Declaration by the Ruhr Red Army about their motive to continue the fight in contrast to the Bielefeld Resolution, the Bolshevik KPD's loyal opposition to the Ebert Government and and the Anarcho-Syndicalist FAUD's "wait-and-see" policy. This resolve to continue the fight was due to the Council Communist commanders of the Ruhr Red Army like August Müller, Hans Ficks, Hermann Weidtkampf, Otto Bovensiepen, Oskar Nickel, Georg Stendebach, Karl Hensmann, Arthur Thomas, Carl Minster, Peter Spinnraths, Wilhelm Zaisser, Heinrich Karl Fomferra, Arthur Michaelis etc. etc.
Yesterday, on March 25, the delegates of the Executive Councils of Rhineland and Westphalia met in Essen in order to discuss the Bielefeld Resolution1 and whether the fighting should stop or not. A so-called district council was formed-however, it ought to be called a "district grave," since its sole intention is to sabotage your victory.
Soldiers! Disperse the politicizing fat cats of all shades with your rifle butts! Do not tolerate any more meetings, since this is where your death sentence is signed! The fat cats have nothing to decide. All decisions are yours. You are the heroes of the revolutionary proletariat!
The fat cats and their meetings only want to confuse you. Do you not see this yet? If you do, then act, and do not allow them to act for you!
Your slogan is still Now or never! Do not give up the struggle! There will be no truce and peace before victory, since no corrupt truce and peace can be accepted. You would have long taken Wesel2 without the treacherous truce and its demoralizing effects. You must understand this!
Kill the defeatists! Your motto must be Schiller's words: "Rather death than servitude!" Act, fight, win! If you perish, then at least the reactionary forces shall perish, too! All troops that are not at the front, demand an assembly, in which we will speak to you. Hurry!
- 1The Bielefelder Abkommen [Bielefeld Resolution] was an agreement signed in the town of Bielefeld on March 24, 1920, between government representatives and Red Ruhr Army delegates. In exchange for the Red Ruhr Army handing over their weapons, the government promised no military occupation of the Ruhr Valley, no persecution for any acts committed during the Kapp Putsch conflicts, and increased political influence of workers' organizations, also in matters of defense. The agreement was rejected by many Red Ruhr Army units as well as by wide parts of the German military and never came into effect.
- 2Wesel is a town in the Rhine Valley, which was of strategic importance during the struggle of 1920.
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