JANUARY 18, 1941 SOCIALIST APPEAL The KARL LIEBKNECHT: Revolutionist Negro Struggle The Democrats Murdered Him. And Opened The Road To Hitler MARX They Tell Vile Falsehoods About German Workers Our Red Rosa, The German Workers Called Her By ALBERT PARKER The aircraft workers at Voitee (organized By EUGENE VARLIN assassinated them. The assassins people. Liebknecht foresaw that done elsewhere besides Prussia is into Local 683 of the United Auto Workers Union, Twenty two years ago this January 15, the two outstanding were known; but their trial was the Czar would be one of the first proved to the hilt by the present CIO) deserve double thanks from the workers of revolutionary leaders of the German working class, Karl Lieb a mere farce.
to le destroyed by this contradic attempt to outlaw strikes in war.
The war propaganda of British and Ame this country.
knecht and Rosa Luxemburg, were arrested and murdered by Shortly beforo Comende Trottion.
production plants in the United rican imperialism attempts to picture the GerStates.
the German Junker officers whom the Social Democratic govsky deato predicted, and In the hourgeois capitalist First of all they struck a blow which showed man masses as hypnotized followers of Hiternment had called upon to aid it in crushing the socialist revo sian drill sergeant would become state, he wrote. The conscript The maltreatment of soldiers, that it is not only desirable but possible to win ler.
lution. That horrible deel, connived at by the pro war social the Ideal of capitalist America.
higher wages and better working conditions in army. in its function as a Liebknecht insists, is an integral It is a deliberate lic.
isis. beheaded the revolution and led to the victory of Nazism. Liebknecht Militarism. his the war industries, even under a heavy barrage weapon against the proletariat.
part of bourgeois militarism. It It was with the connivance and consent of flows from the need of the capiof attacks from the employer s, their songs and is a crude and terrible contraLiebknecht life is an inspiration to the German proletariat 1906 lectures deserves to be read the capitalists of the world that litler came the government.
which will rise in the course of this war and avenge him. hy all workers today, for it is an diction in itself: under the talists to discipline in their army Czar despotic regime the conthe working class whose interests to power in 1933. They preferred Ilitler to the Secondly, they have taken another action which Al the time of his birth, in August 1871, his father, founder analysis of bourgeois militarism.
are opposed to those of the capi.
script army is a weapon which only other real alternative the socialist reas expressed by its Prussian exof the German socialist movement.
will be greeted with enthusiasm by the workers, must turn itself more and more ialist class. The power of life volution in Germany.
especially those Negro workers who are almost was in prison for high treason. session, however, he broke disci. ponents and now imitated every.
with crushing power against and death possessed by the offi.
Karl hecame a lawyer but one pline and voted against war crowhere.
That revolution was almost achieved in 100 barred from many important industries whose first case was the defense dits.
Militarism. Liebknecht points the despotism of ezarism it. cers further aggravates this situation; the officers tend to use mal1918, when the German workers and the resuch as aircraft.
out in his book, assumes under self.
of a young socialist, and so it treatment instead of persuasion in turning soldiers overthrew the Kaiser. It was Here is how it happened. At the dance celebrat was always.
WHY KARL AND ROSA capitalism special forms, suited to Another contradicilon in capital whipping the men into shape.
FAILED IN 1919 with the help of a French British American ing the victorious strike, two Negro members were the lises to which capitalism pute ist militarism is that, as modern Tlis immortal fame rests, above With Rosa Luxemburs. Clara it. Best adapted to capitalist weapons and strategy become more THESE CONTRADICTIONS threat of armed intervention just as they inasked to leave by people acting as floor manager ali, on his leadership of the strug zetkin, and Franz Mehring he needs is universal military train and more comples, they require POINT THE WAY OUT tervened in Russia. that the German demoand making the request on their own initiative.
In 1906 he was on trial; the first illegal organ of the German tablishment in the United States. an open secret that the German of views Indicatos how he proposed This exposition of Liebknecht crats smashed the revolution.
When the members of the union learned about crime was a series of lectures revolutionists. But they did not The German workers have shown in their it, there was discussion of this action on the on militarism, delivered to the an. build a party.
