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Syndicalism and Anarcho-Syndicalism in Germany. An Introduction.
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Edition AV
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Syndicalism and Anarcho-Syndicalism in Germany:
by
Helge Döhring translation by John Carroll
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The
following text comprises an introduction to the development of German
Syndicalism from its beginnings in 1890 until the end of its organized form in
the early 1960s. The emphasis of this introduction, however, centers on the
period before and leading up to 1933, when the National Socialists under Adolf
Hitler ascended to power. Syndicalism, and more specifically Anarcho-Syndicalism
are movements that have been largely forgotten. This albeit superficial outline
should, at its conclusion, show that this movement was not always so obscure and
unknown. This piece aims not to comprehensively examine all the varied aspects
of German Anarcho-syndicalism, but rather to pique the curiosity and interest of
its readers.
INHALT
1. What does “Workers’ Movement” mean?
2. The emergence of Anarcho-Syndicalism and the Free Association of German
Unions
3. The moulding of Anarcho-Syndicalism after the First World War
4. A clear alternative to authoritarian Communism: the Free Workers’ Union of
Germany
4.1 The essential differences from the centralized Trade Unions
4.2 Reasons for the decline in membership in the Free Workers’ Union
4.2.1 The effects of declining membership on the workplace: Factory Councils and
Bargaining Agreements
4.2.2 Tensions and Conflict within the FAUD
4.3 Anarcho-Syndicalism beyond the workplace organization
4.3.1 Cultural organization
4.3.1.1 The Association of free-thinking Proletariat (GpF)
4.3.1.2 The Guild of Friends of Free Books (GfB)
4.3.2 Aid Organizations
4.3.2.1 The Association for Population Control and Sexual Hygiene (RV)
4.3.2.2 The Black Flock
4.3.2.3 The Movement of the Unemployed
4.3.3 Alternatives to the Free Workers’ Union
4.3.3.1 The Communal Settlements
4.3.3.2 The Vagabond Movement
4.3.4 Auxiliary Organizations of the FAUD
4.3.4.1 The Syndicalist-Anarchist Youth of Germany (SAJD)
4.3.4.2 The Syndicalist Women’s Group (SFB)
4.3.4.3 The Childrens’ Movement
4.4 The End of the Free Workers’ Union of Germany
5. Syndicalism and its Significance
This Text ist translated from: Helge Döhring: Syndikalismus und
Anarcho-Syndikalismus in Deutschland. Eine Einführung, in: Jürgen Mümken:
Anarchosyndikalismus an der Fulda. Die FAUD in Kassel und im Widerstand gegen
Nationalsozialismus und Faschismus, Frankfurt 2004, Verlag Edition AV.
Foreword
The following text comprises an introduction to the development of German
Syndicalism from its beginnings in 1890 until the end of its organized form in
the early 1960s. The emphasis of this introduction, however, centers on the
period before and leading up to 1933, when the National Socialists under Adolf
Hitler ascended to power. Syndicalism, and more specifically Anarcho-Syndicalism
are movements that have been largely forgotten. This albeit superficial outline
should, at its conclusion, show that this movement was not always so obscure and
unknown. This piece aims not to comprehensively examine all the varied aspects
of German Anarcho-syndicalism, but rather to pique the curiosity and interest of
its readers.
1. What does “Workers’ Movement” mean?
The first thing that one learns in studying the history of the Workers’
Movement, in Germany and elsewhere, is that the workers were organized primarily
into the so-called ‘Workers Parties.’ In Germany these took the form of the SPD
[moderate Social Democrats] and the KPD [German Communist Party]. Upon further
examination a number of other parties fall into view, for example Rosa
Luxemburg’s “Independent Social-Democratic Party” (USPD), or the CP’s other
incarnations, the KAPD and the Socialist Workers’ Party. And naturally the
definition of the term “Workers’ Movement” places these political parties firmly
in the foreground. The same is true of Germany’s General Association of Unions
(ADGB). Closer observation, however, reveals that these institutions have less
to do with a movement in the truest sense of the word than with the regulation
and disciplining of the Workers’ Movement to the benefit of private or state
investors of capital. If we are to speak of a true movement of workers we can
only speak of the grassroots initiatives of the proletariat, which tried to
advance the class struggle. In some cases these efforts included
Social-Democratic or Communist workers. Worth noting, however, is how quickly
such activities elicited objections from their leaders in the parties and trade
unions. In contrast to these institutions, we view the idea of a “workers’
movement” as something which develops in an organic fashion, not in response to
orders from union or party leadership but rather as a product of the activities
of organized wage workers fully conscious of their own responsibilities and
avoiding centralized organizations. Considerable energy and strength is absorbed
in the activities surrounding sectarian conflicts, “great leaders” and the
production of specialized Marxist literature from Bernstein to Lenin. And all
this just to come to the realization that the Workers’ Movement, as defined by
these groups, is paralyzed. For those who would like to shorten the route to
this revelation without missing any of the essential lessons, one need only look
back at times when there actually were organized working-class movements that
transcended Marxist dogma and electoral deceptions. Germany, during the interwar
period, yields an example of a Workers’ Movement with independent, free-standing
forms of organization, primarily among the Unionist/Council Communists and the
(Anarcho-)Syndicalists. Here we will focus on the Anarcho-Syndicalists, which in
Germany formed not only a remarkable “movement of ideas,” but also a recognized
proletarian mass-movement, one that has been largely forgotten.
