The Reaction Loses in Prussia
Lee, Algernon
The Reaction Loses in Russia By Algernon Lee To p O those good-hearted American JL comrade* who fancy that Bolshevism is essentially the same as Socialism, only a little more "radical" or...
...It is, unfortunately, a striking example of what the madness of capitalism and of the peace treaties have managed to make out of a ones flourishing country...
...indication however that he has B to reduce the fat above his eyethat he bas declared a moratorium tits and American wages, ha is still •tick to his first story, namely that 4 is a "local issue" and that only as will the Federal government do anyHit yea have been puzzled about it, you WPti to hear that your trouble is purely B B — in" and goiters and such...
...This the German Social Democrats have emphatically proclaimed...
...Probably one-third of them carried torches and occupied the main roadway, while the rest streamed through the broad treelined footpaths on either side...
...The less s national frontier means as a barrier to the movement of foods, of persons, and of ideas, the less will be the evil resulting from the anamalies of the political map...
...Austria's troubles are by no means over...
...We are campaign to elect Socialists, te to bring Ju> the working massof what is happening to them, es for the struggles that are well resolve to cot off the heac that may arise and to go, into tbe heat of a fight thai us all that we have of devomilitaat courage...
...during...
...None of us had money, but with what savings we had pieced out with, loans from friends who believed* as we did, that the business of houses without profit should Be tried out, we proceeded- to make over our red house to jrtrit our own needs and tastes...
...but something for ourselves...
...It was pleasant also to be greeted on the street by Julius Hoenigfeld, who is now living in this city, but whom many of the older comrades in New York will remember as an active party worker there In former years...
...Tbe first French attempts to force political concessions from the Embarrassed, Ender government by denying it financial aid were nullified by the action of the Bank of England in placing a short-term credit or 150,000.000 schillings (worth 14 cents each) at the disposition of the hardpressed Austrian treasury...
...on August 2, 1931, we mobilize against Marxism...
...The government has decided to guarantee almost all the liabilities of the bank, but without formally assuming blanket responsibility, as Germany did in the esse of the Danta Bank...
...No dramatic impresario with unlimited money at his command could produce such a masterpiece as this as a commercial enterprise...
...But our convinced us that unemployment and "load" don't gee...
...ass oe, don't blame us if you don't find l yew sky, bye and bye...
...What is beyond doubt is that...
...At they had some connection with solution of all our troubles by Committee of the A. F. of L. when Body announced that the return of ! beers was all we needed...
...And finally it has been decided to create a special committee, including members representing the working people, to hrvesti...
...A franker and more intelligent diplomacy on the German aide would have accomplished one of two things—either it would have overcome the French objections, or it would have Isolated the French government in the International field and weakened its hold on French public opinion...
...In tbe second commission of the international Socialist Congress— the one dealing with political aspects of the present European crisis—one of the British I. L. P. delegates took the ground that democracy in the bourgeois world is a mere ''facade" or sham, and that Socialists should not bother about defending it The old warhorse VUegen of Holland, replied by quoting tbe words of Matteotti: "Liberty, like bread, is a thing which men learn to prize only when they are deprived of it" A remark made by Blum in the same commission impressed me deeply...
...But because it was a question of much larger sums in Germany, England couldn't come to the rescue in the same way...
...Two of these, A dele Schreiber and Ton...
...And now, as Hapsburg and Hohenzollern joined forces against France, Communism and Fascism unite against the Social Democracy...
...An honest attempt to focus at Movement upon the abolition of war also involve a Peace Oath, such of the War Resisters' League, can remain in the Party and war' so long will the peace [ th* Party be worth less than Kaiser Paper.'" skeptical about "Peace Oaths" and an a little Juvenile, like making - - ~ c h i n g tornado...
...Bruening'a government has been too much afraid of offending nationalistic sentiment to abandon the bluff of trying to restore Germany's naval power...
...But it is a question if he will be able to tmpose his ideas upon the powerful reactionary bureaucracy of the Ministry and tt the devel opment of the Kreditanatalt affair hasn't gone so far already that he cannot change it materially...
