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Fascism—Fight it Now

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Mussolini & Hitler 1940

Fascism—Fight it Now (January, 1937) with a forward by John Marchbank, General Secretary, National Union of Railwaymen (NUR) and J. C. Little, President, Almagamated Engineering Union (AEU), was a pamphlet prepared for the Labour Research Department, London, England. Its readership was hoped to be "those who have attained manhood and womanhood since 1914. ...YET TO MAKE THEIR CONTRIBUTION TO THE MARCH TOWARD FREEDOM AND EMANCIPATION OF THE WORKING CLASS... their young lives ...overshadowed by the Great War and its terrible aftermath." It argued that "the better conditions they enjoy were obtained as a result of action in a State with a democratic form of government, by trade unions, and other organizations which are not permitted to function in fascist countries..." and that the "triumphs of fascism here would result in the scrapping of that great political and social structure upon which rests the material well-being and spiritual freedom of our people."

Quotes

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Foreword

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  • The pamphlet, we hope, will be read widely by those who have attained to manhood and womanhood since 1914. ...YET TO MAKE THEIR CONTRIBUTION TO THE MARCH TOWARD FREEDOM AND EMANCIPATION OF THE WORKING CLASS ...The great battles were won before their day, and their young lives have been overshadowed by the Great War and its terrible aftermath. ...[T]he better conditions they enjoy were obtained as a result of action in a State with a democratic form of government, by trade unions, and other organisations which are not permitted to function in fascist countries. ...[T]he triumphs of fascism here as elsewhere would result in the scrapping of that great political and social structure upon which rests the material well-being and spiritual freedom of our people. It would mean a new inquisition where the persecuted and oppressed would be those who... sought to make available for all... standards... possible by intelligent action in an enlightened community.
  • [T]he nineteenth century ended with the outbreak of War in 1914. That was a century in which human ingenuity excelled, and the coming of the big industries made possible... living and working conditions... beyond the reach of previous generations. ...[T]he working class attained to a new dignity as a result of collective efforts through trade unions, cooperative... [and] friendly societies, and... political action. The brutality which accompanied the mechanisation of industry, with its unbridled exploitation... gave rise to the movements which have now become accepted facts... [W]ith organisation and collective action... humanising working and living conditions became successful, and untold benefits accrued... [A]s a result... the worker reaped the reward of his increased bargaining power, and won the full rights of citizenship...
  • [T]riumphs of fascism... would result in the scrapping of that great political and social structure upon which rests the material well-being and spiritual freedom of our people. ...[T]he persecuted and oppressed would be those who... sought... standards... [made] possible by intelligent action in an enlightened community.
  • FASCISM MEANS THE SUPPRESSION OF ALL DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENTS.
  • [W]e can, if we choose, preserve ourselves from the evils which have befallen the workers in Germany and Italy. They have lost the right to live their own lives, and are... pawns... of a decadent capitalism. ...[F]ascism is the enemy of the working class: it seeks to enslave us and our children.
  • This freedom... these creative opportunities... this democracy... are our heritage, and we are their custodians. ...[E]ach... generation has made its contribution to raising human standards and human values. WE REFUSE TO BELIEVE THAT THE PEOPLE... WILL ALLOW IT ALL TO BE BURIED IN A FASCIST GRAVEYARD.
  • It is to such men and women that the Labour Movement makes its appeal.
    John Marchbank, J, C. Little. January 7th. 1937.

FASCISM-FIGHT IT NOW

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  • [O]ur purpose... is to expose a plot... aimed at your safety... comfort, and... liberties. We shall show how this plot would harm you—if... the conspirators succeed...—by... example of another country where the plotters have been successful.
    That country is Germany.
  • The German trade union movement... had over eight million members in 1930. Now there is no trade union movement...
  • "They can never do here what they did in Italy," said these German men and women... And then—it became too late...
  • Before the Nazis smashed it, the German trade union movement was the largest in the world, with the exception of the Russian unions.

