#social revolution when?

[halfelven]

i’m not old! and we used to have snow on the ground all winter and it would come more and more and we’d have enough to make snow tunnels and castles and then it started to rain sometimes and there wasn’t enough snow and it melted in between snowfalls and now it’s mostly rain and the evergreens are all falling down because their roots are shallow and the wind takes them down because the ground isn’t frozen and i would spend all day running through the woods with the under brush up to my shoulders and never see a tick but last summer i went into the woods for ten minutes and came out with five trying to climb my legs and i used to lie on the cool grass on summer evenings and watch the stars and the fireflies and you can’t anymore because of the ticks and it used to be almost as bright as day beneath the full moon with the light glittering on fields of fallen snow but now it is brown and grey and it just rains and it doesn’t snow enough even to go sledding. and i’m not old! i’m not even thirty and already i’m reminiscing with my mother of a time that is no longer? that much change over the last twenty years? the last ten? i’m sick with grief and the world keeps changing. you can never go home again and it’s because the centuries old seasons have disappeared. what kind of nightmare

[gingerswagfreckles]

Not really loving how my post about the left's love affair with eugenics and blood and soil ideology framed as "decolonization" got coopted into another "wait it's all Christianity??" "It always has been" post." Y'all are sticking your heads in the sand if you think this is a problem with "cultural Christianity." This is the exact same pattern we saw play out in the 1979 Iranian revolution and much of this ideology was coopted from the Nazis by the Soviets and reframed as progressive. This is not an issue with Western "cultural Christianity" and it would be great if Jumblr could stop engaging in the same "there's actually one secret root cause of every problem in the world and if we get rid of it we will have utopia" thing that antisemites have been using against Jews for 2000 years.

[aroaessidhe]

2025 reads / storygraph

The Ten Percent Thief

satirical sci-fi set in a future Bangalore

a highly virtual meritocratic society, split between the elite 20%, and analog 10%, who live disconnected in poverty - and the middle 70% who must aim to ascend otherwise risk becoming an analog themselves

each chapter follows a different character, exploring a different part of their society, as unrest builds in the analog world

a range of narratives styles

[vanity-complex]

Genuinely, I think people are very out of touch with the reality of what a revolution is and, instead, have a romantic vision of what they want revolution to be. I think this is because the word revolution has been entirely removed from the words civil war. There is no such thing as a 'quick' revolution. Revolutions are long and bloody conflicts that address great social inequity at the cost of life. Blood is spilled, life is ended, and people suffer. The reality of revolution is that suffering has grown so immense that war does not feel like suffering in contrast. Revolution is an agreement that the social contract has rotted to its very core, and that the only way to fix it is through violence. It is to risk everything to create a power vacuum where an entirely new society and order is created. Revolutions do not settle in a few months - they take years, decades, centuries. The French Revolution, perhaps the most famous romantic revolution, was not just cutting off the head of a king or queen, it was the indeterminate slaughter of a social class and any who dare question the morality of it followed by centuries of new governments. Today in Syria we see revolutionaries finally take hold of their government after 13 years of intense fighting, and still there is so much up in the air for them as they approach creating a new government. In other cases, a monarchy falls and dictatorship takes root. Perhaps an imperfect democracy falls and a new monarch is found. This is not to discredit revolution, as it is a useful tool of the masses to effect change, but it is a reminder that revolution is a tool that is powered by blood and you must ask yourself: is the blood that rots as people suffer greater than the blood that will be spilled to right those wrongs? If so, then organize and revolutionize, but know that life will change forever and, once you start, there is no going back and no telling what lies on the other side.

[charlataninred]

God I suddenly understand the frustration of leftist infighting so much more now I just had an almost hour long conversation w some other socialists trying to explain why I don’t think mutual aid is in opposition to organizing protests and strikes and fighting back etc

I even started saying stuff like “listen, I’m not gonna change your mind, you’re not gonna change mine” in an attempt to move on but nooooo

[mwagneto]

i think what's really been getting to me the past few months is the realisation that i dont relate to literally any of the mental health stuff i see anywhere. like whenever there's some affirmation or motivation or just relatable-sounding posts in general they all seem like such common problems and it's like, damn i literally dont experience any of that. and yet im still crumpling. something uniquely wrong with me

[snekdood]

ppl who larp about the Revolution™ almost seem to expect someone *else* to take the leading role in it all so they can sit inside on their asses and do jack shit, they know they have no meaningful skills to offer and would only slow people down, but expect to *somehow* magically radicalize most americans into doing all the work for them because awww dey're just such a weak wittle babu that needs to be pwotected and defwended awlways uwu

like. come on. get a grip. if everything went your way and someone actually stronger than you came along to take the lead, you're likely not being invited, and you'll likely be left behind... which means left to the alt right, who will no doubt come to your house to see if you're perpetuating anything "woke", and you gotta know they wont just ask, they'll barge in and look through everything even your computer.

