struction." The Comintern repudiated the United Toilers faction for its "refusal to abide by the decisions of the C.I." As an extra show of its power, the Comintern required John Ballam (whose pseudonym in document 2 is Moore), the chief figure in the United Toilers faction, to personally undertake the dissolution of his organization. The only concession granted Ballam's faction was a promise that if its adherents obeyed the order within thirty days, they could remain in the American Communist party. (In addition, as will be documented in chapter 2, their debts were picked up by the Comintern.)

     Faced with the Comintern ultimatum, the United Toilers faction, despite its rank-and-file backing, collapsed. Ballam toured the United States speaking to Communist groups and urging his supporters to embrace Moscow's decision. Overwhelmingly, they did so. The experience was an early and forceful lesson to American Communists on the nature of their relation to the Comintern. An American party convention, held in August 1922 and supervised by a three-member Comintern delegation, ratified the new arrangement.

From M. [Mikhail] Kobezky, secretary of the Executive Committee of the Communist International, 17 March 1921, RTsKhIDNI 495-1-26. Original in English. The document was printed on a small, thin swatch of silk for easy concealment by the courier who took it to America.
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     The Executive Committee of the Communist International having listened to the reports of the United Communist Party and the Communist Party of America, hereby declares that the further postponement of the unification of the two Communist groups is a crime against the Communist International.

     At the moment when the great economic crisis (four million unemployed) and the savage persecutions prevailing in the United States are creating a most favourable ground for propaganda and organisation, at that moment a few thousand Communists are wasting their time in inter-organisational squabbles which have no political significance and only result to the injury of the authority of the Communist International.

     Should the two groups fail to unite by the time the Third Congress is convened, the Executive Committee will propose that neither of the two groups be allowed representations at the Congress.

     The Executive Committee hereby welcomes the desire for unity expressed by the rank and file members of both parties, and calls upon the comrades to unite in spite of the leaders should the latter continue to sabotage the cause of unity.
The Executive Committee further declares that the present representation of the American parties in the Executive Committee will be regarded as void till the time the union of both groups is brought about.