The army of capitalism serves cers, though they found the East to put an end to bourgeois mit whole history that Nazism is utterly alien to floor of a regular local meeting, resulting in the nual conference of the Socialist as a national institution destined Elbian peasants the most easily tarism. Pacifism, disarmament, them. They have given to the world a shining adoption of the following resolution: Youth organizations. When he Liebknecht organized the mag for attack. but it is at the same commanded soldiers, complained etc. he viewed as so much nonpublished the lectures, the booknificent May Day demonstration of the bosses against the workers, in certain limits because of their diction between the capitalist of time also a weapon in the struggle that they could be lised only with sense. The fundamental contra firmament of revolutionary figures: Karl WHEREAS: At a public dance given by the Marx, Friedrich Engels, Rosa Luxemburg, of 1916 in Berlin. There he de. he Vultee unit of Local 683, two Negro union and sentenced to 18 months im nounced the Imperialists and call. Not only against the workers at low intelligence. These monarch ficers and the armed worker sol Karl Liebknecht, Franz Mehring, Clara Zetbrothers and their guests were asked to leave, ed upon the German proletariat home, but also against the masses ist officers had to confess that the diers would inevitably lead to an prisonment.
kin. These, and not Hitler, typify the German and to fight against its main enemy abroad. For the wars of capital class conscious Socialist workers explosion from within. It was the He was not a pacifist. On the at home. Arrested for this heroicism in this epoch, Liebknecht al made the best soldiers. At the task of the revolutionary party masses.
WHEREAS: This action is in direct contra contrary, as a member of the in protest, he was tried behind closed ready saw clearly in 1906, ori same time, of course, these so to light for the interests of the Thirteen million socialists and commundiction to the national CIO policy of no dis ternational bureau or the Socialist doors the German democracy nate not in Europe but in the cialists were dedicated to destroy worker soldiers and to organize ists the backbone of the German peoplecrimination because of race, color, creed, na.
Youth he attacked those who pro feared an open trial and sen political and commercial expanding the Junker officer class. This them to secure redress of their voted against Hitler in the last election that tionality or political affiliation, and posed refusal to register for mili tenced to four and a half years sion of the civilized nations. contradiction is even more pro grievances. Out of this struggle WHEREAS: The success of our drive to ortary services. In opposition to imprisonment.
was permitted. And that election only dimly whose colonial politics produces nounced today than it was in Lieb as much part of the class strug reflected no election under capitalism really two new forms of militarism: knecht time; precisely the most gle as is the fight in the factories ganize the aircraft industry depends upon the these pacifists, he called for the struggle against bourgeois militar Set free when the Kaiser was navalism (militarism on sea) intelligent trade unionists and re for workers rights, and in the reflects the anti fascist sentiment of the Gerbroadest possible public support, and overthrown, Liebknecht and lax and colonial militarism. The last volutionists make the best tank. epoch of militarism even more im.
WHEREAS: The Negro people, who helped ism within the bourgeois ariny emburg agonizedly realized that is becoming increasingly impor drivers, machine gunners, avia portant would come, Liebknecht man people, itself.
on our picket line with donations of food and the revolutionary wave had no tant for the capitalists, Liebknecht tion mechanics, etc. The Czar will was sure, the socialist society of The German workers need help in overmoney in our recent successful strike, are part When the war broke ont, he was leadership: they tried, working proved; it is used to enslave the have plenty of company!
throwing Hitler. But that help is not carried a member of the Reichstag. The against time, to build the neces natives of the backward conti the future.
of that public, and by American bombing planes. Not freedom Social Democratie party Reichssary revolutionary party. The The power of life and death WHEREAS: We recognize that diserimina tak group was dominated, as was Spartacusbund which they formed THE CONTRADICTIONS nents.
Liebknecht and Luxemburg which capitalist army officers made the mistake, have said, brought to Germany by the victorious imperbut a bloody military dictatorship will be tion of any kind is the weapon used by the en the party, by trade union bureauc suffered all the ills of an inexhave over their men tends to be of not beginning to build the revo ployer and his organizations to split and divide rats: they carried their peacetime perienced and ultra left group, WITHIN THE ARMY extended to private industry and Tutionary party in time to lead the ialist armies of democracy.
