Gilles Dauvé and Denis Authier The Communist Left in Germany 1918-1921 With texts by: Laufenberg, Wolffheim, Gorter, Roland-Holst and Pfempfert Original Title: La Gauche Communiste en Allemagne (1918-1921) (First published in France in 1976) Translator’s Note This revised edition of The Communist Left in Germany: 1918-1921 retains the first, historical part of the original volume unaltered, with the exception of a few added editorial notes which were suggested by Gilles Dauvé. The second part of the book, which contains texts of the Ger- man Left, has been substantially changed in order to provide selections which have not yet, to the best of my knowledge, become available in English translation. Pannekoek’s The Theory of the Collapse of Capitalism, which is currently available in English translation at the website, marxists.org, has been replaced by several programmatic texts of the German Left and Pfempfert’s response to Lenin’s Left Wing Communism… In addition, Gilles Dauvé authorized the inclusion of an “Epilogue” which he wrote in 2004 and which gives the reader an idea of how his conceptions regarding the subject matter of this book have evolved since it was origi- nally published in 1976. M. DeSocio September 5, 2006 html source [ http://us.share.geocities.com/collectiveact/dauve11.htm ] INDEX Introduction ....................................................................................................................................................................7 Chapter 1. Germany in 1914 .....................................................................................................................................19 Chapter 2. Origins of the German Workers Movement.............................................................................................25 Chapter 3. The German Left before 1914..................................................................................................................48 Chapter 4. War and Radicalization.............................................................................................................................57 Chapter 5. The 1918 “November Revolution”...........................................................................................................68 Chapter 6. Before the Confrontation: The Relation of Forces....................................................................................73 Chapter 7. The Confrontation: November 1918 to May 1919..................................................................................82 Chapter 8. The International and Domestic Situations: May 1919 to March 1920...................................................92 Chapter 9. Revolutionary Syndicalism and Unionism................................................................................................97 Chapter 10. The KPD: January 1919 to March 1920 ................................................................................................107 Chapter 11. Between the First and the Second Congresses of the Communist International.....................................113 Chapter 12. The Kapp Putsch and the Ruhr Insurrection..........................................................................................126 Chapter 13. The VKPD .............................................................................................................................................133 Chapter 14. The KAPD and the AAUD-E.................................................................................................................137 Chapter 15. The March Action (1921) ......................................................................................................................144 Chapter 16. The German Left and the Third International .......................................................................................152 Chapter 17. The “International Communist Left” .....................................................................................................165 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................................................192 Appendix I. The Groupuscular Phase........................................................................................................................196 Appendix II. Bibliography of Topics Addressed by the German Left during the 1930s .............................................207 Appendix III. Note on “National Bolshevism” ............................................................................................................210 TEXTS Foreword .....................................................................................................................................................................217 The Hamburg Revolution (Heinrich Laufenberg)......................................................................................................220 Factory Organizations or Trade Unions? (Fritz Wolffheim).......................................................................................241 The Opportunism of the Communist Party of the Netherlands (Hermann Gorter) ...................................................248 Resolution of the Conference of the Abstentionist Communist Fraction of the Italian Socialist Party........................270 The Communist Left and the Resolutions of the Second Congress of the Communist International (Henriette Roland-Holst)..............................................................................................................................................................273 The Lessons of the “March Action” (Hermann Gorter) .............................................................................................278 The KAPD’s Report on the Third Congress of the Communist International...........................................................283 Program of the AAUD (December 1920)...................................................................................................................295 Extracts from the Guidelines of the AAUD (December 1920) .....................................................................................298 Guidelines of the AAU-E (June 1921)........................................................................................................................308 Lenin’s Infantile Disorder… and the Third International (Franz Pfempfert) ..............................................................310 Leading Principles of the KAI (Extracts) (1922).........................................................................................................319 Epilogue (Dauvé, 2004) ............................................................................................................................................323 Some Websites of Interest............................................................................................................................................334 Introduction “It is not those who fell wrapped in the unfortunate flag of the defeated Revolution whom we consider to be fraudulent squanderers of the Revo- lution, but those who afterwards, from their desks of wisdom or from their podiums as mentors of the masses, were unable to derive from that sacrifice anything more than a few phrases of demagogic admiration, ac- companied by a defeatist commentary.” Bordiga: From the Commune to the IIIrd International, 1924 I The fact that the Russian Revolution of 1917 was only one aspect and one of the effects of a much broader movement, whose center was Germany, is presently more readily admitted. This recognition places the Russian experience in context. It is no longer possible to conceive of the events in Europe during that era in Russian “Leninist” terms. One cannot deplore either the insufficient or the excessive impact of “Leninism” on the western proletariat, whose practice must be understood on its own terms. The Russian influence was real, but it was limited to the accen- tuation of a complex evolution which it had not created. Conversely, it must be shown to what degree this evolution affected domestic events in Russia. Writing an international history of the revolutionary movement which followed the war of 1914-18 means evaluating the contribu- tions of the various countries and regions, which implies shifting the focus of attention towards the moment when polarization over the miraculous experiences of Russia was at its height. Such a procedure also implies the refusal to anchor a “period” with well-defined characteristics and to explain everything by reference to that “period” itself. There is no “particular situation” with a unique meaning in the history of society. Given the “period”, or, more precisely, given all the elements which directed the revolutionary drama, the revolution failed and had to fail. It can be lamented, and we lament it, but it is of no use to evoke the Bolshevik-style party or any other deus ex machina for explaining the development of an unreal past. It would, however, be just as false, and would also misrepresent the period, to replace the consequences of the abstract absence of the “party” or any other factor with the false plenitude of “it could not have been otherwise”; this would have been tantamount to negating the possibility of revolution. It would be yet more false, obviously, to present everything as a function of a necessary failure. We are determinists, of course, but determinism is not a histori- cal factor which can