To the Workers and Peasants 
of South America

The Fourth Congress of the Communist International, meeting in Moscow on the fifth anniversary of the Russian Revolution, calls on all the workers and peasants of South America to prepare for the class struggle and support the revolutionary action of the world proletariat.

The European war reprsented the beginning of the final crisis of capitalism. The conflicts among the international bourgeoisies resulted in the most terrible slaughter in history for the purpose of deciding which of the two imperialist groups would impose its hegemony. The proletarians were sacrificed by the millions on the battlefields for the benefit of capitalism imperialism, which seeks a solution to the acute crisis that is inevitably leading it to bankruptcy. 

War could not resolve the crisis. The internal crises of European capitalism have increased and, at the same time, the class struggle has intensified. The Treaty of Versailles is a source of new conflicts. The proletarian masses increasingly recognize that only the Revolution can abolish capitalist antagonisms. The incredible repression to which we are witness today and the implacable bourgeois offensive point to the critical situation of the capitalist states. 

Only North American imperialism increased its power during the war. The United States is currently the strongest imperialist power. But new causes for inter-imperialist struggles have appeared since the war. The antagonisms between North America, England and Japan once again threaten world peace. Yankee imperialism is growing and laying the bases for future conflicts that will demand bloody new sacrifices from the working masses. The United States has become the center of international reaction against the proletariat.

Yankee imperialism is trying to extend its influence to all the regions of the world. In Asia, in Africa, on the shores of the Pacific, it is seeking new spheres of exploitation. It is above all n latin America where United States imperialism is asserting its domination, whether under a supposedly economic form or through open political domination. In South America, it seeks a secure market for its exports, which European capitalism can no longer assure due to the rotting of its social base. 

The Monroe Doctrine allows the North American imperialists to assure their economic conquest of Latin America. Loans, new investment by North American capital in industrial, commercial, and financial enterprises, railroad and shipping concessions, the acquisition of oil field – these multiple forms of the expansion of Yankee economic penetration – show how North American capitalism wishes to convert South America into the base of its industrial power. 

Economic precautions also lead the different national bourgeoisies to intervene in imperialist struggles in Central America, Panama, Colombia, Venezuela and Peru. The bourgeoisies of all the Americas are laying the basis for reaction against the proletariat by calling international police congresses. When the workers of South America oppose the criminal actions of Yankee capitalism, such as during the trial of Sacco and Vanzetti, the ruling classes repress these proletarian demonstrations to prove their self-interested and deliberate submission to the imperialism of the North. The Pan-American unity of the bourgeoisie is an evident fact, as is ist objective, the maintenance of class privilege and a regime of oppression. 

Workers and peasants of South America! Capitalist imperialism is introducing the same international antagonisms into your countries that led to the bloodiest war and tremendous reaction among the peoples of Europe.It is time to united the revolutionary forces of the proletariat, since the capitalists of all the Americas are uniting against the working class. 

Comrades, the workers and peasants of South America still lack disciplined organizations of class struggle and the requisite unity of action. Your ruling class is supported by the formidable power of the United States in crushing your efforts, repressing your liberating actions, and preventing any revolutionary movement of your oppressed masses. 

Workers and peasants! The Communist International calls upon you. Do not forget there are Communists in the United States ready to aid your revolutionary struggle. The common struggle of the working class of all the states of the Americas against all the allied American capitalists is a vital necessity for the exploited class. It is the only road to your salvation. The heroic example of the Russian Revolution, which is carrying on a fierce struggle against international capitalism, will help you understand the destiny that awaits if you remain indifferent while the possessing class intensifies its capitalist exploitation. Antagonisms within the world of high finance and industry are intensifying in your countries, and world imperialist conflicts threaten to drag them, and yourselves, into the slaughter. 

Comrades, oppose the bourgeois offensive with proletarian unity. Organize yourselves and join your revolutionary activity to the actions of the working class and peasantry of all the Americas and all the countries of the world. Struggle against your own bourgeoisie and you will be struggling against Yankee imperialism, which embodies the highest degree of capitalist reaction. Rally around the banner of the Russian Revolution, which has laid the foundation of the world proletarian revolution. 

Like the Russian Revolution, you should prepare to transform any attempt at war into an open struggle of the working class against the bourgeoisie. Likewise, carry your actions against imperialism through to the end, preparing for proletarian dictatorship that will destroy bourgeois dictatorshipthroughout the Americas. If you remain divided and disorganized, the American bourgeoisie will devour you, crush your activities, and intensify capitalist exploitation by robbing you of your previous achievements. The struggle against your own bourgeoisie will increasingly become the struggle against world imperialism and a battle of all the exploited against all the exploiters. 

Comrades! Organize Strengthen your Communist parties and create them where they do not already exist. Join your actions to those of the Communists of all the Americas. Organize the struggling proletariat into the Red International of Labor Unions and create sections of the Communist International and the Red International of Labor Unions throughout the Americas. 

Long live the Red International of Labor Unions! Long live the Communist International! Long live Soviet Russia! Long live the revolutionary proletariat of America and the world revolution!