Aus in our struggle for a higher standard of liv. opportunism to its logical conclu. it was not permitted time to learn. The most significant contradic it is first challenged there by the revolutionary wave. Two generaThe decisive help that we can give to the ing, therefore be it sion, and. At the of RESOLVED: That we apologize to the Negro knecht hofused to go along a Social Democratie Minister of Liebknecht showod, is that in the my contracts attempt to impose mistake. But our generation win Hitler is to demonstrate to them that we, too, though at the first vote in the War, Junker troops invaded wil struggles of the big capitalist barracks discipline on their work learn, has already profited, from people for this action, and that we give our comReichstag he abided by party dis mersdort where Liebknecht and countries against each other, they ers. That Liebknecht was right both their mistakes and their are struggling against our oppressors. That we, plete assurance that this action will not be re cipline; at the December 2, 1914 Luxemburg were in hiding, and are compelled to arm the whole in generalizing that this would be great contributions.
too, are fighting for a Workers Government, peated, and be it further RESOLVED: That this Local 683 of the United Auto Workers, CIO, do all in its power to. break down the anti labor, racial discrimination policy in the aircraft and national defense in.
dustries, recognizing that our national defense must rest on the maintenance of our democratic principles, foremost among which is the right of By ANTOINETTE KONIKOW ond International. For example, when the French So had to be suspended for the duration of war. Rosa assurance, Belf confidence, and resolution in the every citizen to an opportunity to earn his liveliPhysically she was small, slender, a neglected hip cialists became jubilant because Millerand had re Luxemburg did not waver in her stand. Together masses: a weak, vacillating course not only underhood without discrimination.
disease in childhood left her with a limp. On her ceived a high ministerial post, Rosa at once condemned with Lenin she bad sponsored the resolution against mines the power the working class but demoralizes Another instance of gains in the field of labor arrival to address large gatherings, committees meet this entry into a bourgeo:s government. The gist war adapted at the Stuttgart World Congress, the last and confuses the masses. She cited a passage from a against racial suspicion and divisions to be morr ing her for the first time would become crestfallen: of her criticism was: Socialists can accept executive one before the war. This resolution in veiled phrase book by General Bernardi (he was the guiding gein what happened in another CIO unlon, Local How could such a frail being make an impression on state positions only if the government itself is in ology (to elude the German censors. had actually nius of the Germany army at that time) disclosing 486, of the Midland Steel plant in Cleveland, the speaker platform! But once she faced the crowd, their hands, otherwise they Invariably serve as the threatened a civil war against the bourgeoisie in his fear that under certain conditions the army might Here in a union where 90 of the membership she seemed to grow in stature; her resonant powerful servants of the bourgeoisie and betray the workers. every country it war were declared.
become a menace to the ruling class are white workers, Joseph Jackson, a Negro and volce, her flaming oratory roused audiences to wild In her fight against revisionism she attacked Bern. At the outbreak of the war Rosa Luxemburg ap The Junius pamphlet states that national wars former vice president, has been elected president. enthusiasm. Our Red Rosa, the German workers called stein, very prominent and influential party leader plied the line of this resolution. Addressing the work cannot be waged under imperialism. Lenin realized As one commentator in the area, Ted Cox, put it: her with proud tenderness.
in Germany, who argued that Marx had become out ers in Germany she said: If you are ordered to shoot that Junius had the world war in mind, but considered They (the members) wanted the best leader.
Rosa Luxemburg was a magnificent speaker and moded and that it was possible to evolve into social down your French brothers refuse to shoot! She it necessary to correct this statement by explaining ship available in the shop. So, when President combined this with a rare ability of presenting the ism without any revolution by simply relying on pro was arrested and imprisoned for the duration of the that we would support national ways of the colonial Mack check resigned, they looked around. They ideas of socialism in a simple and graphic language. gress, the parliament, and the feelings of justice and war. Her fate became henceforth indissolubly linked peoples for self determination; such wars are progres.
didn give a damn what color or what religious She was not only a student but a theoreticlan of Marx morality. Revisionism expressed the direct pressure with that of Liebknecht, her comrade in arms, who sive and a blow to imperialism.
ism, the author of many pamphlets and books, among or political opinions that leadership might have.
of the middle class upon the workers movement: had proclaimed: Our main enemy is at home! and Junius called for a German republic to put an end They wanted ability.
them. The Accumulation of Capital, in which she pressure which repeats itsel periodically, as we can who soon shared Rosa fate imprisonment.
to the war. Lenin pointed out that a parliament expanded and modified Marx exposition of this sub vouch for from our own recent experience. In Ger Rosa Luxemburg. caged like eagle, spent her constituted of representatives of the burgeoisle and It happened that Joe Jackson, who is colored, ject in volume IT of Das Kopital. The controversy many, capitalism was on the up grade at the time. days in a tiny cell from which she could barely the middle class could never stop tire war. Only the had that ability. So now Joe is president of one over her interpretation still continues and leave it The party had several million votes, a vast treasury, glimpse a blue patch of the sky. Her letters from masses through the Soviet scan assure peace.