...For example, Chancellor Bruening in a radio address announced, "You will not see me at the polls...
...Field Marshal von Mackensen...
...In a short and earnest speech be stressed the necessity for closer contacts between the proletarian movement of Europe and those of both North and South America, and also between the working class organizations of the United - States and these of the Latin-American countries...
...but it was a good hour before we broke away and found places in a train...
...When Ribas of Spain took the floor he was given an enthusiastic 'ovation, which he recognized as being paid to the spokesman of that new republic, with its powerful Socialist movement...
...The voting on the referendum in Germany is different from the procedure in many other countries...
...gate the past of the bank and to plan for its future...
...It would of course have been grossly German capitalists skttse the blatant Hitler at the very they were askingother countries to save them from bankruptcy...
...Sender, are known to our New York comrades and asked many questions about American conditions and our party's work...
...Be government order the contract* with the most highly placed employes have been annulled and excessive pensions have been cut down...
...I will not say by crowds at Coney Island or on our Rialto, but by a well dressed audience leaving tbe Metropolitan Opera We have met two former Rand School students now in Vienna, one a German and the other a Pole...
...In another way, as Impressive as the pageant itself...
...George Dallas, and Fencer Brockway...
...These were the same methods applied later to Germany...
...And what a joyous crowd it was, with its songs and Its cries of "Hsil...
...Just folks who couldn't live in a tree but needed some kind of homy place to roost in...
...Tbe cooperative house is locate — . W» - AM I -1 T3...
...of "God Save Us All...
...We didn't do a thing to him...
...l* according to United Press reports...
...The British working irgaaised hi > Just such bodies...
...A small group of consumers...
...The government, headed by Chancellor Buresch...
...How far others marched, I don't know...
...But I'm certain•4 of the immediate necessity of getting ' b of making firm alliances with inr and co-operatives...
...which sue* ceeded the Ender government, rests upon tbe same political coalition as its) predecessor...
...While they differ in technical aspects, says .the writer, they have this in common—that both of them resulted directly from specific acts of the great capitalists and of the respective bourgeois governments, and that in both cases the spokesmen of capitalism tried to throw the blame upon the Labor and Socialist movement...
...On the other hand, the bourgeois parties, led by the Agrarians, managed to put through a tariff increase which is bound to result In a material rise in the cost of living...
...But I doubt whether the greatest master of words that has ever written could do justice to the physical and ' spiritual play of that seme...
...that despite his intensive studies...
...He hoped for a calmer moment, when these absurdities and injustices may be set right But he suggested that here is something more important than the rectification of frontiers...
...It showed bow a democratically disciplined working class can behave—with far more selfrespect and mutual consideration that I have ever seen exhibited...
...The Kreditanatalt affair has been brought to a kind of an end through the enactment of a number of laws...
...Hjahnar Schact, fsrmer president of the Reichsbank...
...Fifteen members wh have found it necessary durtn this period to change their res...
...Rise aad shine France Squeezes Germany and Austria "Financial and Economic C r i s i s in Europe Seen as Hooted In Political Maneuvers of Paris Government ris quite clear that the present financial and economic crisis in Germany really has its roots in the field of politics and that only a political solution can bring genuine relief...
...Not a single note of rowdyism or vulgarity was to be seen or beard...
...In addit Labor Party, there are the Co-operatives, lucetr ass...
...The French government, supported by its Immense store of gold and the fact that 4T*rance is the only big capitalist nation not suffering from tbe crisis, believes that it can strengthen, and even extend, the political structure ere...
...That's why it insists upon making financial help for Germany depend upon political concessions which, in this form, can hardly be granted by any German government...
...Some of tbe British comrades who-were most prominent in former congresses, such as Headerson and jstacDonald, are this time conspicuous by their absence...
...I t is possible, too, that | they have enough sense to that, useful as Fascism is to as a means of dividing and ening the masses, its triumph and the chaos wiriest would ensue might be ruinous to German capitalism as-well as to German democracy...
