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Arne Swabeck

Militant Correspondent on the Spot in German Crisis

(February 1933)


From The Militant, Vol. VI No. 12, 24 February 1933, pp. 1 & 2.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for the Encyclopaedia of Trotskyism On-Line (ETOL).


The Militant prints here the first article from comrade Arne Swabeck, who is now in Germany and who will continue writing directly about the events there.

* * * *

Berlin, February 11. – While the Fascist hordes are at the helm of government in Germany they have not yet conquered. A mere glimpse at the country where the fate of mankind, as far as its immediate future is concerned, hangs in the balance, fully justifies this contention.

Throughout the Reich there is an ominous calm, a lull before the storm, but interrupted surreptitiously by the barking of guns in clashes between workers and Fascists. Daggers flash in the hands of the latter. Political assassinations increase. But these are only vanguard skirmishes before the battle. The situation as a whole leaves a painful impression as if the German working masses do not yet really know what is at stake. The advent of the Hitler government found them stunned, bewildered, and unprepared, left in the lurch by the deliberate treason of the Socialist party bureaucrats and by the criminal failures of the Communist party Stalinist leadership. Yet all is not lost. The issue is not yet decided. The German workers have previously proven their gigantic fighting capacity and they will still have a decisive word to say.

On that ominous night of Jan. 30, when Hitler received his mandate, heavy Fascist columns were marching, by the flare of torchlights, down Unter den Linden, through Brandenburger Tor, to the cry of: “Clear the streets for the brown battalions.” That signalled the intention of a coming terror regime. It has made its beginning. Last Saturday and Sunday alone, February 4 and 5, witnessed six killed, many scores of wounded, some seriously, and many arrests. Schupos (German police) armed to the teeth are in evidence everywhere. Their actions are carried out with characteristic German efficiency and surety far the existing regime, but they usually manage to be too late when workers are murdered. It is necessary to note that the Fascists, while recognizing the Communists as their mortal enemy, and not in the least mistaken about that, still make no distinction whatever in their assassinations and terror acts. Among those killed was the Social Democratic mayor of Stassfurt. At Chemnitz in a clash between Fascists and Reichsbanner people, one of the latter was killed. At a similar clash in Breslau one Reichsbanner man was killed. At Charlottenburg one Communist party member was killed. At Harburg-Wilhelmsburg one worker coming from a Socialist meeting was killed. At the university of Muenster several students were wounded in clashes with Fascists developing after a lecture of a Social Democratic professor.

But in these clashes the workers do not turn the other cheek. They have given a good account of themselves. For example at Duesseldorf a Fascist storm troop was broken up, its officer killed and several wounded. At Leipzig similarly, a gang of Fascists was broken up and about a dozen of them were wounded. This is only a partial account of the events of two days.

One of our Left Opposition comrades in Oranienburg, who has been very active and very effective in the work of our local group actually to establish a genuine united front of the various working class tendencies, has so far barely escaped death. The planned assassination which was to be carried out at night in his home by local Fascists, was discovered by a worker just in time to take the necessary measures.
 

Capitalism Mobilizes Its Last Reserves

In these continuous skirmishes workers, Communists, Social Democrats, Reichsbanner people and trade unionists instinctively unite and fight shoulder to shoulder. Numerous are the accounts brought by our comrades of workers everywhere asking: “Why do we not build the united front?” Liberal bourgeois papers reprint letters from workers posing this question. But – and that is the crucial question – the leaders, Stalinists, Socialists and trade union bureaucrats refuse to realize the united front from organization to organization.