Those who attempt to find references or information relevant to this subject
among less mainstream sources, from Wolfgang Abendroth or Karl-Heinz Roth, for
example, will be disappointed. And yet, alongside standard works on the subject,
authored by Hans Manfred Bock, Angela Vogel or Hartmut Rübner, to name a few,
there appear a number of regional studies…concerning Anarcho-Syndicalism.
2. The Emergence of Anarcho-Syndicalism and the Association of Free German
Unions
To get back to the central theme of this introduction, what was the FAUD? Its
roots lie in the German social democracy that was formed under the Kaiser. The
centralized organizational structure of the Party left it vulnerable to the
restrictive measures of Bismarck’s (anti-Socialist Law, which easily dissolved
executive organizations. After the Socialist Law was repealed some of the
members of the various local social-democratic organizations were reluctant to
maintain centralized organizations, and were termed “localists.” The “localists”
comprised a small minority within the social-democratic movement, but one that
enjoyed considerable support in the capital, Berlin. At first they held fast to
their party mentality and to their own Marxist interpretations, but the
“revisionist” resolutions of the SPD’s Erfurt Congress in 1891 strengthened
localist aspirations for the formation of a separate organization. The very next
year the General Commission of the SPD organized a Congress in Halberstadt,
where calls were made for the extirpation of the localist faction. In 1897 this
element responded by joining in the “centralization of German shop-stewards” and
in 1901 reorganized itself into the “Free Association of German Unions” (FVDG).
In the following years the social-democratic leadership struggled in vain to
fully reintegrate the localist groups, which, according to Party functionary and
future Chancellor Friedrich Ebert, were self-described social democrats and not
to be compared with the anarchist milieu. Finally an ultimatum was set forth:
the localists could accept the leadership of the central unions or be fully
expelled from the SPD. The FVDG, which had by this time grown to about 16,000
members, lost half of them by 1908. For the remaining members this effectively
cut the umbilical cord from the SPD. The localist movement now developed its own
concepts of how to overthrow the present social system and construct a new one.
During this process the localists were influenced in part by the “Bourses du
travail” of the French syndicalist movement and by the worldview of Rapael
Friedebergs, who likewise rejected both state and party as centralized
organizations. At the same time, the “Young Opposition” under Paul Kampffmeyer
was pushing in the same direction within the SPD. In this way the term
“syndicalist” came to replace “localist.”
From this time until the First World War the FVDG maintained a rather
insignificant membership of about 8,000 and published two organizational
periodicals, “Einigkeit” [Unity] and “Pionier.” Starting around this time the
members of the FVDG were also exposed to the multifaceted antagonism of their
former comrades, who even joined forces with company managers to force
syndicalists from their jobs and nip the possibility of a “competing union” in
the bud. As a result, the localist/syndicalists found themselves faced with yet
another powerful opponent, in addition to the capitalists. While the central
unions made great displays of patriotic readiness and commitment, the
syndicalists were persecuted by state officials and opposed by social democrats
for their vehement anti-war stance. Meanwhile, anarchist theory, personified by
Proudhon, Kropotkin and Gustav Landauer, gained traction in Germany.
3. The moulding of Anarcho-Syndicalism after the First World War
Following the First World War the FVDG reconstituted itself. Large numbers of
workers, disappointed by the SPD’s support for the war, flocked to alternative
organizations, among them the FVDG, which increased its numbers ten-fold within
a year, reaching approximately 60,000. This organization offered a real form of
worker self-management, which was perceived by the central trade unions as a
threat to their aims of social partnership. Syndicalists, along with council
communists, were the bogeymen of social democracy, not just because they
attracted large numbers of new members (up to 150,000 by 1922), but also because
they developed a more concrete concept of their organization and theory. This
manifested itself in the “Prinzipienerklärung des Syndikalismus,” [Declaration
of the principles of syndicalism] written by the then up-and-coming theorist
Rudolf Rocker and presented in 1919 to the 12th Congress of the FVDG, which
adopted it with few alterations.
In contrast to social democracy, which imposed the mediating structure of the
party upon the workplace organizations, the syndicalists recognized the dangers
that could result from such dualism. Consequently, they put aside the
theoretical division of economics and politics with the aim of enabling the
proletariat to govern itself on all levels. In accordance with these claims the
syndicalists had to organize themselves in all realms of life. Society was to
both rule and carry all responsibility for itself, for “freedom exists only
where it is carried forth with the spirit of personal responsibility,” as Rudolf
Rocker put it. In concurrence with Marxist theory, the syndicalists held that
economics represented the essential foundation of social life, and that
organizing efforts needed to concentrate on the two main actors within the
economic sphere: producers and consumers.
4. A clear alternative to authoritarian Communism: The Free Workers’ Union of
Germany
As a result of its theoretical outlook, the FVDG was renamed the Free Workers’
Union of Germany in 1919 and reorganized into Industrial Federations on one hand
and Workers’ Communities (Arbeitsbörsen) on the other. The Industrial
Federations, in which all local workers in the same industry were organized,
were responsible for matters relating to the workplace and the daily struggles
that occurred there. The Workers’ Communities represented the local
organizations in the realm of popular education and cultural affairs and was
responsible for defining and disseminating the Anarcho-syndicalist worldview.
Here the fundamentally federalist principals of syndicalism were given full
expression, as each local union had the right to participate equally in internal
elections and enjoyed equal access to the economic resources of the
organizations.
The means of struggle were largely economic in character, but the FAUD as a
union was not content to lead struggles in this realm only to cede to the
political and military force of the parties and the state. Once the proletariat
had attained power through a general strike it was never again to give it up.
Parliamentarianism and the use of state forms played no role in the
considerations of the syndicalists--the existing political order was to be
replaced with free associations of producers and consumers.
In order to effect the transition in the economic sector as smoothly as possible
following the revolutionary phase, the FAUD was to constitute these forms before
the general strike, and thereby guarantee control of the factories for the
workers. The Workers’ Communities would be reformed into a type of “statistical
office” for the purpose of coordinating this process. The syndicalists made this
vision concrete and thereby offered a realistic prospect for a free, socialist
society while other workers’ organizations followed the ‘state capitalist’
example of the Soviet Union, sought peace with the private sector or presented
no possibilities for a socialist society. This perspective alone justifies a
closer examination of the syndicalist movement.
In contrast to council communists the syndicalists placed great importance on
the political questions of the day rather than waiting for conditions favourable
to a revolution. The self-administration of society required that the skills and
abilities necessary to this task be rehearsed and exercised. The workers’
participation in daily struggles was to keep them in shape for the class
struggle at large. Moreover, small victories could raise the profile of the
organization. In fact, after the ebbing of the revolutionary period of 1918-1923
council communist organizations dissolved, being unable to present a relevant
perspective, and many groups turned to the FAUD.
In the struggles of the Weimar Republic’s infancy the syndicalists played
leading roles in some regions. The FAUD grew into a mass organization and its
local unions spread to almost every corner of the country, encompassing cities
and villages. People of all ages found representation [in the organization]. Of
the 12 sectors of industry identified by the FAUD only 5 could be covered by
industrial federations, however: construction, mining, transportation,
metal-working and textiles. In locales unable to gather together the mandatory
25 members for a branch organization a “Union of all Trades” was founded. The
local unions were transparently and thoroughly structured: a chairperson, a
representative, an auditor and two treasurers were elected to organize the tasks
associated with the group’s finances, correspondence and agitational activities.
The Geschäftskommission in Berlin under Fritz Kater remained the executive
coordinating body and was elected approximately every two years at the FAUD
Congress, which also took place in Berlin until 1933. This congress was the
highest decision-making body in the organization, and comprised the delegates of
all the local unions.
The primary periodical organ of the FAUD was Der Syndikalist [The Syndicalist],
which was published every week and was subscribed to by every member as a matter
of obligation, which tied its distribution very closely to the numerical level
of membership. Alongside this newspaper existed other periodicals, which were
either produced on a regional level or were the organs of the industrial
federations.
The local unions of the FAUD were influential in only a few areas, among them
Düsseldorf (chiefly tilers), Berlin (boxmakers), or in the Ruhr region (mining).
Still, the central and ‘christian’ trade unions showed that they had the upper
hand.
4.1 The essential differences from the centralized Trade Unions
From the programmatic foundation of the FVDG, consisting primarily of its
theoretical points from 1911, one can see a clear contrast to the major trade
unions. The latter comprised centralized, dependent organizations that
administered funds and determined the legitimacy of strikes, at times hindering
or breaking off such actions. The members of these unions were conditioned to
obey and the strikes of these institutions were generally defensive actions. The
central trade unions also represented business interests and relied on the
system of representation that allowed them a voice in managing production. These
organizations won over and held on to members through their benefits, which
included healthcare, funds for the unemployed and disbursements for funeral
costs. The central trade unions sought reform within the bounds of capitalistic
economic forms, promoted comprehensive wage-contract policies, adhered to a
praxis of small strikes and, along with the party, sought military reforms.
In contrast, the syndicalists were organized in a federal manner, where the
local unions were self-sufficient and allowed independent action, even to the
point of strikes and negotiations. Solidarity was the watchword of syndicalist
workers, who represented class interests through aggressive strikes and direct
action. Unlike workers in other unions, the syndicalists only paid money into
strike and mutual assistance funds. These workers agitated for the overthrow of
capitalism, seeking not peace but a struggle against the entrepreneurial class,
advocating mass- and general-strikes and rejecting militarism out of hand.
But within two years [1923-1925] the FAUD suffered losses so severe that its
membership stood at a fifth of its high-watermark. Of the remaining
20,000-30,000 members about half represented the ideologically committed core of
the organization.
