Ernst Meyer reports on the demise of Paul Levi’s Communist Workers Group, formed from a split in the German Communist Party over differences 1921’s ‘March Action, as it joined with the Independent Social Democrats in early 1922.

‘The End of the Kommunistische Arbeitsgemeinschaft’ by Ernst Meyer from International Press Correspondence. Vol. 2 No. 16. February 28, 1922.

Paul Levi and his followers began their fight against the German Communist Party in the Spring of 1921, with the object of defending Communism in Germany and in the entire world against the “putchistic and sectarian tendencies of the Communist International”.

The result of this struggle, which lasted a whole year and which exhausted all means available even down to the publication of stolen documents, is the unconditional capitulation of the Communist Working Union (K.A.G.) before the Independent Socialist Party of Germany (U.S.P.D.).

The time and form in which the K.A.G. joins the Independent Socialist Party of Germany are both characteristic of Levi’s group of renegades. The U.S.P.D. has just been playing a most ambiguous part in the railway strike; its press, with the Berlin” “Freiheit at the head, came out against the strikers quite openly. The U.S.P.D. Reichstag fraction saved the Wirth-Groener-Radbruch cabinet, thereby prolonging Rathenau’s militant foreign policy against Soviet Russia, and enabling Groener to continue with his measures of revenge and class-justice. Even in the ranks of the U.S.P.D. workers, the dissatisfaction with the attitude of their leaders is continually growing. Yet, the K.A.G. chooses this very moment for starting negotiations with the U.S.P. on the question of entering the Independent Socialist Party. The National Conference of the U.S.P. approved the entry of the K.A.G. into the party-on condition that the K.A.G. unconditionally accept the U.S.P. program and the Leipzig Manifesto. The would-be saviours of Communism thereby openly admit that they have given up the fundamental principles of Communism and that they at the same time accept those of the International 2 1/2. The Independent Socialist press is jubilant over this political event and sees in it the success of the U.S.P.D. policy. The “Leipziger Volkszeitung “, for instance, writes as follows:

“It is just the return of Dâumig, Geyer, and Hoffmann that shows how correct our tactics were in those days at Halle… At that time the attitude of our paper as well as that of the Independents was not understood by many workers. Today we stand justified in every particular and we shall continue to remain justified in our attitude towards the recent struggles in spite of the fact that it did not coincide with the attitude and opinion of many of the party comrades…” (this refers to the attitude of the U.S.P. towards recent railroad strike and towards the Cabinet crisis).

The “Leipziger Volkszeitung” is indeed very modest. It interprets the return of a few men as the justification of its own policy, but at the same time it forgets what it sees itself compelled to admit in the very same article, namely, that the K.A.G. represents only a “small insignificant splinter” in the movement. In its negotiations with the U.S.P., as the “Leipziger Volkszeitung” reports, the K.A.G. admitted that it was no in- dependent organization. With the exception of a communication sheet and Levi’s monthly, the K.A.G. possesses no press, “and no difficulty whatever would be encountered in counting up the number of Communists’ belonging to it in the hundreds column of a calculator.”

The U.S.P. cat made very short work of the insignificant K.A.G. mouse. According to the decision of the National Conference of the U.S.P. the K.A.G. members must apply to the Local Committees for membership in the Independent Socialist Party. The U.S.P. press decorates this decision with all sorts of condemnatory remarks against the individual members of the K.A.G., so that the entry of the K.A.G. adherents into the U.S.P. is thereby rendered not so easy a task.

Until now the K.A.G. has not answered to the humiliating conditions of the U.S.P. Nevertheless it will have to accept them for the simple reason that it has no other way out. (Not so very long ago the K.A.G. still spoke in a very important tone to the Communist Party and put political and organizational conditions to it.)

In the protracted period of discussion between the K.P.D. and the K.A.G., the K.P.D. gave the K.A.G.-adherents the longest possible rope in questions of political and organizational nature, insofar as the latter kept within the grounds of Communism. The K.A.G. has always rejected the comradely settlement of their opposing views within the party; it preferred to work with disclosures in enemy papers and this puny handful was even impudent enough to ” put conditions” in ultimatum fashion to the whole party. Now it accepts the protectorate of the U.S.P.D. without as much as an objection. It thereby proves that it long ago abandoned Communist principles and that it is organically related to the U.S.P.D. It is true that the humiliating attitude of the U.S.P.D will hurt it to the quick-but only for a moment, for political ties bind more quickly and more securely than the petty jealousies and quibbles that arise out of some inessential differences.

The K.A.G. is expiring; no one sheds a tear, and the very last to waste any tears over its death will be the workers who had always looked upon the K.A.G. as an strange, artificial structure, and who for this reason kept away from it completely. If the K.A.G. now again puts on its “Sunday best and sends a 46 delegation” to the Frankfurt International Congress of the Internationals 2 and 2 1/2, that does not yet prove that it possesses any political significance, but it is rather a good proof of the utter insignificance of this sham congress which attempts to create the false impression that because of the K.A.G.’s participation, even “Communists” are represented at Frankfurt. With one foot in the U.S.P., the K.A.G., through its last political move, created another illusion. To delude itself and to try to delude others, was the only activity which the K.A.G. was capable of setting into motion against Communism, from the moment it saw the light of day.

International Press Correspondence, widely known as”Inprecor” was published by the Executive Committee of the Communist International (ECCI) regularly in German and English, occasionally in many other languages, beginning in 1921 and lasting in English until 1938. Inprecor’s role was to supply translated articles to the English-speaking press of the International from the Comintern’s different sections, as well as news and statements from the ECCI. Many ‘Daily Worker’ and ‘Communist’ articles originated in Inprecor, and it also published articles by American comrades for use in other countries. It was published at least weekly, and often thrice weekly. The ECCI also published the magazine ‘Communist International’ edited by Zinoviev and Karl Radek from 1919 until 1926 monthly in German, French, Russian, and English. Unlike, Inprecor, CI contained long-form articles by the leading figures of the International as well as proceedings, statements, and notices of the Comintern. No complete run of Communist International is available in English. Both were largely published outside of Soviet territory, with Communist International printed in London, to facilitate distribution and both were major contributors to the Communist press in the U.S. Communist International and Inprecor are an invaluable English-language source on the history of the Communist International and its sections.

PDF of issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/international/comintern/inprecor/1922/v02n016-feb-28-1922-inprecor.pdf