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MIR Jan
GERMAN
SOCIAL
DEMOCRACY,
1905-1917
The Development
of the Great
Schism
CARLE SCHORSKE
1985: Book R
eviews
German
Social Democracy
1905-1917 (The development f the Great Schism) Carl E Schorske
University
£6.75
rva Press
Reviewed by Arthur Copus
ALTHOUGH THIS book is written in a dry and academic style, it occasionally gives an insight into the party's attitude on issues which are just as relevant today. The SPD was by far the best organised and the most successful workers' party in Western Europe. Its position in the Second International was second to none. All sections of the workers' movement in the International looked towards this "exemplary workers' party" as Lenin described it.
Its leaders (Kautsky and August Bebel) and its actions were held in great authority. Yet this powerful party had in its development the seeds of its own degeneration. The party despite its formal acceptance of a Marxist programme, had in its apparatus sections that gradually became reconciled to the capitalist system.
From the 1880s onwards the SPD had been able to gain many concessions from the ruling class. This was possible during the boom years. In 1882 the free trades unions had 237,000 members, by 1912 they had 2.6 million, and the SPD in the years
Book
Review
prior to World War I had a membership of 4¼ million members. The party had been able to force the government to outlaw child labour and better working conditions. Ninety party newspapers were available for the party membership and the SPD had a staff of full time organisers of 15,000! Through the party's social clubs the average SPD member could lead a full life both culturally and politically.
The most significant development was the youth movement. Originally it had been formed outside the party by a group of apprentices in Northern Germany. From its beginnings the "Union of Free Youth Organisations of Germany" took a radical position, with one of its leading members being arrested for anti-militarist activity. Despite the Prussian law which forbade any kind of political activity for the youth, this organisation had by 1907 4,000 members. This was achieved by organising in conditions of semiillegality. The "League of Young Workers of Germany" was formed in 1906 in the southern half of Germany And even in the less repressive south the youth movement also took the struggle against militarism just as seriously as their northern counterparts. The reaction of the leadership of both the trades unions and the party was one of extreme caution. Bebel and others regarded their foundation as a "dangerous playing ground" (p100. para 2). Although the party endorsed the youth movement, and the Essen conference voted to "rear the youth in the spirit of socialism" , Karl Liebknecht, however, criticised the party for its passive resistance towards the youth and in November 1907 the government revised the law which in reality made conditions even more difficult for the youth to organise. The government had passed this law because of the experience of the Young Guards in Belgium. They were the youth of the Belgian Social Democracy who conducted a similar "anti militarist" campaign there. As the army had been used to break strikes, the Young Guards had conducted a campaign in the barracks to appeal to the soldiers on a class basis.
Under pressure from thę ruling class some of the SPD's leaders attempted to subordinate the youth to the main party, on the basis of "cultural
28
societies"
local level rallied to the youths
defence. Amongst the 'Radicals" in the party, Rosa Luxemburg, Clara Zetkin, and Karl Liebknecht, recognised the important role the youth could play: "the most reliable force to keep us in continuous intellectual and moral development, to prevent us from rusting and resting" "At the side of the adult fighters, whose duty is to weigh and consider, there must be younger elements who have the will to dare" . In Germany at that time a policeman had to attend every SPD public meeting with powers to close it down under Bismarck's Anti-Socialist Laws. The years of prosperity had their effect, the revisionist ideas of Bernstein had some credence: All that was needed were social reforms and the minimum upheavals possible to achieve socialism. This ideological backsliding was directly related to the prolonged period of pre-war boom.
Gradual degeneration
But in the years up to the war it was becoming evident that the boom was coming to an end. Then, as now the only way for the capitalists to maintain their profits was to carry out counter reforms in order to maintain the system. In 1912 a coal miners strike had broken out in the Ruhr, and due to the union leaderships failure the strike failed. This gave the employers and their representatives in the Reichstag the opportunity to act. They began to take legal measures against the trades unions; the right to picket, preventing donations to the SPD. But in order to appear "even handed". , the legislation was to include employers organisations. In fact, it was only the unions that suffered at the hands of the government.