4.2 Reasons for the decline in membership of the Free Workers’ Union
Alongside the integration of the working class into bourgeois society through
the welfare state, internal strife over the course of the FAUD and competition
from the much more powerful reformist trade unions, numerous other factors came
into play that resulted in the decline of anarcho-syndicalist influence. The
FAUD’s agitation and propaganda was relatively limited in its reach while
proletarian culture was progressively absorbed into the bourgeois mileu. State
repression, most notably the banning of the FAUD in 1923, increasing
unemployment and the inability of the union to ideologically and culturally
integrate the large numbers of workers that joined during the revolutionary
period of 1918-1923 also contributed to this reversal.
4.2.1 The effects of declining membership on the workplace: factory councils
and bargaining agreements
The dilemma posed by such a dramatic decline in membership provoked debate
within the organization, raising the question of whether or not locals should
participate in factory councils and enter into contractual negotiations. Such
activities were rejected as incompatible with the union’s principals, which
adhered to “direct action” and opposed any form of cooperation with management
through representative policies. Still, the syndicalists exercised tolerance in
regards to this question in areas where they maintained influence, such as the
Ruhrgebiet or the Rheinland, a policy that continued until 1933. When the
smaller local unions of the FAUD actually did make contractual agreements they
were not recognized under the law, a matter that was eventually brought before
the Reichsarbeitsgericht [National Labour Court], which ruled that an
organization whose principles advocated class struggle and revolution could not
bargain under the protection of labor laws, since it refuted the legitimacy of
the legal system as such. With this ruling the effort to win the union both time
and room to maneuver came to nothing.
In terms of mandates to the legally-recognized factory councils the other
workers’ organizations of the FAUD had long since been pushed to the periphery.
Nevertheless, the question of how to attract the attention of more workers and
increase the influence of the syndicalists pushed the active members to look for
new avenues and methods. However, the integration of the workers into the
newly-moulded “social state” had been more or less completed and the central
trade unions jealously guarded their gains. Finally the syndicalists set their
sights on the agricultural sector, a surprising development in an industrial
workers’ organization. And yet, despite a agriculturally-centered publication,
“Free the Land”, this initiative achieved no results worth mentioning.
4.2.2 Tensions and conflict within the FAUD
The cultural sector of the organization was strengthened by tolerating views
that deviated from the FAUD’s declared principals, and an attempt was made to
restructure the organization in a way that would correspond to these changes.
The FAUD’s center of gravity moved away from the industrial federations, which
dated from the time of the FVDG, and rested now on the workers’ communities,
which resulted in greater engagement in the cultural sphere. Since changes in
economic and political conditions in Germany occurred at different rates and to
differing degrees, tensions within the FAUD intensified, primarily around the
question of how to regulate the national organization. One side of this conflict
grasped the effects of the new conditions and socio-economic framework with
which they were faced and sought reorganization in the form of “unity
organizations,” which would take over the task of large-scale coordination. The
other, affected more adversely by the conditions of the post-war period, wanted
to maintain the older structure of strong and independent industrial
federations. In the end it was the question of how to regulate and carry out the
collection of strike funds that caused the tensions to boil over.
According to a decision at the FAUD’s congress the workers’ communities were to
arrange and organize the collection of these funds. For the supporters of the
industrial federations this was a decisive attack on the independence of the
entire federal structure. This issue had to be resolved with all possible speed
so that meaningful support could be extended to those members that were
suffering most acutely from the marginalization of the FAUD. This sense of
immediacy led to a hardening of feelings on both sides, which eventually
resulted in a split in the construction workers’ federation, one of the
organization’s bedrock unions.
By 1927 the FAUD had crossed over from being a union that claimed to be an
anarchist organization to being an anarchist organization that claimed to be a
union. The union no longer had at its disposal the agitational force necessary
to stymie the decline in membership. Other council communist and anarchist
organizations, like the German Federation of Anarchist Communists (FKAD), had
failed before in this respect. In contrast, the trade unions recovered, partly
as a result of the hyper-inflation of the early 1920’s, partly as a consequence
of the French occupation of the Ruhr in 1923, which drove many workers to these
influential and legally recognized organizations.
4.3 Anarcho-syndicalism beyond the workplace
Rudolf Rocker, at this time the leading figure of both the German and
international syndicalist movement, emphasized in the FAUD’s Prinzipienerklärung
[Declaration of the principles of Syndicalism] that Socialism was, in the end, a
cultural question. Accordingly, Anarcho-syndicalists did not confine themselves
to organizing at the workplace, but took part in a number of significant
movements, in order to promote their ideas and tackle economic and cultural
tasks with their method of self-organization and self-management. [In the
following sections] the various auxiliary organizations of the FAUD, as well as
associated alternative movements, will be discussed. Of additional importance
are the efforts on the part of the Anarcho-syndicalists to bolster their
declining numbers through greater participation in cultural activities.
