The Daily Worker Newspaper, February 16, 1924, Page 8

The Situation in Germany and the Communist Party | the situation of the German bour-| HE Dictatorship of Seeckt is, Seorste. Ii is necessary to set up, step by step, capturing new po-,if only for transitory period an | sitions with the same bloodless meth-|@conomic equilibrium. In -order to | ods with which it succeeded in obtain-| attain this cnd a_ dictatorship of | ing power. It still considers it worth great capital has to work in two while to retain parliament and the| ‘rections. In the first place there remaining democratic lumber as aj has to be a retrenchment in ex- sort of screen, but only on condition| penditure by the cutting down of that parliament, as well as the other| all the educational services of the so-called democratic institutions, shall | State, and of the social and political be submissively subservient to the} Services; secondly, there must be a military Dictatorhip. The cabinet o#|taising of the capitalist profits and Marx, which has succeeded to that|of the income of the state by means of Stresemann, marks a great step in| of increased exploitation of the the degradation of parliament and of | working class and of the middle parliamentary government. It is not| Classes, by increasing exports—and only that Marx before forming his| by increasing the taxation of prop- cabinet, sought permission of the|erty owners. So far as the first white General; the composition of | is concerned, the discharge of officials the cabinet itself is in accordance|and the prolongation of the work- with the considered wishes of the|ing time is in full swing. These white General. Social Democracy| measures are at the same time be- was thrown overboard, Nevertheless,|ing made use of in order to weed the strivings of the junkers to obtain| out the democratic and socialisti- possession of the Prussian adminis-| cally inclined younger sections of tration, in consequence of the disso-| the officiats, and to create places lution of the great coalition in Prus-|for the old reactionary bureaucracy sia were prevented by the General.}as well as for the new adherents The reason for this is obvious. It|to Fascism. With regard to the was not advisable having regard to] second, employers have, by the government of Poincare, and also] means of ruthless lockouts and the English cabinet to display, as it} closing down of factories, practic- were, the coat of arms of the feuda | ally made an end of the eight hour junkers on the Reichstag buildings.| ay and introduced the nine and tcn At the same time the General did not| hour day. ‘The Trade Unions have deem it meet to present the bread-j neither the will, nor were they in a profiteering junkers.openly to the] position to offer serious resistance. workers, In return for this piece of | The unemployed. maintenance is be- indulgence the General obtained the}ing cut down; the same is happen- appropriate recompense: the Cen-| ing to the other social-political serv- tre, Democrats and Social Democrats,| ices. But all these measures are in who in Prussia have such and such ajvain if the bourgeoisie does not number of administrative posts and| succeed in bringing in a sufficient offices to defend against the Junkers| amount of taxes in order to bal- and the old Wilhelm bureaucrats, now | ance, if only for the time being, the prove themse!ves to be so much the| national and state finances. ‘These more accommodating flunkeys of the| necessary sums are not to be ex- mijitary Dictator. eagerness to slander and persecute the Communist Party. In the Cen- tre and with the Democrats, the right wings (large capitalist and large agrarian) have won the upper hand. The effects of this were to be clearly seen in the discussion of the Special Powers Act. Not only the governing parties, but the Social Democratic so-called opposition has- tened to secure the Special Powers Act for the cabinet of Marx. The mere threat of the dissolution of the Reichstag which, according to their own reckoning would cost the Social Democrats about two-thirds of their seats, and which would sweep away the old parliamentary leaders in fa-| vor of the so-called “left” leadtrs— | this threat sufficed to bring the So- cial Democrats to heel and cause them obediently to pass the Special Powers Act, in spite of all the thousand oaths sworn against the state of siege. This means complete submission on the nart of Social Democracy to the military Dictatorship. It is submis-| sion to victortous Fascism. It is char- acteristic that the so-called Social Demoeratie Lefts were, by the threat of expulsion from the party, induced on their part to submit to the right wing faction majority, and thereby also to the military Dictatorship. Petty bourgeois Fascism is also being