The years 1912 to 1914 saw a period of recession in the economy, with very few strikes. This in turn led to a stagnation of the SPD's growth and there was a decrease in the circulation of the party's journal (with the exception of "Gleicheit" edited by Clara Zetkin)
The declaration of war in August 1914 saw the parliamentary faction vote unanimously for war credits. When the story appeared in Vorwärts Lenin thought it was a forgery concocted by the General Staff. Even though countless conferences of both the Party and the International resolvea to oppose the war by any means possible, instead Noske, Scheidemann, and Ebert joined the war cabinet and submitted to the "Borgfreiden" (Civil peace). After years of opposition, these leaders were delighted to be part of the government: "Parliamentary junkets to the front, where high officers played
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host to Social Democratic deputies, heightened their feeling of being in the club" (page 292-3). At the second vote in 1915 for further war credits Liebknecht and the lefts voted against. For this, he and his group were expelled from the SPD.
As Schorske points out, "Now this concept was stood on its head, Karl Liebknecht and those who joined him later in voting against war credits were condemned and ultimately expelled for adhering to the decision of congresses which the parliamentary majority violated" (p295. para.1)
By this time splits had begun to open up in the party, the Right became known as the "Majority Socialists" the left as "the Independents" However, it was only the Spartacus group who had already produced illegal pamphlets against the war. Luxemburg and Liebknecht alone, had seen the degeneration of the SPD coming, even Lenin had not imagined the official leadership would have gone this far! In May 1916, a demonstration in the Potsdamer Platz of 10,000 heard Liebknecht speak: "Down with the war!" "Down with the government!"
on of the revolution
By Liang Weng and Judith Shapiro, publ shed by Chatto
nd Windus, 1983
£9.95
Reviewed by Jim Chrystie
de.sl
IGNORE THE publishers Hollywoodstyle title, this is a truly remarkable book. Often books on China are either dry, remote, academic analyses or highly impressionistic accounts from Western reporters, who having served their two-year stint in Peking, return to write up their 'China' episode. Nothing compares to this book. It is the autobiography of a youth growing up during the Cultural Revolution in Changsa, a city in Southern China, who sees his family torn apart, and himself nearly destroyed by that power struggle. His parents divorce, his family is scattered, relatives commit suicide and friends vanish.
Liang Weng's story is not unique, but it has come to print because it suits the current regime to let some of the truth emerge about that period just as Kruschev did about Stalin's camps, and also because in the end Liang Weng married Judith Shapiro, a visiting American teacher and was allowed to leave China. Born in 1954,
And despite the arrest of Liebknecht the demonstration went on for hours afterwards. Rosa Luxemburg wrote in her Junius Pamphlet condemning the behaviour of the SPD leaders and exposing the real nature of the war. Not a "war for civilisation" but for markets and bigger profits for capitalists and arms manufacturers.
Revolution spreads
The winter of 1916-1917 became known as the "turnip winter", , with food shortages and child mortality rising by 50% of the pre war total. By this time the propaganda of the Spartacus group had reached the front. Meanwhile in January 1917 the Berlin munition workers demanded not only food but also "the speedy bringing about of peace". This was brutally put down by the soldiers in the Berlin garrison. The Russian revolution which began in October of that year had its effects ir. Germany too. In 1918 the Kaiser was forced to abdicate as a result of the revolutionary movement of the German workers and soldiers. Power was handed over to Prince Max
Mao, and his wife Chiang Ching
neither of Liang Weng's parents were members of the Communist Party, but both were intensely loyal to Mao and tried desperately to join the party. When in 1957, during the "Hundred Flowers" movement, people were asked to give criticisms, at first Liang's mother could not think of anything. But as ordered, she finally criticised her section head for not providing a bed for the housekeeper.