Deserving particular mention is the active role played by Syndicalists in the
“Free Thinkers’ Movement” and the “Guild of libertarian Friends of Books” (Gilde
freiheitlicher Bücherfreunde), which was closely aligned with the FAUD. The
influence of Anarcho-syndicalism on the various proletarian singing
organizations has yet to be more fully researched, and in this work it will have
to suffice to say that a number of Syndicalists were actively engaged in
Singers’ Associations and Glee Clubs.
4.3.1 The Cultural Organizations
4.3.1.1 The Society of Proletarian Free Thinkers
The Freidenkerbewegung [Free Thinkers’ Movement], with over a million members,
was split in numerous different directions because in most cases the political
parties were able to make their influence felt. However, the Free Thinkers’
Movement united the proletariat across all party lines against the powerful
influence of the church, and from 1927/1928 onwards syndicalists were
increasingly engaged in opposition to the machinations of the church through the
Society of Proletarian Free Thinkers (GpF). In place of Confirmations they
organized a school graduation course, where questions of global importance were
introduced and discussed, and which ended with a ceremony and celebration meant
to send off the participants into the world. The central feature of this course
was the encouragement of congregation members to leave the church.
Nevertheless, members of the KPD were dominant here and used their possession of
leading positions to agitate against the syndicalists. The cooperation with
authoritarian communists was the subject of considerable debate within the FAUD,
but the majority felt it was necessary to actively support the Free Thinkers’
Movement, in whatever form, and not leave the communists unchallenged. Still,
syndicalist influence dwindled, primarily due to discord between the individual
chapters, the dominance of the social-democratic functionaries and the
internecine conflicts between “party-line” KPD members and the Communist
Opposition. All told, the Society of Proletarian Free Thinkers’ offered
syndicalists only limited opportunities for expansion.
4.3.1.2 The “Friends of Free Books” [GfB]
The Friends of Free Books (GfB), in contrast, was founded by the FAUD in 1927 in
association with the union’s own cultural organization. One year later the
GfB-Leipzig constituted itself as the first “Guild Group,” and in 1929 came the
national organization that comprised the wider network. Dues paying members were
provided with syndicalist literature and could order books. The local chapters
of the Guild organized readings, theatre productions and concerts with important
figures like Erich Mühsam, Rudolf Rocker, Emma Goldman, Helene Stöcker, Bruno
Vogel and Theodor Plivier. The organ of the GfB was the monthly, and later
quarterly, magazine “Besinnung und Aufbruch” [Reflection and Beginning], in
which Rudolf Rocker published the first excerpts of his work “The Decision of
the West.”
Membership climbed rapidly after 1928 to a national total of 1,250 members in
1931. Simultaneous membership in the FAUD was not obligatory and all-in-all the
GfB was the most successful attempt to slow the decline of the union. The
Göppinger Guild in Württemberg, for example, reached 80 members within six
months of its foundation and was the largest group of its kind. The success of
this chapter can also be measured by the fact that following the war’s end it
was reconstituted under the same name.
4.3.2 Aid Organizations [Hilfsorganisationen]
4.3.2.1 The Association for Birth Control and Sexual Hygiene (RVfG)
An aid organization founded in 1928 for the benefit of young women, workers and
poor working-class families, the Association for Birth Control and Sexual
Hygiene took on as its task the counselling of individuals and families in the
use of contraception and abortion and the explanation of legal issues. Activists
distributed contraceptive devices and aided in the arrangement of abortion
procedures. In carrying out its mission, the RVfG was supposed to remain
politically and religiously neutral and to avoid association with trade unions,
although its chairman, Franz Gampe, was a FAUD member in Nürnberg. By 1930 the
organization included 200 local chapters, in which the over 15,000 members
participated.
4.3.2.2 The “Schwarzen Scharen”
In the face of increasing political violence and the rising number of attacks on
Anarcho-syndicalists at meetings and demonstrations by extremists of the right
and left, an additional organization was formed as a response. At the end of the
1920s militant fighting organizations were formed, primarily by youths in Berlin
and Upper Silesia, that generally carried the name “Schwarze Scharen” [Black
Troop] and were several hundred in number nationwide.
These groups were to defend public events of the FAUD or allied organizations
from disruption by Communists or Nazis. The Schwarzen Scharen can be viewed as
the anarcho-syndicalist counterpart to the “Reichsbanner” of the SPD or the “Red
Fighting Front” of the KPD. The members of the group wore all black clothing,
some possessed firearms and were often involved in physical conflict.
The Schwarzen Scharen were not officially associated with the FAUD, due to
protests within the union against the militarization of the organization. Since
the FAUD was however not at its root a pacifistic movement these militant
formations were tolerated and used as a defensive force in many areas.
4.3.2.3 The Movement of the Unemployed
Since companies laid off primarily anticapitalist workers, the out-of-work
quickly organized en masse in Unemployed Councils. The shifting of power within
the FAUD from the Industrial Federations to the Workers’ Communities
[Arbeitsbörsen] helped make possible the union’s participation in this movement,
since it also occupied itself with the new conditions of the labor market after
turning away from the trade union movement.
