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| Free Workers' Union of Germany | |
| Freie Arbeiter-Union Deutschlands | |
| Founded | September 15, 1919 |
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| Date dissolved | January, 1933 |
| Members | 1919: 60,000 1920:111,675 1921:150,000 1922:80,000 1925:25,000 1928:20,000 1931:6,634 1932:4,307 |
| Country | Germany |
| Affiliation | International Workingmen's Association |
| Key people | Rudolf Rocker |
| Office location | Berlin |
| 1. ↑ All figures according to Rübner 1994 pg. 22 | |
The Free Workers' Union of Germany (German: Freie Arbeiter-Union Deutschlands; FAUD) was an anarcho-syndicalist trade union, which existed from the renaming of the Free Association of German Trade Unions (FDVG) on September 15, 1919 to its official disbandment in January of 1933 after the NSDAP came into power, although many of its members continued to be do political work illegaly and organized resistance against the Nazi regime. The International Workers Association, in which the FAUD was a member, was founded upon the initiative of the German organization. The Free Workers' Union (FAU), which was founded in 1977, sees itself in the tradition of the FAUD. At its peak, the FAD had 150,000 members.
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[edit] Origins
The FAUD was the product of a renaming of the Free Association of German Trade Unions (FVDG) in Semptember of 1919. The FAUD's members did not consider this a startup of a new trade union, but rather a renaming of the old one, which was supposed to express, that the previous fights would now be continued in one union rather that in an association of unions, i.e. a re-organization of the FDVG.[1] The FDVG's history goes back to the so-called Localists. These arose out of the Free Trade Union movement allied with the Social Democratic Party (SPD), which was still known as the Social Democratic Workers' Party (SDAP) at the time. While the Anti-Socialist Laws were enforced the trade unions were forced to organize only locally giving every local trade union a large amount of autonomy. These only communicated via intermediaries, who worked illegally or semi-legally.[2] After the laws were repealed in 1890, the General Commitee of the Trade Unions of Germany was founded on November 17 as a central labor authority at a conference in Berlin. In 1892, the Trade Union Congress of Halberstadt was held to organize the local unions under the committee.[3] The Localists, however, were opposed to having seperate organizations for political and economic matters, i.e. the party and the trade union. At the congress, they proposed abolishing the latter and founding a unitary workers' movement. This was rejected and the Localists refused to join the centralized trade union as they wanted to keep their grassroots democratic structures. This was not meant to symbolize a renunciation of social democracy, the Localists rather cosidered themselves to be an avant garde within the social democratic movement in Germany.[4]
In 1897, the Localists decided to found an organization of their own, the Free Association of German Trade Unions. This was likely the result of the fact that the central trade unions continued to become increasingly reformist and centralist, although little is known about the team between the time between the congress in Halberstadt and the foundation of the FVDG. Another reason may be the confidence gained from the FVDG involvement in the strike of dock workers in Hamburg in 1896/97. Even though the FVDG still considered itself part of the social democratic movement, the party was mostly opposed to its founding and called upon its members to re-join the central trade unions. Thus the FVDG continued to be afiliated with the SPD, which in turn tolerated the Localists, because it was afraid a split would lead it to lose a lot of members, but at the same time disapproved of the separate organization. At the same time the FDVG stated it would only re-join the central trade unions like the SPD wanted if they accepted its organizational principles.[5]
In 1901, a debate within the SPD about the role of general strikes in the fight of the socialist movement. The FVDG held the view that the general strike must be a weapon in the hands of the proletariat and the last step before the socialist revolution. The mainstream opinion in the party, however, was that the general strike should not be used to provoke the state, but rather to defend political rights, especially the right to vote, if the state should decide to take. This shows that at the time most of the SPD wanted to work mostly through parliaments, while the Localists wanted to act as a revolutionary economic organization. The dispute further alienated them from the party.[6]
At the 1904 party convention, August Bebel, who had always favored a stronger role of the SPD-afiliated unios, proposed a resolution, which would require all members of the party to also be part of central trade unions for their professions. This meant that all FVDG members had to either leave the party or the trade union. At the FVDG congress in 1906, the organization decided against re-joining the central trade unions, which led some of the masons, carpenterss, and construction workers to FVDG in 1907 to avoid being expelled from the SPD, saying the organization was "taking a path, which would certainly lead to fight with the SPD and to syndicalism and anarchism."[7]
During World War I, the FVDG refused to support the German efforts in the war, because it regarded support for a national war to be incompatible with its workers' internationalism, unlike the SPD and the Free Trade Unions, whose Burgfrieden politics meant they subordinated their opposition to the national cause. The FVDG was the only labor organization in the country to do so.[8] This soon lead to government repression; the FVdG's two major nespapers Der Pionier and Die Einigkeit were banned. The trade union advised its members against reckless antimilitarist gestures, but refused to defend the war.[9] It criticized the nationalism that sweapt Germany and Europe and protested against the hostility towards foreign workers in the country. At the same time the work of the FVdG was severely limited by the Burgfrieden. Strikes were not possible, except for a few cases. Therefore most of the FVdG activity cosisted in keeping the union's structures alive while at the same time constantly criticizing the other union's coopoeration with employers and the German state.[10]
[edit] Weimar Republic
The FAUD had its strongest phase between 1919 and 1923. Many revolutionary workers joined the orgnization as it was succesful in presenting itself as a radical alternative to the other trade unions. At the time of the Kapp Putsch, the FAUD helped to form the Ruhr Red Army. It fought the right wing coup d'état and carried the Ruhr Uprising. The FAUD had the most members in the Ruhr Area - especially in Mengede, which is now part of Dortmund. The Free Workers Union-Mengede had over 1,000 members, mostly miners. The first batallion of the Ruhr Red Army was recruited from this local group.
