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From The Militant, Vol. VI No. 20, 25 March 1933, p. 4.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for the Encyclopaedia of Trotskyism On-Line (ETOL).
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(We publish herewith a second article on the German situation, written by comrade Arne Swabeck who is at present in Europe, close to the scene of the events which he deals with in his correspondence. – Ed.) |
The course of the further developments in Germany will decide whether the epoch shall continue and finally secure the proletarian revolution or whether we shall face an entirely new epoch. This decision, of course, extends far beyond the German borders. And in either case it will spell the beginning of the end to Stalinist domination of the movement.
On the one hand it is now possible to affirm that a victorious German revolution developing out of this juncture could be accomplished only in opposition to Stalinism and in violent collision with its policies. On the other hand it is just as certain that a defeat of the working class in Germany at present and the inauguration of a new and reactionary epoch would also signal the transformation of the revolutionary movement onto a new basis. Although a frightfully narrowed basis of retarded developments, it will nevertheless be one within which there will be no room for the curse of Stalinism.
The outcome of this gigantic struggle, that is in which direction the decision will turn, nobody can as yet predict. The Fascists have already gained an enormous advantage while the working class has been kept disarmed and unprepared. But in the process, which this struggle implies, the dialectics of class relations may turn the present proletarian disadvantage into its opposite. Many intervening factors will still have to he reckoned with their effects, however, primarily depending upon this strategy of the revolutionary vanguard. Yet it may be asked, are there no possibilities of a middle course in between these two extreme variants? The answer is that such possibilities are fading away and that they could at this stage only mean a postponement of the final decision. But likely also is a postponement creating new advantages to the proletariat for a decision in its favor.
The lines are now sharply drawn and extremely tense. Hitler proclaims the extermination of Communism and Marxism, not only in Germany but throughout the whole world. Conscious of their present advantage the Fascists in the government are particularly vociferous in declarations that they will not abdicate until they have reached the goal. In reality this means a recognition on their part that the power is not securely in their hands until the working-class movement is completely destroyed. In this manner they serve as the most deadly instrument of the reactionary German junkers and big bourgeoisie.
To fully appreciate the serious menace constituted by the Fascists in this role it is important to understand the extent of their social basis within contemporary Germany. The Fascist movement is a plebeian movement, composed essentially of the petty bourgeoisie and slum proletariat, but drawing recruits also from the bourgeoisie and from the proletarian masses to a certain extent. It has a large basis in Germany particularly by virtue of the numerous middle class there. Germany has yet a large farm population maintained through decades by protective tariffs imposed by the reactionary junker regimes. While this kept agricultural prices high, it also served to maintain the farmers as a social counter-weight against the proletariat. England, by her industrialization, and by virtue of acquiring a large colonial empire could afford to sacrifice her agriculture and drive the peasants into the factories. The German bourgeoisie was not so fortunate. It did not attain such a wide expanse and therefore had to find specific means to create this social counterweight against the proletariat. To an extent that was also accomplished by the development of a large and conservative state bureaucracy. But its lower layers were hit hard by the general pauperization of the post-war crises. And hence it became so much more important at the present juncture to clean out the “unreliable” social democrats from their positions in this bureaucracy.
The German Fascist movement has passed through its evolution of demagogy, socialist in tone and coloring necessary to recruit a mass movement. In the beginning the leaders, who rose from the rank and file, promised to drive out the international bankers and all “foreign”, particularly Jewish, exploiters. They promised to break up the landed estates and to rehabilitate the farmers. They promised to restore the middle class
property and the losses it suffered during the inflation period. They turned the fire of aroused nationalism against the former enemies across the border, particularly against the Versailles treaty and all that it implied.
Now that the Fascist brigands believe that the maintenance of power is securely within their grasp the direction of their fire has entirely changed. While continuing their demagogy as a coat of arms under which a ruthless working class suppression is carried out, the international bankers and the and owners no longer appear in their vocabulary characterizing the enemy. They now feel that they can move their troops directly against the Communist and working class movement. For that the state powers are put at their disposal. This aim has moved up to the very center of their campaign. The Fascist hordes no longer direct their fire against the Versailles Treaty. The annual payments of tribute have practically ended and further readjustments promise no great difficulties. Military equality for Germany can easily be obtained. And more so by virtue of the direction of the Fascist fire which is now turning eastward toward the Soviet Republic. The first intimations are the reports of straining relations between the two governments.
The German Fascists and the German big bourgeoisie know very well that within the working class of the Soviet Union lie the greatest sources of sympathy and support to the German working class movement. Its existence is no doubt clear to them even if they do not discount the present stranglehold of Stalinism paralyzing actual assertion of this sympathy and support. They recognize the world implications of the advance of the Communist movement, and hence they hurl their challenge to the Comintern and to the proletarian dictatorship. In their threats to exterminate the Communist movement throughout the world they are already consciously and deliberately forging the spearhead of imperialist intervention against the Soviet Union. This is the double-edged sword by which they aim to accomplish their immediate goal in Germany and simultaneously rally the support of allies of the imperialist powers everywhere for the international objective.
The German southern states recalcitrant to the early Hitler prononciamentos, have now declared that their unity in the aims against world Communism. French imperialists, who once greatly feared the Hitler ascension to power, are now completely reconciled to that fact and not at all disturbed. Voices in France indicating rapprochement to Germany are becoming more audible. While the international objective is yet concealed in these voices it undoubtedly is taking form in the minds.
Thus we see today in actual development the enormous danger against which the International Left Opposition a long time ago raised its voice of serious warning.
The events, however, will continue and develop their own inevitable logic. German capitalism today still constitutes the weakest link of the imperialist chain. Its tremendous convulsions lend emphasis to the unevenness of development existing also in the capitalist decay stage. But to the revolutionary proletariat this poses definite strategical problems which the Stalinist regime has completely failed to master. On the one hand it poses the possibility of breaking the weak links in the imperialist chain and the possibility of the proletariat seizing power. In this sense the uneven development of decay becomes a lever favoring the proletarian dictatorship in the USSR. But at the same time it also emphasizes the impossibility of building socialism within one single country, in the USSR which is still subject to the conditions of this very unstable equilibrium of the world market dominated by decay capitalism. These two problems of strategy cannot be separated but must go hand in hand so that a policy of building toward Socialism in the USSR first of all presupposes a policy of preparing the parties, of preparing the working class for the extension of the proletarian revolution by the seizure of power in the weak links of the imperialist chain.
The entirely false strategy of the Stalinist Comintern regime has run counter to the dialectics of the developing capitalist contradict ions. As a result the proletariat has suffered defeats and become disarmed, despite the objectively favorable situations, and the most murderous reaction has at present gained the upper hand. What enormous crimes! But by this the Stalinist regime has only succeeded in postponing the shocks which will now reverberate with so much more titanic force and sweep it from its position of domination in the movement.
Without entering into discussion of the possibilities and implications of further developments in Germany, and without even excluding in advance the worst variant for the next stage, it is nevertheless well to remember that the at present attempted counter-revolution will still meet its complications. The economic conjuncture is by no means favorable to its development. The working class is not yet defeated. And it is more important yet to remember that the German working class, though unprepared still possesses great resources within itself. But these can be unfolded fully only when its vanguard has become freed from the curse of Stalinism.
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