At the last Congress in 1932 the question of the Unemployed Movement gained a
place among the central themes of the Anarcho-syndicalists. In many places the
FAUD was already actively participating in demonstrations of the unemployed and
organized mutual aid and counselling. Thus, out of the original trade union
movement, whose chief weapon was the strike, came a consumption-oriented
organization armed with the threat of the boycott.
4.3.3 Alternative Movements to the FAUD
4.3.3.1 The Communal Settlements
Held in lower esteem within the ranks of the FAUD were the activities of the
“Settlers Movement,” although there were individuals like the writer Theodor
Plivier and Helmut Klose who enjoyed the respect of union members. [According to
the FAUD], revolutionary class struggle could not be carried out through
separation from the working class, but rather through class-aligned workplace
organizations: the power of industrial monopolies could only be broken from
within by the workers. Settlements or communal associations were in contrast
dependent on the goodwill of their capitalist competitors and thereby destined
for failure.
Nevertheless, settlement projects were started throughout the territory of the
Weimar Republic with the participation and help of syndicalists and anarchists.
In the debate surrounding the “settlement question” one member of the editorial
board of “Der Syndikalist” was even removed from his position, a result of his
decision to publish further articles on the issue after it had been agreed that
the paper would concentrate on workplace struggles. It was feared that the FAUD,
as a fighting organization of the proletariat, would degenerate into a sect
isolated from the general population. A number of these settlements were, in
fact, founded by anarcho-syndicalists and were influenced by syndicalist ideas,
among them the “Free Earth” communes in Düsseldorf and Stuttgart, and
Barkenhoff, founded with the support of Heinrich Vogeler in Worpswede.
4.3.3.2 The Vagabond Movement
The Vagabond Movement exerted some influence on organized Anarcho-syndicalism,
albeit limited. This movement expanded greatly at the end of the 1920s and was
organized under the so-called “Vagabond King” Gregor Gog into the “International
Fraternity of the Vagabonds” in 1927. Gog arranged for the first “World Congress
of the Vagabonds” in Stuttgart in 1929, an event that won international
attention. A number of Hunger Marches were also organized.
Gog and his wife Anni Geiger-Gog were closely associated with the FAUD and
agitated for their cause in the union’s publications. … As a result of his
offensive performances and behaviour, Gog was the target of several court
proceedings, blasphemy being among the charges. In direct contradiction to the
majority view in the anarcho-syndicalist movement, Gog elevated laziness to a
revolutionary act. He sharply criticized authoritarian Communism in all its
forms until a tour of the Soviet Union in 1930 caused him to make a 180 degree
adjustment to his views.
In the months following his return to Germany, the “Vagabond King” made a number
of polemical speeches against Anarchism and Syndicalism at events across the
country, even those of erstwhile friends, denouncing them as “petit bourgeois”
movements. These were received with sneers and personal attacks in the
syndicalist press.
4.3.4 Auxiliary Organizations of the FAUD
4.3.4.1 The “Anarcho-Syndicalist Youth of Germany” (SAJD)
Two auxiliary organizations within the FAUD were formed for the benefit of
specific groups. The youth constituted themselves from 1921 onwards in the
“Anarcho-Syndicalist Youth of Germany” (SAJD). This group’s chief activities
were the organization of events, hiking trips and agitating for the
anarcho-syndicalist cause. The SAJD had a nationwide membership of several
thousand youths, distributed all across Germany. It was technically independent
of the FAUD, but was closely aligned with the union following its formation, the
SAJD itself being a product of the internal conflicts of the earlier “Free
Youth,” which was split among “Syndicalists” and “Individualists…”
The SAJD’s official organ, “Young Humanity,” was distributed as an extra section
of the FAUD’s Der Syndikalist. An additional monthly publication, “Young
Anarchists,” catalyzed a new round of sectarian conflicts between
individualistic/anti-organizational factions and partisans of organized class
struggle, the latter eventually excluding the others from the SAJD. The SAJD
aligned itself even more closely to the FAUD as a result of this development and
recognized the union’s “Declaration of Principles” as guidelines for its own
membership. The youth organization also modelled its organizational structure on
that of the FAUD, setting up regional and national “Information Offices” that
corresponded roughly to the Agitational Committee and executive
Geschäftskommission of the FAUD.
Out of this youth organization came numerous leading members of the FAUD in the
late 20s and early 30s, the so-called “Second Generation” of the FAUD, which
followed that of the pre-war generation. This earlier group, which was more
strongly oriented towards industrial and workplace organizing, lost influence
within the organization as time went on, while the successor generation better
embodied the sought-after synthesis of Syndicalism and Anarchism.
4.3.4.2 The “Syndicalist Women’s Group” (SFB)
Women also demanded a special organization and layed out a programmatic basis at
the start of the 1920s, calling for the nationwide establishment of Syndicalist
Women’s Group in cooperation with the Geschäftskommission. However, the majority
of the local Women’s Groups were short-lived.
