bo

10

THE SHAME OF THE GERM
IN THEIR WILLING SUBSER

Cb A NATION and a woman are not forgiven the unguarded
hour in which the first adventurer that comes along

could violate them. ..

’? wrote Marx in the Eighteenth Brum-

aire of Louis Bonaparte, referring to the succession of “politi-
cal swindlers” who had usurped French power. The French
said they were taken by surprise, but Marx pointed out that
this was no explanation. However, the French nation re-
covered from its surprise and amidst the smoke of the barri-
eades of 1871 covered itself with honor.

This month, April, marks the
tenth year of the Hitler rule in
Germany, but so far there is no
evidence that the large bulk of the
German people are making any
move toward ridding themselves
of the fascist adventurers who
have state control.

Es are numerous examples
in history of peoples who be-
came so ashamed of the situation
within their country and the poli-
cies of their rulers that they rose
in revolt. Have the German peo
pie no feelings of national shame?

“ _. shame is already revolu-
tion. ‘

7

wrote Marx, ©“ . .
Shame is a kind of wrath only
pointed inward. And if the whole

©

by ALFRED C.
CAMPBELL

mation really seized by a feel-
ing of shame, she is like a lion
erouching before springing. - - ais

Though there are many indica-
tions that perhaps a majority of
Germans are beginning to fear
that Hitler will be defeated, yet
the comparative absence of proofs
that the majority of the German
people are as yet ashamed of the
Wazi plan to conquer and pillage
Europe, place them in the posi-
tion of accomplices of Hitler. The
whole German nation will unfor-
tunately suffer unless it reasserts
itself, unless it shows st mgt Fo
ashamed by overthrowing the
monsters who at present speak
in its name.

© people can forever evade

responsibility for the actions
of their rulers. No nation can
evade its historic responsibilities
without suffering historic retribu-
tion. The German people have
failed so far in this period to meet
their historic obligations, to as-
sist in freeing themselves and
others from fascist rule, and to re-
turn Germany to a broader form
of democracy than it has ever en-
joyed.

“ The traditions of all the
dead generations weigh like a
nightmare on the brain of the
living . . .’ wrote Marx. Fascism
took from every former society,
and slave society in particular,

every hideous feature ever known.
Rummaging among the rags and
garbage cans of political history_
the fascists placed forward as na-
tional heroes an assortment of
shady characters, among them
Horst Wessel, the pimp who was
killed by another in a brothel
brawl.

HE events of the present war
of conquest by Hitler fascism
have shown the fascists as the
very embodiment of all that is
evil, savage and chauvinistic, a
heritage from the reactionary tra-
ditions of Germany's Prussianized
ruling classes.

But it has also revealed that
large sections of the German na-
tion still follow Hitler and are
imbued with the age old Prussian
chauvinism of their ruling classes
which Hitler has inflamed through
continuously feeding with chauy-
inistic poison their ingrained
prejudices.

The Germans are turning out
the armaments which rain death
and destruction upon the Russian
people. Their sons are looting
Russia, murdering Russian citi-
zens. Their daughters are en-
couraging their criminal hus-
bands to send the loot back to
Germany. Whatever standard of
living they enjoy is at the ex-
pense of the subjugated races of
Europe who have been threwn
back to the status of slaves,
while the Germans accept the
crumbs from the overloaded tables
of their fascist leaders. They are
the tools and accomplices of Hit-
ler in his murderous designs, They
carry out the commands of the
fascist adventurers who scream
that they must have Russian ter-
ritory, while the Prussian Junk-
ers and imperialist industrialists
each own small counties for coun-
try estates.

fn Germans haye been taught
to hate all other peoples. It
must occasion no surprise that
they in turn become hated by
others who wish to live in-a
world free from chauvinistic
hatred and fascism.

It is possible to explain the
reactionary Prussianized tradi-
tions of Germany, but it is
going to be another matter for
the German people to explain
to the tortured subjugated peo-
ples of Europe why they con-
tinued to help their fascist lead-
ers inflict such a monstrous
rule of murder upon other na-
tions.

The German people will not be
forgiven should they continue to
forget the words of the great Ger-
man poet Goethe, who always de-
fended the ideals of the equality
of nations and of progress and
liberty.

“True universal tolerance,” be
said, “will be achieved only
when every nation possesses the
right to preserve its own dis-
tinctive features and at the
same time understands that the

:

The Weavers

ROM darkened eyes no tears are falling;
Gnashing our teeth, we sit here calling:
“Germany, listen, ere we disperse,
We weave your shroud with a triple curse—

We weave, we are weaving!

“A curse to the false god that we prayed to,
And worshipped in spite of all, and obeyed, too.
We waited and hoped and suffered in vain;

He laughed at us, sneering, for all of our pain—

We weave, we are weaving!