At the time, the FAUD organized numerous strikes, but it also published several newspapers including Der Syndikalist, a weekly newspaper existing from 1918 to 1932, Die Schöpfung, a daily newspaper in the Ruhr Area in the early twenties, and Die Internationale, a mostly theoretical publication with a good international reputation. Additionally, there were many organs, which dealt with local issues or only certain topics. It
In 1922, the FAUD organized an international anarcho-syndicalist congress in Berlin, which led to the founding of the International Workingmen's Association (IWA). It was concepted as a successor of the First International and consisted of numerous European and American anarcho-syndicalist trade unions. It was intentionally created as an anarcho-syndicalist counterpiece to the communist Red International of Labour Unions (Profintern) to fight the influence of the Soviet Union on the working class.
In the late 1920s most political groups in Germany started to build paramilitary organizations like the SA of the Nazis. During this time the FAUD founded the Black Troops (Schwarze Scharen), which consisted mostly of young anti-fascists. In Silesia, however, many local and factory organizations developed out of the Black Troops. Another sub-organization of the FAUD was the Syndicalist Women's Federation (Syndikalistischer Frauenbund; SFB), which had a memebership of up to 800 to 1,000. The most important figures in the SFB were Milly Witkop-Rocker, the wife of Rudolf Rocker, and Hertha Barwich. It published the organ Frauenbund, which was included in Der Syndikalist as a supplement.
[edit] Third Reich
In 1933 after long preparation, the FAUD officially disbanded shortly befare the Nazis came into power on January 31. The offices of the business committee in Berlin of the organization were searched and closed shortly after the Machtergreifung. The illegal committee was at first moved to Kassel, then to Erfurt. Anarcho-syndicalist resistance against the Nazis lasted at least until 1937, but police repression made political work almost impossible for the left wing in general. Many anarcho-syndicalists went into exile most to Sweden, the Netherlands, France, the United States, or Spain, where they fought alongside the CNT in the Civil War.
After the Allied victory in World War II, there were further anarcho-syndicalist organizations in Germany. The first, the Federation of Libertarian Socialists (Föderation Freiheitlicher Sozialisten; FFS), was founded in 1947. It was not supposed to be a re-founding of the FAUD, although the organization did become the German section of the IWA. In 1977, the Free Workers' Union (FAU) was founded, which was considered the successor of the FAUD.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Vogel 1977 pg. 21
- ^ Vogel 1977, pg. 39
- ^ Schuster, Dieter. Chronologie der deutschen Gewerkschaftsbewegung von den Anfängen bis 1918. Accessed October 11, 2006.
- ^ Vogel 1977, pg. 44-47; Rübner, Hartmut. Eine Analyse des revolutionären Syndikalismus in Deutschland. Accesssed November 11, 2006.
- ^ Vogel 1977, pg. 53-55.
- ^ Vogel 1977, pg. 56-57
- ^ Vogel 1977, pg. 59-60; quote according to Vogel 1977, pg. 60, German original: "[...]einen Weg einschlage, der mit Sicherheit zum Kampf mit der SPD und zum Syndikalismus und Anarchismus führe." (own translation)
- ^ Thorpe 2000, pg. 195
- ^ Thorpe 2000, pg. 197
- ^ Thorpe 2000, pg. 201-202
[edit] Bibliography
- Rübner, Hartmut [1994]. Freiheit und Brot: Die Freie Arbeiter-Union Deutschlands: Eine Studie zur Geschichte des Anarchosyndikalismus (in German). Berlin: Libertad Verlag. ISBN 3922226213.
- Thorpe, Wayne (June 2000). "Keeping the Faith: The German Syndicalists in the First World War". Central European History 33 (Number 2): 195-216.
- Vogel, Angel [1977]. Der deutsche Anarcho-Syndikalismus: Genese und Theorie einer vergessenen Bewegung (in German). Berlin: Karin Kramer Verlag. ISBN 3897560706.
[edit] Workers' discontentment
Though its roots can be traced back further, industrialization in France effectively began during Louis-Philippe's reign. The 1848 revolution was like the first French Revolution primarily a bourgeois revolution though many industrial workers fought in the streets. The closure of the National Workshops by the Republican government led to an insurgency by up to 100,000 workersm, the June Days Uprising, which was violently supressed by the government.[11]
In 1851, the Second Empire was founded after Napoleon III's coup d'etat. His rule was a period of rapid industrial growth driven by speculative financing.[12] Although France remained primarily agricultural country, because railways linked up rural markets, Paris's population did grow by over 50% in the period from 1851 to 1872, mainly as a result of immigration from the provinces, but also from Germany and Belgium.[13] The so-called Haussmannization of Paris - the rebuilding of large parts of Paris, which included the construction of large boulevards that would make supressing insurgencies easier - forced the Parisian authorities to recruit many additional masons, carpenters and unskilled labororers, which further increased the revolutionary potential in the city.[14]