GREAT UNION MOVEMENT

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  • [T]he Christian Trade Unions were broken up and dissolved by the Nazis, just as arbitrarily and brutally as were the other unions.
  • The fascists,... the servants of the big industrial employers, were out to smash anything which had the faintest flavour of trade unionism, and the million Christian trade unionists... organisations [were] broken up just as ruthlessly as... small unions...
  • [W]hatever the political attitude of a trade union—whether Socialist, non-party, Catholic, Conservative or Syndicalist—the fascists are out to destroy it if it bears the least trace of INDEPENDENT WORKING-CLASS EFFORT TO INFLUENCE WAGES, HOURS AND WORKING CONDITIONS.
  • [T]he German trade union movement. ...In May, 1933, the fascists seized it in order to smash it.
    Now it exists no more...
  • Shall we not be wiser... by determining that our unions shall never be broken... by getting together NOW and acting... as vigilant watch-dogs to guard our organisations against the wreckers?
  • After the Nazis... seized power, they proceeded to destroy the German trade union movement. Everywhere, brownshirted bands of fascists entered the headquarters of the trade unions, seized the furniture, typewriters and cash. The machinery, presses, etc., of the labour papers were smashed...
  • The funds of the unions... were confiscated. Some leaders were killed, often after... revoltingly brutal torture, and others were thrown into prison or condemned to... the concentration camps... These... people... were not punished for any specific offence—they had violated no laws, they had committed no crime. Their only offence... to represent the interests of their fellow trade unionists, to maintain... standards of wages and conditions and to better them. They were not "Reds," for the most part... just... ordinary trade unionists. But they represented the... view of the workers, and... in the eyes of the fascists... [were] obedient flunkeys of the employers... [a] sufficient crime.

THE FACTORY COUNCILS

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  • [B]efore the Nazis destroyed them, [there] were the Betriebsräte, or FACTORY COUNCILS. The German Republic, by a law passed in 1920, established and recognised these... in all industrial concerns. These... were elected... by the workers by a FREE AND SECRET BALLOT... to represent their interests.
  • [W]orkers' councils met independently—no employers... attended their meetings. The councils exercised a certain amount of control over working conditions... maintenance of the health of the workers, safety from accident and disablement... and also saw to it that there were no breaches by the employer of the agreements... regarding wages, hours, overtime...

FACTORY COUNCILS ABOLISHED

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  • Thus we see that, under the Republic... [t]he wage-earner did not feel that his wages, hours and working conditions could be changed... at the whim of the employer. He felt... to some extent, safeguarded, both by his trade union, on a national scale, and by his factory council in the... place of work.
  • This is the function of trade unionism—to establish... decent conditions... and to preserve those... against... attempts to lower them. ...[T]o work towards an ever improving standard for the workers. ...The trade unions exist to help them get a larger share, and to produce under healthy, safe and decent conditions.
  • But... workers' councils in Germany... exists no more. In its place... a mockery of the old councils which the fascists abolished. The German workers now have no protection—they are at the mercy of the employers. Their trade unions have gone, and in their place... the Arbeitsfront, the Labour Front... Their factory councils have gone, and in their place, the Nazis have set up the Vertrauensräte or "Confidence Councils."

NEW COUNCILS A FAKE

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  • Purely upon the surface, the present councils bear a faint resemblance to the former factory councils. ...The present councils... further the designs of the employers.
  • [F]or the present councils, the candidates are not put forward by the unions... there are no unions. Nor... by the workers... The list... is drawn up by... THE EMPLOYER and THE NAZI LOCAL LABOUR CHIEF, a specially trusted... fascist...
  • [A] "council"... elected from a list... hand-picked by the employer and a fascist party lieutenant, cannot... represent the... workers. ...[T]he employer... puts up... names of workers... agreeable to himself... those "boss's pets" who could never get on... the old councils.
  • [T]he former factory councils functioned... independently of the employer—he had no voice in their discussions, nor was he present at... meetings. Not so in the case of these "Confidence Councils"... of the fascists. ...THE EMPLOYER IS... CHAIRMAN OF THE "CONFIDENCE COUNCIL"!
  • [T]he employer is chairman of the council... he who convenes the meetings, leads the discussions... [I]n fascist Germany, the employer is... "leader" of the factory... a miniature Hitler... [H]e leads the workers... into the ditch of exploitation and poverty. ...[T]here are hundreds of thousands of German workers who see through this confidence trick, although Nazi tyranny prevents open exposure...
  • The old councils had the power to make independent decisions. They could take up individual cases of workers, with regard to wages, hours, unjust dismissals... [T]hey had the power of the unions behind them to enforce... decisions... But the... new councils... have no such power. They are merely "advisory bodies"... they can talk, but cannot enforce... And... the range of their discussion has been severely limited. ...Some of the council members are even spies of the fascist secret police ...to report on any member who dares voice any grievance of the workers.
  • In the first elections held for the Confidence Councils, in 1934, the workers... voted overwhelmingly against the lists in their entirety. ... [T]he fascists ...in the 1935 elections ...permitted voting ...only for candidates in the list ...as before. As they had this time included a few names of candidates who enjoyed a certain measure of confidence among the workers, the voting was consequently not so obviously hostile ...but ...strongly against the lists. In 1936, the elections were "postponed"... [i.e.,] did not take place at all.
  • Most people in Germany are of the opinion that there will be no more elections to the Nazi factory councils.

