About the leitmotiv of peace in Europe

Stefan Eggerdinger
Workers’ Union for the Reconstruction of the Communist Party of Germany


Contribution to the International Communist Seminar
"Imperialism, Fascisation and Fascism"

Brussels, 2-4 May 2000



I.

Europe is haunted by fear.

Just now a book has been published in German language, written by a French Airbus manager, Philippe Delmas. The title is: "About the next war on Germany". About ten years ago, in the run-up to the 2+4-negotiations about the annexation of German Democratic Republic, a French general was calming down his class and his people: at least, France had nuclear weapons, he said.

Parts of British bourgeois class stubbornly refuse their sphere of influence to become part of the European Union. Because a Europe which will be united under imperialistic flag will be a German Europe. As long as she was able to do so, Margaret Thatcher, standing alone, fought against the annexation of GDR and warned of the danger that "the Germans will get by peace what Hitler did not get by war".

More and more voices are heard from within the USA warning of a "European Defence Identity". For a unified imperialistic European army will be a German one and its identity will be a German one, too.

The world is haunted by fear. There is fear not of some quarrels to have now or in the future with a Germany of annexation. People fear that the annexation of GDR, the destruction of the Soviet Union, the destruction of the spheres controlled by the working class will put again on the agenda what all that had prevented up to then: a new war between the most powerful imperialistic powers for a new sharing out of the world.

The reason for that fear is German imperialism by itself. Since the day it was born its whole historical development was determined by two central senses of direction. German imperialism started its historical development at a moment when the proletarian class already was formed as an independent class. At a moment, when the proletariat had, for the first time in history, broken the power of bourgeois class. German imperialism was born when the first state of the proletariat, the Commune de Paris, was smashed to pieces. German imperialism was born amongst the blood and the ruins of the Commune de Paris. That was very ambivalent date of birth. 5 billion francs of war contribution was a catalyst for its development.

German imperialism was young, dynamic, it took a leading position in sciences, a position which was used to build up the then most modern apparatus of production. Its weak position abroad was compensated by a high degree of organisation within the country, by a high degree of monopolisation. It had overtaken France, he developed much more rapidly than England. But this young and dynamic German imperialism had to recognise that the world was shared out, occupied by its imperialist rivals. He had come too late to participate. He had come off badly to participate. He had to fight for a new sharing out of the world. There is the reason for its special aggressiveness up to now. There is the reason for two World Wars up to now. And there it is what determines its development up to our days. In such a meaning World War II is just a resumption of imperialistic World War I. World War III may be the continuation of that. There is one war, and it has several periods.

For these reasons German bourgeoisie, which still - for fear of proletarian revolution - is owing bourgeois revolution to the world, has two central senses of direction of its strategy:

Imperialist World War I started with that fight for the domination of the world. For German imperialism, the outcome of that war meant a setback for both of its intentions: it lost the fight for the sharing out of the world. Red October brought with it a new time. In its own country, in Germany, proletarian revolution made bourgeois class tremble. German imperialism was thrown backwards and had to start once again.

In imperialistic World War II the two senses of direction fell in one: The fight for the sharing out of the world, the knocking down of proletarian revolution in Germany, the assault on proletarian power in the Soviet Union. To fulfil that German imperialism needed fascism. It needed the most concentrated and most highly organised apparatus of destruction the world had seen up to then. Again German imperialism has been defeated. And one third of the world lived under red flags.

After the victory over Hitler’s Germany German imperialism could survive just because he was kept alive for one single aim: To smash the forces of the proletariat in Germany, to smash the Soviet Union, to smash the Peoples’ Democracies. This was its one and only aim. This time it tried to fulfil this duty together with its former imperialist enemies. And that is why it was possible for German imperialism to take over without any problems that staff coming out of the Nazi regime that had up to then fought that struggle. Within the country: within the military ranks, the apparatus of justice, the police, the organisations and parties — everywhere up to the top level the staff of the Hitler state were working on and on. Abroad: The Nazi staff which had its merits in fighting against the Soviet Union were trained for example by the USA to continue their work. Others vanished into the Foreign Legion fighting against the Algerian people and at Dien Bien Phu.