...Among .the German delegates here are eight women who are members of tbe Reichstag...
...Hoover is studying unemploy- I am studying the best way •in you boys and girls will be deyjat the latest word from Mr...
...But the plans, more or leas officially mentioned in the press, for an agreement upon a political moratorium of several years are absolutely impossible, because today nobody in Europe can sine up political developments so far in advance, e e e v The French government is using exactly the same tactics it did a abort while ago when it tried to use Austris's financial crisis to exttsrt jsnattoai cYsxeastons from the Austrian government...
...In the British delegation are three who have visited us in recent years — Mary Agnes Hamilton...
...Juch has been succeeded by Professor Redltch, a scholar of international fame, well known in Anglo-Saxon countries and for many years as exchange professor at American universities...
...Leon Blum wrote of the conference at London as "une occasion perdue"—a lost opportunity—from the French as well as the international point of view...
...Editorial Note Since the above was received from Comrade Lee the referendum in Prussia, held last Sunday, was overwhelmingly rejected, it having received only about 37 per cent of the eligible vote...
...Redllch is undoubtedly a man with ideas and inspired by the best intentions...
...I wish I could describe the pageant which ,»as presented in the new municipal stadium on July 25 to mark the closing of the Labor Olympiad and the opening of the International Congress...
...Just when...
...ated by the Treaty of Versailles...
...The German bourgeoisie, in so far as it talks of the possibility of overcoming the crisis without foreign aid, proposes to do this by cutting down the expenditures for unemployment insurance and other social services and by reducing wages...
...One of the Fascist organs, a few days ago, speaking of demonstrations to be held on August 2 in support of the referendum said: "On August 2, 1914, we mobilized against France...
...The next day a Nationalist manifesto was published in favor of the proposal and it is Interesting to note that the signers included Alfred Hugenberg, N a tionalist leader: Paul Joseph Goebbels, a Hitlerite leader...
...That the frontier arrangements are in various instances unjust and absurd he readily admitted...
...Therefore the liability must be taken over tn mttr-h sinrle Instance Cooperative Achievement • In a story given to The New Leader by one of the pioneer members of the Consumers Cooperative Apartment House...
...Only affirmative votes need be cast so that the announcement of this man or that man not voting means really opposition to the proposal, not a neutral position...
...furnished the best kind of evidence of the solidarity and fighting spirit of ths InUrnsti...
...But no matter how serious the situation in Austria Itself and In all Central Europe may be, the energy and fighting spirit of tbe working class/of Austria and of tbe other countries affiliated with the Socialist International are by no means broken...
...Among the topics dealt with was the question whether a demand for the revision of the peace treaties should be made by the International at this time...
...This is of course due to the fact that under existing conditions they cannot leave their posts in parliament and in the ministry even T*j...
...Therefore the liability must be taken over tn mttr-h sinrle Instance...
...No one seemed to be in command, yet there vras perfect order...
...Certainly I shall not attempt it...
...Dannenberg of Austria, Abramowits of the Russian Soviet Democracy, Porthoy and Ehrlich of the Bund, and Locker of the Labor Party of Palestine, are others with whom we have renwed acquaintances that were formed in the United States...
...now we are fas reducing the second one, wttic means that the members' stock 1 second only to the first mortgage Not one assessment have we hat and operating charges have it creased...
...The-result of the referendum is a blow to the combined forces of reaction which have been especially active in Prussia...
...dence have in every case receive promptly the full amount of thai capital stock investment...
...and "Freundechaft.1" singing back and forth...
...Factionalism in the crisis would tickle the Fat Boys the sort of family rows that took of our time and energy in the past Barred...
...Had the referendum carried it would have enormously strength-* ened Fascist and capitalist reaction throughout Germany...
...New York City, tbe following enthusiastic account of the activities of the organization is given: "Seven years ago, some of us Just parted company with the landlord...