THE "LABOUR FRONT"

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  • [T]he Labour Front (Arbeitsfront)... has no similarity... with any... previous organisations of... workers. It is officially connected with the fascist government and... fascist party; It exerts no efforts to improve the lot of the workers. The workers have no control over it.
  • After the trade unions were broken, their ample funds... stolen, were paid... in part, into the coffers of this dummy organisation.
  • German trade unions were... "taken over " by the Labour Front. This means that, after their headquarters and funds had been seized, and many leaders and officials killed or imprisoned, the membership of the former trade unions was automatically transferred to the Labour Front, whether they liked it or not. ...[E]very former trade unionist is compelled to continue paying his contributions—but... to the Labour Front.
  • The objects of the Labour Front, it is announced, are "educational." It has abandoned... defending the workers' interests. In the early days of German fascism... a few working-class people, unemployed and others, who really thought that National-Socialism... was something more than a name by means of which the fascists sought to win over some of the less intelligent workers. These young fascists were sincere... and did not at first realise... they had been the dupes of... unscrupulous political careerists, financed by the capitalists and banks.
  • Among... British fascists one may... sometimes find young men and women... sincere... idealistic, and... shortsighted. Well, these young Nazis—workers, unemployed, or clerks, for the most part—were soon undeceived. It became evident that the main object of the Labour Front was to provide "eye-wash" for the workers while the bosses picked their pockets, and... to provide... jobs... for... minor bosses of the Nazi Party.

LABOUR "FRONT" STABS WORKERS IN BACK

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  • The shock came for these... believers in... Hitler... when... [he] announced, in July 1933, "The revolution is ended. I shall deal ruthlessly with any so-called second revolution." ...Soon these young people found themselves kicked out of their jobs, expelled from the fascist organisations—except for a few... bribed with official jobs. ...[T]hat was the end of any attempt to make the Labour Front live up to its name.
  • Dr. Ley...[the Labour Front's] chief, stated... 1933, in... Der Deutsche, official organ of the Labour Front, "it has always been clear that the trade unionist conception must be eradicated" ...[H]e proceeded ..."I have succeeded ...in rooting out from the organisation this trade unionist mode of thought." Thus the supreme leader of the Labour Front himself admits... this body fulfils none of the functions of a trade union. ...[I]ts main activity is the issuing of Nazi propaganda, besides which it aims at organising certain sports and leisure activities...
  • Even under the Hitler terror, with spies everywhere among the workers, and with starvation at every worker's elbow, the unconquerable humour of the working class emerges frequently at the expense of the Labour Front. Jests, whispered from man to man... related to the various Labour Front departments... "The Patriotism Department tells us to love our Fatherland but all we own of it now is what we have under our finger-nails," ...And, as for the Travel Department ..."My wife gets all the travelling she can stand now, going around all day trying to get a quarter-pound of margarine."
  • [T]his Labour Front is enormously rich, because membership is... compulsory. In December 1935, Dr. Ley said: "We hope and believe that no one will find work in Germany who is not a member of the Labour Front" and a German court has held that an employer is within his rights in dismissing a worker who refuses to join the Labour Front. ...[A]s the Labour Front includes in its membership shopkeepers, professional men and EMPLOYERS ...it has over 18 million members.
    Every one... pays his contributions... And what is done with... this money? There is no insurance to pay out... when the fascists smashed the trade unions they abolished... sickness and death benefits and other insurance schemes, although they didn't return the money which thousands of workers had contributed... Some... Labour Front money goes in propaganda, quite a lot... to maintain a horde of idle officials, but the bulk... is turned over to the fascist state... for armaments. It is... a thinly disguised... compulsory extra taxation.
  • EMPLOYERS... belong to the Labour Front. This should destroy the last plea of the fascist propagandist that the Labour Front performs any function... comparable with... a trade union.

