Leipziger Volkszeitung, July 10, 1916.
“Betrayal of the Party Is Betrayal of the Nation”
That is how the Chemnitz Volksstimme heads an article in which it reacts violently to the charge of Party betrayal levelled “in numerous anonymous leaflets against the elected and well-tried leaders of the Party and trade unions in all manner of tones, including the use of the word ‘dog’”.
This defence is followed by attack. The second part of the article speaks of “high treason”. It reads as follows:
“Meanwhile, the anonymous leaflet literature has led to outright high treason. We are not, of course, referring to Karl Liebknecht, whom a military tribunal, using legalistic deductions, is seeking to punish for attempted military betrayal, but whose behaviour at any rate has nothing whatever to do with high treason, as understood among the people. We refer to acts of high treason that cannot be discounted by any twisting of words. The Hamburger Echo reports that a leaflet now being distributed in working-class circles by unknown means calls for a general strike in the munitions industry.[1] Under the slogan ‘Down with the War!’ it urges a ‘new mode of action’, and the examples it cites unmistakably show that this means a mass strike. And so, while the enemy is attacking with the utmost fury, showering German soldiers with a hail of iron, they want to deprive the German artillery of shells; without its help the German infantry, the German proletarians in the army, are to be allowed to be slaughtered by enemy shells. It goes without saying that this idea of a mass strike will not have the slightest practical effect among the fanatically nationalist French or the haughty British.
“This propaganda, therefore, is outright high treason, betrayal of our class comrades in the army, and we should like to know what our comrades at the front will say about such craziness.
“We are firmly convinced that the German working class, too, will give a fitting answer to these individuals who come before them with such claims. The leaflets are, as we have said, anonymous; we do not know whether they have been put out by madmen or by Anglo-Russian stooges. They certainly could not have been put out by Social-Democrats. Anyone who allowed himself to support such propaganda, if only by passivity, would thereby forever cease to be part of the German Social-Democratic movement. For this propaganda is devoid of honour and patriotism, and we cannot, of course, have anything in common with a person who sinks so low.
“But the mere possibility of such an occurrence is enough to show what this anonymous leaflet literature can lead to. It began with the most foul invective, for which the authors did not dare to admit responsibility before their Party comrades, and has now sunk to this provocateur activity. First there were cries of betrayal of the Party and now we have outright high treason! It is high time we got rid of it, once and for all. Anyone who has anything to say should have the courage to speak out on his own responsibility. Or perhaps, at a time when hundreds of thousands are sacrificing their lives for their cause, these people are too cowardly to risk being prosecuted. In any case, anonymity will not protect the distributors of the anonymous leaflets; if they are caught they must, of course, expect the most severe punishment.
“The dangers of this anonymous propaganda have now become fully clear. No distinction can be drawn between honest error and vile treason that is probably paid for with foreign money. Party comrades are, therefore, warned to put a final stop to these anonymous leaflets. They are a cloak for men who would plunge the German people, and above all the German proletariat, into calamity. Be on guard against provocateurs!”
We consider it necessary to reproduce these statements in order to show our readers what the Hamburger Echo and the Chemnitz Volksstimme regard as the task of the day. If these two newspapers were to attack the distributors on the issues posed by the leaflets, that would be their legitimate right. But if they raise an outcry against the propaganda as being high treason, that is a denunciation which deserves to be appraised by the working class at its true worth.
Moreover, as regards the issues involved, this accusation is completely unjustified, because, to the best of our knowledge, the leaflets suggest strike action only as a means of clearly expressing working-class demands on vital and pressing issues. There is no mention whatever of the purpose the Hamburger Echo and the Chemnitz Volksstimme ascribe to them.
[1] The italics here and below are the author’s.—Ed.
[2] This article was gummed into Notebook “ο” in the form of a cutting from the Leipziger Volkszeitung of July 10, 1916. The author has not been identified.
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