The workers are still sadly bewildered. But it is not so in the ranks of the bourgeoisie. The present situation found them quite well prepared. The forces on that side of the barricade were not taken by surprise. They decided quickly for the Fascists precisely out of fear of the growing misery and discontent of the working masses. Economic developments within the Reich continued to present their protracted black picture. Unemployment was on the increase. The official figures of January 15, 1933, gives the numbers of 5,065,000. This accounts only for those officially registered who receive unemployment insurance, but not of those not registered or the part-time workers. In reality the total figure is much higher. The emergency decrees had already helped to reduce further the working class level and increase its discontent. The Communists had gained in the last elections. The Schleicher government, evidently despite its good intentions, could not consolidate the Bonapartist regime. Its prospects of maintaining capitalist rule and avoid civil war diminished. The bourgeoisie called upon Its last reserve – the Fascists hordes.

Against the dangers of a growing working class threat the capitalist solidarity extends beyond the national boundaries, not even taking cognizance of such distinctions as former “mortal enemies”. And so also in this case, the change In Germany produced its echo in France. The Paris Soir of Jan. 31 commented: “Hitler in power! This news would a few months ago have produced the effects of a bombshell. Today it reverberates but there is not much detonation.” This bourgeois paper is fully conscious that the imperialist road now leads through the Fascist regime toward a united front against the growing threat of the German revolutionary workers. True, there is the Versailles Treaty standing a little in the way. But such matters can be adjusted to enable the German and the French bourgeoisie to work hand in hand. In this manner the first steps toward forging the spearhead of the army of intervention against the U.S.S.R. are being taken. That is the very heart of the question of a possible final conquest of power in Germany by the Fascist bandits. Finally that much at least seems to have dawned upon l’Humanité (the French party daily). It did mention that danger in one of its recent issues. But in face of that recognition it demonstrates its utter helplessness, its paralysis. Choked by the false concepts of Stalinism it cannot show the way. It can only repeat what in view of the concrete needs of the situation becomes a mere abstract commonplace. It repeats the slogans of downing Fascism and of the united front from below.
 

The Issue Is Now to Be Settled by the Means of Civil War

The Fascist government does not at all hide its objectives. Hitler’s very first ministerial address to the public declared: “The greatest actual danger is the danger of Communism ... Bolshevism would spell disaster not only to Germany but to the entire world. The national government is determined to defend Germany against Bolshevism, against anarchy and against the scourge of the class struggle.” That the C.P. is the vanguard of the working class the Fascist leaders fully understand. But the full scope of their objectives became further clarified by Hitler’s election campaign address of February 8. He declared in his usual bravado style, but now with a more sinister sureness: “I shall not resign my function until I am fully convinced that my mission is accomplished. That within less than ten year’s Marxism shall no longer exist in Germany.” Such are the threats of extermination of every section, of every vestige of the working class movement, for in their usage of the term Marxism the Fascists include the Social Democrats and even the reformist trade unions. Yes, precisely that is the mission of Fascism. German capitalism, the weakest link in the imperialist chain, in the throes of the decay of the system as a whole, has decided to settle the issue by civil war in the hope of thereby accomplishing the destruction of the working class movement in order to maintain itself in power. For that aim Fascism is the instrument, quick in its actions – one has followed the other in rapid succession – in the attempt it is making to consolidate its position. The Reichstag was dissolved without even being permitted the opportunity to convene. The new elections will take place, not after the usual sixty days, but within one month, on March 5. The important positions under the ministry of the interior, particularly those of chiefs of police, are being filled by Fascists. Several issues of the Rote Fahne have been seized. A press censorship decree is issued giving the chief of police the authority to prohibit any paper which advocates a general strike, or strikes of any kind, or prints what is called “deliberate misinformation”. All city councils (aldermanic bodies) throughout Prussia are dissolved and new elections set for March 12. The Prussian state government, the Braun cabinet, which had only a shadow existence, is unceremoniously and completely dissolved to prepare the road for dissolution of the Landtag despite its majority opposition. Even bourgeois democracy due to its flexibility, still has a certain usefulness: – Dissolve by decrees, get new elections with all the machinery of suppression in readiness so as to obtain a voting strength which can furnish a mask of authority. That is to be preparatory to the final coup d’état These are parts of the immediate strategy of the Fascist government.

(To be continued)


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