Germany Starts Next Week Results of the German Elections

WORKERS THE OF T H E WORLD . U N IT E MILITANT â Weekly Organr/ïti. niof tïithe p f!nmCommunist mun í«f LeagueJ jw lím i* nfof AmericaAmprlrn lOfihncitinnl[Opposition] ▼ Published weekly by the Communist League of America (Opposition) at 84 East 10th Street, New York, N. Y. Entered as second class mail matter, November 28, 1928 at the Post Office at New York, N. Y. under the act of March 3, 1879. VOLlMEVÔri^TwHOTiEôriH] NEW YORK, SATURDAY, MARCH 19, 1932 PRICE 5 CENTS Lenin on the Paris Commune New Trotsky Series on Germany Starts Next W eek Results of the German Elections -O- Beginning with the next issue, The We reprint below an article by taken prisoner to put down revolutionary Lenin on the significance of the Paris), succeeded in rousing the back M ilita n t will print extracts from com Gains of Reaction Serious Warning against Stalinist Policy Paris Commune to the international ward peasants and the petty bourgeoisie rade Trotsky’s new book on Germany. only natural to assume that Hitler will united front against the menace that working class. Lenin and the Bol of the provinces against the proletariat Last Sunday’s presidential elections in The book has just arrived and is being act accordingly. The menace of Fasc sheviks absorbed the lessons taught of Paris, and in surrounding half of Germany were breathlessly watched by a was directly threatening them, against translhted into English. The table of ism hangs more heavily over the head of by Marx and Engels on the Com Paris with a ring of steel (the other half world torn by economic crisis and ap Fascism. Both social democratic and the German working class than ever. mune and found these invaluable in was held by the German army). In contents are: Democracy and Fascism; prehensive of social convulsions. For Communist workers had fallen in the their struggle for the Russian Rev some of the larger cities in France The Social Democracy and the Policy of the bourgeois philistine, for the addict How did the working class forces fare slaughter brought about by the Nazis in olution. On the sixty-first anniver (Marseilles, Lyons, St. Eitenne,, Dijon, the Lesser Evil; T1»e Italian Experience; of parliamentary cretinism, the elections in the elections? The only working class tftieir punitive expeditions into Bruns candidate in the field, the candidate of wick, both reformist and revolutionary sary of the Paris Commune it is be etc.) the workers also attempted to seize The Communist Party and the Working constitute a fait accompli, an establish ed fact. Thus, for instance, the Amer the Communist Pary, Ernst Thaelmann, workers were victimzed in the daily at fitting for us to reprint this brief power, to proclaim the Commune, and Class; The United Front Policy (Funda ican press, in its comment on the re received a to ta l of 4,900,000 out o f the tacks made upon working class meet writing penned by one who helped come to the help of Paris, but these at mental Principles) ; The Soviets as O r sults of Sunday’s poll, sees a decisive 37.000. 000 votes cast. A ll in a ll, a gain ings, groups and colonies. It was only carry out the tasks the heroic Paris tempts soon failed. Paris, which had gans of the" U nited F ro n t; The Russian repulsion of Fascism and a permanent of some 350,000 over the 4,587,000 votes natural for tire workers to feel the nec ian Communards set themselves, con first raised the flag of proletarian revolt, Experience; What Is Centrism; Burocra- victory for the “inherently conservative the Communist P a rty received in 1930, essity of fighting first and foremost tinued their work, and began the was left to its own resources and doom tic Centrism (The International Stalin character” of the German people. Hit When we compare this gain with the against this danger. class revenge of the eWorld proletar ed to certain destruction. Faction) ; The S. A. P. and Its Future; ler's inability to muster a larger vote 5.000. 000 gain of the Fascists, when we iat against the bloody suppression For the victory of the social revolu Brandlfr, UrBans and Others; Economic The task of creating a united front of t than Hindenburg to them spells Hit keep in mind the fact that Thaelmann active struggle against Fascism could of the Commune by leading the tion, at least two conditions are neces Struggles and Trade Union Unity; The ler’s defeat. For the revolution was the only working class candidate in only be carried out by the Communists, Russian workers to the victorious sary : a high development of productive Political Mass Strike, Workers’ Control ary, for the Marxist, the elec by the revolutionary party. It was the forces and the preparedness of the pro the field—the social democrats renounc Red October.