Hundred Flowers
movement
The "Hundred Flowers" movement had been instigated by the regime to try and cope with the absence of workers' democracy. The Chinese bureaucracy had been terrified by the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, when workers fought to take power away
29
who in turn handed power to Ebert and Scheidemann, their faithful wartime servants. The leaders of the SPD were in charge of a government which had ceased to function, an army that was becoming revolutionary by the hour with soldiers and sailors soviets having been formed in Kiel. The right wing socialists hastily assured the ruling class that they too "hated revolution like sin". These renegades did not hesitate to organise the murder of Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg and put down the rising of the Berlin workers in blood, using the service of the murderous "Freikorps"(who later formed Hitler's S.A.)
Although the book deals with these events in a purely descriptive fashion, it nevertheless gives an insight into the party that ultimately led to the failure of the 1919 revolution, and to the beginnings of the KPD (German Communist Party). Comrades should read this with "Rosa Luxemburg" by Paul Frölich or Evelyn Anderson ''Hammer or Anvil" , and above all Trotsky's writings on Germany
from the bureaucracy and into their hands. Capitalism had been abolished and they did not want it restored. Hungarian workers were fighting for a second revolution, a political revolution, so that workers democratically decided what happened, not a group of bureaucrats. It was ruthlessly crushed by Russian tanks, but the repercussions were felt throughout Eastern Europe and in China.
Workers democracy did not exist in China, and the bureaucracy could not tolerate it, as it would mean the end of their privileged position. But they hoped by means of the Hundred Flowers movement that people could let off some steam, and if criticism could be kept within limits, it might prevent too many glaring and (for them) dangerous mistakes.
They quickly realised their error. The Hundred Flowers movement became a cascade of complaints, and some of the criticism got very close to home and raised the question of the bureaucracy itself and the need for political revolution. This could not be tolerated, and the clampdown was restored.
Unfortunately for Liang's mother this came after she had made her trivial complaint. All criticisms were suspect and the consequences for her were devastating. She was labelled a 'rightist', a 'counter-revolutionary'. According to Liang she never understood the storm which burst around her.
She was sacked and banished to a
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MIR
Jan 1985: Book Reviews
countryside re-education camp. Her husband was forced to divorce her, and she never lived with her husband, son or two daughters again. It was not until 1978 that she even found out what the charges against her had been. This tragedy was a forerunner of what was to come during the Cultural Revolution of the 1960's.
Probably few events in history have been so mis-named as "The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution". There was nothing proletarian about it, nothing revolutionary, and nothing cultural, except in the excuse which prompted it (a dispute about a libretto criticising 'the Emperor').
The Cultural Revolution stemmed from a power struggle between different groups in the ruling elite. It came because Mao's group in the bureaucracy had been removed from centres of power. After the failure of the 'Great Leap Forward' in 1958-9, when the attempt to turn China into an overnight industrial giant collapsed into economic chaos, Mao was kicked upstairs. He had prestige, but no power.
"Little red book'
He bided his time and in 1966 struck back. In effect Mao staged a military coup in Peking. But opposition remained in the rest of China, so he launched the Cultural Revolution to oust his opponents. The aim was nothing to do with revolution; it was a power struggle between rival wings of the bureaucracy. The shock troops of Mao's forces were to be teenagers, formed into Red Guards. The main 'political' content was worship of Mao. It was the era of the "little red book" of 680 million posters of Mao being printed, and of Mao aged 72 apparently setting a world record during a swim in the Yangtse.
