MIA: Marxist Historical-Subjects: The German Revolution: 1918-1923:

Gilles Dauvé / Denis Authier

The Communist Left in Germany 1918-1921

With texts by:
Laufenberg, Wolffheim, Gorter,
Roland-Holst and Pfempfert

1976

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First published: Jean Barrot, La Gauche communiste en Allemagne, 1918-1921, Payot, 1976.
Transcriber: Collective Action Notes
HTML-markup: Jonas Holmgren

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Table of Contents:

• Translator's Note
• Introduction
  • I
  • II
• Chapter 1. Germany in 1914
  • Capitalism and the Proletariat
  • The German State
  • The Inconclusive Bourgeois Revolution
• Chapter 2. Origins of the German Workers Movement
  • The Impact of Social Democracy
  • The Era of 1848
  • "Marxism" and Lassallism
  • Reformism and the Radical Response prior to 1914
• Chapter 3. The German Left before 1914
  • The Dutch Left
  • Bremen
• Chapter 4. War and Radicalization
  • 1914 and Democracy
  • Developments within the SPD
  • The ISD
  • The USPD
  • The Spartacist League
  • Labor Agitation and the "Shop Stewards"
• Chapter 5. The 1918 "November Revolution"
  • Prior to November 9
  • The strategies and functions of the various organizations
• Chapter 6. Before the Confrontation: The Relation of Forces
  • The Bourgeoisie and the "Workers Party"
  • The Function of Democracy
  • The Founding of the KPD
• Chapter 7. The Confrontations: November 1918 to May 1919
  • The Councils Commit Suicide
  • The Conflict in Berlin: December 1918 to January 1919
  • Central and Northern Germany
  • Bavaria
    • 1. November 1918-February 1919
    • 2. February-March
    • 3. First and Second Council Republics: April-May
  • The Positions and Evolution of the Various Organizations
• Chapter 8. The International and Domestic Situations May 1919-March 1920
  • Hungary
  • The Treaty of Versailles
  • The Establishment of the Weimar Republic
• Chapter 9. Revolutionary Syndicalism and Unionism
  • Revolutionary Syndicalism
  • The Origins of Unionism
  • The Formation of the "AAUD"
• Chapter 10. The KPD: January 1919 to March 1920
  • The Minority Right-wing Leadership goes on the Offensive
  • The Heidelberg Congress
  • The KPD and KPD (Opposition)
• Chapter 11. Between the First and the Second Congresses Of the Communist International
  • The First Congress
  • The Failure of the Amsterdam Bureau
  • The Second Congress of the Communist International
• Chapter 12. The Kapp Putsch and the Ruhr Insurrection
  • The Coup d'État and the First Instances of "Workers Government" and "Anti-Fascism"
  • The Red Army of the Ruhr
  • The Forms Assumed by Workers Power in the Ruhr
  • Defeat
• Chapter 13. The VKPD
  • The Founding of the VKPD
  • Elimination of the Former Spartacists from the KPD Leadership
• Chapter 14. The KAPD and the AAUD-E
  • The KPD(O)
  • The Founding of the KAPD
  • The Debate Concerning the "Unitary" Organization
• Chapter 15. The March Action (1921)
  • The Crisis of 1921
  • Max Hölz
  • Chronology of Events. Opposition Develops between the Local Organizations and the Leaderships of the KPD and the KAPD
  • The "Lessons of the March Action"
    • 1. The VKPD
    • 2. The KAPD and Rühle's AAUD-E
• Chapter 16. The German Left and the Third International
  • German-Soviet Relations: 1918-1922
  • Collaboration between the German Left and the Bolsheviks
  • Rühle and the Conflict within the KAPD
  • The Third Congress and the Split
  • The Workers Opposition and the KAPD
• Chapter 17. The "International Communist Left"
  • The Left in Russia
  • France
  • Switzerland
  • Belgium
  • Finland
  • Great Britain
  • The United States
  • Poland
  • Austria-Hungary
  • Bulgaria
  • An International Communist Left?
• Conclusion
• Appendix I. The Groupuscular Phase
  • Sectarianism
  • The KAI and the Schism in the KAPD
  • The AAUD-E
  • The KAPD (Essen tendency)
  • The KAPD (Berlin tendency)
  • The AAUD (Berlin tendency) and the KAUD
  • Council Communism in the Netherlands
  • The Reichstag Fire
  • Developments in Bulgaria
  • Other Countries
• Appendix II. Bibliography of Topics Addressed by the German Left during the 1930s
  • The Russian Question
  • Nazism and Fascism
  • The "Death Crisis"
  • Fundamentals and Content of Communism
• Appendix III. Note on "National Bolshevism"
• Texts
  • Foreword
  • Heinrich Laufenberg: The Hamburg Revolution
  • Fritz Wolffheim: Factory Organizations or Trade Unions?
  • Hermann Gorter: The Opportunism of the Communist Party of the Netherlands
  • Resolution of the Conference of the Abstentionist Communist Fraction of the Italian Socialist Party
  • H. Roland-Holst: The Communist Left and the Resolutions of the Second Congress of the Communist International
  • Hermann Gorter: The Lessons of the "March Action": Gorter's Last Letter to Lenin
  • The KAPD's Report on the Third Congress of the Communist International
  • Program of the AAUD (December 1920)
  • Extracts from the Guidelines of the AAUD (December 1920)
  • Guidelines of the AAU-E (June 1921)
  • Franz Pfemfert: Lenin's Infantile Disorder... and the Third International
  • Leading Principles of the KAI (1922)
• Epilogue (2004)
  • The Workers Revolution and Beyond
  • Towards the Unitary Organization
  • Antiparliamentarism
  • The Workers Revolution
  • The National-Bolshevik Aberration and its Meaning

 

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The German Revolution: 1918-1923