The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1933-04-05

OF May in those days was always a
fighting day and a day of celebration
for the trade unions, especially in
Berlin"
He paused, took a step backward,
and raised his voice.
BETRAYAL
STARTS EARLY
LAS early as 1908, Conn, whom you
know very well said openly at the
Congress Of Metal Workers, that
sooner or later, all the business of
May Day celebrations would have to
be, done away with. In the Subse-
quent discussion, which lasted for
years, the right-wing reformist lead
ers came out more and more openly
against the stopping of work on
May the LIST. Again and again Rosa
Ju&embu-g, in her bitter struggle
against reyisionism within the Social
Democratic Party, took the list of
May as her example Of the disastrous
reformist deviations Of the trade
union leadership. 1t was no accident
that these discussions conceded with
the hotly- debated question Of the
General Strike. For ten years, the
two fronts were diverging. Finally,
after the proleta-iat had celebrated
May Day twenty-four times as the
fighting day of the working class, the
thundered Down with the War
Peoples of the World Arise! and two
parties faced each other as implac-
able foes in the frenzy of the World
War.
"Aftte' the war, May Day celebra-
tons were taken for granted. Were
the workers to lose under a Republic
what they had forced from a Kaiser?
But what in fact happened2 The
Social Democratic Party had become
an important part of the state ma
chine and the capitalist republic
Just as at the beginning Of the polit-
zeal upheavals the S. p, D., with
Roske and the Black Reichswehr,
drowned the workers uprising in
blood. the same S. P. D., in the period
Of reconstruction of German indus
try, undertook the policeman's job
Of keeping down the working masses,
since only at their expense was the
sterilization o. the position of the
employers possible. If we survey the
entire postwar development, even an
S. P. D. worker will have to admit
that in every single decisive situation
the capi aHsts have always left it to
the SPD. to restor law and order
and fllch from the workers the few
important economic and social gains
that had been wen. We need only
remember Ebert's law, which prac-
tically abolished the eight-hour day.
Ebert has done more for German
capitalism than any pre-war emperor.
He saved its existence! And then
they elected a Hindenburg!
1NURING these years, the trade
" unions have become vast mass
organizations which we're completely
under the leadership Of the reformist
social democratic bureaucracy. The
trade unions were tools of the S. P D.,
which, by accepting the government
within a capitalist republic, had at
the same time accepted the respon-
sibility for the continued existence of
capitalism. Leaders of the bitterest
enemies of the working class Capt.
talisrn, rs it were, gave permission to
the S. P. D. TO leave the servants
quarters and to enter the drawing
rooms of the Government, where
they sit today, until the capitalists
find the time is ripe to send them
back in order to use the sham oppo-
sition of the S. P. d. leaders as the
best guarantee for carrying out the
dictatorship of capital The S. P. d.
never can, nor will, become workers
party again, because its leaders, and
mc"o than third of its membership
have become chained to capitalist
Suclsty through salaries and posts in
the state administration. They are
forced by the basis of their existence
10 cary out the hunger and wage
cutting policy of their bosses. 1t is
obvious how important is the role Of
the refornist trade unions in this
roiuection. have here shameful
document OF this cooperation be-
ween S. P. d. and T. U. leadership
ainst the workers"
lie took a typewriter letter from
q table and held it up for the work.
y to see.
This letter has been sent by the
A. D. G. B. German Trade Union
Tederation) TO all branches that are
social democratic in outlook. 1t runs:
The Communist press, particularly
the Rote Fahne, has recently beer
irving to make capital out Of the fac