The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1933-02-15
Ill.
BY MAX BEDACHT

THE metamorphosis of Socla. .
mocrat Noske into fascist Hit
Ter, of Social Democrat Ebert into
monarchist Hindenburg, at the
helm of the German government,
can be best traced along the road
of development of the Weimar con-
Stitution. The Weimar constitu-
ton was the price for which So
cial Democracy sold the German
workers revolution to the capital
lists. 1t was the product of the
Constitutional Assembly held in the
city of Weimar. The Social De-
mocrats were afraid of the work
ers of Berlin; that is why they as
sembled their constituent gather
ing in a provincial town.
The workers revolution of 1918
had demolished the old form of
capitalist government in GERMANY.
the monarchy. The revolution had
it in its power to make this the
end Of capitalist rule itself. 1t
could establish the workers rule.
But the Social Democrats insisted
that the problem was not VINO
should rule, capitalists or workers,
but how the capitalists should rule
now, that the monarchy was gone.
TO conceal the real purpose OF
the intended document, the
making of the Weimar constitu-
ton was staged as a sort of give
and take game between the work
ers and the capitalists. The work
ers were to give the capitalists the
right to continue exploiting them;
they we're to take, in return. con
stitutional liberties" The capital
lists, on their part, were to grant
these constitutional liberties to the
workers and take, in return, the
right of continually exploiting the
workers. The contract of this give
and take became the Weimar con-
stitution; some paragraphs for the
workers-Some for the capitalists.
The paragraphs for the capitalists
turned out to be the economic, po-
litical and social realities, the army,
the police, the government-the
prison of capitalism for the work
ers; the paragraphs for the work.
ers, on the other hand, had no
substance, and were merely wall
decorations of the prison of cap
italism.
The history Of Germany since
the Weimar Constituent Assembly
is the story of the defense of it's
social reality, capitalism, and the
scratching off of its wall decora-
tons, the workers rights" The
essence of the constitution, capt.
alis1n, remained. But the wrapper
into which this essence was packed,
the workers rights" we're aban-
doned, one by one; they ware left
tiuttering into nothinghess in the
storm Of reaction--Worthless and
meaningless scraps of paper. To-
day only the substance of the corr
stitution is left, substantially em-
bodied in paragraphs 40 and 1873,
Paragraph 1873 guarantees capital
lists private property; paragraph 40
declares that II the capitalists can
no longer rule with the constitu-
ton, they can do SO without and
still remain within.
THE Weimar constitution "guar-
j anteed" the workers an 5-hour
day. This was one Of the first
wrappers abandoned.
The Weimar constitution guar
anteed" every German a job for a
living, or a living if there is no
job. Mass unemployment and
successive relief cutting emergency
DEGREES have quite some time ago
transformed this wrapper into
scraps of paper which the history
Of Social Democratic treachery
threw into the faces of the Ger
man workers.
The Weimar constitution guar
anteed" freedom Of speech, of Or
ganization, of assembly. This wrap
per was long ago stuck on the
bayonets and sabers of the police
under the command of Social De-
mocratic ministers and police presi-
dents.
The Weinar constitution guar
anteed" to every German a decent
place to live; it guaranteed" the
protection OF youth against exploit
alton; it guaranteed" the protec-
tton Of motherhoca Of the r,ralgn