Page:The Lessons of the German Events (1924).djvu/69

 The democratic coalition policy was patently bankrupt. The Social Democrats, who had shared the power of government with the democratic bourgeois parties, had to decide whether they should enter into a firm bloc with the representatives of heavy industry and of reactionary militarism; and this they finally did.

The task of the German Communist Party was, and is, to take advantage of the period of international complications arising out of the crisis of the Ruhr, the internal and extremely difficult crisis of German capitalism, and the proceeding liquidation of the Ruhr crisis in order to overthrow the bourgeoisie and to set up the dictatorship of the proletariat.

To this end, the Party should have mobilised the industrial proletariat for the fight, both against German heavy industry and French imperialism, but at the same time, it should at least have neutralised the middle classes of the town and country, and, if possible, brought them under its leadership.

The first task could be fulfilled only if the Party succeeded in freeing the majority of the proletariat from the influence of the Social Democrats of whatever shade, and in organising them so that they should be prepared for the attack upon the capitalist positions.

This task has not been adequately carried out, the reasons for which will be examined below.

The second task, in essence, involved destroying the Fascist influence and transforming the nationalist frame of mind into the will to fight in alliance with the proletariat, against the German big capitalists and against French imperialism. This task was tackled by the German Communist Party with success, as is best evidenced by the Anti-Fascist Day of July 29, 1923. Large sections of the petty bourgeois population were already in sympathy with the German Communist Party, which had succeeded, in a rather high degree in pointing out to these strata, the hypocrisy of the "social propaganda" of the Fascisti and their objective role as aiders and abettors of the big bourgeoisie, who were betraying the nation, as well as the community of interests of the proletariat and petty bourgeoisie.

The disintegration in the ranks of the bourgeoisie grew from week to week. At the same time confidence in the German Communist Party increased. It was necessary to organise this confidence and to prepare all available forces for the final blow.

In September, the German Communist Party and the Executive of the Comintern, in consultation with the representatives of the five largest parties, came to the conclusion that the revolutionary situation in Germany had so far matured that the question of the decisive struggle was a matter of only a few weeks.

From that time forth the Party mobilised all the forces at its disposal and armed itself with every means for the decisive fight. The Party worked feverishly to make everyone of its members an active fighter, armed for the struggle. In order to