The Daily Worker Newspaper, February 21, 1925, Page 7

“The idea becomes power when it pene- trates the masses.” —Karl Marx. SPECIAL MAGAZINE SUPPLEMENT THE DAILY WORKER. February 21, 1925. SECOND SECTION This magazine supple ment will appear every Saturday in The Daily Worker. Social-Democracy Strips Itself Naked EBERT SPEAKS. OM the beginning of the war un- til the end I stood without reser- vation on the side of defence of na- tive country, and acted accordingly. During the whole war I was opposed to strikes among the workers of war industries.. I spoke with particular emphasis te this effect at the national conference of the German democratic purty on Sept. 21, 1916. The munitions workers’ strike in Berlin in January, 1918 broke out without: the: prompting or approval of..the social democratic ‘party. ~~ Neither had I. personally anything “whatever to do With the strike either “@iréctly or indiréctly; on the con- trary, it took me completely by sur- prise. N the morning of Jan. 28, 1918, a rapid succession of workers’ dele- gations from numerous Berlin works presented themselves at the office of the social democratic party, bringing reports on the strike, and requesting that the central committee of the so- cial democratic party should send rep- resentatives to the strike committee, in order to prevent worse from hap- pening. On behalf of the party lead- ers I pointed out that the strike had originated without the co-operation or approval of the social democratic party. The strikers had already elected a strike committee and formu- lated certain demands. After this nobody could expect the leaders of the social: democratic: party to uner- ‘ian stake the ‘subsequent’ responsibility. The workers’ delegations then asked if the party leaders would send a dele- gation to the strike committee, should the delegates’ meeting request them to do so. After a long discussion this was replied to in the affirmative. Here the decisive motive of the party leaders was to prevent the in- terests of the country from being injured by the strike, and to try to bring the strike to an end as speed- ily as possible, by means of nego- tiations with the government. FTER a violent contention in the delegates’ meeting itself, the ma- jority of the meeting voted for the motion, and the committee of the -so- cial democratic party commissioned Otto Braun, Scheidemann, and myself to undertake the party representation. Our entry “into the strike committee took place with the proviso, declared .to-the workers’. delegation, that the strike committee was to be reorgan- ized on parity lines, that is, that the social democratic party was to be rep- resented in the committee in equal numbers as the independent social democratic party, and that a renewed discussion on the demands already formulated was to be made possible, (Berlin, Vorwarts, Dec. 10.) MILITARIST THANKS EBERT. DAY i am of the opinion that the strike would have been very rap- idly settled if the German govern- ment had not adopted a formalist standpoint. In Cologne the com- mander of the fortress expressed his thanks to the representatives of so- cial democracy for what they had ac- complished: in preventing Germany’s being injured with relation to abroad. At that time I emphasized, at a strik- ers’ meeting, that the strike was non- sense, since the English munitions workers were even foregoing their holidays. : (Berlin, Rote Fahne, Dec, 10.) N Munich, the then Bavarian prime- minister, von Dandl, spoke on the strike on Feb. 1, 1918 in the chamber of deputies. In the course of hic speech he turned to the social demo- crats with the following words: He thanked them for having now undertaken the leadership of the af- fair, for from them he hoped that they would guide the movement to a peaceful conclusion, and thus put an end to the insurrection, which was really damaging us seriously in our relations with, abroad. ‘ . .. -(Vorwarts, Dec. 10.) . [From DITTMANN'S EVIDENCE An “INSULT.” ARTIN (barrister): How does this utterance agree with the action taken by the witness with reference to the mutiny in the fleet? Dittmann (highly excited), 1 protest against this unheard of attack, I never took any.action towards incit- ing mutiny in the fleet.. 1 shall call you legally to account for this, Landsberg -(barrigter): ~ It is_per- fectly disgraceful to insult the witness ITNESS DITTMANN: The social| here in such a manner. democrats, and the ‘independ- Henderson KING GEORGE: As long as the Second Inter tranquillity. (Vorwarts, Dec. 10.) King George tories, rendering necessary the crea- tion of a defensive organization among the social deuocratic workmen. This organization, which had the addition- al object of keeping the party commit- tee informed, made its first appear- ance during the food strike in 1917. At that time I was working for the firm ‘of Sehwartzkopff, where about one-third of the workers were S. D. Wher the movenient broke out in January, I and several functionaries, went to the party committee where we first met only the secretary, Her- mann Muller. Muller advised us to Pass resolutions in the works, demand- MacDonald national exists the King can slumber and arise in ents as well, had invariably declared openly that defence of: native country was the duty of every German. Haase emphasized this on évery occasion. Ledebour too invariably opposed de- fence nihilism, The chairman asked the deputy, Dittmann: It was thus your intention to help the strikers to get their de- mands acceded to? Witness Dittmann: I find this ques- tion very strange in. this- connection. The formulation is ‘such that I cannot but assume that you mean we had the intention to press something thru by force, in opposition to the interests of the German reich. (Vorwarts, Dec. 10.) Oat of Their Own Mouths....' F Barr, social-democratic president of Germany, last December brought suit for libel against the press and individuals of the monarchist persuasion who had ac- cused him of “treason” during the war, The documents introduced and the testimony given at Q the trial have just reached us and they constitute the most damning indictment of the social-democracy evcr compiled. W= publish herewith the first of a series of articles com- posed largely of this matter—most of it taken from ° the social-democrat press of Germany which published it to show that during the war the German socialists of the Second International outdid the monarchists and capitalists in support of the kaiser, the imperialist war, in crushing the strikes and the revolution that followed the war. ob of their own mouths,... How It Is Done. sie witness Eimler, a carpenter, spoke of the attitude taken by the witness, Dittmann, at a strike meet- ing: 3 -Dittmann spoke after Ebert. He said that what had brot us together was thé will to peace. He did not speak of the strike, any more than Comrade Ebert did. (Rote Fahne), Dec. 10. The Witness Wuschik. | raha WUSCHIK, party secre- tary: From 1916 onwards the growth of the Spartacus movement was observable in the works and fac- ing that members of our party com- mittee should enter the strike com- mittee. But this did not appear advis- able to us, for it was very question- able whether we should be in a posi- tion, under the circumstances, to hold a factory meeting at all. We there- fore negotiated immediately with Ebert, _Scheidemann, Muller, and Braun. We told them that we should do our utmost to induce the represen- tatives of the functionaries to admit the members of our party committee into the strike committee. At first Ebert was very gruff, and declared: “I have not the slightest intention of taking part in this movement! Those who have made this bed can lie upon it themselves,” CHEIDEMANN and Braun were equally unwilling at first, and it was not until after a lengthy discus- sion that the opinion was arrived at that the members of the party com- mittee, in the interests of national de- fence, should enter the strike commit- tee, mainly for the purpose of guiding the whole movement into peaceful channels and shortening it, Chairman: Do you know how the members of the majority S. D. party ‘ (“majority” social democrats \4s dif- © fering from the “independents,” Bd) entered the strike? Witness: They entered after the majority socialist workers took part. I assume that the well disciplined right socialist workers took part, I assume that the well-disciplined right socialist workers put pressure on thelr (Gontinued on page 8) ts