Fifty Years of Belgian Socialism
Kobbe, Herman
Fifty Years of Belgian Socialism By Herman Kobbe PREVIOUS to the organization of the Belgian Labor Party (P. O. B.) the workers lived in the most insecure and miserable conditions. Men,...
...fcS the Soviet Government and its spokesmen picture Hitler i jRjat Russia's greatest and most determined enemy, and Com- | ^¦fe abroad, particularly in the United States, stage anti-Hitler | demonstrations, says the Neue Volkszeitung, "the Hitler governtreaty with the same Hitler and guarantees to the "Third Reich' the importation of raw materials which will make it possible for it to perfect its war plans...
...Among •see arrested are Yezshow, Zacharova, Kuchin, Liber and others...
...Only to ffe extent to which Russian nationalist policy requires does it now pad for the help of Socialists, while continuing to wage war against SriiKsts and trade unionists in all countries and to follow with abbent fanaticism its...
...official organ of the Russian Communist Party, publishes cr \V%\ appeal this week addressed to Socialists of ten leading Euro— nations calling upon them to join the Communists in combatting ml <fh fascist peril in Germany, which is preparing a war against the bu jgfct Union...
...But we venture to doubt whether it is posJ'Mo explain satisfactorily to the workers of the world the position * kassia in concluding such commercial treaties with their basest ft is no accident that German economic circles attribute extraorJy* significance to the commercial treaty with Russia...
...Sashdists do not require appeals from Pravda and the Commu- de sjt International to fight fascism...
...In the Chamber 40 per eeat of all the deputies are Socialists...
...From j*Jr*jat of view of capitalist economy the attitude of the 'Third JJSf is understandable...
...I was teld quite clearly," says Stampfer...
...what could be more just than that all take part in the He then went on to point out the necessity of organizing aa an integral part of the movement "trades unions, and a federation of the same...
...workers against the opposition oi all three bourgeois parties...
...Then began the heroic efforts which led in April 1885 to the Congress of Brussels and the formation of the P.O.B...
...Fifty years ago the P.O.B...
...On April 10, 1935, representatives of the Soviet and ¦% governments concluded the new commercial treaty in Berlin...
...The ReichsIps'a semi-official statement, declares that the conclusion of the gbareial treaty with Russia will solve the currency difficulties which *Jfteeently made themselves manifest...
...It was because of this "*!!faet that we and our illegal organizations in Russia have learned *f% Kazan telegram tVom Popnlaire and L'Humanite, to whom the *W*>s bad been addressed and who had made it public...
...Setting would be more fatal than an opportunist overestimation sjBdpist fascism," said Ernst Thaelmann, leader of the German Otfgswst Party, at the party's plenum, February 19, 1932, a year jJeBitler's advent to power...
...Some of them have but recently comahted terms of incarceration in prisons and concentration camps, j OtbamfBt it exile and have had their sentences, extended...
...If we permitted ourselves to lose mesarert class gauge because of the ?jwelling up of the Hitler movesss and allowed ourselves to be pushed into panic, then we would 4 sssjajity be led to a false manner of posing the question in our asjcueal work against the Nazis as well as, and above all, with reap*, the Socialist Party...
...This we cannot understand...
...The Treaty with Hitler TPbettress its fight on Hitlerism, Moscow couples this policy of herorism and persecution with conclusion of a commercial treaty *J* Hitler...
...The arrests "•taking place are, therefore, not for any illegal activity, but solely jfjaise of the 'detrimental' Social Democratic 'tendency" of the "bile appealing for cooperation of Socialists and Communists, *• fcmtt government continues to jail and exile Socialists who are *0b|eas of such cooperation...
...It is possible that high Communist wisdom may be able to explain and excuse these actions of the Russian government...
...Germany is to extend her purchases from Soviet •ftp to the amount of 150,000,000 marks...
...Men, women and children toiled ten, eleven, and twelve hoars daily, often for a pittance of 25 or 30 cents ,and crime and alcoholism ran riot...
