The Daily Worker Newspaper, May 17, 1924, Page 9

4 Two Elections That Tell a Story By ALEXANDER BITTELMAN. ITHIN the past two weeks Ger- many and France held elections to their respective national legislative bodies. Each of these elections has a story to tell, which is pregnant with meaning and promise for the future. A story of decay among the ruling classes. A story of the millions who are oppressed, rising in anger against things as they are. A story of a splen- did spirit of rebellion that is once again taking hold of the working mass- es of the world, steeling their deter- mination for the fast-approaching day of reckoning. , ES, that day is coming despite all the efforts of Morgan, Dawes, Poincare, Ludendorf, Ebert, Gompers, etc.,, etc. The end of capitalist mis- rule is coming on much faster than even the optimistically inclined could believe. Is not that apparent from the elections in Germany? In France? And even in Japan tho it still finds itself in the clutches of a feudal-mili- taristic oligarchy? ‘HE Communist International did not always calculate right, parti- cularly where dates were involved. But there is one Communist assump- tion* which today stanes as fast and impregnable as on the day it was made, an assumption which is the very soul of the international Com- munist movement. And it is this: That the time we happen to live in, also happens to be capitalism’s last phase of development, That since the last. war, the world has entered a per- iod of social revolution, and that the end of this period will see the triumph of working class power in most of the capitalist countries of the world. Germany—The Crucial Point. N the development of the proletari- an struggle for power, Germany plays the most important role. Events in Germany have a determining effect upon events the world over. It is real- ly the crucial point for ourselves just as well as for international capital- ism. When capitalist statesmen speak of saving Germany by a proper solu- tion of the reparations problem, they really mean saving capitalism. ‘They wouldn't admit that in so many words. They prefer speaking in terms of in- dustry; commerce, peace, internation- al unity and what not? But it all comes down to the same thing, which is to save capitalism all over the world. ; ERMANY is the problem. If you can work out a_ proposition whereby German industry and com- merce can begin functioning normally and freely, without at the same time hurting and crippling the industry and commerce of France, England and America, if you have got that, you have gotten hold of something which nobody has been able to devise as yet. ANY had tried their hands at it. Just to mention a few: Wood- row Wilson, Lloyd George, Clemen- ceau, Orlando, Briand, Poincare, and all of them went down in defeat. The job was beyond their powers, beyond the powers of capitalist statesmanship in general. oh Now Morgan is making an attempt. Backed by the enormous resources and wealth of American capitalism, the House of Morgan is trying to im- pose upon European capitalism a new life-saving scheme, the Dawes plan. What is this plan? ‘Nothing more than a new variation of the old theme. An attempt to enable German capital- ism to live without injuring the capi- talist foundations of France and Eng- land. An impossible task, to be sure. But the intentions of Morgan and Co. are good, the theory behind these in- tentions being, let’s try, anyway. And having power enough to impose their will the American bankers may suc- ceed in putting their scheme over. But what of it? F they succeed in reestablishing the economics of Germany, they will thereby ruin England and France. If, on the other hand, the Dawes plan will be made to work in the interests of England and France, then German capitalism is doomed, its final end being only a matter of months. The Elections. in Germany. EFORE we proceed to drawing conclusions from the elections in Germany, let us analyze the; figures of the vote, We shall first compare the results of the election to the old Reichstag with those to the new one and see what we can learn from that. In the elections to the old Reichstag the following vote was cast: Deutsche Nationale ........ 3,740,000 Deutsche-Folkische Folkspartei ............ 3,610.000 Centrum ........ ones 4,779,000 Democratic 2,202,000 Social Democratic 10,512,000 Communist ........... « 441,000 Various hd 800,000 The new elections produced the fol- lowing result: Deutsche Nationale ........ 4,500,000 Deutsche Folkische oe Folkspartei .... Centrum . Democratic .... 1,600,000 Social Democratic . 5,000,000 Communists ...... 