Page:The Lessons of the German Events (1924).djvu/36

 the demonstration. It is a characteristic method to roar oneself hoarse in order to make a thing impossible.

Consequently, it was decided not to demonstrate on the anti-Fascist day, in spite of the fact that the whole of Berlin was tensely expecting it and had prepared itself for it. At the lowest estimate 250,000 workers assembled at our meetings. That was the mood of the masses. And yet we were not to demonstrate, because Brandler demanded of me a guarantee that no armed collisions would take place. And since I could not, and would not, give such a guarantee, the demonstrations were forbidden. But in October, when the Party was in its most difficult crisis, when our workers were being restrained with difficulty from leaving the Party, the representative of the Executive Committee demanded an armed demonstration, merely on political grounds, so to speak. We carried through the demonstration and gave it armed protection; we carried through what the Executive had demanded, for that we shall always do.

I will now deal with the state of the Party and what is bound to take place. Many comrades think that it is an insult to the Communist Party to say it is not a good party. Comrades, it is nevertheless a fact that leadership is not understood in our Party. That illusion has collapsed in Germany.

A profound process is going on in the membership of the Party itself. Within the Party there are tendencies to go over to the Social Democrats. It would be folly not to recognise that this mood exists.

The crisis in the Party cannot be healed by a compromise, by swallowing all stupidities without a murmur. The crisis can be solved only by brutally declaring that there is revisionism in the Party. If we declare this, we may be able to cure the Party. If not, the Centre will form a coalition with the Social-Democrats and at the next Party congress there will be a split.

Our immediate duty is to rearrange and regroup the Party. Without such a regrouping, the Party will be incapable of action.

I should like to add to what the representative of the Executive said about Fascism, namely, that the Fascists had defeated the November Republic. Comrades, what did it mean to say that Fascism has defeated the November Republic? It was sheer demagogic declaration designed to turn the minds of the workers away from the defeat. That was the prime purpose. These theses naturally made the work of our people more difficult.

I must declare (1) that the Party was deceived about the defeat and (2) that the justification was based upon Democratic illusions. This policy can only be justified when one distinguishes between a Fascist, industrial, and a Social-Democratie government, and if one advances the theory that the democratic republic was a non-class structure.

I would like to recommend the comrades of the International to read the last volume of the German International. I have