The question of whether or not the Women’s Groups represented a separate sector
of production or should be organized in relation to the realm of consumption was
a source of discussion in both the Women’s Groups themselves and the Union at
large. The Syndicalist Women’s Group, as constituted, concerned itself with
sexual hygene, abortion and viewed itself as a support for the striking (male)
worker, organizing boycotts to this end. Those that wanted the Women’s Groups to
operate as a separate sector of production were unable to realize their demands.
The SFB also produced a periodical, “Der Frauenbund,” [The League of Women]
which appeared regularly as a supplementary section of Der Syndikalist. In
contrast to other women’s organizations of the time, the women of the SFB were
generally proud of their roles as mothers and housewives. For most syndicalist
women equality between the sexes did not mean equal placement in the “Moloch of
the Factory,” but the recognition and elevation of household work and
child-rearing to an equal place alongside other forms of employment. According
to the SFB itself, it was founded to deal with women-specific issues and
employed women should organize themselves within the existing Industrial
Federations.
Although men were called upon by the Geschäftskommission and the FAUD-Congress
to ensure the establishment of Women’s Groups in their locale, many refused to
actively participate. The women raised numerous complaints, even pointing to
veritable boycotts from their male comrades. Nevertheless, there were numerous
areas where mutual respect and solidarty characterized the cooperation between
the SFB and the other syndicalist organizations. The SFB reached at its height a
nationwide membership of 800 to 1000 women.
4.3.4.3 The Children’s Movement
An additional area of activity for the FAUD was the internal “Children’s
Movement,” which was often supervised by the Women’s Groups. From 1928 until
1930 a separate periodical, “Kinderwille” [The Childrens’ Will], was published,
reaching a distribution level of about 600 issues per publication period.
The aim was to raise children to be self-aware, socially capable individuals who
had internalized the spirit of mutual aid and solidarity. The
anarcho-syndicalist Children’s Organizations underline once again the
syndicalist’s desire to tie together all realms of social life into a unified,
organic unit. These organizations were, however, also short-lived.
4.4 The End of the FAUD
The FAUD recognized the danger posed by National Socialism at a very early point
and responded by preparing for illegal, underground activity. At the last
Congress of the FAUD in Easter of 1932 concrete plans were laid down. The
Geschäftskommission would be removed to Erfurt and the local associations would,
if at all possible, dissolve themselves before any ban was enacted. Small,
trusted circles [of FAUD members] were to set up a network to enable further
nationwide operations.
In 1933 the FAUD was banned and in March of that year the Berlin office of the
Geschäftskommission was searched and a number of functionaries taken into police
custody. The union members either joined undeground organizations or emigrated.
The underground leadership of the FAUD was eventually moved from Erfurt to
Leipzig. In 1936-37 the FAUD launched its resistance efforts while those who had
emigrated to Spain came together to form the Gruppe DAS (German
Anarcho-Syndicalists), which was an active participant in the Spanish
Revolution.
Following the Second World War those Anarcho-syndicalists that had stayed in
Germany established the “Federation of Libertarian Socialists” (FFS), which
discarded industrial organizing in favour of operating as an “organization of
ideas” that attempted to spread libertarian concepts in city and factory
councils, as well as in cultural organizations. The FFS published a magazine
called “The Free Society,” which reflected the maturity and experience of the
movement’s best members. Most of the FFS-Groups dissolved themselves in the
1950s owing to their inability to attract younger members. Those that remained,
such as Augustin Souchy and Will Paul, still held interviews and publicized
valuable memoirs. In the final years a number of biographies were published,
among them those of Helmut Kirschey, Hans Schmitz and Kurt Wafner, who were
youths at the start of the 1930s.
5 Syndicalism and its Significance
While I hope that I have adequately demonstrated the significance of
Anarcho-syndicalism and its content, I would like to add the following points
and observations.
If we evaluate German Anarcho-syndicalism purely on the basis of its numerical
strength we can state that the FAUD had a mass-base for a brief period, claiming
some 150,000 members. If we compare this number with other contemporary workers’
organizations, however, we are forced to concede that even in its heyday it was
far behind its opponents. Union organizations, like the Hirsch-Dunckerist
Workers’ Associations counted several hundred-thousand members among their
ranks, the christian unions comprised over a million workers and Germany’s
General Association of Workers (ADGB) came within reach of the 10 million-mark.
By its own admission the FAUD never played a major, nationwide role at the
factory-level.
So why should anyone bother with this subject? In a number of historical works
and research projects it is apparent that Syndicalism, in contrast to the
present, was well-known among the contemporary working class. This seems
perplexing, given the small size of the FAUD and the fact that it lacked access
to anything resembling present-day mass-media.
This was a consequence of syndicalists’ consistent anti-militarism and untiring
agitation prior to the First World War, which were remembered by many
disappointed social-democrats and contributed to the first wave of new members
in the months following the war’s end. The papers of workers’ parties and
centralized unions from this period are filled with warnings and disparaging
remarks about syndicalist organizations. The functionaries of these
reform-oriented groups were haunted by the specter of Syndicalism, the “french
tumor.” These functionaries firmly held their ranks in their campaign against
any form of worker self-organization, which resulted in a merciless fight at the
level of the workplace, and can only mean that Syndicalism, in their eyes, was a
competing influence that posed a real threat. Mainstream trade unionists even
went so for as to call for the firing of striking syndicalist colleagues.