rendered incapable of doing any harm by the triumphant great capitalist Fascism of General Seeckt. A portion of this wing has, after the settlement of the Hitler-Luden- dorf-Putch, completely capitulated to the dictatorship of General Seeckt. Another section is being rendered docie by the repressions which are bound up with the prohibition of the German People’s Party. Seeckt has attached to himself the organizations , grouped around the Bavarian dic-| tator Kahr, by admitting represent- | atives of the Bavarian reaction into | the cabinet of Marx. Meanwhile, General Seeckt is eag-| erly engaged in extending and com- pleting his own political apparatus. He has brought together the old of-/ ficers who served in the areas oc-| cupied by Germany in Belgium, France, Roumania, etc., in the war, and is using them to control the civil administration and to form the ele- ments of an independent military Dictatorship. The prohibition of the Communist Party is also being taken advantage of by the military Dic- tatorship in order to still further complete its own political apparatus. The military Dictatorship, which need no longer expect any resist- ance on the part of the former bour- geois democracy, is now making it its task to carry out the Fascist program of large capital. What is this program? Its gen- eral features can be inferred from Severing and/|tracted either from the e Brauns fall over one another in their; class or the middle class sections of the population. The state ex penditure is still only covered to the extent of less than 1 per cent by state income. It is, however, improbable that the bourgeoisie will constitute itself as a Fascist Dic- tatorship in order merely, to compel itself to yield taxes. There still remain foreign credits, But from whence shall these come? The Unit- ed States is, perhaps, inclined to grant credits for the purpose of ob- taining corn, for which it will take a definite portion of the state prop- erty (Mines) as security. But these credits can in no wise be granted on such a scale, as will enable an economic equilibrium to be again set up in Germany. England, too, who a.so might be considered, does not appear to show any inclination to grant large credits. In a nega- tive manner the attitude of the in- dastrialists in the Rhine and Ruhr districts is a proof of how poor the prospects are considered of balanc- ing German economies and finances. The agreement between the heavy industrialists of the Rhine and Ruhr areas and the Micum (the Belgium and French heavy industry), and the veiled constituting of a Rhine- land state dependent upon France —all this proves that heavy indus- try is submitting to French impe- rialism and regards the rest of Ger- many mere.y as a hinterland. The Communist Party is forbidden by General Seeckt, its press is sup- pressed, its printing establishments are conficated, etc. But it still con- tinues to jive. The Party of the Proletariat is showing itself to Be the only power which is capable and | willing to offer resistance to the white Dictatership. In Berlin and a number of other towns it has succeeded in holding more er_ less large demonstrations in the streets. It is beginning to set up a resist- ance to the armed power of the mili- tary dictatorship and to school the | proletarian advance guard for the deciding struggle. The central task of the Com- munist Party in the present sit- uation fo.lows from the teachings of the October defeat. The October defeat of the German proletariat ‘wa not the result of “mistakes” on the part of the Communist Party. CLASS CONSCIOUSNESS By EDWARD JAMES IRVINE. I chant no more of buttercup and daisy, Or English sparrows twittering on a tree. I am a bird whom capitalists call crazy, I sing of war for human liberty. It arose from the relations of power in the working class exist- ing at the given moment. It can finally be traced back to the fact that a great portion of the work- ing class, under the paralyzing in- fluence of the Right and Left Social Democracy, was no longer prepared to defend the November democracy against Fascism, that it is not yet} p:epared to fight for the proletarian} dictatorship. Social Democracy,! long since dead as an active force) in the cause of the working class, thas shown itself to be still an} enormous hindering force, in other words, Communism has not yet suc- ceeded in drawing the majority of the working class away from the influence of Social Democracy. If! any fault was committed by the Communist Party it was in under- estimating Social Democracy as a hindering force. The central task of the Commun- ist Party is therefore the complete political and organizatory liquida- tion of Social Democracy, and the seizure of the Trade Unions out of the hands of the Social Democratic