EMPLOYERS RULE LABOUR FRONT

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  • Not only workers belong to the Labour Front... but... employers, company directors, managers, superintendents... [I]magine the Federation of British Industries, or any other employers' organisation, being allowed to affiliate with the Trades Union Congress! Capitalists are members of the Labour Front. ...[T]his would mean ...directors of our railway companies would become members of the executive committee of the National Union of Railwaymen! Or that wealthy mine-owners would sit in high places with voice and vote at the conferences of the Miners' Federation... [T]hat is what the British Fascists mean when they talk about 100 per cent, trade unionism... the kind which kow-tows to the employer and hands him the keys of the office—and... treasury!
  • [N]ot only are the big employers MEMBERS of the Labour Front, they are its LEADERS. In the Leipzig Agreement... issued in... 1935, defining the nature and status of the Labour Front... "either the chairman or vice-chairman of ALL district or special branches of the Labour Front must be an industrialist." An industrialist—a capitalist. And if... not an employer, then... a member of the Fascist Party appointed by Labour Front headquarters.
  • [A]lthough... German fascists destroyed the workers' organisations, the trade unions, they did not apply the same methods to the EMPLOYERS' ORGANISATIONS. While the workers... are now nakedly exposed to attacks upon their wages, hours and conditions, with no organisation... to protect them, the Employers have their strong Organisation of Industrial Concerns. This... has preserved intact its funds from pre-Nazi days. The fascists... did not dare lay a finger on the funds or organisations of the big capitalists. And for very good reason: it was the secret money gifts of these big capitalists which helped the fascists to trick and terrorise their way to power. It is true that they made a bluff at "dissolving" the organisation of the German employers, in the earlier days... when they... needed to fool... their... followers who had been duped into a belief in their "socialist" promises They "dissolved" it one day—without touching its funds—and it reappeared the next day, under another name, and is still going strong!
  • We can see... the fascists... in Germany... have destroyed the workers' organisations, the trade unions, leaving the workers defenceless; while the employers are still strongly organised in a representative, active body. Thus the fascists have turned over the workers, unprotected and gagged, to the mercies of the employers. They... have acted as strike-breakers on a national scale.... betrayers of the common people, delivering them to their exploiters.

BOUND TO THE BOSS

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  • Fascist law binds the worker to the employer, just as the serf of the soil, in feudal days, was bound to serve his lord. The millowner, factory-owner, mine-owner, multiple shop proprietor, or other employer is given sole power... [T]he "Law to Regulate National Labour" (Gesetz zür Ordnung der nationalen Arbeit) of January 20th, 1934, Paragraph two... the man who ALONE has the right to make decisions in any concern is the EMPLOYER. He is called "the Leader (Führer) of his factory." The workers are his "followers."

  • And, supposing you, as a German worker, don't like the way the "leader" of your factory runs things, and you want to find a job elsewhere... [W]e see a reversion to the practices of the Middle Ages, when the serf was not allowed to leave the service of the feudal lord. All through the [labour] laws... in fascist Germany runs this increasing... RESTRICTION OF FREEDOM TO MOVE ABOUT. Agricultural labourers are prevented from coming to work in the towns, and town workers from going to the country. There exists a system of compulsory labour... [T]he workers' freedom of movement is limited by the introduction of the Workers' Passport (Arheitsbuch)... [for] all workers earning less than 8,000 marks (about £650) per year. ...[O]nly highly paid administrative posts in industry...[were] above this figure. Fascist Party officials... are exempt... as are government officials. The police... inspect these passports at any time. Unsatisfactory entries... by the employer... particularly... referring to... political opinions, or showing... a "discontented" worker—practically debar him from... employment. So... however poor the conditions, he cannot risk leaving...
  • [F]ascists or Nazis... deprived... workers of... open, independent action. Their unions have been destroyed as well as the working-class press. All... parties, except the Nazi, or fascist... have been forbidden. Thousands of working-class leaders and... trade unionists are in prison or concentration camps. Many... killed for... [being] active on behalf of the working class. ...[W]orkers are forbidden to organise and... express... discontent. Their factory councils have been abolished. Except for the courage... in their hearts, their secret will to... freedom, and... "underground" resistance, they are defenceless.

THE NAZI "PARADISE"

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  • Why have the fascists stripped the workers of their defence? ... THE WORKERS' ORGANISATIONS AND PRESS STOOD BETWEEN THE WORKERS AND THE EMPLOYERS, THEY WERE A WALL OF DEFENCE AGAINST WAGE-CUTS, LONGER HOURS, HARSHER WORKING RULES, WORSE CONDITIONS GENERALLY. So, said the employers, they had to go. And the employers hired the fascists to do the dirty work...
  • Nazis maintain a continual barrage of propaganda... to camouflage the facts. ...[A]ll the figures at our disposal come from OFFICIAL FASCIST SOURCES.

WAGES—REAL & UNREAL

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  • German fascists claim... they have kept wages stable... Even with their power to doctor figures, the Nazis have not the face to claim that wages HAVE RISEN. But have they even remained on the pre-fascist level?
  • [D]istinguish between real... and nominal, or money, wages. We reckon real wages in accordance with their purchasing power. If... you can only buy half what you bought last week—because prices have gone up—your wages have... been cut in half.
  • [I]f... deductions are made compulsorily from your wages... about which you have not been consulted... this amounts to a wage reduction... although... receiving the same sum.
  • [T]he fascists in Germany have been rearming... Hitler and his pals are out for war... [T]o make war, they are increasing... armaments at break-neck speed. This means... more workers... employed in... armaments and munitions... [where] the few slight increases in wages have occurred... in one or two branches... But...looking into the wages of ALL... German workers... whether wages AS A WHOLE... And...prices—what those wages can buy. ...[T]he only stable factor is the MONEY WAGE, and even that has declined recently in some industries. Both the cost of living and compulsory and semi-compulsory deductions... introduced by the Nazis, have substantially reduced REAL WAGES.
  • [L]ook... at the REDUCTIONS IN MONEY WAGES... under Nazi rule. Between 1929 and 1932 wages had been drastically reduced. But even so (using only Nazi figures) in the iron industry, the chemical industry and the building industry there have been slight reductions in money wages since 1935- Iron- workers' hourly wages were 92 pfennigs in 1935 and they fell to 91.3 in 1936. The 1935 average hourly wage of chemical workers was 82.5 in 1935—in 1936... 81.7 pfennigs. Building workers'... 84.7... per hour in 1935, and by 1936... 83.6. [T]he papermaking industry: skilled workers'... dropped from 71.2 in 1935 to 70.7 in 1936, and unskilled workers'... 59.6 to 57.6—a.... very nasty drop for... already less than... subsistence wage.

WHAT ABOUT HOURS?

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  • [W]e again see a disparity between... arms... and other fields. The German Statistical Research Institute—the Nazis'... official institute, from whom we take... [all] figures... gives the daily average... 1935 as 7 hours per day. BUT... that average is made by adding up all the hours... in all industries... then dividing... by the number of workers. ...[W]e see... in the arms industry... eight, nine or... ten hours per day—while in... "consumption goods" (food, drink, clothing, smoking, furniture, etc. ...to make life human) ...only five or six hours. ...[Y]et there are millions ...who badly need food and clothing. ...[S]omething wrong somewhere!
  • Short time is on the increase in many industries... while short time (five or six hours per day, four or five days per week) is spreading there is no corresponding increase in hourly wages, and thus... workers... are earning less and less... But the Nazis boast their wages PER HOUR are unaltered, and thus, until you look into it, everything in Naziland is lovely.
  • [T]he figures of state insurance... [are] very difficult to "cook." They show the percentages of the population earning various rates of wages in 1929 (pre-fascist) and 1935 (under Hitler). ...[T]here has been a considerable drift from the higher-wages ...into ...lower wages are earned. It's reckoned in weekly wages. ...[F]rom 1929 to 1935 (three years pre-fascist and three years of fascist rule), the percentage of the German people receiving HIGH WAGES HAS DECREASED, and... receiving LOWER WAGES... INCREASED. ...German workers now ... are earning less while working than they would have received in unemployed benefit in 1932, before the fascists came to power and severely slashed the unemployment assistance rates.

DEDUCTIONS—WHETHER YOU LIKE IT OR NOT

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  • [C]ompulsory deductions is a sore point with the German workers... one of the methods by which the fascists reduce wages without... appearing in... official figures.
  • Here is a list of the compulsory deductions from German workers' wages...
    compulsory contributions to insurance, church taxes, rates, etc... 14.2%
    Payments to Labour Front and Nazi Public Assistance... 1.9%
    ayments to Party funds, air defences, etc... 1.6%
    Deductions for newspapers, radio in factory, Nazi Party journals, etc... 3.3%
    Payments to various state organisations : Sports Clubs, Ex-Service Men, etc... 1.0%
    Payments towards sundry other purposes : Nazi Party celebrations, etc... 1.3%
    Total 23.3%
  • 23 per cent... is deducted from the wages... almost a quarter. ...[T]hese figures do not appear in the Nazi official wage statistics—they give... wages BEFORE... deductions...
  • The above figures were given officially at the last meeting of the treasury officials of the Labour Front. And they do NOT include the further deductions which are made each year for " Winter Help."
  • A worker who is no Nazi must... [pay] to keep a Nazi paper going. ...[T]his helps ...understand how the Nazi Press keeps its "marvellous circulation."
  • [W]orkers have no union, no protection, the employer is lord.
  • A... Nazi paper, the Arbeitsmann, official organ of the " Labour Service," had a circulation of only 65,000 copies up to the spring of 1936. This did not leave enough profit for the officials... or for the Nazi treasury. Therefore, a "campaign" was launched... regular subscribers rapidly rose to 240,000. The Labour Service workers were compelled to subscribe... under threats of punishment, curtailment of home leave, punishment drill... Many were not permitted to go to their homes for the Whitsun holidays until they had signed... This is a taste of Nazi tactics. ...[T]hat is what the workers get if they allow the fascists to get into the saddle.