...w| is a reading of the Communist press and of Communist official to jSjssnees will reveal, Moscow and its allies outside of Russia conas* Is cling blindly to the policy that the road to Communism lies mi ^atts fascism, and that the destruction of the Social Democracy po m n» allied trade unions is essential to clearing the way for the apsaCt ef Communism, even though this may require a "fascist jgi...
...that Moscow believed herisn was inevitable in Germany as a transitory development and Set, far the present at least, I could not expect any support for my shss...
...Today the party pa«sesses a union organization, and powerful cooperative and letesi aid societies...
...Just to win universal secret suffrage would be a revolution in itself...
...The Stalin dictatorship cannot honestly continue » policy of suppression and terrorism against all revolutionary elesmts in Russia, including dissident Communists, and plead for aspiration with Socialists...
...Stampfear's Revelation ftht Karlsbad Seuer Vorwarts, Friedrich Stampfer, the editor and jee ef the outstanding leaders of the German Social Democracy, s» u|e»l»it that shortly before Hitler's coming to power he called 5 the Soviet Embassy in Berlin, pleading that Moscow order the Serosa Communists to alter their policy in order that a united front sight be presented against Hitler...
...Here were' 109 delegates representing 69 groups...
...He then described the tragic conditions of the workers of that time, and continued: "The aim of a labor party should be, above all, the progressive' amelioration of the lot of the workers...
...Our Belgian comrades are now celebrating the 50th anniversary of the founding of their party...
...And in fact this right was won by the united action of the...
...But we also learn something else...
...all pay taxes...
...Mot* than 850.000 voters supported the P.O.B...
...This was precisely the road the Communists followed in Z0gjm, when they repeatedly declined the appeals of the Socialists Iff adbxl action against the rising Hitler tide...
...Walloons Flemings are united under tie popular slogan: "In Union is Strength" ("Eendraeht macht Maeht," "L'Union fait ta force...
...ATI owe obedience to the law...
...aim of destroying the labor movement as the Otf obstacle to Communist hegemony...
...The Workers Abroad An International Review of the Socialist and Labor Movement of the World By John Powers &AVDA...
...in the last elections...
...recapitulation of their history as revolutionists...
...Communists and Socialists alike...
...The Franco-Prussian War, and the fell of the Paris Commune, however, -:—^_c_ brought a wove of reaction over...
...and called upon the state to intervene in protection of the workers during work, sickness and old age...
...This congress adopted a comprehensive platform, beginning: "The aim followed by the party is to obtain for the workers the political rights and the well-being of which they have been hitherto deprived...
...The Socialists of America send them heartiest congratulations on the termination of a halfcentury of titanic struggle for working-class emancipation...
...Now, Vmsttnite considers it superfluous to inform its readers of the ¦ats of these revolutionists, whom it had previously applauded, bmaj it rather embarrassing to be called upon to agree that the ajajti were prompted by the revolution's necessity of "self-defense...
...CoBMnenting on this information," the Socialist Messenger says: "As is well known, the names of Comrades Yezshow and Zacha*» were among those signed to the Kazan telegram in which our "¦rsojs from Soviet Russia hailed the conclusion of the agreement teamed action in France...
...At that time L'Humanite, official organ d the French Communist Party, cited the telegram as an object hsjain which it contrasted the conduct of our Russian comrades u languished from other Social Democrats and, in particular, the HKon of the Russian Social Democratic Party abroad (publishers ¦Cm Socialist Messenger...
...We cannot...
...The names of Kuchin and Liber are too well known not only to » Russian Socialist world but far beyond its confines to require •a...
...Its program should contain all reforms of a political, economic and intellectual order...
...The credit is for r*t*srs...
...But what is curious in the latest y, ^ansjst appeal, as in all similar appeals, is that it is addressed m, , Hast whom the Communists and their press, in Soviet Russia and tn sywbere, continue to denounce as "social fascists," and whose de- -„ jp'tVr as well as that of the trade unions who refuse to take tn gBgoees from Moscow, remains the keystone of Communist policy...