...There have been stormy days, with mistakes aplenty, such as we all make every day, but by this doing we have learned to manage our own affairs...
...Now I get an hr" from Joseph Hamburger of Lani says he feels the way I do and who t: ite...
...The Social Democrats played an important part In the enactment of these laws The Socialists also succeeded In repulsing the violent attacks by the bourgeois parties upon tbe unemployment Insurance laws...
...The real patriate do is to haul up the American flag t tat eviction agents have left of your d rait**'* sing a couple of stanzas of My fled to Thee" and then starve dess bade I wrote that I was obsessed by that "we are all of us moving through Is vast, world-shattering events," and kass were singularly reminiscent of the sj before August 1914...
...Once we came four mortgagee...
...If Austria was able to make a more determined resistance, it wasn't because that country was more independent of France, but because England could help it more easily, as it was a matter of much smaller credits...
...The People of Brussels compares the present financial crisis in Germany with that which took place in Belgium five years ago...
...crying need is for the organbodies allied with the Soctalwhich are in a position to call aomic boycotts, or engage in other forms • class warfare...
...the great capitalists and their statesmen in Germany and In France alike are to blame for the virtual failure of the negotiations at Paris and London...
...The festivities weren't showy, but tbe sporting event*, the parades and torchlight processions, participated in by tens of thousands and cheered by huaidrada of thousand* of enthusiastic spsctators...
...Hoover have been makstadies there Is a lot of talk about the "load of unemployment" We the drift of these magic words...
...The change in the Ministry ol Finance is more important...
...On the confer such programs were never Tbe danger is that we may be r common goal by bickering over Those who are truly serving tbe ose, young and old, who are givte agitation, to closer contacts realistic base, the rank and file of and to the intelligent props'which shall capture the lmworkers of America, We are not We are the only large and party in America representing the farmers and workers...
...Once in that l a w we heard a woman angrily protest against being jostled by some thoughtless ly eager young men, who took the scolding with perfect good humor...
...The government has decided to guarantee almost all the liabilities of the bank, but without formally assuming blanket responsibility, as Germany did in the esse of the Danta Bank...
...White House lawn Secretary Doak explain the unem. the President has succeeded in r-thrse pounds) and now his face say more...
...To me this was...
...The Second Olympiad of the Socialist Labor Sport International, which took place the week preceding the opening cf the Congress of tbe Socialist International last Saturday, turned Vienna Into a Red army camp and showed that the working class Is determined to maintain its courage and defiant spirit despite the hardships of the present period...
...opment of the Kreditanatalt affair hasn't gone so far already that he cannot change it materially...
...The Kreditanatalt affair has been brought to a kind of an end through the enactment of a number of laws...
...And there certainly ought to be some way to settle the question of the customs union between Germany and Austria, especially because in the present situation neither of the two countries is in a position to settle such an important problem with calmness and prudence...
...They know that if they obtained a majority in the largest state in Germany their prestige would be enhanced and the Fascists would again take to the streets in the hope of repeating the achievement of Mussolini in Italy...
...and by inmimHng on "prestige" of the pre-war type it has given Laval's government a plausible pretext, even though not a valid reason, for obstructing the British and American plan for averting an economic cataclysm...
...T h e breeze sometimes come from the Hudson, two blocks froi our.home...
...ffb'ra had ecaafoctahla homes In a convenient location with rent at actual cost...
...the decisive negotiations regarding the guaranteeing of the Kredltanstalt's liabilities by the nation, the government headed by Chancellor Ender began to totter and Austria was without a leader, the French government tried at first to make its financial assistance contingent upon the dropping *jf the customs union project by the Austrian government When this demand was rejected, it endeavored to exert Its former influence upon a section of the Christian Social party In order to bring Monsignor Selpel back as, Austrian Chancellor and to sidetrack Foreign Minister Schober...
...By throwbai: around the...
...On the other hand, had Laval and those whom he represents been capable of a magnanimous act, they would have struck a telling blow against militaristic nationalism in Germany, whose reviving influence Is due solely to a feeling of desperation among the masses...
