CHAPTER XV

Revolutionary Socialist Activities in Europe Since 1917

(A) PRUSSIAN "SPARTACIDE" COMMUNISTS

Beginning even before the signing of the Armistice, the revolutionary Socialist element in Germany started a concerted move ment to take possession of the State. A group, with touch of intellectual pride characteristically German, to show its knowledge of history and past revolutions, took the name of Spartacans, from that ancient Roman revolutionary proletarian, Spartacus, who started a bloody revolt against the Roman state. The Spartacans formed the extreme Left Wing of the Socialist aggregation. Lenin's accusation is that all German Socialists except the Spartacus group were guilty of the betrayal of Socialism and of the proletariat through their absolute or partial loyalty to the Fatherland during the Great War. This, together with the corresponding loyalty of French and the majority of British Socialist and labor leaders, had led to the collapse of the Second Socialist International, which had been based on the fundamental idea that loyalty to revolutionary Socialism must replace loyalty to one's country.

Between October, 1918, and January, 1919, the Spartacus movement developed rapidly in Northern Germany. On December 31st the Spartacus unions of all Germany had a meeting in Berlin at which Karl Liebknecht said:

66

The introduction of the class struggle into the country is a decisive matter for us. We want to lift the mailed fist against every one who opposes the social revolution of the proletariat. The next thing we have to expect is the internationalization of civil war."

The party then issued a manifesto calling for revolution and the dictatorship of the proletariat, signed by four leaders: Clara Zetkin, Rosa Luxemburg, Karl Liebknecht and Franz Mehring. Armed bands of Spartacides were organized, and riots took place in many towns and cities. The Spartacides demanded that all power be given to the Councils of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies; that the proletariat be armed and bourgeoisie disarmed; that the government proceed to the immediate socialization of industry and should itself be turned into a dictatorship

Germany. Killed January 15, 1919.

of the proletariat. They opposed the calling of a Constituent Assembly, because they were in favor of minority dictatorship and never claimed to be backed by the majority of the people.

The Spartacans followed the scheme of working up passionate sentiment among the workmen of the cities by rushing motor trucks through the streets, which distributed thousands of circulars warning the people that the revolution was in danger and calling for protest meetings against the timid policy of all other parties. This propaganda plan was borrowed from the programı which had been followed so successfully by Lenin and Trotzky before their coup d'etat in Russia in November, 1917. The deciding element in inducing the Spartacans to act when they did appears to have been: (1) That the new Congress of Councils of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies, which met December 16, 1918, showed at once that it favored the moderate and not the revolutionary element among the Socialists, refusing to allow either Liebknecht or Rosa Luxembourg to address the delegates, and expressing its confidence in the Ebert government; (2) the decision to convoke the national assembly on January 19th, instead of in March, and the abolishment of the Berlin Soviet executive.

The following program was issued early in December by the Spartacans:

"Disarmament of the police officers, non-proletarian soldiers and all members of the ruling classes; confiscation by the Soldiers' and Workers' Council of arms, munitions and armament works; arming of all adult male proletarians and the formation of a workers' militia; the formation of a proletarian red guard; abolition of the ranks of officers and non-commissioned officers; removal of all military officers from the Soldiers' and Workers' Councils; abolition of all parliaments and municipal and other councils, the election of a general council which will elect and control the Executive Council of the Soldiers and Workmen; repudiation of all state and other public debts, including war loans down to a certain fixed limit of subscriptions; expropriation of all landed estates, banks, coal mines and large industrial works; confiscation of all fortunes above a certain amount."

It was on December 23d that the first revolutionary outbreak occurred in Berlin, being occasioned by the refusal of 2,000

revolutionary sailors to disband, which led to fights between them and the republican guards and to the seizure of the office of the Vorwaerts. This developed into street fights, to the passing over of several regiments to the Spartacans, and to the bringing in from the front of troops by the government to put down the uprising. The bloody suppression of the revolt led to the resignation of three cabinet members of the Independent Socialist Party, which did not approve of the drastic policy of the majority Socialists. The Independents put this question to the govern

ment:

"Is the Council of the same view with us that the Socialist Republic must not rest on the support of generals and the rest of the standing army, but on citizens' guards to be formed on democratic principles? Does the Council approve that the socializing of industries as far as practicable should begin at once?"

The Council referred to is the Council of Workmen's and Soldiers' Deputies.

These questions not having been answered satisfactorily, the three independent Socialists resigned on December 30th. However, the Independents led by Haase, Dittman and Barth were not willing to go the length of the Spartacans, and adopted by 485 votes to 195, at a conference of the party, a motion calling for the election of a National Assembly.

On December 30th, after their failure to stampede the Inde pendents, the Spartacans decided to operate alone, forming a new party which called itself "The Revolutionary Communist Labor Party of the German Spartacus League."

The Spartacus group was in constant communication with the Soviet government whose propaganda was in charge of Joffe, the official Bolshevik Ambassador in Berlin, and of Radek, the most powerful and able of the Russian propagandist agents outside of Russia. The first Spartacan uprising was ostensibly in defense of Eichhorn, head of the Berlin police, accused of protecting Joffe in his propaganda work. This began January 5th, 1919; for two weeks the street of Berlin were the scene of open battle between the government forces and the Spartacan revolutionists, who seized newspaper offices, fortresses, railway stations, breweries, telegraph stations, gas plants, electric power houses and water works, and proclaimed a new government under the direction of a revolutionary committee. The Spartacans started