...J°s we learn, clearly and unequivocally, from a source that JJsto know, that Germany's currency ha* been in clanger, and that Jfrad possible to master this danger through conclusion of the SHerHal treaty with Russia...
...Louis Bertrand, one of the leaders of the movement, declared in his address to the Congress, "No social progress, no amelioration of the condition of a people or of a class is possible if those u-ho hare am interest in this progress and amelioration do not get bu*y themselves to bring it baovt...
...Arrests are continuing in all towns and cities along the Volga...
...Then in 1864 was founded in London the first International Working Men's Association and, inspired by this event, the leaders of Belgian labor, at their head Cesar de Paepe, Launched another campaign of organization...
...The 112 delegates representing 59 groups to this first congress decided on a second, to be held in Antwerp, and this was duly summoned in August of the same year, 1885...
...ham on has consistently refused to give such support...
...The appeal is published in the name of the Com- c* International...
...We need only I *St oat that all the comrades mentioned, as well as those whose ¦IBs have not yet been forwarded but who, according to the inbhjhtion from Moscow, have but recently completed sentences of ¦Paonment or exile, or were still serving such sentences, could not, b/%tae of these very facts, have had any contacts with our undernhajki work or with our delegation abroad...
...all Europe, and the Belgian movement was engulfed and destroyed, together with the whole International...
...mf- the treaty, Russia receives a credit of 200,000,000 marks to be ia extending Soviet purchases in Germany...
...It went on to point out the separation of the peasant from the ownership of the land, and the aesMaptJsm of the worker from ownership of hie tools of snUV tion...
...Stampfer visited the embassy more una Sace, his last visit being immediately before the Reichstag fee...
...The None Volkszeitung, New York German Socialist weekly, comjfjk: If we are to believe the assertions of the present masters of JPJs, there is no more dangerous enemy of Russia than the 'Third And if we are to believe Adolf Hitler, there is no greater Jjly ef mankind than the Bolsheviks, who now rule Russia...
...As early as 1838 an attempt was made to organize on a solid basis, but without tangible success...
...The signers of the telegram were pic!SSJ virtually as supporters of the Communist International...
...in return...
...Thus does the Soviet Government lend a helping hand to make possible the manufacture of shells in German plants with which Hitler is to bombard the Russian population," concludes the VaUcszeitung...
...Moreover, Moscow must finally perceive that cooperation between CaBauBusts and Socialists-is quite impossible unless it begins at home -is Soviet Russia...
...cooperative societies open to all workers without distinction ; people's houses with cafes, meeting rooms, libraries...
...But whether the plain worker will understand the explanation is another question...
...A long debate took place on the name of proposed party: an intransigent group held out for the name "Socialist," but after long caucuses the leas controversial name of "Labor" was chosen...
...was nothing...
...Then came the Paris revolution of February 1848, which led by force of example to the formation of a republican party in Belgium in which workers took pact...
...But this movement in turn was diverted by the bourgeoisie to their own purposes...
...Latest Arrests of Socialists THE Socialist Messenger, organ of the Russian Social Democracy abroad, of which Comrade Raphael Abramowitsh is.' one of the alitor*, has just published a letter from Moscow telling of continued sbelesale arrests of Socialists...
...And he ended with an exhortation to all workers to unite...
...Report (of the Reichsbank) says: Raw Materials for Hitler jW* commercial treaty with Soviet Russia is of great importance only because it furnishes a great, almost limitless market WCT** *°°ds' but opens up also a source of raw materials which ¦X*k could obtain elsewhere only by paying cash.' , ybere is no grimmer joke than the spectacle of the world's only "^riaa' state lending help to Hitler and the economic leaders of /Vp*tt Reich' in order that they might continue, as heretofore, to JJ*, easleve and imprison in concentration camps the workers of ifipT...
Vol. 18 • April 1935 • No. 17
