At the Third Congress of the Comintern in June 1921, both Lenin and Trotsky conducted a rigorous struggle against the so-called “Theory of the Offensive” and the fallacies of the “March Action”. The Congress also recognized a new turn in the international situation that had arisen. The first great revolutionary wave had now ebbed and capitalism had succeeded temporarily in stabilizing itself. “In 1919,” stated Trotsky, “we said it (the revolution) was a question of months, and now we say it is a question perhaps of years.” As the immediate struggle for power had been temporarily postponed, the tactics of the Comintern had to be concentrated on the united front policy: fighting in day-to-day struggles on wages, conditions etc., bringing around it the ranks of the reformist organizations. The united front was used to unify the workers’ organizations in action against a common enemy. It did not mean the abandoning of any programme or mutual criticism under the guise of a spurious unity. In essence, it meant: “March separately under your own banners, but strike together”. It was precisely through this joint action of the mass parties that the KPD could demonstrate the superiority of militant struggles over the limitations of reformism. In this new period of temporary, relative stability, the communist parties had to step up their activities in partial struggles to win the majority of the working class to their programme. In a nutshell, it was not a question of the Conquest of Power, but the Conquest of the Masses. The new KPD slogan became: “Towards the Masses!”
The turn of the German Communists towards united front work saw a steady revival in the party’s influence. The annual report presented to the Leipzig party conference in 1922 described the considerable progress: amongst women, youth and children’s sections, the co-operatives and trade unions. Alongside its press agency, the party now had 38 daily newspapers and numerous periodicals. They possessed over 12,000 councillors, with an absolute majority in 80 town councils and were the biggest party in a further 170. In the trade unions they possessed nearly 1000 organized fractions with 400 members in leadership positions.
Even according to the ultraleft Ruth Fischer, “In the second half of 1922 the party was gaining in numbers and influence. In the third quarter of 1922 it had 218,555 members. It showed a sharp rise from the 180,443 of the previous year, just after the March Action.” The KPD was by far the biggest communist party in Western Europe.
On 24 June, 1922, the foreign minister Walter Rathenau was murdered by the extreme right-wing “Organization Consul”, a gang of ex-army officers. There was widespread revulsion – as with the Kapp putsch and moves towards united working class action, which the KPD used to the maximum effect. On 4 July a monster demonstration organized by all the workers’ organizations proved an outstanding success. It provided the KPD with the opportunity to prove in action the superiority of militant leadership and policies. Yet, because of this, the SPD broke off relations with the Communists four days later.
At this time inflation began to take off. Years of successive governments reverting to the printing press to plug their budget deficits had completely undermined the currency. It took 300 marks to buy one dollar in June; by December it was 8000 marks, and by January 1923, 18,000 marks to the dollar. This had a shattering effect not only on the workers but the middle classes, particularly those on fixed incomes, who faced absolute ruin.
By this stage the German bourgeois became increasingly determined to regain all the concessions won by the proletariat in the November revolution. In 1918 under the threat of revolution, the capitalist class was prepared to grant huge concessions: trade union recognition, agreement to withdraw support from company unions, establishment of shop stewards’ committees, universal suffrage, all de-mobbed soldiers to be able to return to their former employment and the shortening of the working day to 8 hours. In October 1922 as inflation reached new heights, the German bourgeoisie prepared their offensive. The powerful industrialist Fritz Thyssen addressed an open letter to the government which stated “Germany’s salvation can only come from a return to the 10-hour working day.” The former Minister Dernburg fumed: “every 8-hour day is a nail in Germany’s coffin”!
Two weeks later another leading industrialist, Hugo Stinnes, declared:
I do not hesitate to say that I am convinced that the German people will have to work two extra hours per day for the next 10 or 15 years…the preliminary conditions for any successful stabilization is, in my opinion, that wage struggles and strikes be excluded for a long period…we must have the courage to say to the people: ‘for the present and for some time to come you will have to work overtime without overtime payment.’
The battle lines were drawn. Living standards were to be driven down to starvation levels to put German capitalism back on its feet. With hyperinflation and the state facing bankruptcy, the SPD-Liberal coalition of Wirth collapsed, giving way to the right-wing bourgeois government led by Wilhelm Cuno, director of the Hamburg-Amerika Line.