Grütlianer No. 230, 1916 (October 2, 1916).
Hermann Greulich, “Open Letter to the Hottingen Grütli-Verein”.
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Only a minority of the workers take part in the labour movement. “Consequently, living standards have risen only slightly, and only among the upper sections of the working class. The mass of the workers remain a prey to want, care and privation. That is why doubts arise from time to time about the path we have chosen. The critics seek new paths, relying chiefly on more vigorous action as the earnest of success. Attempts are made along these lines, but they usually end in failure, and then there is a return to the old tactics, pursued with greater force. These fluctuations are apparent to anyone who studies the workers’ movement for a more or less lengthy period.... Then came the world war ... for the broad masses ... a cruel disillusionment ... appalling deterioration of living standards, reducing to want even those sections that previously led a tolerable existence; this strengthens the revolutionary tendency. Everything is now ques- tioned: principles, tactics and organisation.... He who is capable of rising above the turmoil of the day ... will find this great dispute [over revolutionary prin- ciples and tactics] comprehensible and not fall into despair over it. Of course, stupidities have been committed—but by both sides .... |
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“So far it has been almost entirely left to me to act as a mediator.... The Party leadership was obviously not up to its job and allowed itself to be influenced too much by the hotheads.... The Central Committee of the Grütli-Verein decided on a ‘practical national policy’ which it wants to pursue outside the Party.... Why has it not done so within the Party? Why has it almost always left it to me to fight the ultra-radicals?... |
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...“I am firmly convinced that the present ferment in the Party will in the end produce a good wine, provided the barrel is not closed before fermentation is complete.... The Party can only be a proletarian one and not a sect, whose activity would not be under- stood by the proletariat.... If it (the Grütli-Verein)... rejects an understanding with the Party, then there is no longer any place for me in the Grütli-Verein. I believe in the future of the Party and I therefore always stand by it”. (End.) Berne. September 26, 1916. |
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The same issue contains the reply of the Grütli-Verein Central Committee to Greulich: ultra-radicalism and “mediation”—against the existence of the Grütli-Verein; also an item in lighter vein, “Who is Spartacus?” (a glo- rification)!!! |
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Grütlianer No. 255, October 31. Editorial: “Stones Instead of Bread” by a “trade union functionary”: argues that the “radical trend” gives “stones instead of bread”. What is necessary, however, is the “reformist conception”, “practical social reform”, “democratic-socialist reform” ... (against the so-called “Marxists”).... |
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No. 253, October 28, 1916. Editorial: “Fundamental Divergence in Appraisal”. Quotes the Leipziger Volkszeitung, which, it affirms, defends the “socialist point of view”. The Zurich and Berne newspapers heap abuse on Pernerstorfer. We, however, agree neither with the majority in Germany nor with the Zurich and Berne newspapers; we are f o r “legal” ways. In the Adler business we see “only mental derangement”.... |
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| N.B. | they favour the “Center” |
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No. 249, October 24, 1916. Editorial: “No Essential Differences Divide Us!” (in quotes)—a statement by Huber (Rorschach) at a meeting of Grütli delegates. Here is Volksrecht praising Adler!! We, however, condemn him on principle! |
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No. 248, October 23, 1916. Editorial: “The ‘Nationalist Chaff’ Is Separating from the ‘Internationalist Socialist Wheat’” (as the representative of the Swiss Social-Democratic Party stated at the congress of Italian socialists of Switzerland).
No. 235, October 7, 1916. Comment on the Grütli programme.
No. 243 (October 17, 1916) and several before it (Nos. 237 (October 10)-243) carry articles on “Naturalisation of Foreigners”....
The committee of “nine” (including Greulich and Wullschleger) put forward a petition in 1912.
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Compulsory naturalisation after fifteen years. Payment for naturalisation not to exceed 300 francs!! |
Nos. 242 and 243.
Grütlianer, October 18, 1916. The “Social-Patriotic Party” of Switzerland.
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Grütlianer, No. 216 (September 15, 1916): item headed: “Trade Unions and the Military Question”. |
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“Discussing this question in the Schweizerische Metallar- beiter-Zeitung (*) (1916, No. 38 September 16, 1916), a correspondent [J. H., Basle] (**) draws the terse and clear conclusion that it is the duty of the trade unionists to see to it that the military question is fundamentally and clearly solved by the Party. The sharpest combating of militarism and rejection of fatherland defence—today, and disarmament, together with social- ism—tomorrow.” |
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(**) the article of this J. H. Basle is very good, it is purely working- class and revolutionary- internationalist |
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“The editor Comrade Schneeberger (in an ‘Editorial Postscript’) remarks that the trade unions as such should not concern themselves either with armaments reduction or disarmament. The fact that a man is a trade union member does not make him either a Social-Democrat or an anti-militarist; his political or religious views, as such, have nothing to do with his trade union member- ship. True, in most cases the trade unionist soon becomes an adherent of socialist or Social-Democratic views. However, he expresses these views not so much in the trade union as in the Social-Democratic organisations set up for this type of activity. This method has proved a very rational one and should therefore continue, all the more so that the trade unions have big enough tasks in the economic sphere. |
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“Moreover, the trade unions and trade union bodies are not in a position to carry out any real educational work in this field.
“Generalities, of which there is no shortage in the above-mentioned article, will not help. They are of as little use in convincing a person who—as is usually the case—has grown up with quite different views, as, say, in explaining the issues of the war in three sentences, or in making an impression on an impartial and unprejudiced reader by exaggerating the role of the Swiss armed forces in labour conflicts. One has only to consider the workers’ struggles in Italy, Spain, France and Germany, even in free America, to realise that Swiss conditions are still preferable to the Russian.
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“And the catchword ‘The worker has no father- land’ is absolutely uncalled for at a time when the overwhelming majority of Europe’s workers have for two years now been fighting the ‘enemies’ of their countries side by side with their bourgeoi- sies, and those left at home are determined to ‘hold out’ in spite of want and hardship. In the event of a foreign attack, we would certainly see the same spectacle in Switzerland. Here, too, those who are now indulging in the loudest tirades will, perhaps, be the first to abandon their posi- tions.” |
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Grütlianer reprints the passages [marked] || in heavy type. In fact, it has reprinted the entire postscript under the editor’s signature. The Metallarbeiter-Zeitung has the imprint: Editorial board: O. Schneeberger and K. Dürr ((N.B.)). |
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[1] Grütli-Verein—a bourgeois reformist organisation founded in Switzerland in 1838, long before the organisation of the Swiss Social-Democratic Party. The name is derived from the Union of Grütlians (conspirators), who rose against the Austrian oppression in the sixteenth century. In 1901 the Grütli-Verein affiliated to the Swiss Social-Democratic Party, but remained organisationally independent. Its newspaper, Grütlianer, followed a bourgeois-nationalist policy. In the First World War, the Grütli-Verein took up an extreme chauvinist position and became the mainstay of the Rightwing social-chauvinists. In November 1916, the Zurich Congress of the Swiss Social-Democratic Party declared that the GrütliVerein’s social-chauvinist activity was incompatible with membership of the Social-Democratic Party.
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