Germany
Hitler's force - Ernst Bloch
Ernst Bloch looks at the rise of Nazism and the changing class composition in Germany, following the defeat of the German Revolution.
At first we coldly ignored it. Shrugged our shoulders at the malicious pack that crawled forth. At the red posters with the driveling sentences, but the knuckledusters behind them. That which roughly stepped to our bedside early in the morning to demand our papers, stuck itself up as a party here. Jews are forbidden to enter the hall.
Speech in the Reichstag - Otto Rühle
Otto Rühle's speech to the Reichstag, rejecting the proposed shift to parliamentary democracy and calling for social revolution.
25th October 1918
The psyche of the proletarian child - Otto Rühle
Otto Rühle briefly looks at the focus on self-activity of various proletarian youth groups during the post-WWI revolutionary period in Germany.
Proletarian youth challenged the principle of authority for the first time in June 1919 when a number of young workers abandoned Free Socialist Youth in order not to oppose from within an authoritarian organization (which was an appendage of the parties) but to adopt a new position of their own.
A people's history of World War I - Howard Zinn
Historian Howard Zinn's account of US involvement in World War I, the reasons behind it, and working class resistance to it.
World War II: a people's war? - Howard Zinn
Historian Howard Zinn critically analyses the conception that World War II was really a "people's war" against fascism, as opposed to yet another inter-imperialist conflict with nothing to offer working people.
Doster, Gustav aka Gustl 1904-1977
Gustav Doster was a leading light in the anarchist movement in the Rhineland. He organised underground anarchist networks under Nazism and experienced the Spanish Revolution.
Gustav Doster’s father was a boiler maker, and a union militant and member of the Social Democratic Party. From 1919 until 1923 he worked as a lathe operator and then worked as an instructor of metal workers until 1933.
Friedetzky, Heinrich, 1910-1998
Heinrich Friedetzky was a German anarchist who preserved his beliefs despite the experiences of Nazism, prison and concentration camps.
The last of eight children of a railway worker, Heinrich Friedetzky was born on 8th October 1910 at Bebra in the state of Hesse, Germany. His mother died in 1913, his father in 1920. From 1912 the family lived at Ratibor in Upper Silesia, now part of Poland, where Heinrich lived with his brothers, sisters and a stepmother.
Letters of support from German ex-Visteon workers
Two letters of support from workers at Tedrive - formerly Visteon - car plants in Germany.
Letter from Worker at Tedrive, formerly Visteon in Wuelfrath, Germany
It is good to hear from Visteon workers in England and Ireland fighting back and occupying their factories. In the Visteon plants in Wuelfrath and Dueren (West-Germany) workers have been too patient for too long...
Stirner, Feurbach, Marx and the Young Hegelians - David McLellan
A summary of Stirner's ideas and their strong impact on his fellow Young Hegelians. McLellan asserts that Stirner's influence on Marx has been under-estimated and that he "played a very important role in the development of Marx's thought by detaching him from the influence of Feuerbach", his static materialism and his abstract humanism. Stirner's critique of communism (which Marx considered a caricature) also obliged Marx to refine his own definition. Stirner's concept of the "creative ego" is also said to have influenced Marx's concept of "praxis".
Source; originally a chapter in The Young Hegelians and Karl Marx; David McLellan, MacMillan Press, UK, 1980.
MAX STIRNER
1. STIRNER'S LIFE AND WORKS
Wildcat strike at German car part manufacturer
Workers at car parts manufacturer Karmann have walked out after being informed of 1400 job cuts no redundancy pay.
Karmann in Osnabrueck manufactures convertibles (1,400 workers) and roof-systems (1,100 workers), for example for Mercedes, Audi and Renault.
For some time it was clear that there will be job cuts in one of the production departments (paint-shop, metal parts).
