Witness to the German Revolution (14 page)

The German Communists approached it and hit it in the most vulnerable places; in its absurd ideology, in the conscious doubledealing of its leaders, in the anti-capitalist and anti-democratic feelings of its rank and file. The occupation of the Ruhr sent a wave of nationalism across the whole of Germany. The Communists sometimes neutralized it, sometimes transformed it into an additional revolutionary element. Instead of letting Ludendorff and Hitler mislead working-class forces into a repressive civil war, they have succeeded in neutralizing a section of the middle classes in favor of revolutionary internationalism which seeks—which is—peace between peoples.

Where they wanted people to cheer Hindenburg, we got them to cheer Marty.

As Communists, we are far from failing to recognize the power, the creative capacities, the vitality which the capitalist system still displays. But it seems to me that it would be perfectly symbolized by a mad engineer. He would be a skillful builder of bridges, aqueducts
and highly developed machines. He would produce admirable pieces of work—but not without exploiting his labor force pitilessly. But at certain moments, overcome by his madness, this technician, this logician, would commit enormous mistakes, condemning his entire work to ruin. European capitalism is indeed this mad engineer.

The German bourgeoisie has just lost a second war. The first, begun by opposing imperialisms when capitalist society was at its peak, led to ruin in Europe, caused the Russian Revolution and, in Germany, the revolution of November 1918. The second war, the economic war in the Ruhr, has confronted bourgeois France and Germany with the fact of an October revolution (though one which might well only happen in the springtime…). Why? Because the financial and industrial oligarchy to the east of the Rhine did not want to yield to its French rival any of the profits derived from the exploitation of “national” labor; because the Comité des Forges was determined to establish complete hegemony over German heavy industry, and imperialist France was determined to consolidate its prestige… What will happen to this prestige, which is certainly notorious, to this hegemony and to this wealth, if tomorrow red flags are unfurled over the cities of Germany? Herr Stresemann wonders with anguish. M. Poincaré isn't concerned. He is the master of the situation just as Napoleon was in 1812.
¹²⁵
The mad engineer, I tell you! Even in his most lucid moments, he never ceases to carry within his brain the dementia that is dooming him.

Germany has capitulated. In order not to surrender a halfpenny of their wealth, the German capitalists are handing over to French
imperialism the Germany of labor, bound hand and foot and with an empty belly. But perhaps it is already too late. Passive resistance is ending in catastrophe. It has emptied the state's coffers, filled the pockets of the wreckers, and paid for arming the forces of reaction. As a result the wind of revolt has blown across the land and raised up the proletariat of the Ruhr against both French imperialism and “national” capitalism. The struggle is over. What is left is bankruptcy, the wreckers and reactionaries standing armed in front of their bags of stolen coins, the restless masses obeying the logic of facts, following the avalanche and rolling with it. Will Stresemann and Hilferding succeed in stopping the avalanche?

Will they succeed, during the three to five months of cold and hunger which lie ahead, in producing out of nothing a paper money which is worth something? Can they give bread to 30 million poor people who no longer have any? Can they resist or channel to their advantage the civil war which is looming? Can they satisfy French imperialism without committing suicide?

If they can, then the mad engineer will carry on.

If they can't, then the revolution will begin.

In both cases, doubtless, M. Poincaré will have won: but capitalist Europe is running a serious risk of dying from its victory.

