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The Lesson of Germany
James, C.L.R. (writing as J.R.Johnson)
http://www.connexions.org/CxArchive/MIA/james-clr/works/1945/05/lesson-germany.htmhttp://www.marxists.org/archive/james-clr/works/1945/05/lesson-germany.htm Publisher: New International Year Published: 1945 Resource Type: Article Cx Number: CX8022 Hitler's hundreds of thousands of storm troopers represented an enormous expense. They were thugs hired by the German bourgeoisie to fight its battles against the working class. In the years 1930-33 the German bureaucracy engineered election after election hoping to discredit parliamentary government and open the way for authoritarian rule. Despite his immense influence over the petty bourgeoisie, Hitler, by 1932, was on the wane. The German bourgeoisie deliberately maintained Nazism to have some power in reserve against Bolshevism. True, he dominated them afterward. We do not mean for one moment to deny the energy, the inventiveness, the will, the tenacity of Hitler and the other Nazi leaders. We do not deny their skilful use of social contradictions. He himself was obviously a born leader of men and an orator the like of whom Europe has not often seen. But from the time he began, the German bourgeoisie, the military caste, the bureaucracy, all built him up and without their active conscious support he would have been nothing. Subject Headings |