though, you should really focus on your plan. your first step: get along with people enough to even actually convince them its a good idea, and we all know you'll never dare to try that shit. you cant even be on here w/o blocking someone like me for even suggesting you are approaching this like a child playing war and you have NO FUCKING IDEA WHAT YOU'RE DOING.

you think you want a second holocaust (which is essentially letting trump win, i mean hitler got the majority vote in germany. thats how he rose to power. didn't just materialize out of thin air), but you dont seem to grasp the gravity of what that entails, or even that you'd be thrown in the camps with everyone else, all to stick it to jewish ppl and "the libs", even if it means you and all the ones you love die along with them. you are a net negative to humanity and quite frankly should be on a fucking watch list.

[mishkakagehishka]

I think i could probably write my thesis on something like androcentrism or how language shapes bias and vice versa.

[seaglassdinosaur]

I love Thuggory he exists to be cool and hype up Hiccup, everyone goes ‘wow, Thuggory, he’s everything a Viking’s son should be, he’s strong, charismatic, and leaderly’ and he immediately turns around and says ‘OKAY EVERYONE, WE’RE LISTENING TO HICCUP NOW.’

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

"During the winter of 1918–19, Ottawa was rattled by the extreme rhetoric it was hearing from some of the country’s labour leaders. Police spies were sending in alarmist reports that unions were seething with revolutionary discontent. In response, the government set in motion a campaign of counter-propaganda to discredit the Reds. Chief press censor Ernest Chambers routinely fed information gleaned from police reports to members of the print media. Chambers kept his eyes peeled for anti-Red articles in the daily press so that he could dash off a letter offering the author more inflammatory information about the present danger. He did his best to orchestrate a comprehensive propaganda campaign, involving the press, university professors, service clubs, churches, even movies, all fuelled by information of the right type provided by his department. In January he wrote to the presidents of several major universities asking that they makes speeches or write articles exposing the fallacies of “extreme red Socialism and Bolshevism.” At the same time, he warned against revealing the existence of this anti-Red campaign. “Were the agitators conducting this propaganda able to plead that they are being made the subject of organized attack,” he wrote the president of the University of Toronto, Sir Robert Falconer, “it would aid them tremendously in their campaign with the disaffected.” (Falconer wrote back declining the invitation to take part in Chambers’ campaign: “If prices could be kept down and employment could be assured,” he told the censor, “I think many of our immediate troubles could be quickly surmounted.”)

The kind of information Chambers wanted to disseminate could be found in the Canadian Annual Review of Public Affairs, published by J. Castell Hopkins, a prolific author of popular biographies and encyclopedias. Hopkins’ portrait of the Soviet Union under Bolshevik rule exemplified the mixture of misinformation, fear, and smug middle-class superiority which fuelled anti-Red hysteria in Canada. “In Russia,” he told his readers, “disorganization, starvation, individual license, robbery, brutal crime, the over-throw of social laws and religious influence and ordered government, wholesale immorality, were natural products of the rule of men who were ignorant of all but wild theories nursed in malignant or disordered minds.” For Hopkins, Bolshevism simply meant “wholesale pillage and the murder of the classes owning money or property.” Things were better under the tsars, he said; at least the Romanovs were honest and meant well. The Bolsheviks were terrorists who roused the basest instincts in the Russian masses and rode them to power. Life in Russia, he told his readers, had become a living hell. There was no free speech, no democracy, no private property, only terror, mass executions, and torture,

including mutilations of all kinds, slow starvation, burning alive, piercing with bayonets [...], deliberate breaking of arms and legs, stamping on wounded living bodies with hob-nailed boots, nailing officers’ shoulder straps to their bodies, thrusting of gramophone needles through finger nails, blinding in most brutal forms.

Hopkins’ list of bizarre atrocities was reminiscent of the most extreme anti-German propaganda during the war, now turned against a new enemy, the Bolshevik.

Implicit in Hopkins’ overheated prose was a warning to his Canadian readers: This could happen here. The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) and other socialists preached a form of class warfare every bit as frightening as their Russian counterparts, he said. Working under the cover of the One Big Union and organizations such as the Social Democratic Party, they intended to destabilize the economic situation with general strikes and exploit the chaos to seize power from the government. According to Hopkins, this was no theoretical danger. “At the end of 1918 there were 21 Soviets established in the country awaiting for action,” he announced, without any evidence whatsoever.

