RESISTANCE FROM THE WORKERS’ MOVEMENT 4|3

The swastika rules—but the ruling class is dancing on a volcano. For no matter if all the KPD newspapers in Prussia are banned, the workers will not hold their tongues! The fas- cist reaction in the East Elbian stately homes, in the counting houses of the trust directors, in the castles of the top ten thousand may well be in favor of Hitler—but in the factories and mines, in the shipyards of Hamburg and the chemical infernos of Ludwigshafen, in the cottages of East Prussian farm laborers and at the glowing forges of the steelworks in the West and at the unemployment bureaus—here they are and will remain the mortal enemies of Hitler, Papen, and Hugenberg!

The gentlemen at the top announce their ob- jective as the eradication of . Yet first they would have to eradicate the entire work- ing class. For with us they are not dealing with traitors to Marxism, as were once in “power” in Germany, only to defend capitalism against in a 14-year coalition and toler- ance policy.

Before you, you fascist gentlemen, stands a strain of Marxist workers who are not accus- tomed to lowering their forelocks to the dust and bending their necks beneath the capitalist yoke. Bismarck and Wilhelm, Noske and Kapp, Seeckt, Brüning, and Severing wanted to shatter Marxist communism and failed. And the new regents will find it just as tough. For the cross between , the swastika, and heavy industry will not be victorious in Germany. In Germany the working class and communism will triumph!

Socialism or capitalism? A government of workers and farmers or the Hitler-Papen- Hugenberg cabinet? You, the workers of , the workers of Germany, are called upon to answer. Join the struggle, prove to fascism that the flag with the hammer and sickle will still fly, despite all that may come!

