Chapter 1542: The Bohemian Textile Workers' Movement
The construction projects of East African overseas railways are all distributed in countries and regions under the influence of East Africa. Even Western Australia has deep trade ties with East Africa.
The development of overseas markets is inevitably linked to politics and the military. In modern times, Britain, the United States and East Africa advocated so-called free competition after completing industrialization, which was essentially to bypass political closure.
Even a country as powerful as 19th century Britain needed naval gun diplomacy to achieve its goals, rather than relying solely on the advantages of Britain's economy and industry itself.
East Africa, Rhine City.
National Ministry of Commerce.
"In 1932, my country's overseas railway projects mainly included the Asuncion-Lima Railway and the Persian Gulf-Caspian Railway, with a total construction length of more than 2,000 kilometers."
"It has greatly alleviated the operating problems of domestic railway construction companies during the economic crisis. Combined with our domestic railway reconstruction projects and the Libyan railway, it has ensured the stable development of my country's railway industry in the near future..."
Crown Prince Friedrich listened to the report from the Ministry of Commerce and was satisfied with the result.
He said: "In the past three years, the development of the railway industry around the world has encountered major setbacks, especially in Europe and the United States, where many railway companies have gone bankrupt, and railway lines have been closed or even demolished."
"Around the world, only relatively backward regions, as well as China and the Soviet Union, have relatively active railway industries."
In relatively economically backward regions, that is, non-industrial countries, their railway construction is relatively backward and is far from meeting demand.
Among the industrial countries, East Africa and the Soviet Union have unique scenery, but the two countries are very different. East Africa has more overseas railway projects, while the Soviet Union mainly focuses on rapid domestic development.
Secondly, East Africa's current railway industry is a combination of resource integration and overseas market expansion, while the Soviet Union's own railway industry is still imperfect, roughly equivalent to East Africa's development stage in the last century.
In other words, the Soviet Union now has transportation construction characteristics similar to those in the early stages of industrialization. Countries such as Britain, France, Germany, and the United States have all experienced this stage.
"Today, the imperial economy seems to be more prosperous than most countries in the world, but this is achieved through the government's macroeconomic regulation. Therefore, the Ministry of Commerce and other departments should not make a misjudgment and think that the imperial economy has now landed smoothly."
"We need to guide domestic companies to formulate prudent development plans and put an end to blind expansion. We need to maintain this plan until the world economic environment improves significantly, and then make corresponding adjustments."
"Our job is to strengthen support for high-quality enterprises, raise the entry threshold, and continue to improve the supervision mechanism."
"The Ministry of Commerce also has an important task, which is to strengthen economic cooperation with other countries, especially in South America, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East."
Trying to completely solve the economic crisis through work-for-relief is unrealistic. It can only work in the short term. In the long run, to survive the economic crisis, we must either expand overseas markets or solve internal distribution. East Africa is taking a two-pronged approach from these two aspects, and the ultimate goal is to achieve stability in supply and demand.
…
The time came to 1933.
Over the past year, the Austro-Hungarian Empire had struggled through a long period of turmoil. At the end of 1932, although the economy was still difficult, the political turmoil in the empire had calmed down a little. Apart from some civilian demonstrations and street riots, no large-scale national conflicts occurred.
But this does not mean that the Austro-Hungarian Empire has stabilized internally. Instead, various forces are accumulating strength and trying to deal a fatal blow to this aging empire.
A new storm was brewing in Liberec, a small Bohemian town in northern Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Liberec was just a small city in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, with a population of about 60,000 in 1932. The city was built on the banks of the Lusatia Nese River and surrounded by mountains.
Judging from the map, this small town in the Austro-Hungarian Empire is close to Germany and is no more than 20 kilometers away from the German-Austrian border.
Bohemia was originally located too far northwest within the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and Liberec was even in the northwest of Bohemia.
However, Liberec, a small border town with a population of only 100,000, was one of the most important textile centers in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, ranking second in the country after Vienna.
The reason why Liberec became the textile industry center of the Austro-Hungarian Empire was due to the combined effect of multiple factors.
