Germany: 'Not the poor, but the rich must pay' ― a proposal from
the past to fight austerity Economic collapse drives workers
into hunger and destitution. Foreign powers extort huge
payments, forcing the national economy toward bankruptcy. The
government forces workers to pay the costs of capitalist crisis.
This description of Greece in 2012 applies equally to Germany in
1921. How should a workers’ party respond? The German Communist
Party (KPD) proposed a simple fiscal policy: tax those who own
the country’s productive wealth. The KPD's policy received lip
service from Germany's two social-democratic parties and trade
union leaders. The Communists, however, called on all workers’
organisations to unite in concerted action to win the demand.
Florian Wilde, a Berlin-based historian and member of Die Linke
(The Left), looks at the KPD approach below. The article was
translated by Daniel Tucker-Simmons for Socialist Review, from
which the article is reprinted. * * * The story is always the
same: the state's coff