The Great Coalition, “the last resort of German democracy,” has become, as a result of its capitulation, almost as unpopular as the Cuno government was the day before the factory committees drove it out. The German People's Party, the German Democratic Party
and the Catholic Center Party are, like the SPD, in the middle of internal crises. Herr Stresemann had announced—at the same time as the end of passive resistance in the Ruhr—in off the record statements that if necessary he will assume dictatorship. In this regard, the newspapers have spread the rumor that citizen Noske, the dictator whom commander Ehrhardt dreamed of some time ago,
¹²⁶
had come to Berlin to confer with the head of state…

All very well, but…dictatorship against whom? You can't exercise a dictatorship in a vacuum. Against fascism and the large scale industry for which Stresemann is simply a rascally old lawyer? An absurd supposition. Against the proletariat? But citizen Noske could not repeat his achievements of 1919. Then he was able to arm against the workers all the reactionary scum, to use the likes of Ehrhardt, Lüttwitz and Hoffmann. If he tried the same thing now it would mean the immediate end of his party and shortly thereafter of his regime; for the working masses would not spare him, and Ludendorff would not show mercy to the “rogues who made the November revolution.”

As far as the leftward evolution of the social democratic masses is concerned, there are a growing number of indications. The SPD regional congress in Berlin has just recognized (resolution published in
Vorwärts
on September 25) the bankruptcy of the coalition policy and demanded a return to class struggle. At the same time it voted for a resolution of support to the socialist prime minister of red Saxony, Zeigner, and congratulated him on his persistent campaign in favor of purging the Reichswehr.

The Great Coalition is no longer supported by either the majority of the bourgeoisie—who don't want its taxes and are more
and more anxious to see a sharp turn to the right—or by the rank and file of the SPD who are understanding more and more clearly that the Communists are right. On one side white Bavaria is arming, on the other red Saxony is working. Between the two, Hilferding and Stresemann are printing more paper money.

Now Germany has acquired two substitute dictators on the same day: von Kahr in Bavaria and Gessler in Berlin. On September 26 the Bavarian government suddenly took the decision to confer extraordinary dictatorial powers on Herr von Kahr, appointed General State Commissioner. For some days a Bavarian coup had been expected; the reactionary pro-fascist Munich government was making preparations. On the significance of these events,
Vorwärts,
which had a great deal at stake, said some very shrewd things. The difference between the Munich cabinet and the Bavarian ultra-fascists consists in one thing only: the latter believe the time is now ripe to resolve the situation by striking at “Bolshevism which is growing in Berlin”; the former think it is better to wait a little while yet. On the question of principle they agree.

So the establishment of reinforced martial law in Bavaria and the nomination of von Kahr had the effect of sounding the alarm throughout the Reich. Von Kahr is an old “fanatical anti-socialist” (
Vorwärts
)
.
Whether he imposes his will on Hitler and Ludendorff or whether he comes to an agreement with them, in either case Bavaria forms a fortified camp of reaction from which we can expect daring raids to be launched any day.

The government of the Reich provided its reply the same evening by establishing in turn reinforced martial law throughout German territory. All constitutional liberties are suspended. Penalties
for political crimes have been stepped up. Death penalty for high treason, insurrection, riot, resistance to lawful force, etc. Herr Gessler, the Reichswehr minister, has full powers to apply this decree immediately.

Herr Gessler! The measure is, it is said, in defense of the republic, and was made necessary by the Bavarian threat. And it is to Herr Gessler that the social democratic ministers and citizen Ebert have given the responsibility of applying it: Gessler, the official decoy for the fascist leaders of the Reichswehr, their friend, their accomplice, Gessler, whose chief collaborator is von Seeckt! So much naïvety must be suspect. The reactionary Reichswehr, organized in secret nationalist associations, commanded by the imitation dictator Gessler, will only march all out against the working class. All the provisions of the decree establishing martial law can moreover be applied much more easily to the Communists than to the Bavarian fascists. This final attempt by Stresemann and Hilferding to prevent civil war therefore seems in reality merely to increase the immediate possibilities for the reactionaries.

But only the immediate possibilities, for, in the present state of the working-class forces, it is certainly not reaction which will have the last word.

The other Sunday Herr von Knilling, Bavarian prime minister, addressed a scarcely veiled ultimatum to the Reich government. On September 23 at the “German evening” in Augsburg, in the presence of Ludendorff, captain D. Heiss addressed his audience in these very words: “The time has come for rifles, machine-guns and our pair of cannon to go into action… And if we don't have the horses, then we shall harness ourselves to our guns!” “The Bavarian
fist will resolve in Berlin the problem of German liberty.” Ludendorff showed his approval.

