Persecution of Trade Unionists

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.teachers.org.uk/files/trade-unionists-leaflet.pdf

Trade unions developed in Europe during the
Industrial Revolution ofthe 19th century.
Through collective action such as strikes, unions
began to offer workers protection against the
low wages and long working hours that had
existed in most factories. Although many
governments and employers were hostile at first,
most European countries had passed laws by the
early 20th century, which gave workers the right
to join unions and to go on strike.

The German trade union movement was one of the
largest and most powerful in the world with a
membership of more than 10 million workers in 1920.
Although numbers dropped, especially after the
Depression began in 1929, around 7 million people still
belonged to unions in the early 1930s. German unions
were organised into large federations that were linked
to different political parties. By far the biggest and most
important was an alliance called the Free Trade Unions,
which was close to the socialist Social Democratic
Party (SPD); there were also Christian and liberal
federations.

Although there were sometimes large strikes, the
German unions generally preferred to negotiate with
employers to improve wages and working conditions.
They were helped by the democratic governments of
the Weimar Republic which forced businesses to allow
workers’ representation and which listened to union’s
demands. A 1927 law, for example, which extended
unemployment benefit, was first proposed by the
unions. The unions also helped their members in less
obvious ways through their own training schemes,
leisure activities, housing companies and even banks.

The Nazis were officially named the National Socialist
German Workers’ Party but independent trade unions
had no place in Hitler’s vision for Germany. This was
partly for ideological reasons: the socialist trade unions
were influenced by Marxism, which the Nazis saw as a
Jewish-inspired movement to divide German society.
However, there were more practical factors: the unions
were a barrier to the Nazi aims of bringing all areas of
public life under their control and of winning over the
working class to Nazism.

FULL story at link.