of the biggest, most militant and most successful to theoreticians to evaluate its merits. But Rosa many newspapers, scores of parliamentary seats, etc.
local unions in the Cleveland CIO.
prison reveal an aspect of her character previously was no cabinet theoretician. Her writings as her Party functionaries were well paid, and trade union known only to her friends. The tenderness of this Rosa and the Russian Revolution Here, therefore, are two good example of how speeches were intimately bound up with action.
leaders dominated the party. feeling of satisfaction indomitable fighter is evidenced in these letters. She In prison Rosa received the great news of the Rus.
trade unions, militant and democratically conShe possessed the rarest of gifts the ability to combined with a fear of losing their gains began to could not observe without revulsion even the suffer. sian Revolution. She burned with indignation over trolled by the rank and file, are educating white understand and even sense in advance the vital pe possess the Social Democratie tops. They argued ing of animals the overloaded oxen, the tiny, unprothe Brest Litovsk peace forced by Germany upon the workers to the necessity for complete equality riods, problems, and strategy of the workers movement. against revolutionary action because everything seem. tected bird. In her letters she puts down her deep Bolsheviks. She accused the pro war socialists of It was precisely this that brought her into sharp ed to be progressing smoothly. Why rush, why gam. sympathy for all suffering, her craving for peace and their responsibility, their degrading submission to the Much Still to be Done conflict throughout her life with the sell satisfied and ble. when a gradual growth would bring about so.
Junkers. The Russian Revolution deeply inspired beauty, her anger at injustice. She did not, however, degenerating leadership of old German Social Democ. clalism? In her fight against this Philistine outlook, let her hands hang. Her magnetic personality and Rosa. Enemies of the Russian Revolution have tried The torial of the latest issue of The гасу.
Rosa had against her almost German lead noble nature enabled her to make frien in prison to construe her criticism of the Russian Bolsheviks.
Chicago Defender features a cartoon by Jay Jack Rosa Luxemburg was born in Czarist Poland, and ership.
who helped to smuggle out regularly her articles For as an opposition to the Russian revolution. This is son, entitled Back or It All. It shows a fac began to participate in illegal revolutionary clreles The International, the publication of the Spartakus false. It was as one of them that she criticized somo tory entitled National Defense Work. bearing 1905 Becomes the Dividing Line from a very early age. At 18 she was forced to flee group which she and Liebknecht had formed.
of their tactics.
a sign HelpWanted. In front of it stands a Poland in order to escape arrest. met her at Zurich When the 1905 revolution broke out in Russia, Rosa The Famous Junius Pamphlet The most vicious lie is that spread In the Stalinists, Negro worker in overalls, labelled Negro Labor.
where she studied economics and philosophy. She was with great joy followed the tremendous mass movewho have tried to depict her as an enemy of Com, and he is held up, prevented from entering it, Her hest known work of that period is the Junius ment in her own backward homeland. She grasped munism.
so mature, serious and self assured that my friends by a huge hand extended in front of him, barring and myself considered her our sentor, but in reality at once the importance of the new weapons applied pamphlet, circulated throughout Germany. She did The doors of her prison were thrown open by the his entrance. This hand is labelled not sign her name because that would have disclosed in her Russia, especially the role of the general strike.
she was several years younger than we were.
German workers. It was November 9, 1918 the beReturning to Poland she worked to counteract the The point of the cartoon is quite evidently The German leadership inclined to dismiss the gen.
her work in prison. Even Lenin was unaware of the ginning of the German revolution. Although her long reactionary nationalist movement which had grown that Negro labor could get jobs in the war ineral strike as general nonsense. But Rosa saw in identy of the author of this remarkable pamphlet. prison term had weakened and exhausted ber, Rosa strong, by organizing the workers on a principled it revolutionary mass action surging onward without which he greeted with joy as a sign of a new and dustries it were not for the AFL, which is threw herself into the work. She edited the Rote fear of the possibilities of defeats an expression of powerful revolutionary wing developing in Germany.
Marxist basis. Lenin criticized her opposing the de back of it all.
Fahne (Red Banner. Together with Liebknecht she the tremendous vitality latent in the masses. During mand for self determination, in particular for Poland.
He critized the pamphlet for its mistakes, but appreDoes such a cartoon help the struggle to open organized the German Communist Party. The Manithis period she became more and more estranged from ciated its power and true revolutionary spirit.