4,000,000 PERPIOUG,. icscsssvassoiasstianteeaieas HO were the losers? First comes the Social Democratic party with a loss of 5 million votes, or near- ly one-half of what it secured in the elections to the old Reichstag. Sec- ond comes the Folkspartei with a loss of over a million and a half, or nearly 40 per cent. Third and last, comes the Democratic party with a loss of over half a million, or nearly 25 per cent. In other words, more than seven million voters, about one-fourth of the electionate, have changed allegiance. What sort of people are they? What social classes do they belong to? It can be safely assumed that these peo- ple consist of two social. elements: working class and petty bourgeois, the proposition between the two being much more difficult to arrive at. We might, however, reach an approximate figure by finding out where these more than seven million votes went to, and here we find: That the Communists secured about one-haif, that is, 3,500,- 000; the Centrum, over 2 million; the Deutsche Nationale and the Deutsch- Folkische, about 800,000 each. Now, it stands tq reason that the three and one-half million yotes gain- ed by the Communist Party of Ger- many are working cl@ss votes. It is also reasonable to assume that very few, if any, working class votes were cast in this election for the Catholic Centrum or for the monarchist-reac- tionary _Deutsche Nationale and Dgutsch-Foelkische. If this is so, then a further assumption can be advanced that of the five million votes lost by the Social-Democratic party, about 34% million were working class and the rest (144) petty bourgeois. ND here, let’s stop for a while to realize the signficance of these figures. Three million and a half of German workers, who have voted for the Social-Democrats to the old Reichstag, have refused to do so this time. They have decided to give their allegiance to the Communist party, the Party of the social revolution. All in all the Communist Party received 4 million votes, OTE also the significance of the fact that most of this vote came from the industrial centers of Ger- many; the Ruhr, the industrial Rhine- land generally, Silesia, Saxony, etc. In other words, the workers of the heavy industries and of the concen- trated industrial regions, the strate- gic points which are most decisive in the proletafian struggle for power, have in their mass accepted the lead- ership of the Communist Party. S is the German Social-Demo- eracy paying for its betrayals to the working class. Of the 5,600,000 votes secured by the Social-Democrats in this election, the bulk belongs to the well-paid and corrupted labor-aris- tocracy and to the poorer sections of the middle classes. The proletariat, the real working, class is leaving the betrayers in disgust, This is one of the main lessons of the elections to the new Reichstag. "lef the Republic which “f Middle Classes Turning to the Right. 17H second large social group that shifted positions in the recent elec- tions are the middle classes. One mil- lion and a half of this group broke with the Social-Democrats. About the same number parted company with the Folkspartei, the party of the heavy and concentrated industry. And over %4 million left the Democratic party, the arty of merchants and manufacturers. What’s become of them?. More then one-half (over 2 million) went to the Centrum, the party of the well-to-do farmers and the Catholic middle classes generally. The remainder di- vided itself almost equally between the Deutsche Nationale and the Deutsch-Folkische, the two parties which represent the great land-owners, the reactionary junkers and the old mijlitary caste. HESE facts are full of significance. They show that a large portion of the poor middle classes is totally dis- gusted with the present republican regime and with the so-called parties include the Social-Democrats, the Democrats, and the Folkspartei. That is why so many of the middle class vot- ers have now cast their votes for the monarchist parties of the reactionary junkers and the military, and for the nominally-republican Centrum. The middle class elements of Germany have lost faith both in the parties of capital and in what they believed to be the party of Labor (Social-Demo- cracy). Instead they have turned to the parties of the rich farmers and large land-owners. Clearly, a turn to the right. It remains now for the working class of Germany, under the leadership of the Communist Party, by deeds and action to Convince the oppressed middie classes that their salvation lies not with the monarch- ist reaction but with the successful struggle for the proletarian dictator- ship. ; HE result of the elections in Ger- many. can be summarized as féi- lows: The working masses have moved to the Left. The middle classes— to the Right. The Social-Democratic party is beginning to decay and will soon be relegated to a position of very small importance. The leading role in the proletarian class-struggle is being assumed by the Communist Party. ; . dictatorship of the Right (big: tn- dustrialists, junkers and military) or the dictatorship of the proletariat —this is the line-up in the class-strug- gle of present day Germany. The recent elections and the still more in France as far as actual power is concerned. Let’s have a glance at the figures: Composition of New Parliament. CONDO VARIG: siiicicgssticcsisinsierireci xcs 