May all concerned hear this: The party of the future, of socialist Germany, cannot be exterminated with blood and iron. Vol. 16 – No. 37 – Price 15 pfennigs Long Live Communism The , the only party that Berlin, Sunday/Monday, February 26 & 27, 1933 The swastika rules in Germany—never have fascism fears, the only party that has never the capitalists had such great freedom, never made a pact nor will ever make a pact with have the stock-market wheelers been as un- capitalists, calls all those who strive for a The Red Flag touched as now. unified antifascist front—it calls out to all towns and cities, across the land: Central Newspaper of the Communist Party The swastika rules in Germany—and proletar­­ ­ of Germany (Section of the Communist ian houses are going up in flames while the We are wrestling with historical decisions in International) rich live undisturbed in their palaces. Germany today! In these weeks in which fascism is presuming to dismember the work- The swastika rules in Germany—Papen and ers’ organizations, intending to ban the KPD Published daily except Mondays Hugenberg and the millionaires are rejoicing! even before the elections, no one may waver, no one may falter! Begone with the SPD The swastika rules in Germany—and the orga- leaders’ sabotage, attempting to mislead you Founded by nizations of the working class are declared into waiting and sitting still with the catch- Karl Liebknecht and outlawed—the Karl Liebknecht House is occu- phrase of the “non-aggression pact”! Trans- pied and closed. form the factories and unemployment bureaus into fortresses of the true proletarian unified The swastika rules—Inflation rules! Poverty front! Assure the protection of workers’ lives rules! Hunger rules! Wage cuts rule! and property against all fascist provocation in all workers’ areas! Your newspapers are Such a socialist Germany without capitalists, The current regime is the highest concentra- banned, your printing presses closed, your without the cabinet of Hitlers, Hugenbergs, tion of fascist forces to date. It consists of the leaflets confiscated. But you yourselves are and Papens, however, needs no four-year strongest party of the , the NSDAP, there. No one can prevent you—from mouth perspective to carry out urgent social imme­ along with the state authority, the Stahlhelm, to mouth, from floor to floor, from factory diate measures without delay. The lowering and the most aggressive capitalist party, the department to factory department, outside of working hours with wage compensation Hugenberg Party. It is the expression of both and inside the unemployment bureau, with and the recruitment of a hundred thousand the most extreme intensification of the fascist all the fire of your hearts, with the heated workers and employees for the production offensive methods against the , force of your conviction—from agitating, process could be immediately implemented. and the weakness, the constant fear of the agitating, agitating for List 3 and from being The lowering of giant salaries and in their revolutionary upsurge of the masses, the on the alert and ready for action! place the improvement of wages and welfare bourgeoisie’s realization that any solution support could be immediately implemented. to the crisis appears impossible for the fore­ Communists, antifascists, all you men, The transfer of land from the gentry to the seeable future. Fascism is capable neither women, and young people from among the farmers could be immediately implemented, of solving the general crisis, of breaking working class! The cause of freedom and as could the declaration of the Versailles through the knots and contradictions of the has been placed in your strong reparation payments and private debt pay- Versailles system, nor of meeting even the hands. Onward, proletarians, all at the side ments be pronounced null and void, and most elementary and burning needs of the of the Communist Party! Onward with the many other measures. This has nothing to working masses. But even though the class party! With the party to victory! do with the 14-year Weimar rule, with the antagonisms are further developing at a rapid falsely named “Marxism” demagogically pace, the rifts in the bourgeoisie’s own ranks Vote KPD List 3 propagated by fascism. This would be the true over the ruling of the state apparatus, the and unadulterated Marxism, which only the struggle for the allocation of the decreased Communist Party has emblazoned upon its profit, are growing by the hour (see, for Our Unified Front Against Fascism banner. This is why the KPD organizes the example, the antagonisms between industrial proletarian unified front in the antifascist red and agricultural capital, between autarchy Meat and lard are listed at even higher and freedom army! And this is why they intend and export interests, between the Junker all-time-high prices on the markets. The gov- to destroy the KPD! regiment and the South German fronts)—any ernment issues a vigorous démenti, as if a claim that fascism will bring about its own forced cut in high wages were planned. The Fascism is the mortal enemy of communism. ruin is nevertheless an insolent deception unemployment statistics show an increase of For fascism is decaying capitalism’s form of the working masses. On the contrary: the 33,000 in 14 days. In Gronau’s largest clothing of rule that subverts socialist transformation more fragile the capitalist system becomes, manufacturing factory in Germany, a capitalist within existing capitalist barbarism. The con­ the greater, faster, and more surprising the throws 1,000 workers onto the street, without dition for its further existence is to destroy domestic and foreign policy conflicts; the having to be prepared to go to jail. Wage-cut the revolutionary workers’ organizations, be- slimmer the parliamentary basis for fascism, arbitrations are awarded. The exemption from head the fighting proletariat, and rob it of its the more stubbornly, angrily, and violently judicial execution does not apply to evicted leaders. Just as Noske quelled the Spartakus it will attempt to assert itself. The central worker tenants. Hitler declared in an interview movement in 1918/19 to ensure breathing newspaper of the Stahlhelm organi­zation and that he would punctually meet all private debt space for capitalism, so the organizing force numerous Nazi speakers have left no room for obligations to creditors in capitalist foreign of the proletarian freedom struggle is to be doubt that they intend to rule after March 5, countries. The number of workers killed and crushed today, at another nadir of the capital- even if they cannot combine 51 percent of the wounded by fascist formations and of victims ist postwar crisis. In 1919 the SPD minister votes between them. Even though the march of emergency regulations has already reached Heine issued permission to shoot at the Spart- on Berlin by the fascist organizations on the the hundreds. At the feudal Berlin Auto Show acus movement. Today, it is Göring who or- election night of March 5, announced in the the head of government of the “new Germany” ders the state’s ruthless handling of the Com- foreign press, and a ban on the KPD before promises the automobile owners considerable munists. In 1919 Noske’s soldiers struck at the the elections are officially denied, we call to tax allowances. The National Socialist “Four- editorial offices of the Rote Fahne (Red Flag), mind Severing’s “denial” of rumors of a ban Year Plan for the Rescue of the German Work- and killed Karl and Rosa. Today, Göring has of the RFB, only to outlaw the defense organi- ers and Farmers” has begun… had the headquarters of the KPD Central zation of the German proletariat all the more Committee, the Karl Liebknecht House, occu- surprisingly 24 hours later. The rapid ruth­- The gentlemen of the “new Germany” have pied by the police and closed down. Back less ejection of all so-called “republicans” borrowed the term “four-year plan” from the then the revolutionary yellow press wrote that from state functions, their replacement by Soviet terminology they otherwise so despise. Spartakus meant starvation and infanticide. Nazis with stamped membership books, was But that does not mean the words refer to Today, swastika posters on the advertising col- not done for no reason. a higher development of society, to borrow a umns speak a language no less bloodthirsty. phrase from Mr. Goebbels’s chest. The heads of the ruling class have changed; The prerequisite for a planned economy and its only enemy, communism, has remained the further development of society according the