This part of the strategic aims of German imperialism seemed to be achieved after the annexation of GDR and after the destruction of the Soviet Union and of the Peoples’ Democracies in Eastern Europe. At once we see the second strategic aim coming to the forefront. German imperialism, defeated but not destroyed as it was, was young, dynamic. Soon he had overtaken France and England. It developed as rapidly as US imperialism. Much of its power, which up to then was needed to smash to bulwark of socialism, was set free now. This power demands for a place to fight (whether bourgeois class does want that or does not). This power looks for space, again for a new sharing out alongside the lines of power. This is why its bourgeois rivals a worried so much in these days.

 

II.

One absolutely necessary condition to secure the strategic aims of German imperialism is: to be sure of its internal organisation. That is it what bourgeois class had its state apparatus for, its organisations, its army, its apparatus of suppression. But that’s why it needed a very distinct social democracy, too. It was needed to hold the proletariat of its own country under control.

The division of the working class, the reconciliation of a big part of the class with the bourgeois class, the ideological and material disarmament of the working class, the subordination of the working class to the interests of the bourgeois class — those are the tasks of social democracy in all imperialistic countries. In a country however that fights for the new sharing out of the world it is a very perfidious kind of social democracy that is needed.

"Not a man and not a penny for this system" — this was the slogan of a revolutionary social democracy. Revisionism and reformism ended in substituting this slogan by jingoism, leading the sons and daughters of the working class straight onto the battlefields to fight against their comrades in World War I.

Hitler could have been prevented. But the united front of the working class in Germany, a front to hinder the triumph of fascist dictatorship, was broken by the leaders of the social democracy within the social democratic party and the Trade Unions. They did not want any unity with the communists and with the unorganised parts of the class. They preferred other things.

At the party congress of the social democratic party at Leipzig in 1931, the social democratic leader Fritz Tarnow stressed his opinion that workers’ movement had to be a medical doctor at the sick-bed of capitalism, a medical doctor that really wants to heal. For only if capitalism is well the proletariat would be well, too, he said.

In April 1932 the Central Committee of the German Communist Party offered a united front against the growing impoverishment. The social democratic leaders refused it. In July, the same year, after the deposition of the social democratic government of Prussia, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Germany consulted the boards of the social democratic party and of the trade unions with the proposition of a general strike. The board of the social democratic party declined. In January 1933 the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Germany renewed its proposition for a common appeal for a general strike against the fascist dictatorship. The social democrats refused and declared that Hitler had come to power in a legal way. After the conflagration of the Reichstag, on March 1, 1933, this proposal has been renewed. There was no answer any more.

The social democratic leaders were not prepared to stir the proletarian masses for the fight against fascist dictatorship. They tried everything to prevent them to fight. The fact that the social democratic leaders were not prepared to make sacrifices in the fight against fascism — this fact led to the death of 55 million people. The social democratic leaders bear the historical responsibility for the victory of fascism in Germany. The 7th Congress of the Communist International stressed that fact. Social democracy, that is the forerunner of fascism.

In our days social democracy plays no other role for the strategic aims of German imperialism. In 1956 the Communist Party of Germany was banned and driven into illegality. As a result of this the social democratic leaders organised the almost total ideological, organisational and material disarmament of the working class. The split in our class is deeper than it was at the eve of World War I. It was the old jingoism that we heard from the social democracy when GDR was annexed. To smash even the remnants of proletarian organisation which existed after all in GDR, that was the work of social democracy. And it did it perfectly. It is the leadership of the social democracy with their adherents within petty bourgeoisie who made not only annexation but also war a naturalness in the minds of the people in both parts of Germany. Germany is waging war again. Germany is establishing protectorates again. Germany organises the biggest programme of armament since World War II — 550 billion Deutschmarks for the next 20 years. It is mostly due to social democracy that war and militarism seem to be natural.

Because of their class instinct the bourgeois classes in the most important imperialistic countries are worrying when they look at these developments. This mighty power of German imperialism will be used against them, against no one else, because the proletarian enemy seems to be defeated. It is the merit of social democracy, too, that the working class in Western Germany has so little class instinct. So it is the working class that doesn’t seem to be worried.