A POVERTY BUDGET

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  • REAL wages must be reckoned in accordance with what they will buy, with prices. If prices rise, and wages are stationary, it is the same thing as a wage-cut.
  • According to the German government... Statistisches Reichsamt... the cost of living in Germany has risen by per cent... between... 1933 and... 1936. But... it...[is] higher, as concerns... workers, for this is an average... and includes... luxury products... workers could never buy. ...[F]ood has risen EIGHT per cent... clothing TWELVE per cent.
  • The Arbeiter Correspondent, October 1936, an official German paper, admits the rise in food costs... "The general price level... has... during the last few months taken an upward course... From the greengrocer to the boarding-house proprietress, from the butcher to the milliner, all say they must charge more."
    The reason... Germany is making more guns and less clothes... importing more raw material for war industry and less food. And the cost... for... a huge army of fascist officials. Another reason... the high tariff on imported foodstuffs.
  • The German economic review Wirtschafi und Statistik ("Economics and Statistics") admits... consumption of meat is falling lower and lower. ...Germany is suffering from a famine in fats ...Even if a housewife can afford ...a quarter-pound of butter—about twice as dear as in England—she may have to wait ...for hours outside a shop . ...The reason? Butter used to be imported from Denmark. Now the fascists are using that money to import materials for ...munitions. ...And the rationing system introduced ...1937 is the most recent measure imposed by the Nazis.
  • [S]hortage of fats, rising food prices and the decline in real wages and in housing must adversely affect... health... Let British... mothers note how the fascist rule has affected the health of the children... from the "German Statistical Yearbook " of 1935 ...prevalence of scarlet fever and diphtheria among the children... mortality ...had risen 50 per cent, in ...three years ...and from measles 77.4 per cent.
  • [S]econd only to Hitler—double-chinned, fat-bellied General Goering... told the Germans to use more jam instead of butter.
  • [F]igures issued by Dr. Vogler, official head of the Building Industry in Germany. First, comparing 1935 with 1928, he finds that only 87 per cent, as much building work is now taking place, and only 73 per cent, as much allotted to building. ...WHAT KIND of building is being done now, as compared with the earlier year. ...[T]wo classes of building have declined—housing and industrial... while one class has gone up—"public works." In 1928, 36 per cent... was for housing—in 1935... 17 per cent... Fascism means slums and overcrowding! Industrial ...factories, textile mills, etc.—in 1928 ...33 per cent ...in 1935 ...only 15 per cent.... Fascism means industrial decline. But "public works" leapt from 31 per cent... in 1928 to 68 per cent... in 1935. These " public works" are NOT schools, hospitals and libraries—it's easier to burn books than build libraries—but barracks, aerodromes and fortifications. Fascism means, not homes for workers... but places for them to fight and die in.
  • The production of private motor cars and champagne has increased enormously since the fascists came to power and installed their thousands of fat, easy-living officials in cushy jobs—for which the workers... pay.

UNEMPLOYMENT

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  • But... hear the British Blackshirts on the street corner boasting of how the German fascists have "reduced" unemployment! ...[T]he supreme achievement of fascism, according to them.
    It is strange, therefore... wages have gone down, fewer houses are being built, and conditions have worsened generally.
  • [I]mprovement is not BECAUSE of Nazi rule—unemployment had begun to decrease BEFORE the Nazis came in, owing to certain economic causes, and would have continued—PROBABLY AT A GREATER RATE—had they not come to power.
  • The world-wide trade depression was... beginning to lift before the Nazis came to power. Between August and December 1932 (under the Republic), 121,000 more people found work. Then Hitler came to power. The process continued and he grabbed the credit.
  • [T]he main present cause of re-employment is the tremendous expansion of the Nazi armaments industry. Thousands more... making guns—but thousands... put on part-time... making other goods. The Nazis do not mention this.
  • Another method of "solving" unemployment, under the Nazis, is... "land-helpers" ...115,000 ...young men and women, aged ...16 to 25, city-bred ...bound by the State in contract to farmers to work ...for ...bed and board and a couple of pence ...The contracts last six months. No young worker ...can choose the part of the country to which he or she is sent. Conditions on some farms are frightful. And it is virtually slave labour, for, if one of them ...runs away he forfeits ...unemployment benefit. Many workingclass mothers are terrified when their daughters are sent away ...because of the dangers to morals ...
  • In May 1935 COMPULSORY LABOUR for both sexes was introduced. ...[i]t was estimated that between 200,000 and 250,000 young people had registered for "Voluntary Labour Service" ...Once ...on their register, the Nazis passed this law transforming "voluntary labour"—meaning ...forced only by hunger and social pressure to register—into compulsory labour ...Since then they have published no figures.
  • The great increase in the army... allows for several hundred thousand...men coming off the unemployment register... enabling the fascists... magnificent achievement in "reducing unemployment." And... there are thousands of workers in the punishment camps because they... [were] loyal to their trade unions or political parties. The withdrawing of young people under 25 and of women—"woman's place is in the kitchen!"... also... freeing the unemployment register of thousands... what has become... these... is... conjecture. For many... women there were no kitchens to go into.

