Revolutionary trade union opposition

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The Revolutionary Trade Union Opposition (RGO) was initially an organized communist movement in the free trade unions in 1928/29 . From the end of 1929 the RGO appeared as a trade union affiliated with the KPD , which founded individual industrial associations in 1930/31. Parts of the RGO were active in the resistance against National Socialism .

Emergence

The reasons for the emergence of the RGO are seen in the more recent specialist literature on the one hand in the changes in the KPD and Comintern policy from 1927/28 , on the other hand in specific developments in the German communist movement. In this movement there was a part that increasingly distanced itself from the social democratically dominated trade unions of the General German Trade Union Federation (ADGB). The founding was not based solely on tactical decisions of the KPD, the Comintern and the Red Trade Union International (RGI), but was also based on the needs and demands of a radical minority of the German labor movement , which no longer represented their interests within the framework of traditional free trade union politics saw represented. This development is also attributed to changes in the SPD policy, which had an impact on free trade union policy and which is said to have resulted in a more defensive course by the trade unions vis-à-vis the employers. Nevertheless, the RGO policy remained very controversial in the KPD. KPD members who fundamentally rejected the RGO policy resigned from the party or were expelled.

Initially, from 1927/28 the RGO tried to set up its own strike committees and election lists (red lists) with its own candidates for works council elections and with the support of unorganized people. This step was seen by the free trade unions as a declaration of war. The organizations led by Social Democrats now excluded numerous communists . RGO supporters then tried to initiate wildcat strikes more frequently . The communists insulted the social democrats as social fascists in the sense of the KPD program at the time .

After the exclusion of entire communist-dominated sectors and local associations in 1929, the communists went over to further increased opposition work in the free trade unions . They founded more and more independent associations for the excluded (e.g. the so-called pipe-laying association under the direction of Michael Niederkirchner ). In these small associations, which arose above all in Berlin and the Ruhr area , a certain number of hitherto completely unorganized people were often accepted, which further strengthened the separation of the RGO from the free ADGB trade unions. The future tasks of the RGO consisted in attempts to organize dissatisfied workers and strikes to ward off wage cuts or for better working conditions, but above all for revolutionary demands. Implementing the last and most important goal of the RGO strategy was in principle no longer possible from mid-1930 within the framework of the ADGB trade unions.

Development and alignment

Since 1930 the RGO was propagated as a "red class union ". From November 1930, several “red associations” such as the Union of Metal Workers in Berlin (EVMB) were formed and campaigns were launched several times, but - with a few local exceptions (especially in Berlin , the Ruhr area , Hamburg ) - never achieved greater success. The maximum number of members of the entire RGO was given in 1932 with 322,000 people, whereby this number is assessed as excessive in the more recent literature. Numbers between 235,000 and 270,000 are more realistic.

Parts of the traditional trade union wing left the KPD and went to the KPO . However, in the final phase of the Weimar Republic , the KPD became a mass party . Overall, however, the communist trade union policy was always less successful than the party policy of the time. In some organizational areas of the RGO more than half of the RGO members were temporarily unemployed . However, this was also related to the difficult situation on the labor market during the Great Depression and measures from the ranks of the entrepreneurs against communists. The RGO was classified as a "subversive organization" by the authorities. Their activities were monitored by the police. She was not officially recognized as a collective bargaining partner .

For propaganda reasons, in parts of the RGO only entries and no exits were counted at times. Since the communists had increasingly lost their influence in the free trade unions in the course of applying the offensive RGO strike policy - both through voluntary resignations and exclusions - but the RGO also did not become a mass organization , the KPD changed its strategy again: from the middle In 1931 communists had to do opposition work in the ADGB and in all free trade union associations and at the same time ensure that the “red associations” were strengthened. This resolution was an expression of a situation within the party in which an attempt was made to cover up contradictions that had broken out with regard to the RGO. However, from the point of view of some KPD and RGO functionaries , this pushed the RGO too much into the role of a pure run-up organization of the KPD, which could not fulfill its claim to an independent communist trade union movement - also due to contradicting demands. There were significant conflicts over union and political issues between the KPD leadership and parts of the RGO. The existence of the “red associations” in particular was threatened, as the party increasingly distanced themselves from them.

The three largest "red associations" organized only a small part of the employees compared to the ADGB unions in the areas of metal ( unit association of metal workers in Berlin ), mining ( unit association of miners in Germany ) and construction ( unit association for the construction industry ). Nevertheless, they achieved respectable successes in some companies and regions in Germany. In the areas of metal and mining in particular, the RGO was comparatively successful in Berlin and the Ruhr area.