First of all, in terms of the most basic raw materials for the textile industry, it is located in the north of Bohemia and is close to Saxony and Silesia, which are important wool, linen and cotton producing areas in Central Europe. Therefore, Liberec can easily obtain the raw materials needed for the development of the textile industry.
In terms of transportation, in the 19th century, there was a railway passing through Liberec, connecting important cities such as Vienna, Prague, Dresden and Berlin. It was an important transportation hub between Germany and Austria, which was conducive to market development and the import of raw materials.
In terms of traditional inheritance, Liberec had a relatively developed hand-woven textile industry before the industrial age, which was initially mainly based on family workshops, producing linen and wool products. Later, Saxon immigrants brought more advanced textile technology.
After the 19th century, British textile machinery was introduced to the local area, and the industrialization of Liberec began. Large textile factories with thousands of workers appeared in Liberec, and professional textile technology schools were established to train professional talents.
From the end of the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century, the textile industry in Liberec developed further, this time mainly thanks to Germany.
German companies and engineers brought the most advanced technology of the time, and in the field of chemical dyes, Germany was at the world's leading level.
Finally, the Austro-Hungarian Empire was a platform, which was one of the reasons why Liberec became the most important textile center in the Austro-Hungarian Empire and even in Europe. It fully enjoyed the benefits of the large imperial market and never lacked sales channels. At the same time, it could rely on the strong national strength of the Austro-Hungarian Empire to sell its products to Eastern Europe, the Balkan Peninsula, the Middle East and other regions.
All in all, Liberec’s textile industry was extremely strong and occupied an important position in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and was even known as the “Manchester of Bohemia”.
This well-known textile city has a population of only 60,000, which shows its development in the textile industry.
As the saying goes, success or failure is due to Xiao He. In the past, Liberec relied on the textile industry to prosper, but after the economic crisis, Liberec was also the city most vulnerable to the impact.
On the one hand, Liberec is facing increasingly fierce competition. Not to mention Europe, there are countless newly emerging textile cities in the world over the years. The threshold for the textile industry is still relatively low, and it is also most likely to lead to overcapacity.
On the other hand, Liberec's industry is overly dependent on the textile industry and has a relatively simple industrial structure. Therefore, when an economic crisis comes, its ability to resist risks is relatively low.
After the world economic crisis in 1929, Liberec's textile industry suffered a severe blow, and a large number of textile workers lost their jobs. This small town with a population of only tens of thousands became one of the most actively organized areas of the Labor Party in the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
In fact, since the late 19th century, Liberec has experienced many workers' movements due to its high degree of industrialization. In the 1870s, local attempts to form a trade union were suppressed by the government.
In 1893, the first major textile workers' strike took place in Liberec, demanding a ten-hour workday and higher wages. The strike lasted for several weeks and was eventually quelled, with the organizers fired.
In 1905, another general strike took place in Liberec, which was influenced by the strike wave in the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the internal revolution in Russia.
Since then, Liberec has basically become one of the areas where the Austro-Hungarian Labor Party is active, including the German Labor Party, the Austrian Labor Party, and even the Bohemian Labor Party.
The main force behind the Liberec organizing movement was the Austrian Labor Party.
The reason why the Austrian Labor Party has a great influence in the local area is that the population of Liberec is mainly composed of Germans, who account for more than 80% of the population of Liberec.
Pölzl Textile Factory, Liberec.
Neumann, the head of the Austrian Labor Party in Liberec, is convening a workers' rally. The Polzl Textile Factory is one of the largest textile companies in the area. At its peak, there were more than a thousand textile workers here. Now, amid the economic crisis, the Polzl Textile Factory employs only more than four hundred workers.
The rally convened by Neumann included many former employees of the Pelzl factory who had been laid off, and of course, workers from other factories and enterprises in Liberec. More than 3,000 workers from the city now gathered in the Pelzl Textile Factory.
“My fellow countrymen, since the capitalist economic crisis, the economy of Liberec has been in a state of decline, and a large number of workers have lost their jobs. Even the industries that employ people are being exploited to the extreme by the capitalists of Liberec.”