Her influence in organizing a powerful and strongly the doors of industry to colored workers? We festo of the party, in complete agreement with the centralized party in Poland was enormous. On more the old leadership, and from Karl Kautsky himself Junius reasons for opposing imsierialist wars program advocated by Lenin and Trotsky was writthink not.
than one occasion she sided with Lenin against the who had for a while shared her enthusiasm for the have become classic. They should be studied today, ten by her.
Who owns and controls and runs the factories?
Mensheviks within the Russian movement.
1905 events in Russia.
for they apply to World War II just as they did twenty The degenerated leadership of the Social DemocThe unlons or the bosses? To ask the question The World War of 1914 brought with It the crucial years ago. Rosa explained that the victory of either racy took charge of the government in order to crush is to answer it. It is the bosses of course, and Her Struggle Against Reformism test for all revolutionists. The German party and the side whether Germany or the Allies would neces the revolution. Luxemburg and Liebknecht were it is they and their managers who do the hiring.
Through a fictitious marriage she became a German Second International revealed the full extent of their sarily lead another world slaughter. Only the masses hounded. Leaflets demanding their assassination were Who benefits from division of the races, who citizen and was thus admitted to the arena of the large degeneration. The leaders betrayed the working class.
could tear humanity out of war. Nothing can save circulated. Large rewards were offered for their capreally profits from it, the unions or the bosses?
German party. From then on we find her dealing blow Kautsky, the theoretical leader of the Second Interthe world except Socialism.
ture. The Spartakus group which had become the The bosses, of course, because they can play one after blow to the reformist tendency which was gaining national bid his farewell to Marxism, declaring that She exposed the hypocricy of the capitalist class, German Communist Party had a large following but rade against the other.
sway over the German Social Democracy and the Sec internationalism could operate only in peace time and the fraud of patriotism. The ruling class will always was not yet strong enough to take power. The situ.
Plenty of factories in the war industries are make an alliance with the enemy in order to suppress ation greatly resembled the July, 1917 days in Russia.
not organized at all. How many of these hire its own working class. The French aristocrats wel: The advanced workers were pressing forward to batNegroes any more than the factories that are or comed the English and German armies against the tle, while the leadership realized that it was prema.
ganized!
French Jacobins. The German army released the army ture. The bourgeoisie and the Social Democratic leadof Napoleon III so that the Paris Commune could be It is incorrect and misleading to say that the. ers did everything in their power to provoke the main responsibility for discrimination in hiring crushed. The Russian White Guards urgeil England, masses in Berlin to an uprising so as to drown the SPEAKER France and Germany to help them against the Rusin the war industries lies at the door of the AFL.
revolution in blood. Liebknecht and Luxemburg did sia of the Bolsheviks.
not stand aside from the masses. On January 15, To do so serves only to whitewash the role of She pointed out that, far from the they were bosses who are really responsible.
rrested and immediately assassinated.
working class, the revolution would strengthen and These two great revolutionists, two of the most We do not seek in any way to minimize or Trotskyist Candidate for Senator from Minnesota. Member National Executive encourage the masses to defend their country, which sincere, devoted and fearless leaders of the proletariat excuse or cover up the stupid, reactionary and Board of the Workers Defense League becomes their real fatherland only after the revolu. were murdered by the bourgeoisie and its cialist Vicious part played by some union leaders in the tion. The combined forces of all the monarchies could lackeys. Luxemburg and Liebknecht have become the AFL. We denounce them and we carry on a Friday, January 24, 1941 not subdue the great French Revolution. Nor could symbols for courage, militancy and unswerving opposifight against their harmful policies.
8:30 Soviet Russia under Lenin and Trotsky be overthrown tion to Imperialist war. The monuments erected in After all, what is back of it all even in the by all the imperialists.
Germany to commemorate these two comrades have IRVING PLAZA case of AFL officials guilty of Jim Crow practices?
And when the social patriots sneered that the party been destroyed by Hitler.
Isn it the training they received from the capi.
Irving Place and 15th Street New York City could do nothing during war time, she replied: Our But Luxemburg and Liebknecht have more perma talist system? Isn it the prejudices they inherited task is to issue clear political slogans comprehensible ment memorials than monuments of stone or iron.
from the respectable captains of industry whom AUSPICES: Socjalist Workers Party Admission 25c to the workers; a determined consistently revolution Their names are inscribed in flaming red letters in so many of them try to imitate?
ary course of action followed by the party will arouse the hearts of the international working class.
LENIN MEMORIAL MEETING GRACE CARLSON