“A curse to the king, and a curse to his coffin,

The rich man’s king whom our plight could not soften;
Who took our last penny by taxes and cheats,

And let us be shot like the dogs in the streets —

We weave, we are weaving!

“A curse to the Fatherland, whose face is

Covered with lies and foul disgraces;

Where the bud is crushed as it leaves the seed,

And the worm grows fat on corruption and greed —

We weave, we are weaving!
“The shuttle flies in the creaking loom;
And night and day we weave your doom —
Old Germany, listen, ere we disperse,
* We weave your shroud with a triple curse.

We weave, we are weaving

12?

—Heinrich Heine.

distinguishing feature of true
worth is that it is part of gen-
eral human worth.”

HE democratic revolution of

1848 in Germany against
feudalism: did not succeed. The
riging bourgeoise, in the course of
the revolution, went over to re-
actien because they feared the
initiative of the working class
movement, Confronted with the
barricades in Berlin, and with the
lessons of France before them,
the bourgeoisie united with their

foes of yesterday — the Junkers
— descendants” of the barbaric
Teutonic Knights — retained in-

tact the leadership of the state
and their feudal rights. The work-
ing class was left alone to face the
counter revolution. Instead of
being defeated, feudalism was re-
stored. The feeling of shame that
was felt by the progressives of
that time was expressed in a
splendid poem, “The Weavers,”
by the great poet Heinrich Heine,
who was an intimate friend of
Marx and Engels.

Heine, who ranks foremost
among the creative minds in clas-
sical literature of Germany, con-
demned the reactionary “Prus-
sian path” of German develop-
ment.

Capitalist Germany was created
by a compromise whereby the
Junkers, bourgeoisie, and militar-
ists, shared political power. The
modern German state was created
from above, by the ruling class,

as was also our own Canadian
state, which accounts for the vast
difference in the bourgeois demo-
eratic traditions as between Ger-
many with France, and Canada
with the United States.

ASCISM is the most shameful
Page in German history —
but not the only shameful page.

For centuries the dead weight of.

the reactionary, chauvinist past of
the German feudal lords, who were
eventually driven from Russia by
Alexander Nevsky, have anchored
the progressive movements of the
German people, and have been
inherited by succeeding genera-
tions, penetrating deeply into the
ranks of the working class. From
Bernstein to Noske, from Noske
to Hitler, with the assistance of
the Trotskyites, have been logical
steps of betrayal. -
Opportunism in the labor move-
ment, of which Germany can pro-
vide classic examples, is closely
linked with the black heritage of
national chauvinism. In i914,
1918, 1923, 1938, opportunism in
the labor movement shackled the
progressive movements of the
German working class. In 1914,
the majority of Social-Democratic
deputies succumbed to national
chauvinism and supported the Im-
perialist war. The “socialist”
chauvinists, the Noskes, and
Scheidmanns, carried out the
orders of their Junker masters.
In 1983 the left wing of the peo-
ple, led by the Communist Party,
was left alone to face reaction.

ce

_ and sacrifices which <

HAT long and tc,

known as histor
with the dead and ma
of patriots who fou
progress, liberty ané
of their times. Anj
dawn of history eack.
historical developmer
has demanded its
human suffering and

Untold thousands aj
men and women hay
ger, poverty, hunger,
cution, in order the
descendents should liy
of civilization and
They fought under th
Spartacus. They hast
banner. of John Bal
Tyler. They tore doy
tille — that hated sym!
reaction — in 1789. Tl
in the American Wi
pendence. They, foug
ker Princes of 1848, an
ial Family Compact”
in 1837. Who has n:
the great Chartist Mo
the struggles of the w
in Great Britain for
rights and the magni}
age of the Paris Com
1871?

And let no one thir
many has not had cou
and women within its
ment, for there once 1
Germany,—the Germs
Thaelmann who today
all the best traditions
And even though the
ers in Germany agai
have been destroyed o7
in concentration car |
mann’s birthday anni
minds us of the here

courageous section of —
working class have
the battles for progr

RNEST THAELN
born April i6, |
working class family, i

From early manhoor
the forefront of every
gle of the Hamburg >
the end of the first:
Thaelmann led the
workers against the
to erush the uprising i

Later he became th
the Communist Party ¢
which under his lea
1933, had over 300,001
As a party of mass s!
organization it aroused
and admiration of tf
throughout the world.
legal elections to the
in November, 1932, :
Germans voted for
and other Communist

Meanwhile the Natic
ist Party, with a frau
gram, was appealing t
man people with decel
agogy. Their main
Hitler, commenced h
career as a police st
The industrialists of fi
tal In Germany assist
cists in every way. |

“were placed at their

Thyssen and others.
eo

WN face of the inroads
civil liberties and
standards of the peop!
munists, headed by
kept on attempting ~
democratic forces to :
fort to prevent the f: