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Rotfrontkämpferbund

 

 
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Rotfrontkämpferbund
 
 
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(left) and Willy Leow (right) in front of parading troops of Rotfrontkämpferbund during their national meeting in Berlin
Berlin

Berlin is the Capital of Germany city and one of sixteen States of Germany of Germany. With a population of 3.4 million within its city limits, Berlin is the country's largest city....
, June 1927. ]]

Rotfrontkämpferbund (RFB, other variants: Der Rote Frontkämpferbund, Roter Frontkämpferbund) (English: Red Front Fighters' League, Red Front Fighters Association) was a paramilitary organization of the Communist Party of Germany
Communist Party of Germany

The Communist Party of Germany was a major political party in Germany between 1918 and 1933, and a minor party in West Germany in the postwar period....
, created on July 18, 1924 in Germany
Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands....
 of the Weimar Republic
Weimar Republic

The Weimar Republic was the democracy and republican period of Germany from 1919 to 1933. Following World War I, the republic emerged from the German Revolution in November 1918....
 period.






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(left) and Willy Leow (right) in front of parading troops of Rotfrontkämpferbund during their national meeting in Berlin
Berlin

Berlin is the Capital of Germany city and one of sixteen States of Germany of Germany. With a population of 3.4 million within its city limits, Berlin is the country's largest city....
, June 1927. ]]

Rotfrontkämpferbund (RFB, other variants: Der Rote Frontkämpferbund, Roter Frontkämpferbund) (English: Red Front Fighters' League, Red Front Fighters Association) was a paramilitary organization of the Communist Party of Germany
Communist Party of Germany

The Communist Party of Germany was a major political party in Germany between 1918 and 1933, and a minor party in West Germany in the postwar period....
, created on July 18, 1924 in Germany
Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands....
 of the Weimar Republic
Weimar Republic

The Weimar Republic was the democracy and republican period of Germany from 1919 to 1933. Following World War I, the republic emerged from the German Revolution in November 1918....
 period. Its first leader was Ernst Thälmann
Ernst Thälmann

Ernst Th?lmann was the leader of the Communist Party of Germany during much of the Weimar Republic. He was arrested by the Gestapo in 1933 and held in solitary confinement for eleven years, before being shot in Buchenwald concentration camp on Adolf Hitler's orders in 1944....
. It was banned in 1932.

The RFB had engaged in street fights with the Nazi party's Sturm Abteilung (SA). Hitler and the other Nazi leaders were able to position themselves and the SA as bulwarks of social stability and enemies of revolution as a result.

Squadism

The question of whether the left should physically confront the far right remains controversial inside far left groupings today. The RFB were seen to have lost the street battles - ie the SA looked as though they had suppressed the Communists and partly as a result many on the far left condemn the tactics of physical confrontation as squadism
Squadism

Squadism was a militant movement within the Anti-Nazi League in the United Kingdom in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Participants used violence and intimidation to break up meetings, marches and other gatherings of far right groups such as the British National Front and the British Movement....
. Others, such as the far left Red Action
Red Action

Red Action is a small London-based Left wing politics group.The organization was formed following the expulsion of several activists from the Socialist Workers Party in 1981 for their involvement in what was called squadism, a term that refers to violent actions against far right Racism groups....
 grouping say that physical confrontation effectively limited the National Front
National Front

The name National Front is used by a number of political parties and coalitions.* Albania — National Front * Belarus — Belarusian National Front...
 in the 1970s and has also been effective against the British National Party
British National Party

The British National Party is a far-right and white people-only Political parties in the United Kingdom in the United Kingdom. The party is not represented in the Parliament of the United Kingdom....
 more recently.

Greetings and paper

They had a greeting: "Rot Front!" ("Red Front!") was spoken while the right arm was raised with fist clenched, fingers looking forward.

The RFB issued their official newspaper, Die Rote Front.

There was also a youth organization (ages 16-21), Rote Jungfront (Young Red Front).

A monthly publication for the Red Army in the U.S.A. titled the “Red Front” was published by the Red Front Fighters League of the U.S.A. and distributed in the early 1930s from their national headquarters located at 95 Ave B in New York City. In 1934, the Red Front Pioneers met every Friday at 95 Avenue B in east Manhattan. The November 1933 issue of the “Red Front” told of a need to fight fascism in the U.S.A., as illustrated in the following quote from page 1 “We revolutionary workers who at all strikes, demonstrations, and picket lines have a share in the tear gas and the clubs of capitalistic lackeys are also not more anxious for terrorism and beatings without returning them their due. We live in a new time, when any day may be the beginning of the struggle ...WE RED FRONT COMRADES HAVE A GREAT RESPONSIBILITY in winning over the unemployed for the fight against Hunger and Frost and to open food storage places. New methods for the defense of strikers must be discovered. At the same time the question of anchoring the Red Front in different factories and shops, railroads, etc. are of the greatest importance. The dashing to pieces of the whole apparatus of government, is, in the period of revolutionary uprising, thus easier to accomplish.” On Page 8: “What is the Red Front?- The Red Front is composed of workers and farmers as poor, downtrodden and exploited as proletarians of all other working parties and organizations…With Red Front against hunger regime! With Red Front for a Socialist Soviet Republic of America! Comrades: Decide on which Front you are willing to fight.”

Ref: The Red Network by Elizabeth Dilling Stokes.

Der rote Wedding (Red Front) Lyrics by Erich Weinert and music by Hanns Eisler (1928) is an anti-nazi battle hymn for the Red Front “The drums are beating The working class is marching We’re not concerned with your party allegiance Only that you’re honestly in the fight Against injustice And reaction We are united by poverty and hunger By our fallen in the fight against the enemy And by our songs of revolution Red Wedding greets you comrades Be ready with your fists! Keep the red ranks close together Our day will come soon Fighting as socialists United to the end Brothers of labor Communists Red Front RED FRONT!”

Link to this song http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5aHn0DOA12g