One powerful institution that shared the concern about the insidious threat of Bolshevism was the Canadian Pacific Railway. In the fall of 1918, John Murray Gibbon, CPR publicist, broached the subject with filmmaker George Brownridge. Gibbon was one of the country’s leading intellectuals. A graduate of Oxford University and an experienced journalist, he had joined the CPR’s London operations in 1907 and had moved to the company’s Montreal head office just before the war. He was not only an ambassador for the railway but, as author and festival impresario, he was an energetic promoter of Canadian culture as well. The CPR had a problem with Bolsheviks stirring up its workers, Gibbon told Brownridge, and he thought that the film industry could do something about it. During the war Brownridge had established a studio, Canadian National Features, in Trenton, Ontario, where he managed to make two feature films before going broke. Neither of those films was ever released, but the indefatigable Brownridge was back in business at Trenton two years later as the Adanac Producing Company (the name is Canada spelled backwards) and eager to attract corporate support from the likes of the CPR.

After talking to Gibbon, Brownridge, armed with a suitable script about a Red plot to take over a trade union, came back to the railway for financial help. Eventually the CPR and several other large employers did put up the money. CPR president Edward Beatty made his position clear in a letter that he wrote to journalist and president of the Canadian Reconstruction Association, John Willison.

Of course there can be no doubt that from one end of the country to the other an effort must be made to stamp out this extreme socialism which practically amounts to disloyalty…

Brownridge began work on his film, called The Great Shadow and starring Tyrone Power Sr. The film was directed by Harley Knoles, who had just completed another anti-Red feature in the United States called Bolshevism on Trial co-starring his Canadian-born wife Pinna Nesbitt. The final script of the new film included most of the elements of Red Scare melodrama: vicious Bolsheviks determined to destroy society by setting one class against another; a handsome secret service agent to provide love interest; a fairminded employer who only wants what is best for his workers; and a “responsible” labour leader who must wage a life-and-death struggle to keep his union free of extremism. The Great Shadow was one of several Red Scare features to appear at this time in Canada and the US. The newest forms of popular entertainment were not ignored when it came to combatting the threat of Bolshevism. The film was finished too late to influence opinion during the crucial spring of 1919, but when it did reach the screen in the late fall it met with widespread critical praise. Unfortunately, no copy has survived.

Another busy scaremonger was Charles Cahan. In January Cahan, whose extreme views had managed to alienate most of his support in the federal Cabinet, resigned from his job as director of public safety. He had failed to convince the government to create a secret service modelled on the American Bureau of Investigation, and with his departure the entire Public Safety Branch was abolished after just three months in operation. In a letter to Prime Minister Borden, Cahan explained that,

I tried in vain, after your departure [for Europe], to obtain a hearing from your colleagues; but they treated my representations with such contemptuous indifference, that there was for me no alternative but to retire quietly and await events.

In Cahan’s view, the ultimate aim of the “Reds” was to “kick the Government off Parliament Hill.”

Cahan had no intention of retiring quietly; far from it. He continued to speak out at every opportunity about the Bolshevik threat, and one of his speeches, “Socialistic Propaganda in Canada,” was printed as a pamphlet and had wide distribution. In it, he summarized the four main doctrines of “International Socialism” as he understood them. First of all, class warfare between workers and capitalists caused “envy and hatred of all who have acquired property of any kind whatsoever.” Second, the state acquired ownership of all means of production and responsibility for all social relationships. Third, only the interests of workers had any importance. And last, the capitalist class was stripped of all possessions. Propaganda in favour of these views was flooding the western world, said Cahan. In Canada it was mainly the IWW that was fomenting class warfare, especially among the large “alien” population. If this was allowed to continue, he warned, there would be “tumults and disorders” that would require the intervention of the army. He suggested denying the right to strike, keeping a watchful eye on labour organizations and the foreign-language press, restricting immigration, and the speedy acculturation of immigrant children in the schools. Cahan’s basic message was that anyone who accepted the concept of class differences was contributing to a civil war in Canada that threatened democratic institutions and individual liberties.

Cahan carried his campaign to the pages of Maclean’s magazine. Under the ownership of Colonel John Bayne Maclean and the editorship of Thomas Costain, this magazine had become a major organ of the Red Scare. Cahan sounded his familiar warning about the IWW and other “Red” elements who were spreading “pacifist, socialistic, revolutionary and seditious literature” and organizing “societies for the insidious propagation of doctrines destructive of our existing political, social and industrial institutions.” He revealed that these activities were funded by thousands of dollars provided by agents of the Russian government, and he even hinted that the conspiracy to overthrow the government reached into the corridors of power in Ottawa. In the absence of Borden (in Europe), he wrote, the cabinet had been “utterly lacking in unity of purpose and in courageous action.” In case after case, Cahan claimed, federal authorities had intervened to secure the release of agitators who had been arrested for their activities. And, of course, had he not been removed from any position of influence under suspicious circumstances?