Liang Weng was twelve at the time and desperate to join in the excitement. His account of what happened to him is remarkable. Along with hundreds of others from his home town, he set off on a 250 mile march to a mountain where Mao had once had his military headquarters. This trek took on all the character of a religious pilgrimage. In canvas shoes, wet through, poorly looked after en route, abysmally fed, they sought out the most difficult routes over the hills, in order to suffer like Mao had suffered. Eventually they arrived at the snowy plateau. By this time there were thousands of them, and no facilities. Hundreds died from meningitis and Liang was only rescued by an army lorry. This did not dampen the ardour-the goal was now Peking to perhaps see Mao himself. The day Liang actually caught a glimpse of
Mao was ecstasy.
But what was he to do afterwards? Liang did not know. Denouncing "capitalist roaders' sounded simple in theory, but not in practice. After all Mao did not want all bureaucrats removed, just those 'disloyal' to him. But when at a local level everyone swore loyalty, it was difficult to know who to trust. In short, the whole cultural revolution was a sham.
And it soon disintegrated into a clash of warring, personal factions. In Liang's city during 1967 there were numerous armed bands, continual gunfights, mostly machine-guns and grenades, but once even tanks and missiles. In the end the army stepped in and restored 'order'. • Mao came to an alliance with the army, and the Cultural Revolution was over.
But by that time Liang's family had been torn apart. In the search for those 'disloyal' to Mao, Liang's father had been denounced as a rightist, taking after his ex-wife. He was paraded through the streets, and forced to confess. His home was sacked by Red Guards and Liang watched as they burned his father's books and stole his wages-and all the time his father never lost his faith in Mao or the party.
5·1İX3=
Official humiliated by Red Guards.
His father was taken to a reeducation centre, and his sisters sent away to the countryside. At the age of 13 Liang had to cope on his own, no school, no friends he could trust and no money. He drifted into a gang and like many other youth stole or begged in order to survive.
Then in 1969 his father was released, and together with Liang and other 'educated youth' banished to the countryside. The peasants did not welcome them, after all they were extra mouths to feed. Life was desperate. To survive Liang had to sneak out at night, dig up potatoes, brush off the dirt and eat them raw.
30
The peasantry worshipped Mao; as one peasant said "he got rid of the landlords. I've now got the landlord's table. If Chiang Kai Shek returned, the landlord would want his table back" But at the same time they had little faith in the Communist Party, which kept interfering with their lives. Mao was not at fault, just his advisers.
Whilst Liang was with the peasants, the order came to slaughter animals, because it was a sign of "developing capitalist tendencies". Those that did not were punished. Ten years before they had been ordered to cut down trees to provide fuel for backward furnaces in the disastrous 'Great Leap Forward'. The peasants had no control over their own lives. All power rested with party officials.
Workers'
One of the most dramatic incidents in the book comes when one of those officials thinks he can get credit by arresting Liang as a conspirator. This arose because Liang had been writing to a friend who had been active as a Red Guard in Peking. Unbeknown to Liang his friend had risen quite high and had then been purged. Anyone writing to him was suspect. For days Liang is interrogated and told to contess. At his lowest, one night he contemplates suicide: "I had lived fifteen years, but I had no desire to live even one more. I had been the victim of political movements since the age of three... the dusty dark lightbulb hanging several yards above was still visible in the night. Suddenly I realised that I could die. I could unscrew that lightbulb and put my hand where the current flowed and I would be dead. I should never again be tormented by memories of mother's humilated and accepting face as father cursed her for betraying the Party's faith to her, of father kneeling before his burning books praising the party; of (sister) Liang Fang's faeces-covered shoes as she came home to write her thought reports..
In the end after unscrewing the lightbulb he draws back. A day later he is freed, the order had come through that too many people were being arrested because of this conspiracy. Liang's nightmare life in the coun tryside continued for another two years. Finally he is saved, by of all things, his height.
A visiting teacher thinks he could become a good basketball player and selects Liang for training. Liang does well and comes to the attention of a factory in his home town. Through bribery they get him a permit to come and work at their shale oil factory and start in the works basketball team.