19 Block National ... Radical Socialists .. Republican Socialists Unified Socialists .. Communists E hope our readers will not be deceived by the label “Social- ist” which appears so frequently in connection with French parties. Over there everybody is a Socialist. The truth is that the “Radical Socialists” and the “Republican Socialists,” which together, have secured 206 seats in the chamber of deputies, are not So- cialists at all, not even in the sense in which the parties of the second in- ternational are. These two parties are the political spokesmen of the merchants, manufacturers, part of the peasantry and the petty bourgeoisie generally. The party of the second international in France are the “Uni- fied Socialists” which secured 111 seats. HAT do the above figures signify as far as the state of mind of the masses are concerned? These fig- ures show that the bulk of the work- ing class and of the poorer middle classes no longer believe in the lead- ership of Big Capital (which is rep- resented by Poincare’s Block Nation- al) and have now placed their faith in the parties of petty bourgeois liber- alism and socialist opportunism rep- resented by the Radical Socialists, Re- publican Socialists and the Unified So- cialists, These three parties have to- gether 317 seats in the new chamber of deputies, as against 208 of Poin- care’s Block National. It is very prob- able that these three parties, which are spoken of as the Left Block, will form a coalition government, and then we shall have in France almost a du- Plication of the political situation that prevailed in Germany on the morrow after the election to the old Reichstag. Or we may have a coalition between the left wing of the Block National and the parties led by Herriot, which again would duplicate a phase in the development of Germany between the old and new Reichstags. France Is One Step Behind Germany. HE old German Reichstag was practically in the hands of the So- cialists and middle. class liberals with the Catholic Centrum wavering be- tween these and the monarchist reac- tion. Practically the same combina- tion will rule the new chamber of de- recent events in Halle are proof |Duties in France. sufficient. Big Capital Repudiated in France. 'HE defeat of Poincare means the repudiation of the rule of Big Cap- ital—the heavy industrialists and large bankers. Poincare ruled in the name of these two capitalist groups. He ruled openly and brutally in their interests. pS entire German policy was no- thing more than an attempt to put into effect the will of the indus- trial and financial magnates of France to get possession and control of the wealth of Germany and Europe gen- erally. This, Poincare and his Black National did their best to accomplish. And they have failed, mainly because of the jealousies and intrigues of the capitalists of England and America. Furthermore, in his attempt to achieve what turned out to be the impossible, Poincare has brought France to the verge of bankruptcy. His financial policies, dictated by Big Business and designed to make the poor classes carry the entire burden of war, rehabilitation, have antagon- ized against Poincare and his govern- ment all classes and groups except the small clique of big financiers and industrialists. The result is the elec- toral defeat of Poincare. ‘CH, however, does not mean _ the defeat of Big Business. The heavy industrialists and international bankers of France are still in power just as much as their brethren in England are still in power, altho Brit- ain is supposed to be ruled. by a la- bor government, Nothing has changed OW, the Socialists and Liberals of Germany, have had their chance and failed. Why? Because they could not and would not break and destroy the power of Big Capital. In fact, they were doing the very thing that Big Capital wanted them to do. The boss of the old Reichstag was Stinnes. With the result that the masses lost faith in these parties, the workers moving over to the Communists, and a large section of the petty bour- geoisie having gone to the monarch- ists. HE oppressed masses of France are now passing thru a period of liberal reformist illusions the same as the English masses are. The same as the German masses were at the time of the elections to the old Reich- stag. UT the masses of Germany have by now partly learned their les- son. The same will happen with the masses in England. The same will happen with the masses in France. The new Liberal-Socialist coalition in France, if such is formed, will in prac- tice serve the same master that Poin- care did, i. e., Big Capital. This new coalition will bear another name, will use a different language and will, per- haps, apply different tactics, but in matters that are really vital for capi- talism in France, it will differ not one iota from the old government of Poin- care, The masses of France are head- ed toward a great dissappointment and also toward a great awakening. Politically, France is just one step behind Germany,