THE MISSING MILLIONS

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  • [T]he fascists have... substantially reduced the rates of unemployment relief and... deprived thousands of the right to that relief, but... also made it much more difficult to secure relief and remain on the register. The worker's contribution is heavy, amounting to 3 per cent, of his full wages... twice what it was in 1928, and the... time which must elapse after loss of employment has been lengthened... The Nazis are working in a direction... contrary to... Britain, where agricultural workers are now being admitted to unemployment relief. ...[T]he fascists in Germany have excluded agricultural workers, as well as workers in forestry and fisheries, formerly eligible... By all these means they have manipulated their register to make it appear that they have begun to "solve" the problem of unemployment.
  • [Y]ou will hear British fascists quoting figures, referring to Germany or Italy, of the International Labour Office of the League of Nations, as though... arrived at by an independent agency. They do not tell you that ...[i]t merely ACCEPTS THE FIGURES SUPPLIED IT BY THE VARIOUS GOVERNMENTS, INCLUDING THE FASCIST GOVERNMENTS. It has no machinery for testing them... Thus, I.L.O. figures, regarding Germany, are the German Nazi government's own figures...
  • Last September (1936), 300 men on public assistance in the town of Breslau were ordered.... to report at the railway station.... They were not told where they were being sent, nor for how long. They were taken to Koenigsberg, in East Prussia... They were segregated in a camp, their letters were all censored, they worked under military discipline and received nothing beyond bed and board for full-time work. Such cases occur frequently.

BUT THE FIGHT GOES ON

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  • there is in Germany what is called the "underground movement," the maintenance in secret of working-class party organisations, and even trade union bodies. Handbills are thrust under the doors of working-class dwellings, overnight placards — secretly printed — are pasted on the walls, and appeals are chalked on walls. ...A working-class movement such as that in Germany—which... produced men like André", who was recently executed, the writer, Ludwig Renn, and the indomitable Thaelmann and Mierendorff, among others, who have been in prison, without trial, for years — can never finally be defeated, although this movement has received a severe set-back. But the struggle against fascism in Germany goes on. We can help that struggle by fighting fascism here in Britain.
  • British fascists adopted uniforms similar to those of the German fascists... those of the German hooligan Black Guards who so brutally beat and tortured working people. They have added to the name... British Union of Fascists—the additional title of National-Socialist Party... and... are following the example of the German fascists... resentment against the Jews. ...[T]hey tell the unemployed, and others whose lot is unhappy, that the Jews are responsible. ...[T]hey seek to divert ...attention from ...true facts, just as did Hitler and his followers.
  • [W]hat we have described stands also for conditions in Italy, and in certain other countries where fascism... has considerable power. It is to establish a similar tyranny that the Spanish "Nationalists," under General Franco, are seeking to overthrow the Spanish Government, which recognises the right of the workers to organise in trade unions and to endeavour to improve their conditions.
  • [W]herever fascism makes its appearance, rearmament proceeds at a feverish rate, and the country is... fast driven on to war. The fascists cannot remedy poverty at home ...So their energies are turned OUTWARD ...towards war and conquest. Fascism leads directly to war.
  • [S]uppression of the trade union movement in any country aids the war-makers, because the international trade union movement can be a tremendous factor in the prevention of war, and the suppression of trade unions in any one country means the loss of a vital link in the chain of the anti-war forces of labour.
  • [F]ascism means... the death of trade unionism... the worsening of working conditions, and the restriction of the freedom of the workers. It means that all the years of effort and self-sacrifice which have been devoted to building up our trade union movement will be made fruitless by the plotting of people who—whether... knaves or well-meaning dupes—are... tools of those great interests who have always desired the destruction of trade unionism—high finance and capital.
  • The British fascists... declare... they are on the side of the working people. Hitler and the German fascists said the same... The British fascists talk about "100 per cent, trade unionism," but... is the money-grabbing fake of the German Labour Front. The Italian and the German fascists all talked about being friends of trade unionism—before they came to power. Now there isn't a trade union left in either of those countries.
  • The British fascists are compelled sometimes to give... a faint appearance of sympathy with the working man, because otherwise they would get no support... But their real feeling towards organised labour is evident in articles... in their journal, rankly abusing and libelling officials of the Amalgamated Engineering Union, for which they were ordered to pay considerable damages. The fascists will stop at no mean tactics to secure followers; they will even use the term "Socialist" to fool the workers into supporting them. Hitler and his men... called themselves "National-Socialists" — and thousands of Germans now miserably realise... what that was worth. Nothing of a Socialist nature has been attempted in Italy or Germany—the capitalists and banks there are stronger than ever... and... heartily support the fascists.

