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. 1091-1092.
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.
After having heard the report of the Norwegian commission, the congress resolves:
1. To inform the Central Committee of the Norwegian sister party of the need to carry out more precisely the decisions of the International, both of its congresses and its executive bodies. Party publications and resolutions and decisions of its leading bodies should leave no doubt that it is acceptable for the International to intervene in the internal affairs of the national sections.
2. The congress instructs the party to carry out its reorganisation on the basis of individual membership within a period of at most one year following its next national congress. Periodic reports will be made to the Executive – at least once every two months – informing it of the practical measures and results of the work in this arena.
3. Regarding the content of the press, the party is obligated to carry out immediately the decisions of earlier world congresses and the directives contained in the Executive’s letter of 23 September this year.[1] The Social Democratic name of the party newspapers must be changed within three months reckoned from the last day of the Comintern congress.
4. The congress confirms that the Executive was correct in pointing to the errors of party representatives in parliament. The congress considers that communist deputies in Parliament are obviously subject to party supervision and criticism by the party’s press. But this criticism must always be factual and comradely.
5. The congress considers it permissible and necessary, in the struggle against the bourgeoisie as a whole, to make use of contradictions among the different layers of the Norwegian bourgeoisie, especially that between large-scale capitalism and the big landowners, on one side, and the peasantry, on the other. The struggle for the peasantry must be one of the prime tasks of the proletarian party in Norway.
6. The congress confirms again that the parliamentary fraction and the party’s publications must be completely and unconditionally subordinated to the party’s Central Committee.
7. The Mot Dag group, a closed association, is dissolved. Obviously, it is quite permissible for there to be a Communist student group, open to every Communist student and under full supervision of the Central Committee. The journal Mot Dag will become a party publication, with the condition that its editorship is selected by the Central Committee of the Norwegian Labour Party in consultation with the Communist International Executive.
8. The congress accepts the appeal of Comrade H. Olsen. Since he is a veteran and loyal comrade and worker and was always a very active party staffer, the congress restores his rights to membership, while stating definitely that his conduct at the metalworker union congress was incorrect.
9. The congress resolves to expel Karl Johanssen from the ranks of the Communist International and the Norwegian Labour Party.
10. In order to establish stronger links between the Norwegian party and the Executive and to overcome conflicts with as little friction as possible, the congress instructs the incoming Executive to send a representative with full powers to the next party convention.
11. The congress instructs the Executive to draft a letter explaining this resolution.
12. The above resolution and the letter from the Executive are to be printed in all party publications and made known to all party branches before the election of delegates to the next party convention.
1. See Inprekorr, 2, (31 October 1922), pp. 1444 – 6.