Rise of the Proletariat

What if the Spartacist Uprising of 1919 Succeeded
In 1918, there was a major revolutionary situation in Germany. Soldiers had mutinied against continued fighting in WW1, and workers councils had appeared all over the country. Lenin strongly believed that Germany would be the first western country which would have a socialist revolution.

Unfortunately, that did not happen. The reason being that Lenin underestimated the reformist nature of the Social Democratic Party and was unprepared for the role it would play in crushing a workers revolution. Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebnecht of the Spartacist League did have the potential to lead the proletariat, but the lack of strong leadership and bad decisions led to the January 1919 Spartacist Uprising being crushed. This led to the Russian revolution being isolated, and therefore leading to Stalin's rise to power, creating the theory of 'socialism in one country' and collaborating with capitalist countries. Eventually leading to Hitler's rise to power, the sabotage of the Spanish revolution by the Communist Party, and World War 2.

But things did not have to be this way, in the 20th century there was mass revolutionary potential from the working class, and the idea of creating a new egalitarian society when working people truly got the value of what they produced was very much in reach. One change in history, the 1919 uprising in Germany succeeding, would have pathed the way for a radically different course for humankind and a much better history. The holocaust would never have happened, we would have already have solved the problems of poverty, hunger, and climate change, and humanity would be more enlightened, healthier, and happier if this change would have happened, than in our timeline. This would have been the century of the proletariat!

Point of Divergence
'''- The Spartacist League becomes the Communist Party of Germany a year earlier, in 1918 rather than 1919.

- Rosa Luxemburg is a Leninist rather than a left communist, and follows the same tactics as Lenin employed in Russia.'''

Timeline
 October – November 1918: – German sailors revolt against continued fighting in WW1 in the Kiel Mutiny, triggering the German revolution. Workers councils are formed all over Germany and the Kaiser flees, handing over control over to Friedrich Ebert and the SPD. However, the KPD (Communist Party of Germany) grows in influence.

December 1918: – The Christmas Crisis erupts. Ebert refuses the People’s Navy Division their pay due to suspected affiliation to the KPD. The sailor’s mutiny, insisting on their pay. However, Ebert employs the right wing freikorps to crush the revolt. Anti SPD feeling grows, and the KPD gains a majority among the workers councils.

January 1919: Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht tell the workers councils that the time is ripe for revolution. The workers councils seize power over Germany and declare a workers republic. The freikorps led by Wolfgang Kapp attempt a coup, but they are crushed by armed workers.

February 1919: Vladimir Lenin congratulates Luxemburg and Liebnecht for the revolution in Germany, and requests their assistance in the Russian Civil War. Sabotage by bourgeois parties and trade unions continues, until the KPD encourages rank and file workers of the unions to support the revolution, and imprisons the saboteurs.  March 1919: The Entente powers are shocked by the events in Germany, as they were in Russia. They backtrack on peace and make preparation’s to resume the war against Germany as part of a greater pursuit against bolshevism. Communists take control in Hungary.

May 1919: British soldiers march in the hundreds of thousands in London, crying for an end to the war. Police are employed to try and control the rally, riots break out. Lenin orders the creation of the Communist Party of Great Britain. The protests escalate into mass strikes, forcing a general election. Labour wins a landslide and Ramsay Macdonald promises to cease hostilities with Germany and Russia. Communist Party USA is founded and grows rapidly, by August having around 60,000 members.

July 1919: German and Russian soldiers send reinforcements into Hungary, fending off the Romanian army and counter revolutionary forces.

1919 – 1921: Germany and Russia encircle Poland and win the Polish Soviet War. Workers take power in Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia.  1922: The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R) is formed, with Germany, Poland, and Hungary being independent workers states outside the union. After a failed revolution, Mussolini gains power in Italy and crushes the workers movement after the reluctance of the Italian Socialist Party to take power.

1923: Ramsay Macdonald cuts coal miners pay on the advice of the Samuel Commission. Many workers feel utterly betrayed by the Labour Party. A general strike is called by AJ Cook, leader of the miners’ union in agreement in other unions turning against the TUC and the Labour Party. The left wing unions form the Anglo-Russian Joint Advisory Council and the Communist Party of Great Britain’s membership rises from a few thousand to many tens of thousands. Trotsky believes that Britain will be the next country to turn communist. The uprising however is crushed by the British Union of Fascists and their leader, ex Labour MP Oswald Mosely, who employ black shirts to break up the strike. The CPGB’s inexperience, the syndicalist tendencies of AJ Cook, and the confusion in Russia since Lenin’s retirement of who would succeed him lead to the risings failure.

1924: Lenin dies, and the question begins on who should succeed him. Stalin, Kamenev, and Zinoviev form a coalition to stop Trotsky from getting into power and continue with the New Economic Policy implemented with Lenin. However, Luxemburg and the workers in Germany view Stalin with suspicion, and support Trotsky. Meanwhile, the Communist Party of Britain and the Independent Labour Party form an electoral pact and win 121 seats with an increased amount of British workers abandoning Labour after the general strike. This crushes Ramsay Macdonald’s majority, so he is forced to form a national coalition with the Conservatives, making him even more hated amongst the workers. The French Communist Party, under Boris Souvarine, wins 24 seats and 9% of the vote in the French legislative elections.  1927: From 1923 Joseph Stalin had been general secretary of the Communist Party, and his faction had exerted an enormous amount of influence. However, in 1927, after the Shanghai Massacre, Stalin is blamed for encouraging collaboration with the Kuomintang and Chiang Kai Sheik. Trotsky begins to regain influence in the central committee, and Stalin is expelled and charged with treachery and sabotage. Mao Zedong is removed from the Communist Party of China on advice of the Comintern and Chen Duxui remains its leader. Trotsky begins a democratization of the Communist Party, believing that since the civil war it had become bureaucratic and corrupt, and that the workers had lost control. Rosa Luxemburg strongly supports Stalin’s expulsion, and Trotsky becomes by far the most popular senior party member in Russia. Changes made include a proposal bank, allowing the workers to suggest policy, the abolition of the party choosing candidates to the soviets, allowing the workers to select candidates themselves. Along with investing more in the ongoing literacy campaign, he encourages workers to take more of an active role in the decision making process. He also gives the separate republics more autonomy, carrying out his promise of Ukrainian autonomy.

1928: Trotsky ends the New Economic Policy after the grain procurement crisis, and starts mass arrests of kulaks accused of speculating on grain. He calls the situation a legacy of Stalinism, but does not force all peasants to collectivize straight away, instead redistributing wealth seized from the kulaks to poorer peasants. The first 5 year plan begins.