Comrades,
Nineteen years ago our masters urged us to maim and kill our German brothers. The German employers sent the German workmen to kill their French and English comrades. Out of the bloody shambles of 1914 – 1918 the rulers of England, of France and of every other country, made enormous profits: but millions of workers were butchered or maimed: those who returned, returned to unemployment and low wages. The Socialist International failed the workers in their hour of need – in spite of its fine words about international solidarity. A disaster as terrible as that of 1914 threatens us all to-day. Over the homes of the European working class hangs the menace of Fascism and of war. Between us and the catastrophe is the mighty army of the German working class.
Who wins in Germany, wins in Europe for many years to come. Hitler and his murder gangs stand on the threshold of power. Fascism is but a weapon in the hands of the bosses. The capitalists can no longer hold down the German workers by the old parliamentary trickery: so they call together and organize landowners’ sons, civil servants and clerks. Hitler will rule with his army on behalf of the rich by crushing every kind of working class organization – socialist, as well as communist, co-operative as well as trade union. By murdering the flower of the German working class, holding down the rest by bloody terrorism, banning their newspapers and burning their headquarters, the Fascists will make possible the driving down of the standard of living of the German workers to unheard of depths. And this would be followed by a general attack on the workers’ standards throughout Europe.
Hitler’s domestic programme is the destruction of the German workers’ organizations and the driving down of their standards of living. His foreign policy will be to enlist Germany’s man-power in the service of France and Britain against Soviet Russia in return for colonies and loans. Hitler’s foreign policy means world war. Already we see how Japan’s military offensive moves step by step with Hitler’s advance to power. The struggle to stop world war is at the moment focused in Germany.
Within the next few weeks the fate of Soviet Russia, our German comrades and the workers of the whole world, will depend upon the result of the German confiict. Victory for Fascism means the victory for reaction the world over, it means opening the way for world war. But the defeat of Fascism would open the road to a Soviet Germany and a Soviet Europe. By the unity of Socialist and Communist workers in Germany and throughout Europe, the terrible menace of Fascism can be defeated.
TRADE UNIONISTS! SOCIALISTS! CO-OPERATORS! COMMUNISTS!
Demand that the Labour and Socialist International and the Communist International meet together for united working class action. Urge that Social Democrats and Communists join forces in Germany to defeat Hitler. The shameful treachery of 1914 must not be repeated! Deeds not words! Demand proletarian unity against Fascism and against War!
DOWN WITH THE FASCIST MURDERERS!
FOR THE UNITED FRONT AGAINST FASCISM!
FOR THE SOVIET STATES OF EUROPE!
MEETINGS HELD EVERY SUNDAY MORNING AT 11-30. – CLAPHAM COMMON.
Issued by the Balham Group of the International Left Opposition. 79 Bedford Rd, S.W.4.
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Last updated on 27.12.2002