Re: [Marxism] Gluckstein, Abraham, the Nazis and big business

[Einde O'Callaghan <einde@xxxxxx>]

Louis Proyect wrote:
> Carlos:
<snip>
> > Yet all those supposedly "progressive" people evidently switched their
> > alligeance to the NSDAP or catrastophically failed to rise up in
> > resistance. That there was no active german resistance to speak of
> > during WWII tells a lot about the mass psychology that developed under
> > German fascism.
>
>
> Once Hitler set up a totalitarian system, it would be very difficult for
> workers to organize. The key to understanding Hitlerism is not mass
> psychology but the suicidal policies of the working class parties. These
> policies allowed Hitler to take power. Once in power, he could mold
> German society to his liking.
The catastrophic failure of the mass workers' parties had a massive
demoralising influence on working class resistance. Newvertheless, the
Nazis didn't have complete hegemony in teh factories. In the last
relatively free elections to the factory councils teh Nazis only managed
to get 7% of the vote even though the workers parties had been declared
illegal.

There was also a lot of passive resistance, sometimes quite spectacular.
The first time I visited Hanover I was told by some old-timers taht the
nazis didn't dare to come into the working-class area Linden after dark,
except in massive force, and many communist and social democrat
militants lived relatively openly there even though they were on the
wanted lists of the Nazis.

Several German social historians have documented the cultural resistance
of the workers, most notably Detlev Peukert, several of whose books have
been translated into English.

Anotehr factor taht influenced the lack of resisitance was taht Hitler
had learned from the experience of World War I that it was important to
ensure that there were no hunger riots on the home front. The food
supply to working class areas was maintained until quite late in the war
- mainly by plundering trhe occupoied territories. Also after the start
of the terror bombing of the German cities - and then later the demand
for unconditional capitulation and the horror stories being told by
refugees about the experiences of German civilians at the hands of the
"Red" Army (unfortunately not Nazi propaganda) - there appeared to be no
point in actually sticking one's neck out and organising resistance.

Nevertheless, with teh collpase of the Nazi apparatus alternative
structures organised by former members of the workers parties emerged
quite rapidly in the factories and in the localities. these then set
about ensuring that the civilian population of the cities and industrial
centres didn't starve in teh weeks following the end of the war.

These alternative structures were very quickly dissolved by the
occupying forces (also in the Soviet zone) and often replaced by
reinstated Nazi officials (in teh East too).

Einde O'Callaghan


_______________________________________________
Marxism mailing list
Marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism