For the German trade unions of the Weimar Republic the union journal was the primary means of communication; the leadership of the trade unions used them as a platform for organising and political messages.
This
was particularly the case with the "free" trade unions of the
workers. Gathered under the umbrella of the largest trade union
federation the
General German Trade Union Federation (Allgemeiner Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund) or ADGB, they subscribed to
the slogan: "Knowledge is power - power is knowledge". Therefore they
invested a great deal of money in their press and educational work.
In
the year 1929, for example, the member combined trade unions of the ADGB federation spent 13.2 million Reichsmarks on press and
education campaigns,
while the cost of all their industrial action
that year was only 1000,000 Reichsmark higher.
The ADGB published 33
union journals, 12 union branch journals and other union magazines, 16 union youth
papers and 16 technical journals with a total circulation of 6.1 million
copies.
This obviously gave the trade unions an
impressive power base and therefore represented a danger for the Nazi'- National
Socialists. Immediately after taking power on 30 January 1933 the
Nazi regime began
harassing the editors of the trade union journals and ordered a temporary "ban"
on publication.
However, the
smashing of the free labour trade unions began with the occupation of the
union headquarters on 02 May 1933 by Nazi SA and SS raiding squads. Trade union assets were seized, union leaders arrested, tortured and jailed, later some of the union leaders were brutally murdered.
The
Nazis crushed
the free trade unions, but retained their press organs for themselves. The aim
of the Nazis was "Gleichschaltung"; to bring the union members as much
into line as practical with the ruling Nazis Party as had already been achieved with union journals.
This is why we need unions that educate, unions that are free and unions that fight fascism
Trade Unionist must never forget 2nd May 1933
