From International Press Correspondence, Vol. 3 No. 1, 3 January 1923, p. 6.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for the Marxists’ Internet Archive.
Public Domain: Marxists Internet Archive (2021). 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 fight in Ludwigshafen lasted for three weeks and a half. It ended in defeat. But we believe that this defeat is one of these of which Rosa Luxemburg once spoke, which form the premises of future victories, this can of course only be the case if the vanquished workers candidly admit their defeat as such, and set to work on the thorough removal of its causes.
Why were the workers obliged to capitulate, just as victory appeared to be within their reach?
Why has the German proletariat added a fresh link to the long chain of its defeats?
The reply is as follows: the workers of Ludwigshafen were vanquished by capital because some of their local representatives, and the majority of the trade union leaders, sided with the employers and against the workers in this struggle. The strikes succumbed to the tremendous preponderance of power represented by the employers, the government, the occupation authorities, and the trade union leaders, despite the generous support afforded them by the German and the international proletariat
It is true the working class with its gigantic powers is strong enough to crush even such a combined front of the enemy as existed in Ludwigshafen. But this cannot be done by guerilla warfare in which the workers are forced into attempting io defeat the mighty financial reserves of the employers with the aid of mites sacrificed by those who themselves have not even the necessities of life, who cannot even feed and clothe themselves.
At the beginning it appeared as if the workers – regardless of all obstacles and hindrances – were determined to extend the fighting front more and mftre, and thus to convert the struggle into a political one. The struggle began in the great Baden Aniline and Soda factory, and in the notorious Oppau Works. In the course of two days it had spread over almost the whole of the Rhine province. Had the struggle spread al the same speed beyond the frontiers of the province, the aniline kings would have been obliged to come to terms within a few days, and the workers could have returned to the factories as victors. The realization that the struggle of the Ludwigshafen workers was a struggle of the whole working class, was however, not sufficiently strong to bring about a spontaneous solidarity strike outside the Rhine district.
This is the first lesson to be drawn by the proletariat from the Ludwigshafen fight: it is impossible for the workers to obtain a decisive victory over capital, where only funds are pitted against funds, where the victory of the workers depends on their having adequate means in their treasury to meet the needs of the strikers. In such a struggle the most that can be forced from the employers is a compromise acceptable by the workers, but they can never thus be forced to complete capitulation.
In this struggle, even though it did not intensify into a political one, the position, having regard to all circumstances, was extremely favorable for the workers. The chemical industry is very busy. The profits forfeited by the capitalists during each day of the strike were enormous. Had the trade unions supported the fight of the workers with only one half of the energy which they employed to damage and discredit it, the workers would have been able to successfully defend their position, and would have forced the employers to pay adequate wages, and to withdraw the dismissal of the three shop stewards. But the trade unions, especially the leading Factory Workers’ Federation, did not support the strikers; they even threw difficulties in the way of the collections organized by the workers all over the country, in this wav the trade union bureaucracy succeeded in preventing many workers from taking part in the relief action. As a result of this sabotage the amounts collected did not suffice to adequately support the strikers. In the course of the three weeks and a half the strikers received only one single dole: married men 1,500 marks – and single men 1,000 marks. A round sum of 30 million marks was required for this single payment. The same amount was collected during the first week with the aid of the international working class. In Germany itself collecting was not begun until the second week of the strike, and in the International, practical results could not possibly be realized until the third week. The misery of the strikers had become unbearable before practical solidarity began to be felt. Christmas was at the gate the majority of the fighters had taken the last of their property to the pawnshop, and were faced with absolute destitution. The class-conscious workers saw the dangerous position; they redoubled their exertions, and thanks to this readiness for self-sacrifice the strike leaders could announce the commencement of the second payment of strike benefit.
The workers were to decide by vote whether they would continue to starve and suffer in the attempt to break the brutality of aniline capital. At this point the local organizers of the German Metal Workers Union, some thousand members of which were participating in the fight, took it upon themselves to carry out the comedy of putting the question to the vote. Only a ridiculously small number of workers took part. The local organizers took care to mention no numbers, but hastened to declare the strike at an end. The strikers were thrown into confusion – the backbone of the strike was broken.
Aniline capital would never have gained the victory but for the help of the trade union bureaucracy. Although the strikers were fighting under the most unfavorable conditions possible, aniline capital was obliged to concede the full wage demands made by the strikers. Previous to the strike, all rises in wages were simply refused; as a result of the strike the wages, which were 185 marks per hour were raised to 400 marks. Besides this, every worker resuming work is promised an afterpayment of 2,500 marks for November, and a Christmas advance to any desired amount. The aniline capitalists are thus obliged to pay a very high price for having their workers return to work under the 21 conditions of enslavement. These 21 conditions fully express the defeat of the workers and the victory of the capitalists! Until the outbreak of the strike the workers possessed fairly extensive rights of decision and control in the factories and workshops. The shop stewards were everywhere at hand to assist the oppressed and exploited; they were able to illuminate many dark ways of the capitalists, and thus many barriers were placed in the way of capitalist exploitation. The capitalists wanted to alter these conditions – hence the impudent provocation – and they have altered them. Thousands of shop stewards have been dismissed. Thanks to trade union bureaucracy, capital has been able to fully utilize its victory.
Every workman who took part in the fight thoroughly realizes that the capitalist victory was only rendered possible because so-called “confidential representatives” of the workers were on the other side of the barricade, on the side of the employers. The second lesson to be drawn by the workers from their defeat is: ruthless expulsion from their own ranks, of all open or concealed agents of capitalism.” If the workers, not only in the strike area, but all over the country, have really taken this most important lesson of the strike to heart, then the defeat of Ludwigshafen is indeed the augury of future victories.
One other matter of immense significance for the classconscious proletariat of the whole world, must be emphasized. So far as we are aware, it is the first time that the class-conscious workers – not only of the whole country, but of the whole international – have taken active part in an economic struggle confined to a small district, a sympathy well expressed in the 50 million marks received by the strike leaders up to the present. Even if the workers of Ludwigshafen have not succeeded in vanquishing the aniline kings, the fact that the Russian, Czecho-Slovakian, French, Norwegian, Bulgarian, English, and Swiss workers made the utmost sacrifices to aid the strikers to victory is none the less of tremendous significance. It is only two years since the Red International of Labor Unions came into existence. In the leading countries only minorities are affiliated to it. And yet an appeal from this organization sufficed within a few days, to bring in sums amounting to millions, from numerous countries, for the striking workers. This magnificent international solidarity must be fully utilized, must be organized. Facts prove – and this is the third lesson to be learnt from this struggle – that it is already possible, at the present time, to create an international fightlug fund. International collections are a promising commencement, a clear proof that the Red International of Labor Unions is on the right road to become what it must and will be:
An International of Action
Last updated on 5 May 2021