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Nazi Whip
From The Militant, Vol. VI No. 26, 13 May 1933, p. 3.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for the Encyclopaedia of Trotskyism On-Line (ETOL).
Only seven weeks were required for the German counter-revolution to complete its first stage. The Hitler government emerged on January 30. At its pompous session in Potsdam on March 21, the Reichstag sealed the fate of parliamentary democracy and conferred full power upon the government. That period decided for the time being the issue of Communism or Fascism in Germany. With that commences an entirely new historical period for the working class which will have its serious repercussions throughout the world. The German workers retreated without a struggle. The Communist party leaders were revealed as the organizers of defeat. Fascism remained the victor and has now been able to consolidate a virtual dictatorship.
But the Stalinist leaders continue in their previous course. In a manifesto issued from their place of refuge, dated March 15, it is said that:
“Our party has fought in brilliant fashion ... Despite the pompous declarations of the government, March 5 is not a victory for Fascism, it shows on the contrary that the masses of the toiling people are resolved to wage the struggle boldly and courageously.”
And from the Stalinist headquarters it is maintained in Pravda of March 6:
“The working masses of Germany cannot be intimidated either by provocation or slander. They are on the side of the Communist party and under its leadership will put an end to the Fascist regime.”
It is necessary to make a correction here. The working masses were prevented from being on the side of the Communist party by the fatal policy of its leadership. And it is well to add that the new tasks in Germany will belong to the new Communist party which in no case will be organized by the Stalinists.
For the moment the sad truth must be recognized. It was the empty boastful phrases of Stalinism which contributed so much to render the party impotent of leadership. They have nothing to do with a Marxian analysis because they are not based upon reality and can result only in adding further confusion to the demoralization created by the serious defeat suffered. Above all, they do not correspond with the complete failure of resistance.
Parliamentary democracy took leave in a blaze of torchlights, accompanied by the roar of guns and ringing of churchbells, blessed by the sermon in the Potsdam church over the text: “If god be with us (the Fascists) who can be against us.” And the god who is always on the side of the strong bayonets found his rightful place in Fascist Germany. Hitler also lifted himself into this general setting and made a venture into the stratosphere by dedicating his address to the people “on the elevation of the soul.” Now he will proceed the more ferociously on terra firma, in destroying the only progressive class and exterminating its organizations. He has already opened a number of concentration camps in which the most active Communist fighters and social democrats are to be interned and kept under the Fascist lash. One of these camps is located at Dachau near Munich. It has “accommodations” for 5,000. The other is located at Heuberg in Wurtemberg. While the activities took place in Potsdam, 400 Communist prisoners were on their way to the latter camp.
Chronologically one can trace the sweeping rapidity of the Fascist rise to the full fledged dictatorship and to the just as rapid, disorganized retreat of the Communist and social democratic movements. Its blunt strategy could become possible only in view of the failure of the proletarian leaders, Communists and Socialists alike. Their common failure prepared the road for Fascism. To recount this strategy has value not so much from the point of view of merely recording what has passed, but primarily for the sake of assimilating the lessons of these events for the future tasks
As soon as Hitler and his lieutenants entered the government they set as their first aim the control of the police, not for the national coalition, but for the Fascists themselves. This they accomplished in the name of the defense and security of the people, strange as it may seem. Having the affairs of the interior regime of Prussia well guarded in the hands of Goering, they proceeded to appoint police commissioners for the other states, Bavaria, Wurtemberg, Saxony, etc. These were not just mere chiefs of police but fully authorized commissioners whose powers were symbolized by the act of von Epp, commissioner for Bavaria, in appointing a new government for the state. Elsewhere within the various states and cities followed in rapid succession the removal of the elected governments, legislators, mayors and even regular functionaries and hired emlpoyees who did not swear to the Fascist colors. At first it took place by the more polite method of granting leaves of absence but later the victims were violently chased out. All were replaced by Fascists. Step by step with these inroads grew the suppression and complete proscription of the workers’ press, their meetings and their organizations.
The Communist press and even the Socialist press formerly counting of 192 papers is entirely proscribed. The Communist auxiliaries, the Reichsbanner and other socialist organizations are dissolved and prohibited. These actions were supplemented right along with the necessary emergency decrees. But in all of these the Fascists had fully learned the art of taking the measures in the name of the defense and security of the people. The Fascist strategy managed to put the working class organizations in the position of being the offenders – the terrorist monster against which they were defending the people. The workers who had cause to speak in the name of, and to take measures for, their own defense, and thereby the defense of the majority of the people, failed to do so. To put it more correctly, their parties to which they had given all their confidence – their workers’ parties and more particularly their party leaders – failed to give such leadership, failed to give any leadership at all. The Fascist strategy, although crudely and clumsily carried out nevertheless became superior. The working class’s lack of strategy, and where any was shown, its false strategy, hastened the defeat.
To fully comprehend the enormous chasm presented here it is necessary to make a historical comparison with the process of the Bolshevik revolution under Lenin and Trotsky. For example, at the time of the attempted Kornilov counter-revolution, the Bolsheviks mobilized the weight of the masses and through their deep antagonism to the Kornilovists impelled the Mensheviks to fight unitedly with them under the slogan of the defense of the people’s revolution. Also, at the time of the Kerensky attempt to strip Petrograd of its revolutionary soldiers, the Bolsheviks frustrated it under the slogan of the “defense of the revolutionary capital.” The subsequent breach with the army headquarter was made in the name of “defense of revolutionary order against counter-revolutionary attempt.” And again, up until the very last days before the insurrection, the heavy attacks were made in the name of defense under the immediate leadership of formally established “Defense Committees.” The Red Guard was organized and as late as October 22 defined to be: “An organization of the armed forces of the proletariat for the struggle against counter-revolution and the defense of the conquests of the revolution.” No class-conscious worker will today deny the historical right and correctness as well as effectiveness of the Bolshevik strategy carried on in the name of defense. Yet these lessons have already been lost to the proletariat. Its leaders falsified the lessons of October.
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