Colonel Maclean was an enthusiastic proponent of conspiracy theories. A long-time member of the militia, he had encouraged the government to take a hard-line, anti-Hun, anti-pacifist approach during the war. At the end of 1918, he wrote in his magazine that the Germans, had they won the war, had plans to dismember Canada and distribute parts of it to their leading bankers, nobles, and businessmen. Quite literally, therefore, the Canadian army had saved the country from extinction; it only made sense, wrote Maclean, to put the army in charge of society now that the war was over. He recommended, for instance, that military men take control of the school system. “It makes one dizzy to think of the great things that could be accomplished,” he wrote.

The January 1919 edition of Maclean’s carried an article titled “Is Bolshevism Brewing in Canada?” to which the author, Thomas Fraser, answered with an emphatic “Yes.” The magazine had commissioned Fraser to discover if Bolshevism was present in Canada. His conclusion: “There is a bold, systematic and dangerous effort being made to lay the fuse of Bolshevism from one end of the Dominion to the other.” The IWW was behind it, he explained. “Their idea is to seize control of all industries and abolish the wage system.” Their aims were completely hostile to democracy, Fraser warned, and to the middle class. The “root of the whole matter” was that “much of the good old Anglo-Saxon stock” was gone, slaughtered in the recent war, and Canada was filled up with “workmen of foreign extraction” sympathetic to Bolshevik propaganda.

One appreciative reader of Fraser’s article was press censor Ernest Chambers. He wrote Colonel Maclean a congratulatory note in which he warned that “the situation is very much more dangerous, in my opinion, than the public has the least conception of.” Encouraging Maclean to continue to raise the alarm, he concluded:

I am firmly convinced that, without the real solid, sensible people of the country taking into their own hand the active combatting of this Bolshevist propaganda, we run the risk of reaching, within measureable time, the conditions which at present prevail in Russia.

Among the more extreme anti-Red fanatics, a rationale seemed to be emerging that justified taking the law into their own hands to preserve the nation from revolution.

In the June 1919 issue of his magazine, Maclean himself took Chambers’ advice. In a provocative article titled “Why Did We Let Trotzky Go?” he blamed unnamed “politicians or officials” in Ottawa for allowing Trotsky to leave his Amherst internment camp and return to Russia to lead the revolution there. Trotsky, claimed Maclean, was a German agent paid to take Russia out of the war. If Canada had held onto him, the war would have been shortened by a year. This was a familiar belief at the time, but Maclean went further. He claimed that Trotsky had organized groups of revolutionaries in Toronto and Ottawa who were poised to take over the country. Charles Cahan had revealed some of this threat, wrote Maclean, but then “the Trotzky influences got busy and Mr. Cahan was ordered to cease his inquiries and send in his resignation.” (Despite the allegations of Cahan and Maclean, no evidence was ever produced that Leon Trotsky had supporters within the Canadian government who were twisting its policies in his favour.)

By the August issue, Maclean was getting even more alarmist. By then, of course, the Winnipeg General Strike had taken place. Not surprisingly, Maclean’s saw it as a prelude to revolution. The Bolsheviks were pouring money into the country to cause strikes and encourage social unrest, the Colonel wrote. It was all a conspiracy organized by the Germans and their Russian Bolshevik agents to disrupt western countries so that Germany could rebuild its economy and regain its markets. For Maclean, and for many others, the Hun and the Bolshevik were indistinguishable. In their view, the war was still going on and it was being fought in the streets of Winnipeg and other Canadian cities."

- Daniel Francis, Seeing Reds: the Red Scare of 1918-1919, Canada’s First War on Terror. Arsenal Pulp Press, 2011. p. 58-62.

[cabbagequeen323]

anyway my daughters party went so much better that I could have hoped

[sensitiveuser]

MAY 3, 1919 - WHEN THE BAVARIAN COUNCIL REPUBLIC WAS CRUSHED IN BLOOD BY THE ARMY AND THE FREIKORPS

The November 1918 Revolution in Germany brought to power the most capable men to lead. In Bavaria, it was the independent social democrat (USPD) Kurt Eisner. Before the war, Eisner was a journalist for the social democrats, well known for his support of revisionist Bernstein. He had been appointed political editor-in-chief of the SPD daily in Munich. As early as 1914, Eisner supported the war as a "defense of the nation," but he changed his position and adopted pacifism, convinced that the German Empire was "guilty of the war."

Kurt Eisner was involved in the January 1918 strikes and was sentenced to nine months in prison. Close to Karl Kautsky (one of the founders of the USPD), he became hostile towards the communists.

By the end of October 1918, the echoes of the revolution in Austria reached Munich. Eisner then renewed his campaign for peace, positioning himself prominently on the political scene by running in a by-election against the Social Democratic leader Auer. Shortly after, in early November, news arrived of the uprising in Kiel, while at the same time, hundreds of German sailors stationed in Austria made a stop in Munich on their return journey.