His account of factory life shows the
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cynicism of workers towards the ruling bureaucrats. Workers see corruption all around them and are totally indifferent to all the political propaganda pumped at them. Bribery is the essential lubricant to get goods ordered from other factories and to get anything within the plant. Without workers democracy there is little proper planning. A week of activity is followed by weeks waiting for parts to arrive. Workers spent most of their time skiving. Liang is popular, because he is prepared to stand guard while they are away, as he enjoys reading He tries to bribe his way into college and is nearing success, when the rules are changed and exams re-introduced. He passes and in college he meets a visiting American teacher, gets mar- THE LIFE OF ARTHUR RANSUME Hugh Brogan The life of Arthur Ransome By Hugh Brogan Jonathan Cape 1984 £10.95 Reviewed by Nick Bradley "MY POSITION" was immediately behind and above the praesidium, looking down on Trotsky's muscular shoulders and great head and the occasional gestures of his curiously small hands.
Beyond him was that sea of men; soldiers in green and grey shirts, ried and is allowed, as part of improving Sino-American relations, to leave China and live in America. This book Classic account The story itself is dramatic, but the historical account. The detail and atmosphere of life in China rings so true and provides much of its fascination. It is superbly written with a restrained passion which totally engages the It is not a book which tries to explain the wider political relationships, and the background about the Hundred Flowers and Cultural Revolution given in this review is missing. The | workers in collarless ones, or jerseys, others dressed very much like British workmen, peasants in pleated red shirts and high top boots; all picked men, not elected from this assembly alone but proved and tested in the local soviets that had chosen them as delegates. And as I watched that amazing crowd, that filled the huge hall and packed the galleries, following point by point Trotsky's exposition of the international and inter class situation and the policy of the revolution I felt I would willingly give the rest of my life if it could be divided ingiven to men in to minutes and England and France so that those of little faith who say that the Russian revolution is discredited could share for one minute each that wonderful experience."
Surprisingly the author of these words in 1918 was an English writer best known today for his works of children's fiction. His most well known book-Swallows and Amazons-has been recently dramatized and shown on television.
Revolution inspires writers Arthur Ransome was born on 18 January 1884. Ransome-as a boy and adult-was a keen angler and sailor. These twin loves were reflected in his children's books.
But remarkably there was another side to Ransome. He lived in Russia for ten years and worked as a journalist sending back vivid accounts of the Russian Revolution. Whilst Ransome lacked the insight and brilliant skill of the American journalist John Reed, whose book Ten Days That Shook The World is comhe nevertheless oulsive reading, became passionately caught up in the revolution in its early years. His pamphlet Six Weeks in Russia in 1919 reveals inspiration drawn from those events in Russia when the workers and 21 book gives no political analysis. Throughout the Cultural Revolution is not explained in retrospect, but recounted as how in all its confusion it struck Liang at the time. Perhaps for someone coming straight to the book it might seem that the whole event was meaningless, a glimpse into a Kafkaesque world, with no logic except the arbitrary nature of officials. But this would be a minor complaint. This autobiography of Liang Weng's first twenty years will stand as a classic account of what happened in China during the Cultural Revolution. If anyone wants to understand what is actually going on in China there are few, if any, better books to read.
peasants overthrew the Czar and took events into their own hands. Trotsky during the civil war. Ransome married Trotsky's personal secretary, Eugenia Shelepina.
In the introduction to his pamphlet he wrote about the atmosphere which inspired both writers and artists despite the desperate problems of poverty and armed intervention from the capitalist world.
"There was a feeling, from which we could never escape, of the creative effort of the revolution... set against a background of that extra-ordinary vitality which persists in Moscow even in these dark days of discomfort, disillusion, pestilence, starvation and unwanted war"
Ransome reported the effects of the First World War on Russia. He clearbegan to understand the developments taking place in the midst of the workers and soldiers as a result of poverty and the war. The impact of the Revolution throughout 1917 transformed Ransome. His daily reports in the Daily News captured the rapidly moving events.
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