Issuing body: IKD (Internationale Kommunisten Deutschlands / Internationalist Communists of Germany)
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The outbreak of the war has made close collaboration between the groups and the members of the Central Committee of the IKD (Internationalist Communists of Germany), who have taken refuge in different countries, more difficult. A reorganization was called for. Organizational and administrative leadership has been transferred to New York. The following report is intended to provide information on relations with the various groups and their position with regard to the factional struggle in the United States, which has made the holding of this Emergency Conference necessary.
The twenty comrades in France have all been interned. Among them, J. [Johre], a member of the CC, has taken a position against Shachtman.
The Antwerp group, in Belgium, functioned very well until quite recently. It had been entrusted with the management and production of Unser Wort, but had to give up this responsibility after the arrest of H. The members of the group adopted a majority resolution against the Held (Oslo) resolution, of which they became aware. Other comrades in Belgium and Holland are in close contact with the Antwerp group. There are fifteen comrades in all.
The London group had until now numbered four persons, but has recently announced the recruitment of a new contingent of young comrades. Comrade M., who corresponds with us on behalf of the group, has declared himself against the American minority.
The groups of Scandinavia, of Copenhagen, of Stockholm, etc., are in close and regular contact with Oslo. H., a member of the CC, is at present safe. The Oslo group is the only one in the IKD which, while maintaining the position of unconditional defense of the USSR, has adopted a position on the Russo-Finnish war comparable, up to a certain point, to that of Shachtman. However, Held, by letter, has vigorously opposed any split in the Socialist Workers Party over these divergences, and declares himself for "unity with the Cannon faction."
There are also other groups in Argentina, Bolivia, and Mexico. Only the last of these has taken a position on the factional struggle in the United States, siding with the majority. Our comrades in Switzerland work there with the Swiss section. In New York, the group has recruited a number of young people, with whom a systematic intervention in other émigré groups has been undertaken. The majority of this group is for the position of the American majority.
The publication of Unser Wort, a fortnightly organ, is assured. Unser Wort, together with the publication of H. David's pamphlet on the war, have considerably increased our influence in the United States. The victories of the Nazis in Czechoslovakia, Poland, and Scandinavia, and the operations under way in Belgium and Holland, as well as the very strict censorship in France and in the English colonies, have obviously considerably restricted the circulation of Unser Wort in Europe, but have not succeeded in preventing the paper from reaching those countries.
We hope that our friends in the countries occupied by the Nazis will succeed in overcoming the present difficult situation. It must be deplored that the Secours International has not shown the understanding and energy necessary to help our comrades, who are all seasoned militants, to escape from this dangerous situation.
At the time of the seizure of power by fascism, the German section numbered 1,000 members.[90] Only 50 of them emigrated. In Germany itself, there was at first close contact between the groups and the leadership abroad. Despite the conditions of illegality, Unser Wort was fairly widely distributed there. But for several years now, normal relations with our comrades in Germany, as well as among the groups themselves, have been broken off. It must be reckoned that half of the militants have gone. At least 150 have been arrested.
We have received information about others, up to the outbreak of the war, proving that they are far from abandoning the struggle and that they are preparing for the coming insurrection. We have even learned from one comrade that, at his place of work, he has organized a group with several former members of the KPD (Stalinist). It may be presumed that other comrades have contacts of this kind.
By way of supplement, here is an interesting extract from a letter we received last month from a member of the IKD: "I recently received a fairly detailed report from home, from the Rhineland. According to this account, a feeling of extreme discouragement is spreading through all strata of the population. The war of nerves seems to be affecting the Germans themselves more and more. Here is an extraordinarily interesting sign of it: the churches, Catholic and Protestant, are so crowded every Sunday that they are turning people away, while attendance at Nazi meetings and demonstrations is rather thin. Through a woman comrade at S., who has just finished serving a three-year prison sentence, we have once again re-established contact with a number of comrades in the prisons, especially at X. and Y. Our friends remain, as before, firmly at our side, and have even won new friends in the prisons."
--- [90] This figure seems inflated; half that would be closer to reality.