A new mentality has spread among the workers of Munich. Hundreds of them have started participating in peace meetings, which previously attracted only a handful of attendees. Eisner, without any real organization behind him, has become almost a political force in his own right – to the point that Auer, with the powerful social democracy network, did not hesitate to sign a joint call with him in favor of a general strike.

On November 7th, Munich was overtaken by a general strike. Auer had gone there, expecting to witness a peaceful demonstration, but he quickly discovered that its most active participants were actually armed soldiers and sailors gathered behind Eisner. A huge banner bore the inscription "Long live the revolution." While the social-democratic leaders, stunned, tried to figure out how to respond, Eisner took the initiative to lead his group, followed by a large part of the crowd, on a tour of the barracks. Upon their arrival, the soldiers, hearing the commotion, rushed to the windows, exchanged a few words with the protesters, took their rifles, and then joined them. Subsequently, Eisner led his new allies directly to the local parliament building, where he proclaimed the "Free Republic of Bavaria," announced the overthrow of the monarchy, and declared the end of the war. That evening, Wilhelm II and his ministers set out for exile.

The Weimar Republic proclaimed on November 9th established a provisional government led by Eisner, who also took charge of Foreign Affairs. At the same time, a Central Soldiers' Council of Bavaria was created. Although this Council did not fully share the positions of Eisner's government, it nonetheless represented the voice of many soldiers' councils that had multiplied across Germany. These councils, which formed a political force capable of taking power, wielded significant influence. As a result, the KPD and USPD had to make decisions that met the expectations of the majority of soldiers.

In the army, these councils became the main power structure, surpassing the traditional hierarchy. Eisner was therefore forced to work with the councils while negotiating with the moderates of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), led by Interior Minister Auer. Auer, opposed to the power of the councils and in favor of establishing a parliamentary regime, proposed the creation of a Civic Guard composed of former officers to strengthen order!

In Munich, a new working class was emerging. Krupp had built an ammunition factory there employing 6,000 workers, which was about 1% of Munich's population. Some of these workers, originating from northern Germany, brought with them traditions far more radical than those of Bavaria. These Krupp workers had been on the front lines during the January 1918 strike and now formed a major and influential political force.

The anarchists and the communists, wanted all power to be transferred to the workers' councils.On January 7, 1919, to support this demand, 4,000 unemployed people demonstrated in the streets and attempted to storm the Ministry of Labour headquarters. During these incidents, three people were killed and eight injured. Eisner demanded the arrest of the instigators of the protest, anarchist Erich Muhsam and communist Eugen Léviné. Their supporters then took to the streets, and Muhsam and Léviné were released on January 12.

During the legislative elections (January 12, 1919), the Bavarian People's Party came out ahead in the votes, followed by the SPD. Eisner's USPD received only 2.5% of the votes and 3 seats. The KPD boycotted the election. On February 21, after resigning from the government following his crushing electoral defeat, Eisner left the Landtag and was shot in the street by Count Anton von Arco-Valley, a monarchist belonging to the Thule Society. As a Prussian, intellectual, Jewish, and socialist, Eisner was targeted by the press and reactionary circles (including the Thule Society). This society became one of the centers of counter-revolution in Bavaria. On November 11, 1918, it even formed a military cell, and on January 5, it established a political organization, the DAP (German Workers' Party), led by Anton Drexler, which would become the NSDAP in 1920. Eisner's murder caused shock and anger, leading to riots. The Landtag was stormed. Auer was held responsible for Eisner's death. A communist militant attacked him while he was at the podium. Eisner's funeral, on February 26, was marked by large demonstrations across Germany. On February 22, the Munich Councils established the Central Council of Councils, led by Ernst Niekisch (USPD) (future theorist of National Bolshevism), who asked the Landtag to proclaim the establishment of Soviet power; the proposal was rejected.

The first president of the Council Republic is Ernst Toller, a 25-year-old poet. He volunteered for the front in 1914. The experience of war dramatically changed the young man's ideas. After 13 months at the front, he became a convinced pacifist. Sick, he was demobilized and returned to Berlin, then to the University of Heidelberg, where he founded a pacifist circle. Monitored by the police, the circle was disbanded, its members expelled from the university and sent to the front. Toller was imprisoned. Upon his release, he went to Munich, where he met Kurt Eisner. Once again imprisoned, Toller only returned to Bavaria after November 11, 1918. After Eisner's murder, he actively participated in popular unrest and became the leader of the Council Republic.

