Overthrow the Cabinet #3: The People's Front Submits a No-Confidence Motion
It was now truly a battle for public opinion. The People's Front's 193 seats alone could never secure a majority to pass the vote. We mobilized the press, beginning with the Frankfurt Post, to shape opinion in favor of the motion.
"Citizens, Chancellor Heinrich Brüning starves the people with his austerity while gravely undermining democracy! The only path to reclaiming a life of plenty is to stop the Chancellor!"
Though it remained difficult for the people's will to be directly reflected in parliament before the current session ended, if we could rally public opinion behind the motion, we might yet peel away some members of the National Front. It was a faint hope, but we had nothing else left.
"The Chancellor must resign!"
"Resign!"
"Hold new elections!"
"Hold them now!"
Workers' demonstrations continued in Frankfurt and other major cities. Entrepreneurs, who feared a leftist takeover above all else, began imposing outright restrictions on the Worker's Factory.
[Factories run by Bolsheviks from Moscow are destroying Germany's centuries-old economic glory from the ground up. Let us cut off their supplies and isolate them from the rest of the market so they learn just how foolish and feeble their so-called "socialism" truly is!]
Various magazines funded by the entrepreneurs announced large-scale restrictions, and the effects became visible from Friday onward.
"There will be no materials sold to those reds who produce goods under the People's Front's orders!"
Most raw-material markets were already dominated by large corporations, making the blockade even more effective.
"What? We are workers running our own factory! How can they do this?"
It was a crude and childish tactic, yet in a "free market" without government intervention, starving people economically carried no penalty.
"What do we do, Representative Heinz? We have less than a month's worth of raw materials left."
"We have enough for barely a week."
With multiple factories facing shortages simultaneously, the project plunged into immediate crisis.
"They actually went through with the sales restrictions? Those bastards!"
"Our unions will demand an end to the embargo through strikes."
"Very well. Unions, focus on pressuring the companies to lift the blockade. The more Worker's Factories we have, the sooner all workers will be liberated."
Even if the unions could force a reversal for now, if the corporations decided to shut their ears completely… We had to pass the no-confidence motion at all costs.
On Saturday: "We will now proceed with the vote on the no-confidence motion against Chancellor Heinrich Brüning's cabinet, which has failed to uphold democratic and constitutional values."
The vote took place in the Chancellor's absence. This time the roles were reversed from the budget vote: we voted Ja, the National Front voted Nein. The National People's Party still had fewer than one-third of its members present, so we needed only forty defections from the National Front.
Please. Among the 192 members of the Centre Party, the Democrats, and the People's Party, could there not be at least forty with a conscience? Please…!
"Of the 577 eligible members, 458 are present, so the vote is valid."
The People's Front was fully in attendance, and dozens from the National People's Party had appeared as well. Victory here would guarantee new elections. New elections would guarantee power. Just a few betrayals. Please…
"199 votes in favor, 259 against. Since the opposition exceeds the support, the motion is defeated."
"No—please, not again!"
Every legal avenue had been blocked. Parliament could not halt austerity because of the Emergency Decree (Article 48). Floor tactics were impossible without the National Front and National People's Party cooperating even to reach quorum. Street actions were barred by the Constitutional Court. And now the final lawful instrument—the no-confidence motion—had been crushed by the right.
"Haa…"
All legal means of resistance had been cut off. Citizens who had gathered in the square before the Reichstag, hoping for new elections, stared at the building with hollow eyes.
"Ha—Representative Heinz!"
They called my name, but calling changed nothing.
"What happened?!"
"You said the motion would pass! How could this—"
I did not know. I truly did not know.
"How can parliament reject the people's will? How is this possible?"
As I walked out in a daze, the Red Front Fighters' League that had been waiting outside immediately began to protest.
"This vote is invalid! Representatives elected by the people must represent the people's will!"
"Are a mere 199 votes the last conscience left in Germany?!"
"Out with the capitalist puppets bought with money!"
The workers were already furious after the defeat of the reform they had pinned their hopes on.
"The government must implement the reforms and resign at once!"