Today the working class in Western Germany is much weaker than before World War II. The great Communist Party of Germany has been destroyed. It must be reconstructed up to our days. Social democracy is dominating within Western German working class; so our class is ideologically and organisationally disarmed and paralysed. Working class is highly organised, but this fact cannot be used by the majority of our class to fight against the war and the warmongers. It cannot be used against the annexation, against the robbery, against the destruction of GDR, against the German war against Yugoslavia. It cannot be used for the most urgent revolutionary nor economic interests of working class.

 

III.

Nevertheless the proletariat has become stronger and more powerful in one sense, namely that there are lessons to be drawn from the victory of fascism. Lessons that have to be drawn indeed. It was correct when the VII. congress of the Communist International stressed, that historical responsibility for the defeat of the German working class against Hitler has to be found with the social democracy. But that does not mean that the Communists and their party did not commit severe mistakes. These mistakes were analysed at the VII. congress of the Communist International by comrade Georgi Dimitroff, and they were analysed at the Brussels congress of the Communist Party of Germany in 1935 by comrade Wilhelm Pieck. We want to stress one central point of that analysis, a point which is highly valuable for the fight of our days.

There has been enough lucidity about the class character of fascism: that it means the open terrorist dictatorship of the most reactionary, chauvinist and imperialistic parts of the financial capital. This was expressed by the 13th plenary session of the Executive Committee of the Communist International. But there was some sort of underestimation of fascism concerning what installation of fascism meant for the rule of the bourgeois class. As comrade Dimitroff stressed: The installation of fascism does not simply mean to substitute one form of bourgeois government by another. It means to create another form of governmental rule of the bourgeoisie. Bourgeois democracy is thrown away and is replaced by the open terrorist dictatorship. There was not enough lucidity about that within the leadership of the Communist Party of Germany, and that fact lead to severe strategic and tactical mistakes. It was this fact that hindered the communists to change tactics. They considered the installation of the dictatorship of the working class to be the decisive means to fight against fascism. This was correct throughout all the years before. It was not correct any longer at the moment when the bourgeoisie decided to change its form of government. It was not correct in that situation, because the working class in Germany was not prepared — in its entity and within the ranks of its leading parts — to fight for the dictatorship of the proletariat. If there would have been lucidity about fascism meaning another form of governmental rule for the bourgeois class, this would have made it easier to change strategic orientation to fight for the support of bourgeois democracy by the working class. Perhaps that would have been a roundabout way.. But surely this would have been a necessary provisional solution for the working class. And it would have made it easier to bring the proletarian masses closer to revolution.

This lack of lucidity in the class analysis, in the analysis of the bourgeoisie, of the working class and of the course of the events lead to mistakes

 

IV.

The analysis of the VII. congress of the Communist International and the self-criticism of the Communist Party of Germany are indispensable for us and for the class struggle in our country.

Shortly after the annexation of GDR, in his inaugural speech of January 1991, Helmut Kohl told us what the new Germany means for the world. He said: Germany has brought his history to a close. From now on she is able to profess her role as a world power and to enlarge that role.

The destruction of the Soviet Union, of Czechoslovakia, the war against Yugoslavia, the protectorate in Kosovo, the struggle to dominate European Union, the confrontation with US imperialism — all this was following. These are the steps towards a new struggle to share out the world. Which form of government the monopolist bourgeoisie will be forced to choose on its way to the next genocide? Will it choose the temporary form of betrayal, bourgeois democratic republic? Or will it choose once again the form of government which is typical for imperialism, the fascist republic to discipline its own class and its own country? That depends on how quickly and in which direction the workers’ movements will develop in FRG and GDR. The destiny of our class and the destiny of millions of people in Europe depend on one question: will the working class succeed in forestalling German monopolist bourgeoisie? For we communists are aware of the fact that there is one war, with different stages that German imperialism is forced to wage since the days of its birth. And we know that there will not be peace in Europe till the struggle against German imperialism will be finally won. To achieve that the working class is indispensable. And perhaps the real threat of the French nuclear weapons will be necessary, too. And the more of the working class the less of the French bomb will be necessary.

 

Workers’ Union for the Reconstruction of the Communist Party of Germany

Department for International Relations

April 2000