"To be frank, the workers in Liberec are now at a critical juncture of life and death. As everyone knows, the economic situation in the entire German region and even the world is not very good now."
“So, this is not just a problem in Liberec, but the economy of the entire capitalist world has reached a critical moment of destruction.”
"But even if the capitalist economy collapses on its own, we should not wait for that day to come, but unite to help us get through it."
"Because before the capitalist economy is destroyed, our working brothers will not have enough food to eat and may starve to death at any time, so we must seize the fruits of our labor from the capitalists."
"Then we should learn from the Soviet Union and build factories owned by our workers collectively. All the labor and profits will no longer be sucked out of our blood, but will fill our stomachs and go into our pockets..."
Neumann stood on a makeshift podium, his words clearly heard by all the participants, and drew applause.
"Comrade Neumann, we will do whatever you say. All the fruits of our labor belong to us. We don't want to be sucked dry by the capitalists!"
"We want bread, freedom, dignity, and down with the vampires of Liberec..."
"Since I can't survive any longer, I might as well give it a try with you guys!"
"I have been unemployed for half a year and now have no source of income. Our factory still owes us wages. These bad guys should be hung on street lamps and sent to the guillotine..."
The people of Liberec had long been furious without Neumann's deliberate guidance, but in the past they could only hide these injustices in their hearts for fear of suppression by the police and the army.
Of course, this is not cowardice, but no one has organized them before. After all, individuals are very small in the face of the state machine, like ants that can be crushed to death at any time.
Now, Neumann has organized them. They are not afraid of anyone. When everyone comes together, even the police and the army cannot make them retreat easily.
Neumann said loudly: "Very good, as long as we can unite, no one can easily stop us. We will overturn the injustice of the past."
"The people of the whole country will respond to us. Then, not only in Liberec, but also in Prague, Vienna, Saxony, and Berlin, we will have comrades and compatriots. We will set off an uprising throughout Germany and establish ourselves, the country of workers..."
"Let us, Liberec, be the starting point of this great political movement, fire the first shot for German workers, peasants, and all laborers, and bring victory to all places!"
Although Liberec belongs to Bohemia, which is the Czech Republic in the previous life, it is not a big problem to say that it is a German region here, because the area where Liberec is located had another name in the previous life, that is, the "Sudetenland".
Liberec belongs to the Sudetenland, where most people are Germans. In addition, the Sudetenland is adjacent to Germany and Austria, so it is actually part of the entire German region.
It can also be seen from Neumann’s words that the Austrian Labor Party has great ambitions this time. They not only want to launch an uprising within the Austro-Hungarian Empire, but also want to cooperate with Germany. This may also mean that the German Labor Party will cooperate with them.
Previously, the German Labor Party suffered a great loss at the hands of Adolf, but it was not seriously injured and is still able to act in Germany. After all, in last year's election, although the support rate of the German Labor Party was not as high as that of the German National Party, it still accounted for more than 20%.
The election cannot fully reflect the full influence of the German Labor Party in Germany, because the German government departments deliberately favor the German National Party and suppress the German Labor Party. Therefore, the German Labor Party's support rate in Germany may even exceed that of the German National Party, but the German Social Democratic Party may have diverted some of their supporters.
Of course, Neumann was not too concerned about how the German Labor Party would operate next. His main task now was to launch a successful campaign in Liberec and fire the first shot.
Afterwards, Neumann began to assign tasks. There were more than 3,000 workers at the rally, which was no small force in Liberec. After all, the entire population of Liberec was only about 60,000. Not to mention that most of the workers who participated in this secret rally were young and strong and could play a greater role.
January 7, 1933.
The workers of Liberec officially launched an urban riot. Under the leadership of the Workers' Organization, they occupied the police station, factories and municipal government departments.
In an instant, this "Manchester of Bohemia", the shining pearl of the Austro-Hungarian Empire's textile industry, became a "red" city. Moreover, because it was close to the border between Germany and Austria, the workers' riot in Liberec instantly spread to the two countries, rather than being limited to the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Because most of these workers were weavers and Liberec was in Bohemia, it was also called the Bohemian Weavers Movement.
(End of this chapter)
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