The Daily Worker Newspaper, November 21, 1925, Page 10

By WILLIAM F. KRUSE. HE signing of the Locarno imperial- promises in the very in 1923, to put the Communist Party of Germany back into the very center of the world revolutionary _ stage. hopelessly white Germany closes a Allied imperialists plan to crush Rus- sia and thereby, own dominion. the other hand; would shatter that} ring, would assure a vastly improved | economic situation for both German and Russian peoples, and would lead to certain success of the revolutionary forces in England, France, the, Bal- kans, Hungary and Scandinavia. A white Germany makes possible an- other imperialist war to destroy the Soviet power. A Red Germany insures a Soviet Europe—a Soviet world. We ‘see in Germany today a healthy revolutionary ferment. The economic ann takes on more serious ect and the’ political developments keep even pace. The Dawes plan brought a temporary partial stabiliz- ation—but at a price that the work- ers pay in unemployment, low wages, lengthened hours, destroyed social standards, and terrific taxes on their necessities. The capitalists already feel their day of reckoning coming, credit is unbelievably tight, industry restricted—and soon comes the day when interest on Wall Street’s mort- gage must be met. The government is shaky, despite the highest taxes in its history it is driven to running state lotteries and to offering 10 per cent interest on its domestic loans. Mean- while the class war sharpens to the extremest forms, election campaigns take on the character of pitched bat- tles between uniformed troops of left and right, the center contenting itself with gestures of stately impartiality and actual support of the most reac- tionary elements, “At the same time the proletarian massés are’ moving” instinctively to- ward an extra-partisan unity of action in the shops and unions and on the field of parliamentary struggle. “The Communists are fostering this move- ment in every possible way, the so- cial democratic right wing leadership opposes it relentlessly and thus helps set the relationship of class and party still more clearly before the awaken- ing workers. The Open Letter and its Discussion. The German party faces this new developing revolutionary situation with the benefit of dearly-bought ex- perience in past struggle. The Co- mintern stands to its aid also in ap- plying the lessons of that struggle to the present situation, and steps in to correct any deviations, called by what- ever name of right or ultra-left, that would weaken or unfit the party for its tremendous role. This is the real and only basis for the much discussed ‘open letter” and the party discussion t now , up its daily page of tlje Rote Fahne and other party or- gans, Greater mass contact and in- fluence in the trade unions and other proletarian mass organizations is im- mediately essential, this calls for:more adroit and effective use of the united struggle, and on the other hand -the filler yse of all available -party strength (“normalization”) andthe more rapid democratically centralized reorganization upon nuclei basis. . These are not new decisions, coming like a bolt from the blue. They were hammered out at past congresses and tested in the fires of the experience of the world parties. ‘There was little open opposition to them, in theory, but in the German party there seémed to be a definite delay in their execu- tion. Many elements professed skepti- cism on the “united front’ with those very social-democratic and laborite masses who had defeated former rey- olutionary campagins; thousands of expelled union members harbored no feeling except intense hatred toward the boss-ridden A, D, G. B., precisely as do our “revolutionary” I, W. W.’s. Andsthe party did nothing to over- come these un-Communist reactions, ist alliance against Soviet’ Russia | near future, asj the November days of 1918 and/| Al breach. in the iron ring with which the | they hope, save their | A Red Germany, on} front in industrial.and parliamentary |: The German Communist Party at Work | On the other hand the inertia weight- | ed functionary apparatus was not too j hasty in/fostering changes that they | felt might threaten the party welfare jalong with their own position and | standing. There was ‘No open opposition to the |C. I, instructions, but we found an | eleventh-hour “committee” substituted |for the 20-man trade union apparatus that was to be formed; we found the great proletarian mass defense organ- | ization, “The Red Frontfighters,” chid- j}ed in contemptuous amusement for | “playing soldiers”; we. found the re- | organization hamstrung by dualism. ot function begsween. “nuclei. and) old ter- ritorial organization. with thé. empha- sis wrongly placed on the latter; we found leaders\,fomenting dissatisfac- tion with united front actions, and otherwise weakening the C. I. standing with the membership. This was the situation that led the ©. I. to intervene again just as sharply and as drastical- ly as it did after the debacle of 1923. And with only one negative and one tapped by “Section LA” (the German| volved in maintaining all these con- Scotland Yard), and foreign comrades tict fronts is tremendous but there are seeKing the way to the party office or| at least seven nights a week that. be- German Communists in the Reichstag paper are warned not to ask directions from the police or unknown strang- ers. “Rosenthaler Strasse” is an im- portant business artery but to the pol- ice it means only one thing: “Com- munism.” Those asking .w.e way there are candidates for constant espion-| age. Within the party itself hundreds of spies have been uncovered, some- times not before they had success- fully wormed themselves hign into party councils. One of the active ‘workers, made the rueful boast—a sort “galgen humor”—that the German nty, had. expelled ‘more spies. than the: American had, apem bers. It is not quite that bad but the gallery ‘of first and second class scoundrels’ is large. First class “schurken” are the police informers and spies, “second class” are those who embezzle party money or comrades’ property, who panhandle lodging and funds on the strength of their party card, who swindle and TOP: Clara Zetkin; SECOND ROW: Koenen, Froelich, Ruth Fisher, Eichhorn, Geschke; THIRD ROW: Dengel, Rosenberg; FOURTH ROW: Katz, Remmele, Stoecker. abstention the Central Committee ac- cepted the “line of the Comintern” and proceeded to better orientate the membership on its meaning. The ef- fect has been to tremendously strengthen the firm C, I. element at the expense of both right and ultra- left. The C. I. criticism is openly a left criticism and