TSOTM Apr 2026: Red Ruhr Army

Only available outside the US. Available in the US here on a different shirt.

Our T-shirt of the Month for April 2026, made of 100% organic cotton, and supporting grassroots labour unions in South Asia. 

This month's design is inspired by the Red Ruhr Red, which was suppressed in April 1920. It was the last revolutionary mass movement in Germany to date and comprised approximately 50,000 armed workers. In response to the right-wing Lüttwitz-Kapp Putsch, a general strike of almost the entire German working class first occurred in March. In Saxony, Thuringia, and especially in the Ruhr region, attempts were made to escalate the general strike into a "proletarian revolution" and to complete the failed revolution of 1918/1919. After fierce fighting with Reichswehr units and the security police, the Red Ruhr Army controlled the Rhenish-Westphalian industrial region. On April 2nd, the Social Democratic (SPD) government dispatched Reichswehr troops to suppress the workers' uprising, even though these units contained precisely those proto-fascist forces that had supported and participated in the right-wing putsch against the SPD only a few days earlier. At least 1,000 participants in the uprising were massacred by the end of the fighting on April 12. This included mass summary executions and targeted psychological torture. According to historian Klaus Gietinger, these practices, in which victims were forced to dig their own graves, became widespread and were, among other things, part of the repertoire of the police, SS, SD, Einsatzgruppen, and Wehrmacht during the mass murder of the Jewish population in the German Wehrmacht's Eastern Campaign some 21 years later.

The Red Ruhr Army was organized decentrally through independent executive councils formed in numerous Ruhr cities. Unable or unwilling to recognize these grassroots, proletarian structures as something progressive, the state-run German Historical Museum's website today states laconically: "The Red Ruhr Army had neither a unified command center nor a common political program."

This month's design by Svenno pays tribute to the brave, rebellious, and now largely forgotten workers of the Red Ruhr Army and was kindly provided by the Berlin-based Disorder Rebel Store. "Glück auf!" is the traditional German miners' greeting, particularly rooted in mining regions like the Ruhr area.

• 100% organic cotton, single jersey, 160 g/m², 0% elastane in fabric
  
• High-quality water-based print: environmentally and skin-friendly ink certified under the Global Organic Textile Standard
  Unisex fit sizes: S - M - L - XL - 2XL – 3XL - 4XL - 5XL
• Made with dignity by the worker-owned Humana Nova cooperative
• Supports grassroots labour unions in South Asia through ExChains
  
• Printed individually just for you, with no overproduction or waste
• Shipping everywhere except the US, from France
  

Size guide
Please make sure to carefully choose your size by checking the size chart below.

Width: Measured 2cm (1in) beneath the sleeves across the shirt
Length: Measured from the highest point of the shoulder to the bottom end of the shirt

When will I receive my t-shirt?

Printing of each Co-op Shirt will take approximately two weeks after being ordered. The shirts will then be shipped from France, and delivery should take up to one week for Europe, and up to two weeks for the rest of the world.

In the unlikely event that shirts from dna merch are out of stock, design will instead be printed on an organic t-shirt from fairwear foundation leader Stanley & Stella instead.