Translated by: Juan R. Fajardo,
2016.
Source of the text: Translated from Historia de la
crisis mundial, in Obras Completas, volume 8, https://www.marxists.org/espanol/mariateg/oc/historia_de_la_crisis_mundial/index.htm
Editorial Note: This text is available in print as
part of: José Carlos Mariátegui,
History of the World Crisis and Other
Writings, Marxists Internet Archive Publications (2017); ISBN
978-0-692-88676-2.
Author’s Notes:
The major German political groups are: pan-Germanists, populists, Catholics, democrats, socialists, communists, Organisation Consul, Eschrich organization, and Hitler and Ludendorff’s Bavarian fascism.
Antecedents for the current situation: The fall of Wirth’s cabinet. The formation of the Cuno cabinet. The return of Hugo Stinnes’ populists to government. The socialists’ position on this government. The effects of the occupation of the Ruhr on German politics. The current German crisis is but the deepening of the political crisis brought about by Social Democracy’s collaboration with the bourgeoisie. Cuno’s resignation. Stresemann’s cabinet. Minister of Finance Hilferding.
Rhennish separatism. Smeets’ and Dorten’s separatist factions. Their agitation and coming fusion. France’s support.
Consequences of the occupation of the Ruhr on the German economy. The catastrophe of the mark. The impossibility of mutilated, fractured Germany reorganizing itself. A nation is a living organism. It is not possible to wound it without altering, without disrupting, its functioning. The occupation of the Ruhr condemns Germany to ruin and to misery. However, a ruined Germany means a worsening of the European economic crisis. Moribund, starving nations cannot coexist with vital, exuberant nations. The world’s economic system has become too united for this to happen. A nation that is primitive, insignificant, and little-evolved economically can descend into misery without visibly affecting the other nations of the continent, but a nation with such complex and such vast an international dynamics cannot be brought down and destroyed without mortal damage to its neighbors. The problems of peace have uncovered this unity between victors and the defeated which prevents the former from crushing the latter.
The true causes of the occupation of the Ruhr. The chauvinists, the nationalists, wish to destroy Germany. They have nightmares of German reconstruction, of German revenge. The metallurgical industrialists aspire to posses German coal. The metallurgical industrialists’ press exploits the patriotism of the petit bourgeois classes. The national bloc, the left bloc, and the communists.
Stinnes’ program: suppression of the eight-hour workday, reduction of state personnel, handing the railways over to private enterprise. In a word, the abolition, the repeal of all the gains of the socialist minimum program. A bourgeois coalition lacks the strength to act on this plan.
Dissent within social-democracy. The left tendency and the right tendency.
The fear of communist participation.
The policies of the German communists. Däcussig, Stöcker. The factory
councils. The proletarian united front. The workers’ government. The
nationalization of 51 percent of the businesses, under the workers’ control.
The Social-Democrats and their apprehensions and fears.
The nationalist phenomenon. The penury of middle class and petit bourgeoisie. The poverty of the intellectuals. Radek proposes that fascism be fought not only with arms but also with political weapons. The middle class, dominated by the memory of its past well-being, leans toward a re-establishment of the old order. It lacks a class mentality, class consciousness. A government of the middle class cannot but carry out capitalist policies. The middle class needs to join either the capitalist class or the salaried class. It has no room for a middle or independent position.
Which are the present hour’s prospects? An immediate rectification of French
policies is not likely. Occupation of the Ruhr will, therefore, continue –
disorganizing, impoverishing and ruining Germany. There is talk of the
possibility of German and French industrialists coordinating and making an
arrangement. This alliance of French capitalism with German capitalism could
be made only at the expense of the working class. There already have been
hints of intelligence of this nature: the Loucheur-Lubersac agreement. Such
intelligence would worry England. German industry and French industry would
constitute a formidable continental bloc. Likewise, there is talk of England
proposing the formation of an Anglo-Franco-German conglomerate. Lastly,
Mussolini dreams of a continental bloc: Germany, France, and Italy. But
these projects stumble over the barrier of nationalist selfishness. Each
power longs for an alliance in which it gets the lion’s share. The climate
left by the war is a noxious and asphyxiating climate. It is poisoned by
hates, rancors, and selfish passions. The notion that common sense and
common interests will prevail in the minds of the various European
capitalist groups is a notion which ignores the dark and mysterious, but
decisive, influence which psychological factors have on the march of
history.
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[1] For some reason, Mariátegui changed the program for the evening, and postponed the planned talk on the Treaty of Versailles until the following week. - Trans.