Communist Workers' Party of Germany
Communist Workers' Party of Germany Kommunistische Arbeiterpartei Deutschlands (KAPD) | |
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Far-left | |
International affiliation | Communist Workers' International |
Colours | Red |
Part of a series on |
Left communism |
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The Communist Workers' Party of Germany (
The KAPD Essen Faction was linked to the
History
The roots of the KAPD lie in the left-wing split from the
Founding Conference, 4–5 April, 1920 Berlin
The KAPD was formed on 4 April 1920 by members of the left wing of the KPD who had been excluded at the Heidelberg Party Conference of the KPD (20–23 October 1919) by the central leadership under Paul Levi. Their main goal was an immediate abolition of bourgeois democracy and the constitution of a dictatorship of the proletariat, although they decided against a one-party dictatorship in the Russian model. The KAPD especially rejected the Leninist form of organisation along with democratic centralism, participation in elections, and activism within reformist trade unions, unlike the KPD. The Dutch communist theoreticians Anton Pannekoek and Herman Gorter played an important role within the KAPD; they had, on the model of the KAPD, formed the Communist Workers' Party of the Netherlands (KAPN), which however never attained a similar status to that of the KAPD.
The conference was attended by 11 delegates from Berlin with 24 from further afield, who together represented about 38,000 members.[4]
The origins of the KAPD's establishment lay in the Kapp Putsch. In the view of KPD's left wing, this event had shown that the behaviour of the KPD party leadership was synonymous with giving up the revolutionary fight, as the KPD's position on the general strike had changed several times, and in the Bielefeld Agreement of 24 March 1920 the KPD had consented to the disarmament of the Ruhr Red Army. The Berlin district group on 3 April 1920 called a congress of the left wing. There it was decided to form the KAPD. The delegates, according to estimates, represented 80,000 KPD members. The newly formed party advocated the ending of parliamentary activities, and the active fight against the bourgeois state. In the coming period it worked closely with the General Workers' Union of Germany (AAUD). The main bastions of the party were in Berlin, Hamburg, Bremen and East Saxony, all places in which a large part of KPD members switched allegiance to the new party.
First Ordinary Party Congress, 1–4 August 1920
The Congress was held in the Zum Prälaten restaurant, Berlin. In August 1920, the founding members of the Hamburg branch were expelled,
In 1921 the KAPD cooperated again with the KPD during the March Action. This was triggered by Weimar Republic troops marching into the industrial region of Central Germany, and the KAPD and KPD's fear that the military intended to occupy the factories.
In 1921 a further fragmentation occurred, when parts of the AAUD around Rühle, Franz Pfemfert and Oskar Kanehl broke off from the KAPD and formed the AAUE.
After 1921, when the KAPD still had over 43,000 members, the party's influence declined more and more, and it separated in 1922 into the Berlin Tendency and the Essen Tendency around
Affiliated unionen
The AAUD, which was formed as factory organisations in opposition to the traditional trade unions, affiliated with the KAPD. The AAUD was formed by the German leftists who considered organising based on trades as being an outmoded form of organisation and instead advocated organising workers based on factories, thus forming the AAUD. The factory organisations in the AAUD consisted the basis for organising
A section led by Otto Rühle, based in Essen, split from the AAUD, forming the General Workers' Union of Germany – Unitary Organization (AAUD-E).[3]
Kommunistische Arbeiter Jugend
The youth wing of the party was the Kommunistische Arbeiter Jugend (KAJ) or Communist Workers Youth. They published a "struggle-organ", Rote Jugend, or Red Youth.[6]
Relations with the Comintern
The delegates of the KAPD to the
Relations with the (Italian) Communist Left
Although German left-communists from KAPD are often understood as same opposition towards the Comintern as Italian Communist Left from then
The party published a paper, Kommunistische Arbeiter-Zeitung. It also published a monthly theoretical magazine, Der Proletarier, between 1920 and 1927.[12]
Prominent members of the KAPD
- Jan Appel
- Adolf Dethmann
- Arthur Goldstein
- Herman Gorter
- Antonie Pannekoek
- Franz Jung
- Karl Korsch
- Heinrich Laufenberg
- Paul Mattick
- Franz Pfemfert
- Bernhard Reichenbach
- Otto Rühle
- Adam Scharrer
- Karl Schröder
- Ernst Schwarz
- Fritz Wolffheim
See also
- Council communism
- Left communism
- Communist Workers Party of Bulgaria
- Communist Workers' Party of the Netherlands
References
- Invariance, La Vieille Taupe, 1973, p2
- ^ Die Entstehung der GIK, 1927-1933, accessed 13 July 2010
- ^ a b Dauvé, Gilles; Authier, Denis. "The Communist Left in Germany 1918-1921". www.marxists.org. Retrieved 4 June 2018.
- ^ "BERICHT ÜBER DEN GRÜNDUNGSPARTEITAG DER KAPD AM 4. UND 5. APRIL 1920 IN BERLIN" (PDF). No. 90. Kommunistischen Arbeiterpartei Deutschlands. 23 April 1920.
- ^ Philippe Bourrinet, The Dutch and German Communist Left (1900-1968)
- ^ "Rote Jugend Jahr 2" (PDF). Association Archives Antonie Pannekoek. Retrieved 22 June 2020.
- ^ Theses on the Role of the Communist Party in the Proletarian Revolution, adopted by the Second Congress of the Communist International, 1920
- ^ Bernhard Reichenbach, The KAPD in Retrospect: An Interview with a Member of the Communist Workers Party of Germany
- ^ Carr, A History of Soviet Russia, vol. 3, pg. 197.
- ^ http://pcint.org/40_pdf/18_publication-pdf/EN/Tragedy-w.pdf, The Tragedy of the german Proletariat after the First World War
- ^ http://www.quinterna.org/lingue/english/historical_en/letter_to_korsch.htm, Letter from Amadeo Bordiga to Karl Korsh, 1926
- ISBN 9789004288034.