The Spartacus Group — The Next Objectives of the Struggle

This short document from the Spartacus League outlines the immediate demands of the revolution, distributed just as the German proletariat started marching.

Distributed as a leaflet with the title “Die nächsten Ziele eures Kampfes,” signed by the Group International (Spartacus Group) on November 8–9, 1918.

Workers and soldiers! Your hour has come! Now, after much patience and idle days, you have stepped into action. Do not underestimate the significance of the events: the world is watching you, while you hold its fate in your hands! Workers and soldiers! Now that the hour of action has come, there is no turning back! The “socialists” who have worked as pimps for the government for four years and who, during the last few weeks, have tried to appease you with promises of a “people’s government,” of parliamentarization, and of other nonsense, are now trying everything to weaken your struggle and to undermine your movement.

Workers and soldiers! You have to follow the example of your comrades in Kiel, Hamburg, Bremen, Lübeck, Rostock, Flensburg, Hanover, Magdeburg, Brunswick, Munich, and Stuttgart! The victory of your brothers in these places, indeed the victory of the proletariat worldwide, depends on your achievements, on your perseverance.

Soldiers! Act like your colleagues of the navy: unite with your brothers, the workers! Do not let yourself be used against them! Do not follow the orders of your officers! Do not shoot freedom fighters!

Workers and soldiers! The next objectives of the struggle are:

1. The liberation of all civil and military prisoners.

2. The abolition of all federal states and the removal of all dynasties.

3. The election of workers’ and soldiers’ councils with elections of delegates in all factories and army units.

4. The establishment of immediate coordination between all German workers’ and soldiers’ councils.

5. The seizing of the government by the delegates of the workers’ and soldiers’ councils.

6. The establishment of immediate contact with the international proletariat, especially with the Russian workers’ republic.

Workers and soldiers! Now is the time to prove that you are strong and wise enough to use your power!

Long live the Socialist Republic!

Long live the International!

The translation comes from “From All Power to the Councils! A Documentary History of the German Revolution of 1918–1919” by Gabriel Kuhn — Ed.