CONGRESS OF WORKERS' AND SOLDIERS' COUNCILS
Publié le 22/02/2012
Extrait du document
CONGRESS OF WORKERS' AND SOLDIERS' COUNCILS (Ra¨tekongress).
Held at the request of the USPD, the first and most significant General
Congress of German Workers' and Soldiers' Councils met in the Prussian
Abgeordnetenhaus from 16 to 21 December 1918. Elections to the event, held
in late November and reflective of worker opinion at the time, gave the SPD an
overwhelming preponderance of the 514 delegates; Karl Liebknecht* and Rosa
Luxemburg* failed to win seats. The delegates showed little sympathy for events
in Russia; their key decision came on 19 December when, by a 344–98 vote,
they rejected a motion to confirm the council system as ‘‘the basis of the constitution
of the socialistic republic.'' Correspondingly, they passed by 400–50
the motion of Oskar Cohn* setting National Assembly* elections for 19 January
1919. Disillusioned, the USPD delegates abstained from a vote creating a new
central committee—aimed at coordinating the relationship between the councils
and the interim government (the Council of People's Representatives*)—and
thereby abandoned an opportunity to counterbalance the power of the SPD.
Before adjourning, the Congress passed nonbinding resolutions to initiate ‘‘socialization
of all industries ready for it'' and to destroy the symbols of German
militarism. This last proved especially irritating to conservatives.
The decision in favor of traditional parliamentarianism was the Congress's
paramount ruling. A bitter defeat for the Spartacus League,* the Revolutionary
Shop Stewards,* and the USPD, it led indirectly to the USPD's 27 December
withdrawal from the interim government and to the overhasty decision of the
Spartacists to establish the KPD and boycott elections.
A second Congress convened on 15 April 1919. Largely a USPD affair (the
SPD was satisfied that the need for councils had ended with the January elections),
it was an inconclusive attempt to resolve the debate between those favoring
a parliamentary course (‘‘Party Independents'') and those clinging to a
council system (‘‘Council Independents''). Because the strength of the Shop
Stewards had been squandered in three months of civil war, the debate proved
inconclusive.
Liens utiles
- African-American soldiers, sailors, marines, and airmen
- Ideology and Rationality in the History of the Life Sciences
- Relationship between religion, spirituality, and young Lebanese university students’ well-being.
- Course of reading and writing for 1st year English Licence
- dance and the different types of choreographie process