Neue Debatte - Special Edition - Long Essay on Left Strategy #002 - 04/2017 | Page 18

2 On democracy iat striving to improve its economic and legal situation. The proletari- at learned to organized own political parties and trade unions which gave direction to mass movements for universal suffrage, women’s liberation, and better wages and working conditions. The ruling clas- ses and their political agents either tried to suppress these move- ments and their organisations by force or changed tactics and de- fused the confrontations by granting concessions. The system of so called “social partnership” enabled seductive participation for full- time trade union and party leaders even on company supervisory board level. They integrated them into the parliaments and involved them on minor stately administration level. All this had and has noth- ing to do with democracy but is simply a soft method in class struggle to protect the world of capitalism against the demands and claims of the working population. 2.3 From class collaboration to class war Class struggle crosses frontiers when the capitalist system and its safeguarding states are at stake. Being threatened fundamentally no upper class hesitates to drop social partnership and cut down demo- cratic participation. They will carry matters to extremes showing bit- ter enmities with the masses, admitting or provoking open dictator- ship – be it a coup d’état, usually a military junta, often induced by intelligence agents and top secret diplomacy from abroad or making direct use of authoritarian and fascist regimes. The latter was the case in 1933 NS Germany, earlier in Fascist Italy, later in Franco’s Fa- langist Spain and the stately Ustaša-regime in Croatia in the forties. Or, Yanis, experienced and best known by yourself, the Greek Junta from 1967 to 1974. We could extend this list sizably (Chile, Grenada, Cuba, Vietnam, etc.) Autocratic regimes as well as democratic republics found an end in heavy civil wars. The people could seldom maintain power, but for a shorter encouraging period – as for instance already in 1871 France when Paris was defended by a revolutionary National Guard against the Prussian invasion army. An elected autonomous lower class gov- ernment maintained power against the troops of Prussian and French upper classes for two months (Paris Commune). This first beacon of a proletarian government was topped by the Russian revolution in 1917 and the founding of the Soviet Union not to mention the Bavar- ian and the Hungarian Soviet Republics of 1919. It had also taken place 1936 to 1939 when international brigades of democrats, social- 12