That day's issue of the National Socialist
Völkischer Beobachter
carried the headline: “Let us arm ourselves for civil war.”

These are not just words. Hitler is officially mobilizing his “shock troops.” On September 22, the police proceeded to arrest a number of railway workers: to be precise, 25. The same day in Munich fascists from the Oberland fired on workers in the street, wounding one seriously.

Attacks on homes followed by disgraceful acts of brutality—in the Italian style—became widespread in Bavaria.

On September 22 again, at the other end of Germany, 16,000 fascists mobilized by the Olympia association gathered in Hohenburg (Mecklenburg).

On September 25, not far from Leipzig, on the frontier between Saxony and Prussia, there were clashes between fascists and Communists, leaving 11 wounded.

Elsewhere disturbances over food continued. Those in Dresden provided the bourgeois press with grounds for a continuing campaign for intervention by the Reich—and the Reichswehr in Saxony. In Upper Silesia—at Gleiwitz—the police opened fire.

The Reichswehr is “ready for any eventuality.” Despite the revelations of Herr Zeigner and the efforts of the social democrats, the “democratic” minister Gessler is remaining at its head because he has “the confidence of the leaders” and the blessing of General von Seeckt. The green police have received supplies of grenades and, it is said, gas masks. The association of civil servants in the Bavarian state has issued a circular warning its members that they must obey the Bavarian government, even one born of a
coup d'état
. The Berlin government responds by instructing them only to obey its orders. One more scrap of paper for Herr von Knilling's
wastepaper basket. Fascism is thus preparing to wring the neck of Ebert's republic and, after a sufficient number of summary executions, to impose its regeneration program: “eradication of Jewish Marxism, ten-hour working day.”

The Great Coalition government is making its task easier by striking at the left. On September 24, it suspended
Die Rote Fahne
and all the Communist publications in Berlin for 15 days. However,
Vorwärts,
to create a diversion for social democrats, has discovered clandestine arms stocks in Berlin—truly not what we were short of—“supplied, if we take his word for it, by a military attaché at the Soviet embassy.” Are these people more blind than dishonest, or more dishonest than blind? A cruel enigma!

From September 13 to 19, there was a normal rise of 165 percent in the cost of living. The minimum necessary for a week for a worker's family with two children was 1,400,563,440 marks. Nearly one and a half billion. The usual wage for a man working a full day is half that sum.

In August, 43 percent of industrial enterprises were in a precarious or bad state. At the end of August, the situation on the labor market was as follows: 7.06 percent of metal workers, 4.53 percent of textile workers, 12.9 percent of printers and 12.6 percent of clothing workers were unemployed. 16.58 percent of metal workers, 46.19 percent of textile workers, 32.09 percent of printers and 57.98 percent of clothing workers were working short time. Between July and August the number of unemployed had more than doubled, while the number of workers on short time had increased almost threefold.

From September 7 to 21, the sum of Reich banknotes in circulation rose from 518.8 billion to 1,182 billion, that is, more than a
trillion. In the same period, the gold reserves fell by 20 million.

On September 22, citizen Hilferding managed to lower the rate of exchange of the dollar to less than a 100 million (it had previously reached 325 million, with an average of about 200 million, in the preceding days). But the retail prices based on a dollar standard of over 200 million did not go down. Between September 15 and 21 we can observe an increase of 148 percent in the wholesale prices index. Who is being robbed? The poor.

The extraordinary commissioner in charge of confiscating foreign currency, Herr Fellinger, is organizing police raids in the streets and in cafés. The first ones have brought in about 16,000 gold marks. Woe betide the passerby if he happens to have one solitary dollar in his wallet. But respect for the banks!