The syndicalist movement was also known to the „Organ of the Worker and Soldier
Councils of Germany,“ the „Workers’ Council,“ in the revolutionary period from
1919-1920. Indeed, the social-democratic workers’ councils felt the need to
declare “the Workers’ Unions” a “new abscess of the Workers’ Movement” in their
national paper.
According to detailed sources, more than 40% of the participants in the March
Revolution were syndicalists, whose struggle is described by Erhard Lucas and
Hans Marchwitza, among others. The Political Police of the Weimar Republic did
not list syndicalists under communist organizations, as do many historians and
“social scientists,” but gave them an independent status. In the fotographic
information collected by the police at the beginning of the Weimar Republic a
number of syndicalists appear alongside “celebrities” like writer Kurt Tucholsky
and the future East German head-of-state Walter Ulbricht.
Furthermore, it should be pointed out that the syndicalist movement, or at least
parts of it, were not only recognized in prominent circles, but was even
considered worthy of support. The well-known women’s rights activists Helene
Stöcker and Anita Augspurg made donations to the FAUD’s fund for the Munich
Landauer Memorial, and Stöcker both spoke at events organized by the Friends of
Free Books and published articles in the organ of the Syndicalist Women’s Group.
Syndicalists in turn lauded her as “a sympathetic fighter, one whose views are
close to our own.” No less a personality than actor Alexander Granach provided
Erich Mühsam and Rudolf Rocker with money to aid the Spanish revolutionaries
Durruti and Ascaso in their flight. The legendary Ukrainian revolutionary Nestor
Machno likewise found refuge with Rudolf Rocker as a refugee. In an essay
solicited by the German military, Max Weber identified syndicalists as the most
forceful opponents of militarism. Even Lenin mentioned the German syndicalist
movement in his work “State and Revolution,” holding leading figures of the
workers’ movement like Karl Legien responsible for the growth of this “blood
relation of opportunism.” It goes without saying that Syndicalism was known
among Bohemian circles, whose prominent figures included Ernst Toller, Oskar
Maria Graf and Erich Mühsam, and the latter, a close friend of Rudolf Rocker,
joined the FAUD in 1933. Heinrich Vogeler, painter and founder of the
“Barkenhoff” art colony in Worpswede near Bremen, was associated with the
anarchist and syndicalist movements and provided them with a homestead. It is
also no wonder that the “Herodotus” of Anarchism, Max Nettlau, was also in close
contact with the movement and provided the famed author Ricarda Huch with
material for her biography of Bakunin. The German expressionist writer Carl
Einstein did not encounter Syndicalism until later, but fought with German
Anarcho-syndicalists in the Spanish Civil War as part of the Colunna Durruti and
produced an excellent account of his experiences. Albert Einstein (no relation)
and Thomas Mann also recognized the true promise of Rudolf Rocker’s “The
Decision of the West,” and Einstein and Rocker piled praise upon one another.
Leading Anarcho-syndicalists like Rocker and Souchy were also particularly
popular speakers at universities following the Second World War.
It is also worth noting that long before the philosopher Hannah Arendt first
tasted the air of academia the syndicalist movement had already developed a
“Theory of Totalitarianism,” the product of experience and an international
network of correspondents, chief among them Emma Goldman, Rudolf Rocker and
Alexander Schapiro. Political careerists, including later mayors and
legislators, also began their political lives in the syndicalist movement, the
best known being Herbert Wehner, who eventually became the party chairman of the
SPD.
German syndicalists also played a deciding role in the reorganization of the
international syndicalist movement after the First World War. Reacting quickly
to the communist foundation of a workers’ international under Moscow’s
leadership, the partisans of syndicalism founded the International Workers’
Association in 1922 as a conscious continuation of the First International’s
Bakuninist tradition. Rudolf Rocker, Augustin Souchy and the Russian-born
Alexander Schapiro were the first to chair the organization, whose central
office was based in Berlin until 1933. At its foundation the IWA had over a
million members—in 1936 the number of Spanish members alone rose to some 1.5
million. For large numbers of workers Rudolf Rocker’s “Prinzipienerklärung des
Syndikalismus” was considered the authoritative text of the movement.
Those German Anarcho-syndicalists who successfully fled to Spain following the
outbreak of the Spanish Civil War organized themselves into the Gruppe DAS
(German Anarcho-Syndicalists) in Catalonia. The Gruppe DAS managed the
correspondence of the underground resistance in Germany and put German fascist
groups in Catalonia out of commission. Members of the group also fought against
Franco’s armies at the front, and although much smaller than the communist
International Brigades in terms of raw numbers, were of equal importance to the
revolution and its participants. Meanwhile, the fascist authorities in Germany,
anticipating the pull that the Spanish Revolution could exert upon the
population, placed the remaining Anarcho-syndicalists in Germany under special
observation.
Those interested in the present-day anarcho-syndicalist movement should visit
the website of the Freie ArbeiterInnen Union:
http://www.fau.org
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