Toller surrounded himself with intellectuals, including two anarchist activists, Gustav Landauer and Erich Mühsam. Landauer had studied philosophy and philology at Heidelberg and Berlin, where he began to take an interest in libertarian ideas by studying Proudhon and Kropotkin. Due to his anarchist writings, he was imprisoned in 1893 and again in 1899. As a scholar and expert on the history of the French Revolution, he was called upon as a popular delegate to the Education of the Council Republic. Mühsam, on the other hand, was a poet and playwright. In his youth, he frequented libertarian-inspired literary and artistic circles, where he also met Landauer. At the start of the war, he took nationalist positions, but under the influence of his anarchist friends, he became a fierce opponent of the war. Because of his pacifism, he was imprisoned in April 1918 and only regained his freedom in November to join Munich. Toller, Landauer, and Mühsam formed the "core" of the Council government from April 6 to April 12.

Until April 12th, the Republic of Councils was characterized by the dominance of the USPD and the active participation of the anarchists. The KPD remained in the background, not hesitating to hinder the actions of the Republic when it deemed necessary.

On the night of April 11th to 12th, the garrison soldiers and the Republican guards loyal to Hoffmann seized the main strategic points in Munich. It was only in response to the Toller government’s inability and the imminent danger of regime overthrow that these groups decided to take a position of power. However, on April 12th, revolutionary workers, in alliance with the Red Guards, retook the city by force. From that point on, the councils met to elect a new revolutionary government, in which the communists now held all the power.

Although they did not obtain prior approval from the leadership of the German Communist Party before taking power, the communists could refer to the recommendations that Lenin sent them by telegram. Among his early instructions for the revolution, he advised them to disarm the bourgeoisie in order to arm the proletariat, to nationalize the banks, and to take hostages from the bourgeois class. The Bavarian communists followed these directives by asking the population to surrender their weapons, suppressing newspapers hostile to the Councils, and taking hostages (including some members of the Thule Society).

The leading figure of the Council Republic member of the KPD was Eugen Leviné. Born in 1883 in Saint Petersburg into a family of Jewish merchants, he moved with his mother to Wiesbaden after his father's death. Leviné pursued law studies at university, where he met many Russian exiled revolutionaries. He then traveled to Russia and participated in the 1905 revolution, engaging with the Socialist-Revolutionary Party. Upon returning to Germany, he joined the SPD, and later served as a translator in the German army during the war before joining the KPD. His right-hand man is Max Levien, born in Moscow in 1885 into a family of wealthy merchants. Having studied in Germany, he returned to Russia and also participated in the 1905 Revolution, aligning with the Socialist-Revolutionary Party. Arrested by the Tsarist authorities and imprisoned, he went into exile in Switzerland upon his release, where he established contacts with the Bolsheviks, including Lenin. During the war, he served in the Bavarian Royal Guard, and then, in November 1918, he joined the Spartacists and took part in the founding congress of the KPD as a delegate from the Munich section.

On the military front, Toller's government never truly sought to organize an armed force, even though on April 9th, the Central Council decided to create a Red Army. The inaction of the USPD and the anarchists in this area was strongly criticized by the communists of the KPD. When they finally came to power, they began to establish security forces, led by a young 22-year-old sailor, Rudolf Egelhofer, who arrived in Munich with a division of sailors involved in the revolution since October 1918. Originally from Schwabing, Egelhofer served as a sailor in the Imperial German Navy during the war. By the end of October 1918, he was one of the leaders of the Kiel sailors' revolt. Arrested and sentenced to death, he only escaped the penalty because of the victory of the November Revolution. Back in Bavaria, he mobilized soldiers to support the revolution.

Here's the translation of your text into English:nnThe situation seemed conducive to the rapid creation of a Red Army, as the country had many demobilized soldiers who had not yet returned to civilian life, constituting an important resource for recruitment, both for nationalist and revolutionary movements. However, initially, Bavarian revolutionaries were wary of this mass of demobilized soldiers, whom they considered politically unreliable, while the communists doubted the support of the soldiers' councils. Moreover, anarchists and communists were more in favor of forming detachments of worker guards, composed of conscious proletarians, intended to form the basis of the defense of the Council Republic's power. But this solution quickly showed its limitations, particularly in terms of personnel. Egelhofer, responsible for training the Red troops, also recognized that it was necessary to establish a true military structure and restore traditional discipline. The debate, which in Russia at the beginning of 1918 had opposed a militia army to a traditional army, resurfaced when Soviet Bavaria had to equip itself with a military tool.

Like the Soviet Red Army in its early days, the Bavarian Red Army was primarily structured on a voluntary basis. While demobilized soldiers who enlisted were not subject to particular control, applications from officers were, on the other hand, subjected to an inspection. The majority of those recruited were unemployed demobilized soldiers, while workers from the large Munich companies preferred to join the Red Guard, the workers' militia, in order to keep their jobs. Thus, the Red Army mainly recruited from the most "marginalized" sectors of the population. It also recruited among the prisoners of war from the Entente present in Bavaria, notably Italians and Russians. These units formed from prisoners distinguished themselves by their greater combativeness, which is why they were often used for the most important and difficult operations. Quickly, the Bavarian Red Army numbered between 10,000 and 20,000 men, equipped with stocks requisitioned from barracks.

The formation of the Red Army was also marked by tensions, notably between Egelhofer, the army commander, and Wilhelm Reichart, the military commissioner of the Republic. Egelhofer, more radical, wished to transform the army into a revolutionary "offensive" organization, while Reichart, more conservative, hoped to attract former officers of the Imperial Army to structure and oversee it. To resolve this conflict, Egelhofer had his troops surround the military commissariat. He opposed the presence of "military specialists" in the army and even refused to allow socialists, whom he considered too moderate, to take command. To resolve this crisis, which echoes the one faced by the Bolshevik Party with the "military opposition," Max Levient ultimately became the military commissioner of the Republic.

The main weakness of the army lay in its great heterogeneity. While its base was composed of communist militants, a few Russian prisoners of war, and former fighters of the Great War, the majority of soldiers were seeking to escape unemployment and obtain better living conditions. Of course, their combativeness, primarily motivated by food rations, was limited, as the battles for the defense of the Republic would soon demonstrate. The Red Army also suffered from a lack of experience among its leaders: neither Egelhofer nor Toller, who commanded the Dachau troops, nor their deputy Gustav Klingelhöfer, had ever been officers. Only Erich Wollenberg, the chief of staff, served as a lieutenant in the Imperial Army. Their authority over the troops was therefore weak, especially since the soldiers did not hesitate to act on their own initiative.

In mid-April 1919, opponents of the Council Republic strengthened their position. Prime Minister Hoffman secured the support of War Minister Gustav Noske, who agreed to send regular units as well as detachments of Freikorps to Bavaria. These forces amounted to approximately 35,000 men.

Faced with the threat of repression, Red Bavaria fully mobilized. All means of transportation were requisitioned, a mass conscription was proclaimed, and a defense zone was established around Munich. Public buildings were equipped with machine guns and grenade launchers, and the Red Army went into a state of war. While the Red Guard remained in Munich to maintain order, the troops left the city under the orders of Toller and Egelhofer, heading towards Freising and Dachau, which were already occupied by enemy vanguards. On April 16, the Reds bombed the counter-revolutionary positions. Under Toller's leadership, a volunteer battalion broke through the enemy lines, while the workers of Dachau rushed at Hoffmann's troops, who were disarmed and expelled from the city. Toller's 2,000 men then took Dachau. Toller was kind enough to order the release of prisoners, hoping that by repenting, they would no longer oppose the Republic of Councils with arms...

The victory at Dachau was celebrated as a true triumph by the Reds. Unfortunately, it did not last, as Noske ordered the intervention of the regular army. From then on, Noske decided to pacify all of Germany by force! To ensure that the operation against the Council Republic was not perceived as an external aggression, the mission was entrusted to Bavarian Freikorps, commanded by a native of the region, the bloodthirsty Franz von Epp, who had participated in China in suppressing the Boxer Rebellion in 1900-1901. In 1904, he went to the colony of South West Africa as commander of the Imperial Guard infantry regiment, involved in the brutal repression of the Herero revolt! Returning to Germany, he served in the Bavarian army, and during World War I, he led an infantry regiment on the Western Front, then in Serbia, before returning to France to participate in the Battle of Verdun. In January 1919, von Epp formed a Bavarian Freikorps intended to defend the eastern borders, before settling in Württemberg to prepare the assault against the Council Bavaria.

On April 27th, departing from Augsburg, the government forces reached the Lech River and deployed west of Munich. Simultaneously, contingents gathered in Thuringia, at the southern border of Bavaria, which they crossed on April 28th. Facing the 30,000 fighters gathered by Noske, the Bavarian Red Army was now strengthened to between 50,000 and 60,000 men. However, out of this total, Egelhofer could truly rely on only 12,000 experienced soldiers. He established a defensive belt around Munich, relying to the north on Freising and Dachau, to the west on the Würm River, and to the south on Starnberg and Rosenheim. Noske’s plan was to encircle Munich and gradually tighten the noose.

Despite the unwavering resistance of the communists, on April 29th, the army and the Freikorps seized Freising, Erding, Wasserburg, and Gars. On the same day, Starnberg, defended by 200 Red soldiers and 150 Red Guards, was captured after fierce fighting. Twenty-one communists were executed on the spot. By April 30th, Noske’s troops were only 15 km from Munich. Only Dachau still resisted, replying with heavy fire, but soon, due to a lack of ammunition, the city was stormed by the Freikorps. By the evening of April 30th, the army and the Freikorps were at the gates of Munich, having already taken control of southern Bavaria.

