An event commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Hamburg uprising was held in Basel

We publish this unofficial translation of a text sent to us.

The 100th anniversary of the Hamburg uprising was remembered today in Basel with a film and a presentation.

In today’s event at the cultural house of the Swiss Turkish Workers’ Federation/ ITIF a speech was held in the name of the Red League – Baden-Württemberg (Germany) before the film in German and Turkish language. In connection with the speech the film ”Ernst Thälmann – Sohn seiner Klasse” (Ernst Thälmann – The Son of His Class; translator’s note) was shown.

After the film, which was followed with great interest, the event ended with thanking the participants.

Underneath the speech held:

Proletarians of all countries, unite!

Dear comrades, dear friends,

it is an honor to be allowed to greet you in the name of the Red League from Germany.

Today we come together to celebrate the Hamburg uprising which took place a 100 years ago. This uprising means for now the last time in the history of the German proletariat that it has attempted to take the power in Germany in an organized form. Early in the morning of 23rd of October 1923 the comrades looted the police stations and armed themselves, drove out the enemy and set their own rule. During a fierce battle of three days, 300 communists could, with the support of the deepest and broadest masses, halt the unbelievable overpower of 6000 police, soldiers and paramilitaries, before they had to stop the uprising with minor losses. The situation was ripe, the masses wanted to struggle, but the uprising was isolated. Because of the sabotage of the opportunists and revisionists in the leading ranks of the Party, the KPD could not wage armed struggle in the whole country. Even despite this the Red Hamburg is a shining opposite example of which direction the communists must head, that everything is possible if we dare to scale the hights. With very little the comrades achieved a lot, they dealt a heavy blow to the reaction and gave us today an example. They consciously carried their life in their fingertips and each one of those who gave it is immortal! To commemorate the uprising means to learn from it, to keep on the revolutionary path and to continue the life’s work of the fallen in our struggle.

So have we also the celebrated the Hamburg uprising; in advance we have learned and taught about it with a series of events, and then marched with a powerful and combative demonstration on the streets of Barmbek, where exactly 100 years ago the barricades stood. The necessity of the reconstitution of the KPD was clearly set, the slogans strenghtened the revolutionary path and shattered every illusion in regards to the bourgeois State, and the fallen were honored. Because of the situation we showed solidarity to the Palestinian people, who struggles heroically against the genocidal aggression of Yankee imperialism. We need to support the resistance movement in Palestina powerfully and stand side by side with all the people in Germany and the world who are in solidarity with it and struggle against all repression.

Long live the struggle of the Palestinian people!

Death to the occupier!

Death to imperialism!


Thank you.

Red League, Baden-Württenberg (Germany)