Page:The Lessons of the German Events (1924).djvu/13

 triumphed, then that in itself is a proof that it has come. I place so little importance on formalities that I concede to the request of Comrades Remmele and Koenen in order not to aggravate the controversy that the Whites have won. For my part, we can say that the brunettes or blondes have won.

Why do the Fascists win? The preceding period in Germany, as it says in the book, was the period of bourgeois democracy. Except for recurring periods of suppressions, in no other country in the world have the proletariat such freedom of action as in Germany. And what great influence the Labour aristocracy had on the November Republic! Those who ignore this fail to understand why the Social-Democratic masses clung so to their republic. The dispute among us was not over the question as to whether the Social-Democracy was violated or whether it was a prostitute. The reason why I regarded it as necessary to say that the Fascism had won is quite different. If Fascism has won, and the Social-Democracy is its ally, then there can be no alliance between us and the Social-Democracy.

The second reason. Next to the question of the revision of the united front tactics, i.e., the challenge to the Social-Democratic leaders, as was stated in the National Committee resolution, I think the outstanding question in the German revolution is the attraction of the petty bourgeois masses. And here I come to a point which I must say is for me; on the one hand, one of the most important, and on the other the most humorous question of controversy.

Comrades, during the discussion over the national question in Moscow with the German comrades in the spring, we said the Party is confronted by a new task, the winning over of the petty-bourgeoisie, which is becoming proletarianised, as an ally, who will help us to capture power in Germany. Hence the participation of the Party in questions affecting the middle class and the national question. On the Enlarged Executive we took up a definite attitude. The speech on Schlageter was unanimously approved. After that speech, Comrades Fischer and Remmele carried this propaganda further arm-in-arm with me. More than that: in the theses of the Executive and of the Russian Central Committee on the German question, and in the articles published by Comrade Zinoviev on the German revolution, all this was quite rightly mentioned again and again. In Russia the peasant is an ally because he belonged to the army. Had there been no army he would have played an important role later, after the capture of power, but not so important a role as during the capture of power. In Germany we have a proletarianised petty-bourgeoisie which marches under the banner of Fascism, whereas the victory of Fascism means its ruin. Hence the differences in the Fascist camp are of decisive political importance for us. Only when these antagonisms become pronounced, and when the petty-bourgeois masses, or at least a section of them, can be torn away from