Uniform association for the construction industry

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The Unified Association for the Building Industry ( EVfdB ) was a communist union founded in 1931 , which was active in the resistance against National Socialism even after Hitler came to power in the spring of 1933 .

Origin and direction

The EVfdB was initially created at the local level in Berlin on March 29, 1931. Similar to the Union of Metal Workers in Berlin , the association emerged from a radical left-wing union movement against the background of the policy of the Revolutionary Trade Union Opposition (RGO) and the efforts of the KPD to create a To build up mass movement in the factories. After the EVMB and the EVBD , the EVfdB was the third larger "red association" founded by the RGO. The EVfdB saw itself - like all "red associations" - as a class struggle or revolutionary union, which was primarily supposed to transform strikes to ward off wage disputes and deterioration in working conditions into political mass strikes. However, this goal failed. According to Stefan Heinz, the association initially consisted mainly of excluded members of the branches of the German Building Trade Association (pipe fitters, carpenters, construction workers and stone workers), which were split off from the Free Trade Unions in Berlin in 1929/30 due to the application of the RGO policy .

Union policy development

In April 1931 - according to Stefan Heinz - further "red construction workers' associations" were created at the local level in the Ruhr area and then in other regions. October 1931 merged to form a unified association of construction workers in Germany (EVdBD). At the end of 1931, up to 29,775 members are said to have been organized in the umbrella organization. Although the EVfdB actually extended over several parts of the Reich territory, there were serious structures only in larger cities in Germany. EVfdB members were not organized according to the operating principle, but because of the change in construction sites in "units" which were divided up according to the residential area principle. The unemployment rate among the organized members is said to have been particularly high - also in comparison to other construction unions, which suffered from unemployment particularly under the conditions of the global economic crisis . The unemployment rate of the "red construction workers' associations" is said to have been up to 85 percent at the end of 1931. The EVfdB or EVdBD did not succeed in initiating a revolutionary development through radical strike tactics. Many members left the association disappointed. In Berlin, however, the association had a particularly radical following who were firmly committed to the goals of the association. These members were strongly anti-Nazi and anti-social-democratic, which is why the EVfdB had to fight out conflicts with SPD members and members of the free trade unions.

Resistance to National Socialism

After the National Socialists came to power, a number of members and functionaries were active in the resistance against National Socialism. Until mid-1934 there were attempts to keep the EVfdB as a communist union organization under the conditions of illegality. Many resistance activists were arrested and suffered reprisals from the National Socialists. In late autumn 1933, in Berlin alone, more than 600 members are said to have been organized in the EVfdB under the conditions of illegality. At the beginning of 1934 there was a large wave of arrests against actual and supposed members of the EVfdB. The repression weakened the illegal association considerably. Like all "red associations" - especially the EVMB - the EVfdB carried out radical trade union work that was directed against both social democracy and the Nazi movement. For this reason, conflicts arose with the KPD . Like the EVMB, the EVfdB was declared by the KPD in 1934 to be a left-wing sectarian "deviation" that had to be combated.

literature

  • Stefan Heinz : Moscow's mercenaries? "The Union of Metal Workers in Berlin": Development and failure of a communist union. VSA-Verlag , Hamburg 2010, ISBN 978-3-89965-406-6 .
  • Werner Müller: wage war, mass strike, Soviet power. Aims and limits of the Revolutionary Trade Union Opposition (RGO) in Germany 1928 to 1933. Bund-Verlag, Cologne 1988, ISBN 3-7663-3063-2
  • Rudolf Tschirbs: Tariff Policy in Ruhr Mining 1918-1933. De Gruyter, Berlin 1986, ISBN 978-3-11010-281-9