REVIEWS 27

Narrative and Argument (Longman, modem argument for this point, see Walter , 1980) 378 pp. Korpi, The Working Class in Welfare Capitalism (Routledge& Kegan Paul, , 2. Bob Connell develops the idea of marxism as a 1978). "generative theory” in “ Logic and Politics in Theories of Class” , Australian and New 4. See W. J. Waters, “Australian Labor's Full Zealand Journal of Sociology, Vol. 13, no. 3 Employment Objective, 1942-5” , Australian (October 1977). Journal of Politics and History, Vol. 16, no. 1 3. The Condition of the Working Class in (1970). (Panther, London, 1969), p. 245. Fora WREVIEWi The German Revolution of 7978-19 John Perkins

The Ruhr and Revolution, by Jurgen interpretation which favours the role of the Tampke, Canberra: Australian National Majority SPD in averting “Bolshevism” and University Press, 1978. Reviewed by Joh n blames the “ putschist” approach of the Perkins. Spartacista for the rapid recovery of the The abortive German revolution of 1918-19 counter-revolutionary forces and for the has never attracted the attention its absence of more throoughgoin g significance would appear to merit. In democratisation of the bureaucracy, Weimar the official attitude was a judiciary, and military of the subsequent virtual conspiracy of silence, in which the Weimar Republic, Secondly, there is the events o f the first winter after the World War National Socialist interpretation which were viewed as a momentary aberration places the blame for the military collapse of from German traditions occasioned by the 1918 on the “November Criminals”. From defeat. Under Hitler, the Revolution and the the events of 1918-19, the Nazis drew the “November Criminals” achieved more conclusion of the primacy of domestic policy. prominance as objects of vilification. After In other words, in contrast to Wilhelmian 1945, in western Germany interest in the Germany where an aggressive foreign policy subject was limited until the later 1960s functioned as a means of subsuming when members of the revolutionary student domestic conflict, the aim in the Third Reich body were drawn to the ideas of Rosa was to ensure a solid internal basis of unity Luxemburg, These appeared to offer a for an expansionist foreign policy. more appropriate model than those of Lenin, A third interpretation, first presented by as did the experiences of more romantic Arthur Rosenbaerg in the early 1930s, is that although equally tragic figures such as the Revolution offered a chance of a third Toller and Levine ofthe Munich Soviet. Only course between the limited social and in the German Democratic Republic, where poli tical achievements of the Weimar the KPD (Communist Party of Germany) Republic and a transformation along the that emerged from the revolution provides lines of Soviet . Unfortunately, the event with the area of historical however, this opportunity was missed by the antecedence akin to the role of the equally Majority SPD leadership who, in allying abortive Revolution of 1848-49 in the Federal themselves with the military leadership and Republic, has the subject received the Free Corps (Freikorps), ensured the considerable attention. survival of the Reaction. Finally, to The works that have hitherto appeared historians of the GDR the Revolution also present one or other of four interpretations of amounted to a lost opportunity, which the Revolution. Firstly, there is what might nevertheless demonstrates the possibilities be called the orthodox bourgeois or western of revolution in advanced industrial 28 AUSTRALIAN LEFT REVIEW No. 75

countries and the necessity for a strong, well- gaining of control of the remaining party organised and competently led communist newspapers and key positions from the USP party to successfully exploit those (Independent Socialist Party) that split from possibilities. the SPD during the War. Consequently, In the work under review, Dr Tampke sets during the Revoltuion power in the eastern out to analyse the background and the course Ruhr was firmly in the hands of the of the revolution in the Ruhr industrial “moderates” of the Majority SPD, The latter region in the light of the various managed to effectively limit the scope and interpretations that have been made. In objectives of the labour movement and, by, doing so he remedies a serious deficiency in the end of December 1918, ‘the emphasis in the available English-language accounts in the eastern Ruhr had shifted from revolution which the Ruhr, the most highly-developed to political electioneering’, which was the region of modem industry in Europe and a forte of the Majority SPD. stronghold of revolutionary forces, is The limited objectives in the eastern Ruhr relatively neglected. The author is concerned are illustrated by the “ Poster proclaiming to explain how, within a few weeks of ‘the the revolutions” in the town of Dorsten, collapse of the old order’, the left in the Ruhr which is published without translation. The was able to mount a serious challenge for poster announced the establishment of a power; and why unrest and revolutionary Workers’ and Soldiers’ Council in the town actons were more evident in some parts of the on 10 November, 1918, to “ maintain the region than in others. public peace, security and order to the fullest The basis of the analysis is a division of the extent” . Citizens are urged to “carry on with Ruhr into three districts which differed in their business as usual” , severe punishment terms of the form of socio-economic is threatened for instances of unrest and development before 1918 which in turn looting, children and youths under 17 years determined contrasts of experience during of age are informed to be off the streets by 7 the Revolution itself. In the old-established pm, and no assembly shall obstruct or coalmining district o f the eastern Ruhr, the disturb traffic. ” Bochum-Gekenkirchen-Dortmund area, the In the southern Ruhr district, in the miners experienced a considerable Solingen-Remscheid-Dusseldorf area of the deterioration in their formerly privileged metal trades, modern industrialisation also status with the relaxation of state control commenced relatively early in the 19th over the industry between 1851 and 1865. In century. Metalworkers acquired a higher response the district emerged as an early social status and incomes than the miners of stronghold of the SPD and of the socialist the eastern Ruhr, altough this did not trade unions. Thereafter, the rate of prevent the emergence of a radical labour industrial and urban growth, while movement. During the war this area substantial in the context of Germany as a developed as a stronghold o f the USP. whole, was lower than in other districts of the However, the ‘vigorous course’ of the Ruhr. Consequently, a high proportion of the Revolution ended in December 1918 with the labour force came from relatively short- occupation of a large part of the district by distance migration, rather than from the the British Army, which supported the reserve army of displaced agricultural labour Majority SPD, and with the speedy recovery in Germany’s eastern territories. In addition, of the confidence of the substantial middle th e pronounced development of class. administrative organs and service industries It was in the third district, the district of in the towns of the eastern Ruhr provided the western Ruhr, centred on Hambom that substantial white-collar employment. the Revolution reached its apogee as a mass The eastern Ruhr by 1914 was relatively movement of the working class. This district homogenous ethnically, had a more was characterised by particularly rapid graduated social hierarchy with a growth from the later 19th century. In 1870 substantial lower middle class, and a well- Hambom was a village. By 1890 it had becme established SPD tradition controlled by the a town of some 28,000 inhabitants. By 1914, party and union bureaucracies. During the however, it had emerged as a city of over war itself the power of the Majority SPD 120,000. A large proportion of the population functionaries was further enhanced with the consisted of migrants from the agrarian east, REVIEWS 29 including a number of Poles. Consequently, intervened massively to prevent the the growth of the influence of the SPD, which appearance of a socialist Germany. In had never made significant inroads in rural addition, Tampke offers as a reason for the Germany, was delayed and limited up to failure ‘the fact that recent works on 1914. In fact, Hamborn was one of the first revolutions question the feasibility of a cities in which syndicalism gained a revolution occurring in advanced following. Here, the Revolution was most industrialised countries’. The sources of spontaneous and protracted and the KPD support for this ideological position made the most ground. translated into an universal truth are Within the division of the Ruhr into Hannah Arendt and Krishnar Kumar. The districts Tampke singles out Essen for possibilities of a ‘third way’ are dismissed on special attention as the location of an the basis of the conception of workers’ attempt to establish workers' control of the control and the institutions of workers’ coal industry, ‘the only time between council having little real understanding and and the spring of 1919 that following amongst the working class. major steps were taken to push to revolution What does emerge from this study is the beyond the stage of mere constitutional equivocal role played the Majority SPD, change’. In turn this has become the basis of which utilised its position at the head of the the ‘third way’ interpretation, that the Revolution essentially to destroy it. The Revolution offered the prospect of a middle alliance of the Majority SPD leadership with course between “ Bolshevism” and the the remnants of the old army leadership and coalition of the SPI) with the Reaction. The the reactionary Free Corps (Freikorps), Essen model failed through the ‘vagueness instead of allowing the formation of a Red and confusion1 of its protagonists, through Army, ensured the distruction of the the fact that to the Majority SPD it was Revolution and the survival of a Reaction merely window dressing, and through the that gathered confidence and strength failure of the USP and the KPD to conquer during the Weimar Republic. This decision power in . reflected the remarkable ability of the SPD Overall, Tampke presents an absorbing leadership before 1914 to combine narrative oftheeventsofl918-19in the Ruhr, revolutionary rhetoric with reformist which is marred only by the absence of a map practice. The excesses committed by this to enable readers to orient themselves in alliance against the left — the suppression of the narrative’s mobile account and by the strikes and uprisings and the murders failure to translate a number of German committed by the Free Corps — more than expressions and names of institutions. The justify the hostile attitude of the KPD progress of the Revolution is convincingly towards the SPD in the Weimar era. presented in the context of the social and Nevertheless, this has not prevented a economic development of the region, number of historians from attributing the although at times the relating of events in Nazi assumption of power in 1933 to the 1918-19 to such developments is rather hostility of the KPD towards the SPD. simplistic. The work also presents a much- needed antidote to the numerous accounts that play down the revolutionary nature of the situation and of events in Germany at that time and attribute revolutionary actions solely to leftwing “agitators”. The essential weakness, however, rests in the analysis of the reasons for the failure of the Revolution. The crucial absence of ‘a united and competent’ revolutionary leadership is noted by Tampke, although he considers that this would only have ‘seriuously troubled the social-democrat conservative alliance’. Moreover, even if ‘a properly led and widely supported Comm unist Party’ had existed it is considered that the Allies would have