accepted as such, we are told, the old right has no dis- trict under its control while the ultra- left holds the Pfalz, Rhine-Saar, and a considerable tho seemingly dimin- ishing following in Berlin. The party discussion has had the happy efféct of | bringing to light certain 50 extreme right liquidatory ‘views’ that former ‘adherents ot that tendency are rush- | legal ing forward ito “hetp the attack ‘upon’ them. | ‘ ow It should tok be imagined. for. 1 ment that this party struggle, like.the recent. American dn, some .jnstances,,| {rence holds up the party, work. One :(half. size) page of, the.daily papers:.deala with the party discussion, in,a much’ more instructive tho » fully democratic way than did we, a daily instalment from the collective pen of the Central Committee, and one long or two short contributions from individuals. But five or seven pages deal with construc- tive work, The local election eam- paign, the anti-Locarno action, daily fights against the fascist bands, and a whole page of minutely condensed party, fraction, and kindred organiza- tion news, Like an Army at the Front. The German party is compelled to carry on its work under very difficult circumstances, Undér an outward ap- pearance of deadly legality there pre- vails a state of siebe.; All wires are leave bad debts, who scab or behave un-Communistically. Generally a de- tected spy or convicted cheat is im- mediately shown up in the press so that the entire membership is warned, sometimes his indentity is revealed only to “vertrauensmanner” in stra- tegic posts so that the marked man continues contact for months, dealing with specially skilled comrades, until he unwittingly reveals his associates in ‘rascality. The precautions of the party must be taken not only against underground enemies, but also “against open at- tempts: at ‘violent, ‘Suppression, official and, unofficial. Years of alternating haye taught the need ‘of adopting the ‘tnilitary strategy of the world war. There it was learned that the demoli- tion pool a peony, fortified fr ont line koa Sasemnnentive hi aie » foe. retreated end Sood time i% ther parallel trench- 28» previously ed just beyond gunshot. . “So too preparations against official violence takes the form of par- allel organizations, newspapers, print- shops, book stores—of the whole gam- The police realize that this tactic i being used but are helpless against it because each of the parallel positions has the extra support of thousands of non-Communist workers and an attack upon them increases rather than re- strict the field of militant class an- tagonism,. Thus in Berlin they recent- ly raided a proletarian library on the suspicion that it was a Communist Party parallel office, only to find. that dozens of non-Communist organiza- tions had co-operated in establishing and using the library, The labor in- a en ity and ‘underground — existence, ut of organizational paraphernalia. long absolutely to the party, and many a German Communist wishes there were more.” These parallel organiza- tions, daily papers, etc., are not liabil- ities, they are assests in thé sense that they secure the financial and physical support of thousands upon thousands of non-Communist workers. In some of these “mantel-organization- en” Communist percentage runs about 40 per cent, in others as low as 10 per cent, and their papers generally have a much larger circulation than the avowedly Communist organs. they parallel. The Comintern letter also indicated the importance of the work of party members in these mass move- ments. As to precautions against unofficial violence—this is worthy.of a. special fe article all by itself. Suffice to say that German party members have to be made of stern stuff, ready to fight with their lives at any moment. And now, around the party units, there has de- veloped a new mass movement of mil- itant proletarians, “The Red Front- fighters,” uniformed, with military dis- cipline and spirit on the pattern of the Red Army. They defend Commun- ist meetings, offices, placards, etc., and are at the front of every demonstra- tion, not only willing but anxious to fight. og the recent past there were big campaigns in the presidential elec- tion and for general amnesty, At pres- ent \the party has mobilized full strength for a fight against the Lo- carno agreement and for support of Soviet Russia. The report of the del- egation of social-democratic trade un- ionists just returned from Soviet Rus- sia is very helpful in this work. In Berlin there is a united front election campaign with the independent social- democrats under which surplus re- The United Front in Action. mainder votes cast‘ fori) theseo two ai parties will. be pooled to: get extra » representation and cut down the bour- geois strength. The proposal was al- so made to the social-democrats and refused, whereby the eyes of the work- ers were once more opened as to who are the splitters of labor unity, Wher- ever monarchist demonstrations are held, as yesterday (Oct. 18) at Leip- sig, the Communists hold counter dem- onstrations, generally on a united la- bor front basis and marked with vio- lent clashes with the reactionaries. Two young Red Frontfighters were mortally shot and many injured. More and more the conservative leaders of the social-democrats adopt passive tac- tics, calling upon their followers to ‘§gnorq” fascist demonstrations, thereby giving the initiative further into the hands of the Communists. In the working class sport organizations the Communist athletes take an ever increasing leadership, their slogan be- ing. absolute unity of all proletarian sport and rigorous non-participation in bourgeois affairs, and here again the social-democrats lose face before the workers, It is not easy for Red work-. ers who survived the battles of 1918 © and 1923 to now make cénithon ‘catise’ with the then dupes of the traftorous Scheidemans and Noskes,” but “more and more the realization sinks in that*" this German, proletariat, with all its strength and weaknesses, is the force — upon which depends the German revo- lution. ; Organization and Reorganization. While these campaigns are being pushed by the party, the “Red Front- Fighters” are actively enrolling sup- port to the slogan of “A united labor front against fascism in the factor- ies.” The I, A. H. stimulates aid for China and the liberation of Rakosi and the arrested Hungarians.’ The I. R,.A, collects money for political prisoners and unites thousands of non- partisan workers for general amnesty. And the trade union unity committee secures ever greater support, - Thus the movement makes more ex- tensive its scope and influence, At (Continued on page 6)