At the end of 1932, the RGO attracted attention all over Germany because, together with the National Socialist Company Cell Organization (NSBO), it supported a strike at the Berlin transport company against wage cuts. This was a “ wildcat strike ” against wage cuts that was rejected by the free trade unions and was supported by a large number of BVG employees. By joining the strike, which was carried out primarily by the unorganized and the RGO, the National Socialists , who were still little anchored in the Berlin workers' movement in 1932 , tried to achieve propaganda successes for " National Socialism ". In addition to RGO and NSBO, members of the SPD were also represented in the strike committee, who rejected the wage cuts and thus followed the demands of the workforce.

The RGO in the resistance against National Socialism

After the beginning of the National Socialist rule in 1933, parts of the RGO tried to maintain the organization. At the beginning of the Nazi regime after the Reichstag fire , the RGO went underground and built up resistance groups in various organizational areas . There was activity in particular in the metal, marine and construction sectors. The Union of Metal Workers in Berlin (EVMB) was one of the most important trade union resistance groups that existed in the early phase of National Socialism.

Parts of the RGO concentrated on propaganda work for the “revolutionary overthrow” of the Nazi regime and the distribution of magazines, collecting membership fees and collecting information about the conditions in the factories and stamp offices. Parts of the RGO - especially from the ranks of the “red associations” - continued to make attempts to initiate strikes. These were intended to destabilize the Nazi state or to ward off wage cuts. Participation in such actions involved a great deal of risk. Numerous members and sympathizers of the illegal RGO structures were arrested by the Gestapo and sentenced to years in prison.

resolution

From mid-1934, the KPD gradually gave up RGO policy - in agreement with the Comintern and the RGI - because the party wanted to get closer to the Social Democrats and advocated cross-party, free-trade union resistance groups. Parts of the RGO, however, stuck to the old line. The shrinking groups of the RGO broke up independently between 1934 and 1936 or were crushed by the Nazi persecutors.

Functionaries of the RGO Reich Committee (selection)

Attempts to revive RGO politics in the 1970s

In the trade union movement after 1945, the RGO policy was generally viewed as a mistake that increased the division of the workforce. Attempts by the KPD-AO and the KPD / ML in the 1970s to revive the RGO policy had little effect in the Federal Republic of Germany . Efforts for a new RGO were largely carried out by left-wing radical students. These tried to implement a radical left-wing trade union policy in the factories in contrast to the German Trade Union Confederation . In the GDR , too , the RGO policy was mostly viewed as a mistake that led to “ sectarianism ” among the communists and thus hindered efforts to achieve a united front .

literature

  • Lore Heer-Kleinert: The trade union policy of the KPD in the Weimar Republic. Campus, Frankfurt am Main et al. 1983, ISBN 3-593-33090-3 .
  • Stefan Heinz : Moscow's mercenaries? The "Union of Metalworkers in Berlin". Development and failure of a communist union. VSA-Verlag, Hamburg 2010, ISBN 978-3-89965-406-6 (also: Berlin, University, dissertation, 2009).
  • Stefan Heinz, Siegfried Mielke (ed.): Functionaries of the unified association of metal workers in Berlin in the Nazi state. Resistance and persecution (= trade unionists under National Socialism. Persecution - resistance - emigration. 2). Metropol-Verlag, Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-86331-062-2 .
  • Steffen Lehndorff: How did the RGO come about? Problems of the trade union development in the Weimar Republic from 1927 to 1929 (= Marxist Paperbacks. 54). Verlag Marxistische Blätter, Frankfurt am Main 1975, ISBN 3-88012-350-0 .
  • 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 (also: Mannheim, University, habilitation thesis, 1986).
  • Eva Cornelia Schöck: Unemployment and Rationalization. The situation of the workers and the communist trade union policy 1920–1928 (= campus study. Social history. 537). Campus, Frankfurt am Main et al. 1977, ISBN 3-593-32537-3 (At the same time: Bremen, Universität, Dissertation, 1976).
  • Hermann Weber , Klaus Schönhoven , Klaus Tenfelde (eds.): Sources on the history of the German trade union movement in the 20th century. Volume 4: Peter Jahn , Detlev Brunner : The trade unions in the final phase of the republic 1930–1933. Founded by Erich Matthias . Bund-Verlag, Cologne 1988, ISBN 3-7663-0904-8 .
  • Hermann Weber, Klaus Schönhoven, Klaus Tenfelde (eds.): Sources on the history of the German trade union movement in the 20th century. Volume 5: Siegfried Mielke, Matthias Frese: Trade unions in the resistance and in emigration 1933–1945. Bund-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1999, ISBN 3-7663-0905-6 .