The Crisis of the Unions and the KPD

Abstract

The resolution of the Ruhr conflict and stabilization of the mark set off a series of conflicts in which all the parties tried to strengthen or defend their positions. However, they were particularly serious for the workers’ movement. The German economy and Weimar state were stabilized from above on the backs of workers, through the defeat of the unions, lowering of wages, lengthening of the workday, and revision of working conditions. The conflicts threatened the very existence of some of the workers’ organizations, whose leaders and members responded with a sense of desperation. First, the KPD tried to organize mass discontent over the way the Rentenmark, the new currency, was introduced to keep alive the possibility of revolution. Then workers throughout the lower Rhineland struck in defense of the eight-hour day. A fierce struggle for control of both the free unions and UdHuK broke out. The Communist opposition won major union elections throughout Rhineland-Westphalia, but free union leaders counterattacked, expelling the Communists even at the price of destroying local unions to ensure their own control. Secessionist movements challenged the control of both the KPD over the UdHuK and the Social Democrats over the free unions. A sizable majority of workers in Rhineland-Westphalia, disillusioned with the inability of the unions to defend their interests, quit both free and Communist unions. Inside the KPD, Brandler and his supporters among district party leaders tried to cover the failure of the October strategy by adopting left radical tactics, but they were soon overrun and deposed by the upsurge of support among disillusioned rank-and-file Communists for the left.