...And there are-easil accessible five transportation lint to shift you around New Tor City...
...got together and bought a. red brick house in eld Greenwich Village...
...There was an attempt to I with Russia in 1928, but the great Of Miners, Transport Workers and ts aat that plan under hatches by the net of a general strike...
...Of course there is no sense la continuing to construct "pocket battleships" during this financial and political crisis and the failure of the Bruenlng government to renounce such construction of its own volition shows bow fearful it is of being branded as not patriotic enough—in the nationalist tense...
...The Reaction Loses in Russia By Algernon Lee To p O those good-hearted American JL comrade* who fancy that Bolshevism is essentially the same as Socialism, only a little more "radical" or "militant," it must have been a bit of a shock to learn that the Communist party in Prussia formally declared its solidarity with the Stahlhelm and the Hitlerite Fascists in their effort to carry a referendum dissolving the Prussian legislature and ousting the Socialist ministry...
...That more important thing is to diminish the significance of frontiers by lowering tariffs and otherwise facilitating trade, travel and communication, by reducing armaments, by practicing national minorities, by creating international agencies for mutual aid in economic matters, by further developing social and cultural contacts between the peoples...
...Last weeV the organized "industrials"— that is, the great industrial capitalists—of Germany for the first time refused to give financial support to the Fascist party...
...be that the "load of unemployment" to be borne with Christian forbearOmm "Acts of God" so widely adverIsks Barton Payne of the Red (Double) W art, if you don't happen to be a Chrises go out and kick like hell about carryI this load...
...All the policemen had to do was to answer questions, which they did with fine courtesy...
...consumers', and' the great intrade miens...
...It's a ourselves from the vicious syseur knees...
...Whether capadd wags war against such obstacles as Alliance placed before it in-1923 is very refusal to co-operate by both and consumers, organized Into unions, res, labor banks, benevolent societies, etc., P any war in which the support of the • required...
...Generals von Dommes and von der Goltz, leaders of "patriotic" organizations, and General Heye, former chief of the Reichswehr...
...most of us, has bean a bit reBut unlike moat of us, he hag bad to , not Just look for work...
...In idea and in execution it came out of the hearts and heads of tbe proletariat of Vienna, and nc it the fuinOment of too aajgjafration -win give the and a culture aurpa Periclean Athene or ef-fissil over — imagine mora than 60,000 man, women, and youth, spectators and performers together, pouring out from the •»'*'rr* and forming an Impromptu ssmosssdsjj along the road that leads back Into the crty...
...Blum was among those who believed that such a demand, especially as affecting the frontiers established by those treaties, would not effect its purpose, but would play into the.bands of the chauvinists fa each of the countries and would increase the danger to democracy and to peace...
...The new Chancellor is also a Christian Socialist of the moderate section, which does ; not look for trouble wife the Social Democracy and sees its main task in promoting tbe personal and party business of the bourgeois pea Use as effectively as nossrtats...
...To BSfcoply apply local palliatives and stop students at Washington about your ms from Rapidan about the progress Doak and Mr...
...Whether the refusal represents the real fact, or whether it was a grandstand play to cover a quiet passing of funds, may perhaps be doubted...
...There are 38 apartments, which, like most folks, are alike en the outside, but each different from the other on the inside...
...Tbe purpose of this referendum is frankly announced to be the Installation of a nationalistic and reactionary dictatorship...
...Of using every J out of economic steel with which .capitalist beast And if because of > 1 may seem to be a bit con temps'' and "liberals" who ironically . --' and Doak and- the A. F. of L-, aomewhere by sitting on the top ning house studying the causes of | raging through the basement—well, is correct, that, we are indeed collective toboggan to some even than we slid into in 1914, then to everyone of us to redouble our Certainly this is nov time for gesturing...
...This does not mean that practical programs for practical ant press them now...
...Prussia is the leading state of Germany as it contains 60 per cent of the total population of the Reich...
Vol. 13 • August 1931 • No. 7
