Jan Appel on the Unemployment Issue

The unemployment issue, which is so serious, must be shown as it is today. The unemployed before the war were caused by the fact that overproduction set in in capitalist society, and the market could not absorb all the goods created, because the entrepreneur only produced for profit, production was stopped, some of the proletarians could not sell their labor to produce these products, nor did they obtain the means to live. Today, the question of the unemployed is somewhat different. The proletarians cannot sell their labor because production is being curtailed, not because there is overproduction, but because capital is reducing the production base. We are at a time when the capitalist economy is in decline. We call this the death crisis of capitalism because it reduces the market of the capitalist economy. One feature of this death crisis is that the capitalists are reducing their production base because they have to save, not on their own, but on the expenditure of labor power on wages, on useless expenditure in their industry. These are their restrictions, which are made at the expense of the proletariat. Not only in favor of working capital, but also in favor of bonds.

The fact that savings must of course be made in expenditure in order to maintain this society narrows the sphere of action of the capitalist economy for consumption. We must see this in order to draw conclusions from it. Before the war, when crises arose due to overproduction and unemployment set in, the overproduction subsided and more intensive production set in, which absorbed the unemployed back into the factories. In contrast, these crises, which are permanent in the decline of this economy, must end with a collapse. This means that we have to recognize the results. Today, the crisis is permanent, it will not get any better. There can be no such times as after an economic crisis before the war. Now we ask ourselves, is this unemployment, as it exists today, in the interests of capital? The answer is no. It is logical that if this unemployment reduces the production base more and more, it means the downfall of this order. Capital is interested in individual manifestations of this unemployment. Whether we as proletarians are interested in this unemployment, we can say: no. But we are perhaps interested in individual phenomena. Not only interested in them. We must also show what harmful effects this unemployment has on the proletariat. When the mass of unemployed people who naturally want to live increases, the capitalist order is threatened by the fact that masses of unemployed people congregate and form a hotbed of revolutionary upheaval. On the other hand, if these masses do not form, the so-called. criminality. They destroy the security of the existing system. So they are something dangerous for the capitalist order. What bad consequences does unemployment have for the proletariat? We have to recognize that by pulling the proletariat out of the factories, the proletariat is worn down, we have to recognize that clearly, the bad consequences for the proletariat arise. The proletarians are torn apart, class consciousness is undermined. The class consciousness of the proletariat results mainly from the fact that it is welded together in factories, it feels itself as a class which is also oppressed together and which at the same time becomes aware of its importance. As long as it works, the proletariat sees the source of all these treasures, it knows that if we are not there, then everything stops. They are dependent on us. The proletariat's class consciousness is welded from this fulfillment of its task in the capitalist system. The other harmful consequences are most obvious, most visible, that part of the workforce is out of the factories and has to eke out a miserable existence, while another part remains in industry. The result is a division, and that is the most harmful thing for the organized class struggle.

An advantage for the entrepreneurs is a disadvantage for the proletariat. What must we do to fight the harmful consequences of unemployment? First of all, the division between workers and non-workers. This can only be done by setting a goal for both sections, by raising their sense of togetherness, their class consciousness. We can only do this by clearly demonstrating the goal of the class, the communist social order. This will unite them and bring the two divided sections closer together again. We must find a way out of this organizationally; only by urging the unemployed to form action committees and by forming action committees in the factories, which must work closely together. Once we have created this cohesion, it cannot remain the case that we only make propaganda for the class struggle and wait for the revolution and communism, but these organizations must become active, work, test themselves, keep moving. They must fight. The action committees with the class-conscious workers behind them must constantly fight for communism, must constantly be in revolution. All their actions must be unified in this way.

When they fight, both the proletariat in the factories and outside the factories need to live, especially the unemployed. That is why they must fight first, so that they at least exist. They will have to fight in such a way that they have all the means at their disposal to force these things from the capitalists. I have already hinted at the harmful consequences for the capitalists of the unemployed encroaching on property, and this is also the course of this organization. They must organize themselves and force themselves into masses of authorities, of entrepreneurs, where there is the possibility of more to live on. It is important to win, not to barter or bargain, not to be satisfied with small pieces, they must constantly create unrest. In this way they ensure that they get something to live on and constantly keep the capitalist order in turmoil. As soon as they think they have gained something, it turns into the opposite. The other side must be clearly stated. When a large mass is forced to encroach on private property as individuals, this is a fact that wears down the proletariat more and more and drives it apart. That is why we must also go there and give a direction to private intervention in property, in such a way that one organizes, takes where there is something. Then this organization of class-conscious unemployed people and workers must take up the fight against the harmful effects of unemployment itself, against the effects of unemployment as wage suppression, because capital benefits from it. Then the fight against these labor armies must also be taken up. These are, in a nutshell, the problems that the unemployment question poses to us and that we have to tackle, and we have to direct all our actions towards the goal of communism, because if we showed earlier that unemployment is linked to this capitalist order, it follows that in this social order there can be no improvement, no disappearance of this evil. A new order that anchors the unemployed in the production process must be created. All we have to do now is fight, educate and organize for a goal. So we can say: the solution to the question of the unemployed can only be found through the revolution itself.