Richard Mueller and the Revolutionary Shop Stewards that he led in Germany 100 years ago are little known today. Yet he played a huge role and his successes and failures hold many lessons for this era.
"The German revolution of 1919 and the years that followed hold many fundamental lessons for today. That includes lessons for the general uprising of the Asian working class that may be developing before our eyes, starting in Myanmar.... "This period shows, once again, that the idea that the working class can take power without an independently-organized and experienced leadership is a fantasy at best. This means a leadership that understands how to work in situations where it is in a minority. It means a leadership that knows when and how to retreat as well as to attack. It also means a leadership that knows how to connect the immediate issues with the longer term ones – in other words, the transitional method. How such a leadership develops will vary depending on the conditions. One hundred years ago, it necessarily tended to develop linked with the leadership of the first successful working class revolution – the Bolsheviks. Today no such magnetic power exists. Not only that, but the working class has been driven backwards in both its organizational strength and its consciousness. "A new working class international will arise out of the workers struggle itself. Today, the revolution in Myanmar may evolve into a general uprising of the Asian working class throughout the region. That would have an impact even greater than the Arab Spring, because Southeast Asia, and Asia in general, is a center for world industrial production and, therefore, of the industrial working class globally. That is why such an uprising is so important; it could be the center of the new workers international. While many of the lessons of the past are largely erased, that is not entirely so. In Germany, the working class had 15 years before it finally met with a decisive and epochal defeat – the rise to power of the Nazis. A new mass working class international will have a similar or even greater length of time in which to learn and develop. But its time won’t be indefinite. The lessons contained in the period in Germany covered by this book are one small part of the precious heritage that can help insure that this time, the world working class revolution succeeds. Failure is too horrible to even consider." https://oaklandsocialist.com/2021/06/17/book-review-working-class-politics-in-the-german-revolution/ -- *“Science and socialism go hand-in-hand.” *Felicity Dowling Check out:https:http://oaklandsocialist.com also on Facebook -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#9254): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/9254 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/83604817/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/8674936/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
