Working Class Ideas in and on Radical Politics in the Bremen Council Republic

This paper seeks to clarify how the experiences and ideas of workers and soldiers in their councils related to existing and developing theories of the council. It aims to investigate the relation between the ideas of professional theorists like Knief, Pannekoek and Pieck, and the working class in Bremen. This will be analysed by studying the minutes of the meeting of the councils, letter exchanges, eyewitness accounts, newspaper coverage, et cetera. The paper will concentrates on four core issues that were of key importance for the experiences in the revolution in Bremen, and for the development of council communist ideology – in more or less chronological order. Firstly, there is the issue of the relation between the new powers (the Workers’ and Soldiers’ Council) and the old institutions (the Senate and City Parliament). Secondly, there is the important discussion on the National Assembly and whether or not to support the elections for it. Thirdly, the new elections for the workers’ council and the questions of inclusion and exclusion that accompanied it. Fourthly, the declaration of the Council Republic in Bremen and the debates about how to constitute this new form of government. The revolutionaries had to solve these questions amidst a roaring counterrevolution that attacked them physically, financially and ideologically. The analysis of the council meetings shows the difficulties of combining political theory with revolutionary struggles. Nevertheless, it also shows the capacity of ordinary workers to contribute to the development of thinking and theorizing about radical democratic politics.