German revolutionary and future anti-fascist martyr George Schumann writes on what was a large labor movement in tiny Luxembourg.

‘The Labor Movement in Luxemburg’ by George Schumann from International Press Correspondence. Vol. 2 No. 32-33. May 5, 1922.

Since the March Action in 1921 the proletarian organizations in Luxemburg have been constantly losing ground. Those March struggles were carried on against limitation of work and dismissal of workers. These struggles were led by the trade-unions. The bourgeoisie took to measures of force. Since the Luxemburg military did not seem reliable and as it was not sufficiently strong in number, the French military came to the aid of the Luxemburg bourgeoisie in order to suppress the workers. It occupied the works and mines, so that here and there skirmishes between the workers and the soldiers. ensued. The workers were defeated which was to some extent  inevitable because the fight was carried on with the trade-union weapon only.

The trade-unions had had their boom under the slogan of “political neutrality”. And since in those March days the politically neutral trade-union movement did not suffice to defeat the political force of the ruling-class, great disappointment was felt in the trade-unions. Moreover, a campaign against the Communists was carried on even after the March defeat by the bureaucracy of the trade-unions under the watchword of “political neutrality”.

As a number of comrades, whose names were well-known among the Luxemburg workers, were among those expelled by the trade-union bureaucracy, the revolutionary section of the workers of the workers left the trade-unions with them.

The trade-union movement in Luxemburg, just as just as the political movement, is still very young. Only small organizations, such as the Typographical Union, are more than 10 years old. Under the pressure of the war, in 1916, the greatest Luxemburg trade-union was founded. The Union of Metal and Mineworkers in March 1921 had about 18,000 members. The trade-union organizations had in March a total membership of 25,000. The “Proletarian”, the trade-union paper distributed among the members, had in March a circulation of 27,000. Today the trade-union organizations resemble a heap of ruins. The “Proletarian” is restricted to an issue of 6,000. The Esch industrial trade-union group, that in July still had 5,000 members, now has only 400 left.

Certainly, this decay has also been brought about by the victimizing of the Italian, German and French workmen, who had to emigrate. Nevertheless, there are thousands of Luxemburg workmen, employed in the mineral-works and mines, who are still outside any organization. Comrade Bukawak, leader of the mineworkers and vice-chairman of the Metal and Mine-workers’ Union, who in May 1921 joined C.P.L. has been expelled from the trade-union together with Comrade Lippert. The president of the industrial group (Esch), Comrade Schiltz, was as a Communist dismissed from his post and excluded from the trade-unions for not standing by “political neutrality”. The trade-union bureaucracy gave the members of the Esch local group no opportunity of forming and making their opinion count, and these members therefore preferred to turn their backs on this organization. What the conception of the bureaucracy as to political neutrality is, is made clear by the fact that the secretary of the Luxemburg trade-unions is the Socialist deputy Peter Krier. To be politically neutral thus means to belong to no other party but the Social Democratic Party.

Our comrades are working for the trade-unions in spite of this. Even the expelled comrades try to induce the workers to enter the trade-unions. in their workshop meetings. And some of the trade-union leaders, having seen by now that the tactics of expelling all the Communists has led their organizations’ ruin, are now trying, aided by our comrades, to restore the trade-union movement.

An equally catastrophic collapse has been experienced by the Social Democratic Party of Luxemburg. Whilst it still had 35.000 members in March of last year, the official report of the Party Conference of the S.P.L. held on the 24th January 1922, in Esch, gives the total membership as 950. The reason for this decline seems to be the altogether undecided conduct of the S.P.L. It is afraid of the discipline of the Third International. At the same time it objects to being cast into the same “pot” with the Opportunists of the 2nd International. Thus it does not belong to any International, only sympathizing with the 2 1/2 International.

It is equally undecided with regard to national politics. The S.P.L. has written against and violently objected in Parliament to the “economic agreement with Belgium” which agitated all of Luxemburg. In the decisive session, however, it abstained from voting! The organization and the parliamentary group of the S.P.L. is falling asunder. One of their members, Schaack, editor of the “Armer Teufel “, a one time Socialistic-freethinking paper that is now in its 19th year, is now-a-days in the same camp with the Clericals. Other members of the Parliamentary group in the Chamber no longer belong to the Party, though they still speak as Socialists. When in Esch, the principal centre of the industrial districts, Paul Faure and Grumbach spoke, apart from the deputies, only 10 Esch workers attended from the whole party of the country. This shows that the S.P.L. has no influence whatever nor any attractive power among the Luxemburg population.

International Press Correspondence, widely known as”Inprecorr” 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. Inprecorr’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 Inprecorr, and it also published articles by American comrades for use in other countries. It was published at least weekly, and often thrice weekly.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/international/comintern/inprecor/1922/v02n032-33-may-05-1922.pdf