same. No hair on a capitalist’s head to a unified, societal will of millions of people has been harmed, no bank expropriated, no is the overthrow and expropriation without stock-market newspaper banned. But in all compensation of the Junkers and the banking of Prussia, no KPD news­paper is published and industrial lords, and the transfer of capi- anymore, freedom to demonstrate has been talist property into the hands of the working completely suspended for the revolutionary people. workers, the KPD’s election material is being confiscated by the crate, workers are being arrested in the hundreds, antifascists are being killed in the dozens by the Nazi hordes, even a poorhouse has been raided in Großbeeren. The policies of the SPD, ADGB, and Reichs- Only one short week away from March 5, we Go there straightaway, comrade! It is very banner leaders must be evaluated in the light once again say to the workers in all urgency, important! Every communist vote is especially of this decisive development for the German with no promise, with no illusion, that the significant this time. proletariat and the entire European workers’ ballot will bring no decision and that extreme movement. While the Reichsbanner’s Hölter- alertness is the order of the day. But with the mann openly declared in the Lustgarten that same weight of our Bolshevist openness, our Karl Liebknecht House Occupied the bourgeois members of the Reichsbanner ruthless fight against illusions and deception, by Police and Closed (not the Catholic workers but Brüning and we declare that a vote for the Communist consorts) “are more preferable than ten Mus- Party, regardless of whether they intend to Workers of Germany, raise your voices covites,” while Leipart spouted a nationalist ban it or not, is nevertheless of greatest signif- against the fascist attack on the KPD address to Hindenburg that exceeded even icance for the further development of the pro- Central Committee! the social chauvinism of August 7, 1914, while letarian class forces against fascism. For the only two days ago the labor union leaders number of votes that the red unity party gains As part of their persecution campaign against consulted with the Hitler government’s labor demonstrates the will to fight of the best, the the only freedom party of the working people, creation commissioner, Gereke, about the most progressive of the German proletariat. the government has now carried out a move organization of the labor service as prepara- For the red military parade for the KPD is the that will unleash the mass protest of workers tion for a , the SPD leaders are taking vow of millions to tear the unified front of in Berlin and in the entire Reich. As so often care of “left-wing” cover-up maneuvers to the workers out of the cycle of demagogical before under Zörgiebel and Grzesinski, on carry out this toleration policy. They have phrases and put it into practice. Those anti­ Thursday afternoon swarms of police officers solemnly announced the “necessity of the uni- fascists who succumb on Sunday to the fatal- from the criminal and general sections broke fied front” and make it dependent on a non- ist attitude that there is no point to elections into the Karl Liebknecht House on the com- aggression pact by the KPD with respect to the “anyway” are helping fascism. mand of Nazi Police President von Levetzow. SPD. We are expected to form a “unified front” They occupied the building from the base- on the basis of their wait-and-see policy, so Under the class enemy’s fire, in the face of ment to the attic, the rooms of the party cen- that fascism has time to establish itself. We are looming attempts by the fascist reaction tral committee and local leadership, the entire expected to go as far as adopting the decep- to catch us off guard, of smoldering fires of premises of the City printing press, the editori- tive theory of fascism “ruining itself” and pre- war on the borderlines of all of Europe and al office of the Rote Fahne, and the workers’ vent all practical measures by the working of Japan’s now factual imperialist war of con- bookstore. The entire staff of the building was class. We are expected to conclude a “non- quest in the Far East, in our unshakable will removed, during which five arrests were made. aggression pact,” according to which the for socialism, we German Communists and All material on the premises, including all legal workers should hold still until March 5, as “the antifascists know that we are one with Com- election leaflets and posters in the printing decisive battle shall begin” on handing in their rade Stalin, the leader of the Communist world press and awaiting delivery, was confiscated. ballots. Such a “unified front,” a “non-aggres- party: For Bolshevists, there is no fortress sion pact” toward such toleration policy mere- they would not vanquish! At the very beginning of the operation, the ly in other, new forms, means taking the same commanding officer declared that this time a path as Italy, where fascism established its final end was being put to the Karl Liebknecht power via the destruction of workers’ organi- Attention! Extremely important! House. At noon on Friday the police head- zations and demolished labor union houses quarters officially informed the public that it thanks to the Italian Social Democrats’ wait- You are missing from the electoral register! had ordered the building’s immediate closure. and-see policy. Every third voter is missing in Neukölln! Today is the last day you can check! This ordinance was accompanied by a rather We Communists prove through our actions long justification, which states that after the that the lives of the SPD workers are just as Today is the last day on which those eligible parties of the national government had taken dear to us as our own. We have declared our to vote can check, from 10 o’clock in the over governance, the Communists allegedly willingness, several times and without condi- morning until 4 o’clock in the afternoon, began to have a demoralizing (!) effect on tions, to form a unified front with every worker whether their names are listed in the electoral the population through their newspapers and and every organization which is prepared to registers. We urgently appeal to all Berlin leaflets. Since the beginning of the election take action against fascism and social reac- workers to make use of this last chance today campaign Berlin had allegedly been “veritably tion. We declare once again at this hour of under all circumstances. flooded with a wave of treasonous leaflets.” need: Yes, indeed, the hour commands the The statement claims that the Communists unity of the German working class! Yes, in- Strange things are happening. In the Neukölln had in part produced the flyers in basements deed, ideological and programmatic differenc- borough electoral office it has been estab- and attic apartments and usually distributed es must not prevent joint action by the work- lished that the name of every third voter in them without any statutory referral to the ers. But this common struggle—and this is over 40 wards of Neukölln has been left off responsible party, making it considerably decisive at this moment—can, may, and must the register. The fault is allegedly due to a difficult to apprehend their producers. A large be fought on the basis of action. mechanical error. amount of material of treasonous content and flyers containing calls to strikes and acts of Despite all sacrifices, the German working Whatever the case, there are grounds to violence was allegedly found in the City print- class’s fighting strength is unbroken, but this suspect that similar incidents have occurred ing press. This was the official reason given strength will only be asserted, can only lead to in other boroughs. Therefore, no worker and for closing the building. victory, if the SPD workers, the labor unionists particularly no young worker should today and Reichsbanner comrades, the unaffiliated neglect the opportunity to check his name and Christian proletarians do not take the path on the register if he wishes to prevent an of the SPD leaders, the path of waiting, of unpleasant surprise next Sunday. The posters slow, bloody suicide. on public pillars indicate at which locations the electoral lists are available today for the last time. Last legal edition of the Communist central newspaper Rote Fahne, Source: Gedenkstätte Deutscher Widerstand English translation: Katy Derbyshire Berlin, February 26/27, 1933. Design: Braun Engels Gestaltung, Ulm English editing: Ginger A. Diekmann 1st edition 2016 Editing: Ute Stiepani

