Fascism by Renton David;

Author:Renton, David;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pluto Press

5

Beyond 1933

At the centre of the debate between the official Marxists who expressed left or right theories of fascism and the dissident Marxists who espoused a dialectical theory of fascism was a different analysis of the danger posed by the rise of fascism. For the dissident Marxists, the danger was acute; what was needed was practical working-class unity to stop fascism. The Marxist left and right disagreed: fascism would be prevented either by the hostility of traditional elites, or by the inability of fascism to defeat the working class. The extreme paralysis of these parties represented, in effect, a boast before history. It amounted to saying: just let the Nazis try. The result was a catastrophic defeat. Hitler was invited to become Chancellor on 30 January 1933; within a week, the Communist Party was banned, within five months, so were the Social Democrats.1 The leading opponents of the regime were imprisoned or fled; the trade unions were taken under state control.

In the days immediately preceding Hitler’s invitation to power, rumours were widespread that he would be resisted by a general strike led by the Communists. This idea was far from fanciful. In 1920, as we have seen, a previous attempt to create a right-wing dictatorship, the Kapp Putsch, had been defeated by workers’ strikes. Thirteen years later, the KPD had 300,000 members. The organisation could in addition call on the support of red unions, organisations of school and university association, fellow travellers involved in red sports clubs and in KPD-dominated anti-Nazi networks such as Anti-faschistiche Aktion or Kampfbund gegen den Faschismus (the latter claimed 100,000 members in summer 1932). In elections held in November 1932, the KPD was the largest party in the capital, Berlin, winning an impressive 37.7 per cent of the votes cast in that city. Members of the Communist Party were told that the party had drawn up an ‘Uprising Plan’, which would be called into action as soon as it was needed. Eric Hobsbawm was a member of an organisation of Socialist school students, the Sozialistischer Schülerbund or SSB, and a young Communist living in Berlin. ‘We thought that if [the Nazis] got into power, they would soon be overthrown by a radicalised working class.’2

Hitler’s government was declared at noon on 30 January. The same day, several protest meetings were held. There were strikes by dockers in Hamburg, and demonstrations in Stuttgart and Frankfurt. The Central Committee of the KPD met the same evening and issued a leaflet demanding ‘Strikes; Mass Strikes; General Strikes’. However, the leaflet was a mere gesture, with no plan beneath it. The promised uprising never came. The members of the German left watched on as their leaders did nothing. This passivity was a disaster for the Socialists, the Communists and for millions who waited in a mood that turned rapidly to despair.

During the days of Hitler’s seizure of power, there was fighting between the SA and supporters of the KPD in Berlin.3 Two days later, the Communists’ headquarters in Berlin were occupied.

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