Paul Fröhlich

Economics

Economic Struggles in Germany

(22 November 1921)


From International Press Correspondence, Vol. I No. 10, 22 November 1921, pp. 79–80.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for the Marxists’ Internet Archive.
Public Domain: Marxists Internet Archive (2019). You may freely copy, distribute, display and perform this work; as well as make derivative and commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet Archive” as your source.


The bourgeois press in Germany is speculating on ruin. It is full of complaints about the country’s bankruptcy. It lays more stress on the financial collapse than communist agitation could ever do. It may be supposed that it is hardly conscious of the soundness of its arguments and prophecies. For it is obvious what are the motives behind this exaggeration of the bourgeoisie. It wishes to avoid the payment of reparations to the Allies and desires to influence the Reparations Commission at present in Berlin. The Commission, however, has given no ground for the realization of this hope but on the contrary has somewhat disappointed. They hope by their threats of state bankruptcy to strengthen those voices in England which are in favor of a lenient policy toward Germany. At the same time this howling is intended to support the demands of the industrials for denationalization of the railways, increased exploitation of labour, etc.

The obviousness of these motives forces people to doubt the sincerity of the bourgeoisie and its paid scribes. What class would be able to face calmly the fact of its own bankruptcy? Yet this bankruptcy is undoubtedly approaching. German foreign exchange is wildly fluctuating up and down with a clearer and clearer tendency to fall lower and yet lower. The finances of the country are in disorder. The Finance Minister’s great plan for placing the country’s finances on a sound and healthy basis is a product of perplexity which will hardly assist in overcoming the first, minor difficulties. In general, all calculation is rendered impossible. Each new fluctuation of the foreign exchange takes the ground from under all projects.

It is scarcely to be expected that the constant change for the worse of Germany’s financial position will take place without accompanying catastrophes similar to those in Austria. Every step on the road to state bankruptcy will be accompanied by severe shocks to capitalist production. In the meanwhile, however, there is an unprecedented trade boom in Germany. It is all production for export – in other words a diminution of the national wealth, and is based on the fact that the falling foreign exchange continually brings the price of labour under its value. It is possible only as long as the employers succeed in keeping wages down to a starvation level. For that reason every attempt to bring wages on terms of equality with the ever-increasing prices meets with most violent opposition on the part of the employers. The latter try in every possible way to do away with the eight-hour day which interferes with their exploitation of the situation to the limit.

Profits are fabulous. Of course, in measuring them the fall of the mark has to be taken into consideration. It would, however, be utterly incorrect, in estimating profits, merely to compare the foreign exchange of the pre-war period with the present market value. For many years past, “big business” has systematically watered its stock. The undivided reserves are so enormous that financial balances are strained to the bursting point. The extraction of extra profits has assumed almost fabulous dimensions. Thus recently the Schwarzkopf machine factory in Berlin doubled its capital and in connection therewith turned over to its stockholders an extra profit of approximately 400,000,000 marks.

The situation of the workers, on the other hand, is desperate. Food prices are rising by leaps and bounds. The workers are threatened with an increase of rents. New and increased taxes are contemplated. If the workers are not to die of starvation they must receive higher wages. A new strike-wave is passing over Germany. Municipal, metal and textile workers are engaged in severe conflicts. In part these are “wild” strikes, carried against the will of the trade-union leaders.

In many ways the struggle is typified in the the fight of 50–60,000 metal workers in the Düsseldorf district Their demands had been placed before an arbitration board. In agreement with the men’s representatives an award had been handed down which gave the workers an imaginary increase. In reality, however, it only sanctioned the actual wages already being paid without taking into consideration the present enormous increase in the cost of living. To such an extent are the trade unions afraid of serious conflicts. The workers declined to accept the award and went on strike with unusual enthusiasm. There are actually no strike-breakers.

These metal workers are fighting against the most powerful capital kings in Germany, men with an all-embracing consciousness of power. It may be said that a struggle against them can only be successfully carried through if fought with untiring energy and on a very broad basis. The workers are therefore instinctively striving to enlarge the field of the struggle. The employers are trying to counteract that in a very clever manner, while the men’s demands were rejected in the Düsseldorf district, Krupp in Essen made such concessions to the workers that a strike there has probably been avoided. This policy has as its obvious aim the localization of the struggle and the consequent defeat of the Düsseldorf strikers. Through the constant depreciation of the mark, the employers are enabled to grant the equalizing increases, thus chaining the Essen metal workers and miners. In this manner they can constantly keep wages on an extremely low level.

The workers’ organization meet this policy with all the force at their command. The Düsseldorf strike has been sanctioned by all the trade-unions – free, Christian, and Hirsch-Duncker. But a silent sabotage is already noticeable. The social-democratic police-president has already tried to obtain from the ministry a declaration that the arbitration award is binding on the men. In other words, the preparation for the intervention of the military police and the courts! The social-democratic and independent socialist press is shameless enough not to accord the strikers even the support of a single word in their behalf.

Why do they do that? Because they fear the collapse of the strike and desire to save their souls. Thus they practically assist in causing a defeat. But not only are they afraid of a defeat; they fear an extension of the struggle, though this would save the strike. They fear that so gigantic a strike might assume a political, even a revolutionary character. The communist metal workers did not agitate for the strike because they realized that a struggle that demands such sacrifices must not be brought about by agitation but must arise from the inflexible will of the masses. Now that it has come under the fulfilment of the above conditions the communists are supporting it to the utmost. The sabotage of the others will be of no avail, even if they succeed for the moment in avoiding what they consider a grave danger. The whole situation is driving towards general conflicts. It may be only a matter of weeks before Germany becomes the arena of embittered economic straggles between the classes, which must lead to momentous political consequences.

Great political consequences are expected as the political situation is in a state of tension. The parties in power are trying to rush through the new taxation program in order to prevent its becoming the ignition spark for a mass movement. In this effort the independent socialists are offering the necessary assistance. The captains of industry have commenced a violent political offensive, which will compel the two socialist parties to relinquish their present quietism. The international problems are bound within a short time to increase anew the tension of the internal situation. Each large economic movement involving important industrial districts is from the outset bound to be of great political significance. If burning political questions of the day of such importance as those mentioned are influencing this hotbed of the class struggle, that has only one meaning: Germany today is on the brink of a severe disturbance of the equilibrium of the classes.



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