We ask openly: To our readers!

What is this allegedly “treasonous” material The occupation and closure of the Karl Lieb- the police claim to have found in the Karl knecht House directly before the expiry of Liebknecht House? the ban on the Rote Fahne has made normal printing of our party newspaper in the City Is it the typesetting machines and the rotary printing press impossible. The editorial work printing equipment that are thereby being has been hindered by the confiscation of shut down to prevent communist election perfectly legal manuscripts. However, we are agitation, thus throwing numerous workers convinced that the reactionaries will achieve out onto the street with no means to earn a the opposite of their intentions with these living? measures. Now more than ever, red Berlin and the revolutionary workers of all of Germany Is it the manuscripts of the Rote Fahne, which will stand by inviolably and be willing to make the police refused to release despite the expiry sacrifices for the sake of their party newspa- of the ban and which included the original per, the Rote Fahne. print of an elegant luxury automobile, which the Nazi minister Göring was the first to pur- Editorial Board and Publishers. chase at the automobile exhibit for several thousand marks? Workers of Berlin! Hang out your red flags! Is it the posters for List 3, which were torn out of all the windows of our party headquarters immediately after the occupation? Do they really believe that there is the slightest doubt among the workers about the methods and their purpose, of unceremoniously branding all communist election material as “treason- ous” and confiscating it?

The workers have eyes to see and ears to hear. They see that the magnificent villas and bank palaces of the rich go untouched, while the property purchased with their pennies is occupied and “nationalized.” They hear the cheers of jubilation over it from the camp of “high society” and the stock-market kings. And millions of workers’ fists are clenched for the vow: You will not force us!

Protest everywhere! Resolve everywhere to stand by the only freedom party of the work- ing people in inviolable loyalty, now even more than ever! Now even more than ever, making sure that everywhere, despite even the worst persecution measures, the avowal of millions of workers to the KPD and for List 3 on March 5 will be an overwhelming one.

Disgraceful!

The Vorwärts has surpassed even Berlin’s bourgeois press by reporting not one word on the closure of the Karl Liebknecht House either yesterday morning or in the evening edition.