Allied Resistance III
Arriving at the Italian Parliament building in downtown Rome on the night of April 3rd, Ludovico D’Aragona rushed through the front doors, and downstairs to a section of the building that had a collection of separate committee meeting rooms.
Knowing that a subdivision of the Italian Socialist Party were holding a meeting in one of them, he quickly made is way down the hallway, swinging open the door once he arrived
“Egidio!” he yelled to the startled meeting members as he threw his notebooks on the table.*
“We have a problem.”
Egidio Gennari, leader of the party and close friend of Ludovico, immediately called a halt to the meeting.
“Yes yes, I know Ludovico. The strike in Turin is what you’re talking about, correct? I and the committee members were just about to start talking about it.” Gennari responded.
“No, my friend. It’s not the strike I’m here to tell you about, it’s who involved.” said Ludovico.
“Who? Malatesta? Gramsci? These are the usual suspects, my friend. There is no cause for alarm.” said a relaxed Gennari
“Bela…Kun.” said Ludovico.
Silence fell upon the meeting room.
“Bela...the Hungarian?” Gennari asked.* “No, why would he involve himself here?”
“I’ve no idea Genarri,” said Ludovico “But we need to issue a statement on this.”
Reclining back in his chair Genarri began to contemplate his options.
While strike itself was little political consequence to both his and his party’s majority status in the parliament, the mere idea that foreign revolutionaries were somehow involved in the uprising could not only pre-empt a nationalist backlash from all economic classes in Italy, but it might even split his party down factionalist lines.
Deferring to some of his party compatriots who were at the meeting, he asked them for opinions.
“No matter who is involved in this strike, we must show solidarity with the worker’s cause.” said one of his advisers.
“Not at the risk of what we have politically gained here in Rome,” yelled another.
Genarri knew that whatever course he took, there was a chance he could either risk losing the popular support he and his party enjoyed, or risk losing the confidence that he and his party also depended on to remain recognized by the middle and upper classes.
Though, after a few more moments of thought, the sympathetic socialist knew what he and thus his party must do.
“Regardless of the implications, we must as a unified voice, come out in favor of this strike,” said Genarri as he stood up at the front of the table.
“Not doing so would betray the ideals and values of our movement.”
Several advisers stood up and began to clap Gennari’s decision while a several others walked out in silence.
Turning to his long time friend Ludovico, he immediately asked him to fetch a few reporters from the Avanti! newspaper.
“Let’s let the Turin working classes know that Rome and the Italian Socialist Party stands with them.”
In Turin, on the morning of April 4th, with news of Genari’s support of the strike, workers by the thousands started to flock to the ranks of the strike. Several additional factories were occupied throughout the day.
Still trying to agitate and organize the Italian Fiat plant workers to coalesce with his own socialist ideals, Bela Kun and his cadre of Hungarian revolutionaries began to draw the ire of Italian socialists who grew angry with his presence and his seeming plots to cultivate a personal power base for his own revolution.
Rumors of an impending plot to assassinate him start to spread among the strikers.
Meanwhile in Danzig, Radek’s urban battle plan to stall the inevitable crushing of the dockworker’s strike began to falter.
Two of the three defensive fulcrums that he ordered the local strikers to set up in the central and eastern sections of the city had collapsed from Rozwadowski’s assault, with the third being encircled and shelled relentlessly.
Taking in the wounded and fleeing workers into his make-shift headquarters, Karl Radek, his KPD cadre, along with local Polish KPPR supporters frantically began to plan additional defensive tactics.
“We must withdraw the strikers before they are consumed by Rozwadowski’s forces and set up a defensive perimeter around the docks.” suggested one of the KPPR officials.
“To only have them fall? No, we must withdraw them and have the strikers take defensive positions in the dryworks where we are.” interjected one of the KPD officers.
“If our goal is to stall Warsaw’s advance, we must make use of what little manpower we have left.”
Karl Radek, stressed and gritting his teeth, spoke.
“Comrades, there will be no submission and no surrender.” Radek said.
“If..if we hold to this truth, and we hold faith that we will not be abandoned by our comrades in Berlin or in Moscow, *then we have nothing to fear.”
Turning to his KPD comrade, he immediately gave approval to the plan of withdrawing the strikers to dryworks.
“I only hope Rosa does not abandon all that we have achieved here in Danzig.” Radek thought to himself.
As night fell upon April 4th, back in Berlin Paul Levi, whose journey from Moscow to Berlin was significantly sped up due to the lack of need to travel undercover from Russia, rushed into Rosa’s KPD Headquarters office with the signed alliance document in hand.
Bursting into a meeting between her, Otto Strasser, Karl Kautsky and Kurt Eisner, he threw the paper onto the meeting table.
“History has been made in this document, comrades.” a confident Paul Levi announced loudly.
“And as our new allies in Moscow plan to do, we are to publically announce this agreement tomorrow morning, Versailles negotiations be damned.”
All eyes turned then turned to Rosa.
She knew, deep down, that she stood upon a diplomatic precipice.
Karl Radek, who she knew was in dire straits in Danzig and was in critical need of a relief force to prevent his utter annihilation, had successfully secured an alliance with the Polish communists. *
Otto Strasser, Karl Kautsky and Kurt Eisner, together convinced that Strasser’s revolutionary plan to grant implement national land reform by executing a Guns-for-Land policy specifically designed to co-opt the outstanding Reichswehr troops into the fledgling KPD state structure, *were putting the finishing touches on a policy that sought the creation of loyal Red Army for the German Socialist Union.
“And now, with Paul Levi presenting this document that made official and alliance between Berlin and Moscow, we truly gamble all that we have,” Rosa thought to herself.
“No matter. It’s time for the political parties of Europe who represent the working classes to bring revolution to the capitalist’s doorstep.”
Standing up and addressing her comrades, two of whom she had been allies since the early days of the Sparticist Uprising, Rosa spoke.
“Tomorrow morning will be the day we, not just as comrades, not just as a party, but a movement guiding by the ideologies of freedom and egalitarianism, step beyond the veil of bourgeois diplomacy. You only have to look up on the activities of the Polish junta or Western Europe’s support of the White counter-revolutionaries in Russia to see the threats we may face here in Germany.” Rosa said.
“But look to the memory of Karl Liebknecht, and any comrade that has perished in the name of our cause. If we remain resolute in our decision making and remain steadfast in our determination for working class liberation, we will prevail against any threat the capitalists may throw at us.”
Clapping in unison, the three men cheered.
Brimming with confidence, Rosa immediately shouted to her secretary to fetch a reporter from Die Rote Fanhe.
On the morning of April 5th, 1920, the alliance, along with the land reform policy, was announced.