TIME TO ACT IS NOW

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  • [U]nless we put our fellow-workers, our friends and families, on their guard, the fascists might increase in strength. The time to fight this evil is NOW—we must not wait until it is too late, as did the German trade unions.
  • In a trade union anti-fascist publication entitled Fascism, published by the International Transport Workers' Federation — to which the great transport workers' unions of Britain and other countries are affiliated — a writer states as follows:

    "Between trade unionism and National-Socialism (fascism) no compromise is possible; under National-Socialist dictatorship there is no room for free workers' organisations. To-day, after three years of fascism in Germany, there is no more difference of opinion on this point, but when in 1932 the (German) unions had to decide whether or not to engage in open struggle for their existence, they hesitated and yielded, in the hope that some miracle would save them. Their yielding proved fatal."

  • WE CAN BEGIN RIGHT NOW TO COMBAT FASCISM. The first step is EDUCATION—we must tell the truth about fascism at every opportunity: at our branch meetings, on the job, in the pub or on our way to the football game—wherever we come together with other workers.
  • We can see that others secure copies of this pamphlet, that our branch or Co-op Guild places an order for it.

"WE MUST NOT SLEEP"

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  • [O]ur best defence against fascism is to STRENGTHEN OUR OWN ORGANISATION. Let us work towards an increased membership for our trade unions, the Labour Party, the Co-operatives, and all working-class organisations ; and, above all, everywhere within these organisations let us preach vigilance, VIGILANCE, VIGILANCE.
  • We can defeat fascism... if we are determined and if we spread the facts. And if we stand unitedly together, whatever our respective opinions or organisations, in this fight.
  • YOU who have read this pamphlet — trade unionist, cooperator, or wife, son or daughter of trade unionist or cooperator — it is YOUR job to help this fight.
  • [Y]ou will easily find other workers who are carrying on the anti-fascist agitation. JOIN IN WITH THEM. HELP THEM. DO YOUR BIT.
  • We must not sleep, we who believe in liberty, for the jackals may creep upon us unawares. We must not see England, Scotland, Wales—countries which we love, although conditions are by no means perfect within them—turned into grim lands where those who labour must move at the crack of the whip, wielded by the fascist agents of the exploiters of labour.
  • [L]iberties are threatened. Let us hasten to defend them, here and now.
  • If we do this we shall be able to banish the evil plague which has already fastened upon the German and Italian people, and make our country a country really of freedom, where the people may work out their own salvation, and control their own destinies.

About Fascism—Fight it Now

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  • On 7 June 1934, at the notoriously violent British Union of Fascists (BUF) rally at West London’s Olympia stadium, a young anti-fascist seaman... climbing on the roof... and crawling along the girders... above BUF leader Sir Oswald Mosley, where he remained shouting anti-fascist slogans. ...Eyewitnesses described unprecedented political violence... by fascist thugs... armed with... weapons. ...John Marchbank ...made it his business to speak out, actions that would lead to one of the most extraordinary legal battles of the period. ...Mosley founded the BUF whose 'Blackshirts' were frequently involved in street violence. ...Marchbank ...took on the aristocratic fascist leader in the courts ...Marchbank was reported to have said: “We strongly object to... assembling in the guise of a military machine with the object of overthrowing by force the constitutional government of the country.” ...Mosley ...sued for slander. ...Following ...legal victories, the [Almagamated Engineering Union] AEU and NUR general secretaries wrote a joint introduction to an LRD pamphlet aimed at trade unionists, called Fascism – Fight It Now.

See also

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Wikipedia
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