in the USSR. Of course, that was not true, but also required a big if, in that imperialism would not leave them alone. But, the response to that was, the, we shall do whatever is required to discourage it from doing so, and give it no excuse for doing so, by being as timid as possible, and building diplomatic relations.
However, that was the reverse of the policy required.
“An unavoidable temporary weakening of the revolutionary positions is in itself a great evil. It can become irreparable for a long time if the orientation is wrong, if the strategic line is false. Precisely now, in the period of a temporary revolutionary ebb, the struggle against all manifestations of opportunism and national limitedness and for the line of revolutionary internationalism is more necessary than ever.” (p 63)
The imperialist armies had attacked Russia, when they thought it was weak, in 1918, but had been defeated by the Red Army, and retreated. In China, the CP had cavilled and compromised, assuming a timid and diplomatic approach, but the consequence had not only been Chiang Kai Shek's coup, but also British and other imperialist warships up the Yangtse, and the attack on Nanking. The Royal Navy sent a heavy cruiser, the appropriately named, HMS Vindictive, and the light cruisers HMS Carlisle, Caradoc and Emerald, the minesweeper HMS Petersfield, the gunboat Gnat, and the destroyers HMS Witherington, Wolsey, Wishart, Veteran, Verity and Wild Swan. The gunboat HMS Aphis arrived toward the end of the engagement, and HMS Cricket was also involved in the naval operations at the time. Five American destroyers were also sent to engage the NRA; including USS Noa under Roy C. Smith, William B. Preston, John D. Ford, Pillsbury and Simpson. The Italian Regia Marina sent the gunboat Ermanno Carlotto.
The imperialist navies began a bombardment of Nanking where the nationalist forces had started to occupy, having taken on the forces of the local warlord Zhang Zongchang. The imperialist forces also landed marines to fight against the nationalist forces. Later the Japanese sent the gunboats Hodero, Katata, Momo and Shinoki. The Italians sent the gunboat Ermanno Carlotto, the Dutch sent the light cruiser Hr.Ms. Sumatra and the French sent aviso La Marne for the evacuation of their citizens in Nanjing. Chiang Kai Shek, despite the appeasement of the Chinese Stalinists, in any case used the events to blame the CP for having provoked the intervention.
“There is no doubt and there can be none that now, after the new defeats of the international revolutionary movement, the theory of socialism in one country will serve, independent of the will of its creators, to justify, to motivate and to sanctify all the tendencies directed towards restricting the revolutionary objectives, towards quenching the ardour of the struggle, towards a national and conservative narrowness.” (p 63)
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