Always interesting, Ernst Meyer reflects on the Social Democratic leadership while also excited about the possibilities of a united front as the S.P.D.’s national conference reflects a larger leftward shift among the German working class. With a majority of the organized working class remaining supporters of S.P.D., important elements of the proletariat, including vanguard elements, were still present in the Party a decade after the split with the Communists. Meyer also gives a sharp critique of Rudolf Hilferding’s interventions, who would become finance minister in a disastrous ‘grand coalition’ with bourgeois parties following the Left’s victory in the 1928 elections. Following which, the SP was, by far, the largest single party and a joint government with the Communists, who won over fifty seats in the Reichstag, was desired by large segments of the working class. Hilferding, of course, exiled in France, would be murdered by the Nazis after being handed over to them by Vichy police in February, 1941.
‘The Kiel Party Conference of the Social Democratic Party of Germany’ by Ernst Meyer from International Press Correspondence. Vol. 7 No. 33. June 2, 1927.
The social democratic press considers the Kiel Party Conference of the Social Democratic Party of Germany as a great success for their party, and the social democratic party executive in particular is breathing freely again. This feeling of relief on the part of the Party Executive is only to be understood if one clearly realises in what situation the Kiel Conference took place and what debates have preceded it.
Since the social democracy was flung out of the national government, it has been forced into opposition to the government. The social democracy is compelled to criticise as the result of the bourgeois block government many political and economic facts regarding, which they hitherto, as a government party, kept silent or whitewashed. As a result and against the will of the party executive, the proletarian class-consciousness and the opposition sentiment has increased among the proletarian membership. In addition to this there is the fact that in the last few years, in spite of the stabilisation of the economy which was proclaimed by the SPG, in the year 1924 as a sort of paradise for the workers, the economic position of the working masses has worsened tremendously. The enormous unemployment, the inadequate wages, the increased speeding up owing to the rationalisation, the attacks of the employers on the trade unions, have convinced the membership that the former participation of the Social Democratic Party of Germany in the national government in no way bettered the social position of the working class nor even secured it against serious reverses. As a result there is growing within the membership of the SPG the will to an effective opposition, instead of the sham opposition of the party executive which only desires to enter the coalition government again.
This, as yet, not very clear, moody discontent with the policy of the SPG expressed itself at the Kiel party conference in a whole number of motions submitted by local organisations.
The social democratic Executive has now taken advantage of the Kiel party conference in order to meet the mood of its membership in certain points, and on the other hand to remain all the more obstinate in all decisive questions. Hilferding and Severing promised, from next Autumn onwards, to adopt a sharper tone in the Reichstag towards the bourgeois block government. But at the same time they, along with the Party Executive, opposed making any concession to a real class fighting policy. The Party Executive prevented by the most arbitrary ruling, which was received with indignation by the delegates of the “Left wing”, the discussion and adoption of all or any proposals dangerous to the policy of the Party Executive. The discussion on imperialism and the danger of war demanded by the opposition did not take place at all at the Kiel party conference. Attempts to adopt a sharper attitude towards the policy of the Party Executive were regarded as personal attacks and, in artificially provoked scenes of moral indignation, were stifled as attacks on the spirit of comradeship in a proletarian party. The arrangement of the demonstrations, especially that of the youth, was in addition intended to disguise the fact that the SPG, according to its own figures, has not even reached the membership of the pre-war period and is not being recruited from the ranks of the youth. The causes for the splitting tendencies in the socialist working youth were disguised. The political reasons for the expulsion of social democratic supporters of the united front and of delegates to Russia were concealed behind juridical formulaes in the rejection of the applications for readmittance.
The Party Executive did not permit a detailed discussion of its past policy; important questions were omitted from the official reports. In their place the Party Executive, by means of the report of Hilferding on “the Tasks of the social democracy in the Republic”, provided a picture, based on alleged scientific investigation of the economic and political situation which was intended to deceive the working class regarding their actual sufferings.
Hilferding, it is true, in his speech spoke a good deal about socialism and of the necessity of its realisation. But what socialism is namely, transformation of private property in the means of production into social property by the expropriation of the exploiters, this Hillérding did not venture to tell his audience. He presented matters as if, by round about means and under the influence of the State on economy, socialism could be realised within the framework of bourgeois democracy, and actually declared: “There is no more serious hindrance to the realisation of socialism than civil war”. With this repudiation of the class struggle, which he confined to the parliamentary struggle within the framework of the capitalist State, Hilferding places himself on the basis of all bourgeois reformers. Whilst the bourgeois social politicians admit and criticise the wretched position of the proletariat, Hilferding actually tried to paint in glowing colours the present state of affairs. He rejoiced over the “real improvement in the whole of economy”, without saying a word regarding unemployment. He praised the going over to “organised capitalism”, but said not a word regarding the social effects of national and international trustification. He went into ecstasies over the progress of capitalist technique, without giving a thought to its victims. As far as he dealt at all with the position of the working class he consoled himself by asserting that the workers have succeeded in maintaining their level of wages in the last few years, as if these miserable wages are in any way sufficient!
The less Hilferding spoke of the social and economic position of the proletariat, the more he sought to rouse the enthusiasm of his audience regarding the alleged advance on the political field. According to him, all the privileges of property have already been abolished and the economic privileges of property could be abolished also if the workers would “take in their hands the lever of State power.” Hilferding sees an advance of bourgeois democracy already in the fact that the rulers have to address themselves to the citizens of the State, and ever again have to have their rule confirmed by a majority in the intellectual struggle with the social democracy, as if elections did not take place under the monarchy and even under the fascist dictatorship! In defiance of the demand that the SPG in Prussia should abandon the coalition with the bourgeois parties, Hilferding praised the Brauns and Severings as breakwaters against bolshevism and fascism, and proclaimed the coalition policy, which culminated in the payment of millions of marks as compensation to the Hohenzollerns, as a “world historical victory of the German and international proletariat”.
He expressed himself cynical over his own past by saying:
“Formerly, when we had no political responsibility and no influence, we did not need to be very particular regarding the wording of party resolutions. Today we must conduct politics”.
The party resolution stated therefore as the real aim of the SPG, not socialism and its realisation by the class struggle, but the winning and maintaining of the largest possible number of positions of power (this means official jobs) in the State, the provinces and the municipal bodies.
The “left” leaders of the SPG, who came forward at the conference, did not oppose to this programme of bourgeois reformism any clear and united counter-programme. They made opposition in various questions and brought forward a resolution demanding the resumption of the class struggle as against the policy of coalition. But not one of them ventured to contradict the assertion of the Party Executive that there is not at fundamental opponent of the policy of coalition within the SPG, and various “left” leaders even hastened to emphasise that they are not against coalitions in all circumstances. After a very weak offensive against the party committee they allowed themselves to be driven completely to the defensive. It is true that they are under the pressure of the discontent and mistrust of the social democratic membership, but their political outlook, which is dictated with an eye on the Party executive, remains far behind various open letters which were addressed by purely proletarian members of the SPG to the delegates to the Kiel party conference. This proletarian opposition within the SPG demanded a complete break with the policy of coalition and class cooperation, the prosecution of the class struggle with all means against imperialism, against the bourgeois block, fascism and danger of war, proletarian support of Soviet Russia and proletarian united front with the Communists.
The proletarian opposition within the SPG will continue to grow, and this the more quickly the more the Communist Party of Germany learns how to take advantage of the differentiation within the SPG, to pillory the reformism of Hilferding and to influence the social democratic workers by the consistent application of the united front tactics. Hilferding, who already in 1919 prophesied the bankruptcy of the Communist Party of Germany as well as that of the Soviet Union, in Kiel again gave the assurance that Communism is decaying and is doomed to perish in a short time. His assertions only prove that the ideas of Communism are finding greater acceptance in the ranks of the SPG workers.
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. Inprecorr is an invaluable English-language source on the history of the Communist International and its sections.
PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/international/comintern/inprecor/1927/v07n33-jun-02-1927-inprecor-op.pdf