"Resign! Resign!"
Even citizens who had felt no particular sympathy for the Social Democrats or Communists began to join the demonstration, driven by hunger.
"Stop the austerity and give us bread!"
"A cabinet that ignores the people and rules by decree must resign! Hold new elections!"
Demands for regime change, new elections, and an end to austerity merged into a single roar. Only then did the police arrive. Still mindful of the Social Democrats, they merely surrounded the crowd and urged dispersal. Unlike the battle-hardened Red Front Fighters' League, the ordinary citizens were intimidated, and the demonstration dissolved.
We had no choice but to follow the dispersing crowd back to party headquarters.
"The charade of 'legal struggle' is over," Thälmann declared the moment we returned to People's Front headquarters, clenching his fist.
"Those who call themselves parliamentarians have abandoned democracy for the sake of their parties. Now that the National Front has joined hands with the conservatives, they are finished. Do as you please, Wels. We will walk our own path from now on."
"Calm down, Thälmann."
"Calm down?! Heinz, are we still going to waste time courting these milquetoast reformists?!"
The Communists were seething at the Social Democrats' stubborn insistence on parliamentary struggle alone.
"Fine—do as you always have! If you all end up in prison, it will not be our fault. If you wish to become the same as the National Socialists, suit yourselves!"
The Social Democrats, for their part, seemed exhausted by the Communists' blind calls for violence without any concrete alternative.
"Representative Wels, please calm yourself as well. We must not fight among ourselves."
"You are no different, Representative Heinz! What benefit has come from provoking the Chancellor and buying factories with Moscow money since the day you entered parliament?"
"..."
"At least you accomplished more than sitting prettily in parliament!"
"So having nothing but fists is an achievement? I did not expect this from Communists!"
In the end, was the People's Front going to collapse?
"Otto!"
At last Representative Crispien intervened.
"That was too harsh."
"Arthur! Even you?! What are you—"
Wels, who had been shouting at the top of his lungs, cooled his anger at the sight of Crispien.
"You calm down as well, Comrade Thälmann."
Representative Pieck also held back Thälmann, who looked ready to throw a punch.
"I am sorry, Representative Heinz. Otto spoke too harshly. On behalf of the Social Democrats, I apologize."
"Ah… it is all right…"
This was my fault for failing to properly unite the two parties. Mediating between two factions that disliked each other was far more difficult than I had imagined. If a Social Democrat or Communist had been chair instead of me… I did not even want to picture it. In the end, this was something only I could do.
"…To be completely honest, we now need full-scale extra-parliamentary struggle. We must go beyond strikes and press campaigns and move toward armed resistance and direct coordination with the Comintern."
I was not siding with Thälmann against Wels, but the situation left me no room for pretense.
"If we cling to the framework of legality, our only choices are to accept government policy or to keep opposing until the cabinet is forced to turn to the National People's Party and the right. Accepting policy means watching the people starve under the name of austerity for another three years. You do not want that."
"Representative Heinz is right, Otto. Every housing policy, education policy, medical support, and public welfare our party has built will be destroyed."
"…Then what does the Communists' struggle entail?"
Wels finally opened his ears.
"Struggle means resistance against a state and government that have not the slightest intention of listening to us. It means occupying factories together with the unions, establishing workers' councils, organizing revolutionary forces, and confronting the police and army without flinching. All of that is extra-parliamentary struggle."
"…But—"
"There is no more time for 'but.' If we remain within the bounds of the law, the right will continue to treat us as fools and ignore us."
"Are you confident you can defeat state power?"
"No state power can prevail against the demands of the people. That is why we have worked so hard to awaken them. The reforms you advocate are important, Representative Wels, but reform alone can never uproot the fundamental inequality embedded in this society."
By fundamental inequality, I of course meant the existence of the capitalist class that monopolized the means of production.
"'The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains; they have a world to win.'"
When I quoted the penultimate sentence of Marx's The Communist Manifesto, even Wels's gaze changed.
"Let us continue to do our best, Representative Wels."
"…Understood, Representative Heinz."
Once again, we clasped hands.