Today in Labor History February 27, 1933: Berlin’s Reichstag parliament building was torched. The fire occurred exactly four weeks after Adolf Hitler was sworn in as Chancellor of Germany. Marinus Van der Lubbe, a Dutch anti-authoritarian Council Communist, claimed responsibility. Disillusioned by the lack of resistance to fascism, he intended for his act to spark a working-class rebellion. However, Hitler used the fire as a pretext to claim that Communists were plotting against the German government, to suspend civil liberties and violently suppress Communists.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #communism #councilcommunism #fascism #nazis #antifascism #reichstag #hitler #marinusvanderlubbe

Today in Labor History February 21, 1919: Kurt Eisner, a socialist activist in the Bavarian revolution and president of the Republic of Councils, was assassinated by extremists in Munich. The Central Council of the Republic declared a General Strike and state of siege in response, leading to the Bavarian Soviet Republic in April 1919. The republic was run through workers’ councils. The reactionary Freikorps paramilitary, along with elements of the German Army, quashed the republic in May. Many of those involved in the overthrow of the Bavarian Soviet Republic went on to become members of the Nazi Party.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #communism #councilcommunism #soviet #bavaria #kurteisner #germany #nazis #socialism

Today in Labor History December 23, 1933: Dutch construction worker and council communist Marinus van der Lubbe was sentenced to death for burning down the Reichstag. In prison, he launched a hunger strike against prison conditions, but was forcibly fed. The Nazis beheaded him on January 10, 1934 by guillotine. In 2008, the German government posthumously pardoned him. Van der Lubbe claimed to have set the fire in order to inspire the German working-class to rise up against fascism. He also claimed to have acted alone. However, the Nazis tried to make it into a communist conspiracy and arrested several other communists, who were ultimately acquitted of involvement in the fire. Many on the left, including the Comintern, or Third International (1919-1943), falsely claimed he was a Nazi agent and provocateur, or that it was a Nazi-run false flag operation. Lenin, whom founded the Comintern, hated the Council (Left-wing) Communists and lambasted them in his 1920 screed: "Left-Wing" Communism: An Infantile Disorder.”

#workingclass #LaborHistory #nazis #fascism #reichstag #communism #councilcommunism #marinusvanderlubbe

Today in Labor History October 23, 1874: Otto Rühle (1874-1943) was born on this day in Freiberg. Ruhle was a left council communist of the Spartacist League. Along with Karl Liebknecht, Rosa Luxemburg and Franz Mehring, Ruhle helped found the magazine Internationale. Ruhle opposed both world wars, Leninism, fascism, and Bolshevism. Early in his life, Rühle trained and worked a school teacher. He created a socialist Sunday school and criticized traditional school in “Work and Education” (1904), “The Enlightenment of Children About Sexual Matters,” (1907), and “The Proletarian Child” (1911). In 1912, the people elected him to the Reichstag as a Social Democrat. However, he is much more well known for his role as a leader of the Council Communist movement, along with Anton Pannekoek. They opposed the state communism of the Soviet Union. They advocated for Workers Councils and Council Democracy. Lenin attacked them in his pamphlet, “Left-wing Communism: An Infantile Disorder.”

#workingclass #LaborHistory #ottoruhle #germany #councilcommunism #communism #spartacist #rosaluxemburg #soviet #lenin #fascism #education #children #school

Erich Mühsam, Plataformismo y Consejismo Anarquista | LIZA

https://www.regeneracionlibertaria.org/2025/06/30/erich-muhsam-plataformismo-y-consejismo-anarquista/

#anarchism #communism #councilcommunism #platformism

Contra las guerras en Oriente Medio, por la lucha de clases contra todos los capitalistas | Trabajadores Anticapitalistas (Irán)
https://barbaria.net/2025/06/22/dos-comunicados-internacionalistas-desde-iran-contra-las-guerras-en-oriente-medio-por-la-lucha-de-clases-contra-todos-los-capitalistas/

#anticapitalism #communism #councilcommunism #internationalism #ultraleft

Today in Labor History May 5, 1882: Sylvia Pankhurst was born on this day. Plankhurst was a leader of the English women's suffrage movement. She was also a left (council) communist activist and follower of Anton Pannekoek. In her “Constitution for British Soviets,” she argued that "Mothers and … organizers of the family life of the community [should] be adequately represented, and … take their due part in the management of society [through] a system of household Soviets..."

#workingclass #LaborHistory #sylviapankhurst #feminism #feminist #WomensRights #communism #soviet #councilcommunism #pannekoek

Today in Labor History January 2, 1873: Anton Pannekoek (1873-1960) was born on this date. He was a Dutch astronomer, mathematician and radical left-communist. Among other works, he published the pamphlet “Darwinism and Marxism,” 1916, which strongly attacked the social Darwinists, like Spencer, and their racist, eugenicist ideology. He also wrote the classic, “Workers Councils” and was one of the founders of the Council Communism movement, along with Otto Ruhle, of Germany. He was a sharp critic of Lenin and authoritarianism. Lenin attacked the Council Communists in his pamphlet, “Left Wing Communism: An Infantile Disorder.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #pannekoek #communism #councilcommunism #ottoruhle #workerscouncils #socialdarwinism #eugenics #science

"The ruling classes, that is, the bourgeoisie, bureaucracy, intelligentsia, etc., never tire of affirming the incompetence, incapacity and ignorance of the workers. This has a reason; it is not something gratuitous or without purpose. In all class societies, the ruling classes affirm and reaffirm the inferiority of the exploited classes. In order for the latter to remain exploited, they must truly believe that they are incapable, inferior and ignorant.

A condition for workers to truly conquer their freedom is their self-activity as a class for themselves. No other class has an interest in this happening. The ruling class (bourgeoisie), the auxiliary classes of the bourgeoisie (bureaucracy and intelligentsia) and other upper classes (landowners, for example) insist with all the power they have on the incapacity of the workers. The workers, in turn, must, with all the weapons at their disposal, demonstrate their capacity for self-organization.

Pannekoek (1977) is emphatic on this issue. Both parties and unions, regardless of their orientation, actually represent interests that are not those of the working class. According to Pannekoek's analysis, these organizations represent an expression of the “old workers' movement”. This movement was not yet capable of acting on its own. Unions are the type of organization needed by a dispersed, incipient proletariat living in abject conditions, those of the beginning of capitalist production."

https://libcom.org/article/anton-pannekoeks-workers-councils-concrete-utopia-proletarian-revolution

#CouncilCommunism #WorkersCouncil #Marxism #Utopia #Revolution