The street fighting for the capture of Munich began on May 1st. The communists organized a "Red Terror", executing ten hostages, including some members of the Thule Society... Groups of former officers and students seized public buildings, while Noske’s soldiers entered the city. While the Ministry District was occupied without fighting, fierce clashes erupted in the North and East districts of Munich. The battle especially dragged on around the train station and the Palace of Justice. On May 2nd, fighting continued, and the revolutionary headquarters was finally destroyed. On May 3rd, Rosenheim, the last Red stronghold and an important communication hub between Munich, Salzburg, and Innsbruck, fell into the hands of Noske’s troops.

To garner support from the rural population, the counter-revolutionaries propagated the idea that power in Munich was controlled by Russian communists and Jews. This anti-communist and anti-Semitic rhetoric was closely linked to the repression carried out in Bavaria with the arrival of the Freikorps. Composed largely of far-right militants and sympathizers, these groups conducted severe repression, resulting in approximately 550 deaths, including communist militants as well as civilians, notably Jews. Thus, on May 2, 1919, the Freikorps violently arrested and murdered Landauer, who, although having played an important role during the early days of the Council Republic, had withdrawn from political life after the communists took power.

If Laudauer and Leviné died during the repression that followed the end of the Council Republic, the fate of their comrades was just as tragic.

Landauer

Erich Mühsam was amnestied in 1924 and resumed his career as a writer. In 1933, he was arrested by the Nazis and deported to the Sonnenburg and Oranienburg concentration camps. Subjected to mistreatment and torture, he was murdered on July 10, 1934.

Ernst Toller escaped from the Gestapo and took refuge in Switzerland, then in France and Great Britain, before arriving in the United States. He actively engaged in helping Spanish Republicans. The victory of the nationalists plunged him into a deep depression, and he committed suicide in New York on May 22, 1939.

Max Levien, who fled Bavaria after the fall of the Council Republic, took refuge in the USSR, where he worked at Moscow University. On June 17, 1937, he was executed following the verdict of the Soviet Supreme Court's military college, which found him guilty of anti-Soviet activities.

Sources:

Pierre Broué, Revolution in Germany (1917-1923)

Erich Mühsam, The Bavarian Council Republic

[on-a-lucky-tide]

there's something so reassuring about seeing you so openly outspoken in the past few days

there's comfort in a queer protective front

We are all in this together and we have more support than you know. Check this out from today in London:

Theresa's a pretty well known trans woman around here. But when I arrived, the protest was already in all the roads. Busses couldn't go anywhere. The police were trying to kettle but they couldn't do it. In the end, we had to start marching. Legal observers were everywhere, and I watched two chase some CSPOs carrying a camera to intercept. (Big up to legal observers, it's a voluntary role taken to by solicitors, lawyers and barristers, and they are legends.) Trans people and their allies ground the capital city of the UK to a halt.

The media will blackout and minimise today as much as possible. But if you're ever feeling like the LGBT community has no support, I urge you to go to a protest.

I'm reminded of what historian Dominic Sandbrook said if the so-called 1960s sexual revolution in the UK, that it was "in the newspapers not people's bedrooms". That most people remained sexually and socially conservative despite what 60s and 70s media would have you believe. Evidenced in 1983 when a poll reported only 17% of people saw homosexual relationships as acceptable despite it being decriminalised in 1967 (as a product of the belief the state had no right to interfere in people's private lives, not an increase of social acceptance).

But anyway! My point is: the media crafts the narrative it wants in order to sell. It fucking lies about what is really happening and it always has. UK media would have you believe we are "TERF Island", which, ok, we have JKKK Rowling and Maya Forstater (barf), et al, but the British people? Not lost yet.

I never expected to get to thirty. The LGBT community helped me make it, so every year after I owe to them. I may not have all the right phrases, words, attitudes, whatever, but I will throw down in an instant for the community. No quarter. We got this.

[wild-at-mind]

Sometimes just from someone's username you know they would reblog a post that's like omg Trump will do genocide and Harris will do genocide but with emojis and memes!!

And then you see that they did in fact reblog the post and you're like ohhh can we stop pretending this is any kind of leftism.

[conspiracyofcrazy]

No sympathy. Zero.

this is probably the best take I’ve heard so far on the debate of people being told that they aren’t having enough ‘compassion’ for billionaires making bad decisions and paying the obvious consequences for it

[kilowogcore]

I see ya there, poozer, sittin' there with a leftist who agrees with ya' on most everything save fer a minor point. I see ya' lettin' it go without exploding the group cuz of it. I know how hard that is. Good job, poozer!

(Art sampled from "Detective Comics" Vol. 1 #1073 by Ram V, Ivan Reis, Goran Sudžuka, Danny Miki, Brad Anderson, Ariana Maher, Arianna Turturro, Jessica Chen, and Ben Abernathy. Edits: Captions Added)