—Ed. of Production; From Defensive to Of tions constitute merely a gauge of social duty of the Communists to farce the le ta ria t. B u t in 1871 ne ithe r o f these ed a candidacy of their own iil favor of Forty years have passed since the fensive. and political developments. It is there social democratic leaders, already under conditions was present. French capital the Hohenzollern Field Marshall—and proclamation of the Paris Commune. fore only natural for us to egard the pressure from their rank and file, into ism was still only slightly developed, finally when we consider the sharpness bourgeois press comment with a grain this united front, to put them to the test According to their custom, the French and France was at that time mainly a of the economic situation, we can only workers of France but by the proletariat of skepticism. With them, it is a case before their own followers. That was proletariat are honouring the memory of country of petty-bourgeoisie (artisans, of the whole world, for the Commune of the wish being the father of the admit that the Communist candidate duty clearly devolving upon the revolu the revolutionary workers of March 18, peasants, shopkeepers, etc.). On the did not fight for any local or narrow thought. The American bourgeoisie suffered a disastrous defeat in Sunday’s tionary party from the gerferal situation. 1871, by meetings and dem onstrations. other hand there wîs no workers’ party, national aim, but for the freedom of fears social unrest, abroad as well as elections. T h a t is the bare fact*. The What did the Stalinist leadership do in At the end of May they w ill again bring the working class, which in the mass toiling humanity, of all the downtrod at home, worse than the pest. An ad entire import of this fact must be real stead. It rejected any united front what wreaths to the tombs of the Commun was unprepared and untrained, did not den and oppressed. As the foremost vance of Fascism can only mean an out ized by every Communist fighter, by soever with the “social Fascists” and ards who were Shot, the victims of the even clearly visualize its tasks and the fighter for the social revolution, the break of civil war in Germany. To hush every sincere revolutionist. The lesson called upon the social democratic work fearful “May Week”, and over their methods of fulfilling them. There were Commune has won sympathy wherever away the chimera of such a ciyil war, of the election must be brought home to ers to join the “Red united front under graves they will once more take the no serious political organizations of the there is a proletariat struggling and its press prefers to overlook the facts. the class conscious workers the con the leadership of the Communist party”. oath to fight untiringly until their ideas proletariat, no strong trade unions and suffering. The picture of its life and clusions must be drawn from it before By the rejection of the Leninist concep have conquered, until their cause has co-operative societies. To be sure. Hitler only rallied 11, death, the sight of a workers’ govern it is too late before the decisive blow has tion of the united front, the Stalinist been completely victorious. But the chief thing which the Com ment which seized the capital of the 500,000 votes to H indenburg’s 18,000,000. But when we consider that the Fascist been struck. Central Commitee of the German party Why do the proletariat, not only in mune lacked was the time to think out world and kept it in its hands for over gain amounted to some 5,000,000 votes The election defeat of Thaelmann repelled the reformist workers, left them France but throughout the entire world, and undertake the fulfillment of its two months, the spectacle of the heroic more than the 6,400,000 they received in does not mean a defeat for the working helpless in the face of the treacherous honour the workers of the Paris Com programme. It hardly had time to start sruggle of the proletariat and its suf the Reichstag elections in 1930, and class, a defeat for Communism. That is machinations of their leadership. It mune as their forerunners? What was working, when the Versailles govern ferings after defeat—all this has raised when we look at this fact objectively, not decided by election, that is decided was in this .manner that the social re the heritage of the Commune? ment, supported by the entire bourgeois the spirit of millions of workers, aroused dispassionately, we cannot fa ll to come to In open struggle, in the factories, in the formists were able to swing the bulk of The Commune broke out spontaneous ie, opened military operations against their hopes and attracted their sympath streets.

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