Is the Comintern Coming Back?

Although the Comintern (Communist International) and Cominform (Communist Information Bureau) were disbanded in 1943 and 1956 respectively, the infrastructure for another Communist International appears to be building, with factional centers in the North Korean and the French Communist Party's conference systems. Prior to the 1989-1991 collapse of the Soviet system, the party line for loyal communists was devised by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, promulgated by an international periodical, and more or less enforced through a system of bilateral, regional, and worldwide conferences. This system remained intact until the very end, although the Trotskyists left it in the mid-1920s and various nationalist communists did the same following World War II. Now, the Sao Paulo Forum, a regional conference system, has gathered together virtually all the important Left forces in Latin America on an anti-US basis. Among its leading members are the Cuban Communist Party, the Broad Front of Uruguay, the pro-Eurocommunist Democratic Revolutionary Party of Mexico, and the Trotskyist Workers Party of Brazil. Is the Comintern Coming Back? is a fascinating study of today's communist infrastructure. With an introduction by Ralph Goldman, president for the Center for Party Development.