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From The Militant, Vol. VI No. 19, 18 March 1933, p. 2.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’ Callaghan for the Encyclopaedia of Trotskyism On-Line (ETOL).
The government press in Germany offers quite a picture of the strategy of the Fascist coalition after its rapid consolidations. Differences within the coalition itself are carefully suppressed and covered up: the working class must be made to feel that its counter-revolutionary opponents as a solid mass. Every rumor or report of the establishment of the proletarian United Front is quickly squashed and discredited. A consistent attack is made above all on the workers faith in proletarian internationalism. These are the lines along which the counter-revolution is exerting every effort to scatter, to demoralize, to pulverize the as yet massive hosts of the German working class.
One outstanding example: While in the past this Rightist press has always been painfully engaged in “proving” the “hand of Moscow” in the most phantastic plots against the German nation, this same press, thundering against Marxism, calling for the ruthless extermination of the Communist party (utilizing such obvious frame-ups as the Reichstag fire) has the following to say about “Moscow” today:
“Moscow, Feb. 1. – The appointment of Adolf Hitler as Reichs Chancellor was received quietly in the Russian official circles. There are reassuring explanations that Hitler does not represent any danger for the German-Russian trade relations. Insofar as the measures of the Hitler Cabinet against the C.P.G. are concerned, the official circles appear to be quite disinterested. The Soviet government is said to have only an academic interest in whatever happens to the Communists outside of Russia. That is the affair of the III International, which has nothing to do with the government.” (Der Tag, Feb. 2, 1933.)
Innumerable such samples could be cited. Their primary aim is of course to cast despair and discouragement into the ranks of the workers, to cut them off from that tower of strength, from the USSR – the fortress of the world October. And it must be said openly: By its silence, by its criminal abstention from official pronouncement, the Stalinist leadership is helping along this cunning game of the German counter-revolution. If the Stalinist leaders were in the slightest degree true to the internationalist colors of Communism, the purpose of the Fascists and their allies would quickly come to naught, the German working class would rapidly be awakened from its lethargy and impotence and Germany would soon present a different scene. The betrayal of proletarian internationalism which began with the establishment of the theory of “socialism in one country” is being posed in a sharp and concrete manner in Germany. Shall the German reactionaries be allowed to bank on this betraal in their campaign of annihilation against the organized working class? Shall they thus be permitted to make the most adequate preparations in the longed-for assault on the U.S.S.R.? Or will the Communist workers wake up and demand that the Communist International, that its Stalinist leadership speak up and give the counter-revolutionary strategists of Der Tag the answer of the Leninist Comintern? Let the Communist workers themselves sound the alarm. Let them put the Stalinist leadership to the test in the crucible of the tremendous events in Germany.
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Last updated: 23 July 2015