leaders. Upon these tasks the Com- munist Party will concentrate its en- tire force. And only when this task has been solved will the conditions be ripe for enforcing a decision. In, this connection, it is quite clear that the chief attack must be di- rected against the so-called “Left” Social Democrats. With their rad- ical phrascology, with their oppo-| sition to Fascism in words, and} submission to it in deeds, with their strenuous clinging to the illusions of bourgeois democracy and Parliament- arianism they are helpers of the Fas- cist Dictatorship. The struggle against Social De-) mocracy and against Fascism will be conducted by the propaganda of profetarian dictatorship and of So- eialism as opposed to the Fascist Dictatorship. The Party will con-' tinue to propagate with the greatest tenacity the idea of the armed up- rising among the masses and to pre- pare for it by organization and tech- nics. The Party now, after the vic- tory of Fascism over the No- yember Republic, has eliminated from its program the propaganda of those demands which are connected with the democratic institutions and which should lead to the proletari- an dictatorship, such as the slogan of the Workers’ and Peasants’ Gov- the control of production. These de- ernment, the seizure of mines and the control of production. These de- mands have become irrelevant. for the democratic institutions no longer exist with which they were asso- ciated. The actions of the Party must, of course, be connected with the daily needs of the working class. With the present wholesale unemployment and short-time, strikes come little inte consideration; so much the greater role therefore will mass demonstrations, party peace- ful and party armed, play. Under the existing strike illegal- ity it is necessary for the Party to base its chief organization work in the workshops. In addition to this it must set up the closest connec- | tion between the workers still em-! ployed and the unemployed. Un-| der the blows of the white coun- | ter-revolution the Party will become the iron cvhort of the revolution, which it could not become during the time when it .was legal. The pro!etarian revolution in Ger- many hag not taken the rapid course | which many had expected. Instead | of rising out of the ruins of the} bourgeois democracy, like the i sian October Revolution, it finds itself in a position when it must organize its victory under the let- ters of Fascist dictatorship. Its victory, if it comes more slowly, will, therefore, be all the more com- plete. The great capitalist dictator- ship is, so to speak, the last at- tempt to maintain the capitalist In Russia the October vic- tory was, so to speak, the result of a surprise attack, The Russian bourgeoisie only mobilized its re- serves after its October defeat. The power. By AUGUST THALHEIMER (Berlin) German bourgeoisie, which is far better organized, is mobilizing its reserves before the defeat. What is now taking place in Germany, is the last round of that struggle be- tween the bourgeoisie and the Com- munist Party for the reserves, for the indifferent and Social Democrat- ic workers and for the middle class. This struggle for the reserves is the essential content of the political preparation for the proletarian revo- lution. The foreign Communist Parties must not allow themselves to be | discouraged by the October retreat, which was unavoidable, and was grounded in the total situation, The Communist Party of Germany has, after a short pause, undertaken the reordering of its ranks, and is pre- paring for a fresh struggle. The proletarian Revolution in Germany is on the march. None of the fun- damental problems of the country can be solved by the military dic- tatorship. Our foreign brother par- ties must clearly understand, that if the Russian Revolution in the year 1917 took a quite ‘unexpected course, which differed from all pre- vious bourgeois revolutions, the proletarian revolution in Germany has its own course, its own tempo and its own methods, Bolshevism By EDWARD JAMES IRVINE. The Earth was calmly shimmying on its orbit When the Bolsheviks came along and pushed it off, Old God, the most respectable citizen of heaven, Slept peacefully on a couch of rank alfalfa , Till the Russian revolution killed Him with heart failure. Then the devil was found to be a good scout after all And was given a job training white guard armies. |Rational Living THE ONLY MAGAZINE considering the worker's health and explaining health in the light of the class-struggle. —A Radical Magazine devoted to health conservation and exposing dishonesty in all healing professions— . Rational Hesling—The Age of Innocence, by S. D, Schmalhausen—Philosophy of the Hike, by W. H. 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