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INDEPENDENT organizations are banned, demonstrations, leaflets and publications are forbidden. All political activity that is not under the control of the Stalinist ruling party, the SED (Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands -Socialist Unity Party of Germany) is forbidden in the German Democratic Republic. Even so, between October 7 and 9 some 150,000 people demonstrated in at least ten cities for freedom and reform. On Monday October 16 a march estimated at 120,000 people took place in Leipzig, the largest single protest demonstration in the history of the state. The peaceful demonstrations called on the government to finally undertake long overdue reforms. They showed that they were no longer
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CZECHOSLOVAKIA terror that has instilled an anxiely ridden ready to be treated like children. HANS-JÜRGEN SCHULZ T HE COMPLACENCY of the burcaucracy had led it to believe that everything could go on as before. Just because the people next door are changing the wallpaper does not mean that you have to do up your own house, was how SED Politburo member Kurt Hager put it, talking about the reforms in the Soviet Union. He must be well aware that the majority of the DDR's 17 million inhabitants reject the bureaucratic system. But the authorities showed no sign of concern. There were many reasons for this.
Unlike in the Soviet Union, the absurd cconomic over-centralization was cut back many years ago. For many years the National Income rose annually by 4% to 5%. East German living standards are the highest in the countries of "actuallyexisting socialism". The social support system is at a level unknown in the capitalist world. Basic foodstuffs are heavily subsidized, as are public transport and housing. There is a developed system of care for pregnant women and mothers, job security, an exemplary education system and a social security safety net.
However, the citizens of the DDR do not measure progress by Poland or the Soviet Union but by capitalist West Germany, where living standards are almost twice as high and labour productivity at least 50% higher than in the DDR. After almost half a century it is no longer possible to explain these facts away by referring to the unfavourable situation the DDR faced after the war. If the burcaucratic "actually existing socialism" were genuinely superior to capitalism, the historic handicaps would have been overcome a long time ago.
Because the DDR wants to build socialism as far as possible within its own borders, excessive investments are necessary in energy (brown coal and nuclcar power) and the development of microchip clectronics.
Interruptions in production and waste
Much more damaging, however, are the arbitrary and often ignorant decisions of the economic apparatchiks. The consequences are disorganization, interruptions in production and waste, observed helplessly and indignantly by the workforce. It is these experiences rather than insufficient wage differentials that kill motivation.
Despite such deficiencies, those who protest find themselves in big trouble. They will be transferred, demoted, in serious cases sacked and will lose all prospect of a decent job. Every new hire requires approval from the authorities. This can often be got around. But it is not possible in political cases. It is this kind of persistent social repression rather than brutal conformism, with people justifying themselves by thinking that, in any case, nothing can be changed.
In the background stands a powerful repressive apparatus. There is the National Pcople's Army with 170,000 personnel, half of them professional soldiers, more than 80,000 border, special and stand by police, the regular police and some 17,000 secret police (according to their Minister Mielke, they are to contribute by "Chekist means.' ...to aggressively implementing the strategic line of the party"). Behind them come the 400,000 strong workers' militia, controlled by the party. They have been undergoing training in the last six months in dispersing demonstrations and arresting ringleaders. This is a clear sign that the Icaders are aware of the mounting dangers.
The political system allows a certain amount of leeway. Simply expressing an opinion is not a crime, so long as no kind of organized activity results. The state rules over a demoralized population, and can confine itself to selective repression against real opponents. Any opposition is immediately equated with counterrevolution. "Since the socialist state power embodies the interests of the people...any opposition is direcied against the socialist cconomic system" explains the official "Concise political dictionary of the GDR" without the slightest embarrassment.
Obviously, many cannot reconcile themselves to this system. Millions escape into alcoholism. The DDR comes out top 1. This refers to the Cheka, the Soviet political police 3 of the civil war period.
EAST GERMANY in this field. Each inhabitant consumes on average 145 litres of beer and 15.4 litres of spirits per annum compared to 6.3 litres in West Germany. Thousands drop out and have built a youth subculture. Sometimes there are spontaneous violent outbreaks amongst the youth. After a concert in Leip- YOU rig in 1968 there was a Too? "rock rebellion". In 1977 a cancellation of a rock concert in Berlin led to massive clashes in the course of which four police are supposed to have been
WEST GERMANY
In some local churches hectographed magazines could be obtained such as the Berlin monthly Grenzfall ("Borderline case") which had a print run of 900 copies. Since there was little in the way of spectacular actions, most outsiders believed that the opposition had fallen apart. Facts proved otherwise.
Thus in March 1987, representatives of some 200 local groups demanded an end to the use of nuclear power in the DDR. Solidarity actions with the 80,000 strong demonstrations in West Berlin against the meeting of the International Monetary Fund in September 1988 were nipped in the bud by a massive deployment of police and the preventative arrest of suspects.
Shortly thereafter a cartoon appeared in Grenzfall. A man speaks to a parrot in a cage "repeat after me: I am free, 1 am happy." This exactly expressed the feelings of millions, who remained silent but who were still required to give constant professions of support to the regime.
Highly qualified and skilled workforce
The leaders of the DDR have to deal with a very highly skilled working class. Ten years at school has long been the norm. Some 82% of the workforce have some kind of academic or vocational training qualifications.
The masses have been ready to behave like the parrot insofar as the situation seems unchangeable. Many expected the DDR to follow the example of the Soviet Union, where reforms have been introduced, accompanied by much democratic and anti-bureaucratic rhetoric. But years killed.
In the absence of hopes for change many decide to leave the country illegally.
The borders arc hermetically scaled and even preparing to commit the crime of "fleeing the Republic" carries a heavy prison sentence. After serving a part of their sentence, however, most are sent to the West along with genuine political prisoners and others who do not fit in. Since the building of the Berlin Wall in 1961, every year between 10,000 and 40,000 pcople have left, including legal emigrants. In this way the basis for building an opposition has constantly melted away.
The pressure to leave has become a mass phenomenon in recent years and is threatening to destabilize the system. In summer 1988 church circles estimated that a tenth of the population, some one and a half million people, had lodged requests to leave with the authorities. This is a remarkable figure, especially when we remember that strong pressure is put on applicants to withdraw their requests.
Authorities blame imperialist secret services
The authorities have, furthermore, claimed that all opposition is organized and financed from other countries. There is "convincing evidence... that the imperialist secret services and others....are making efforts....to organize a so-called internal opposition in the DDR," wrote Neues Deutschland, the SED daily on February 2, 1988. Not idle remarks. Whoever demonstrated or wrote slogans on walls risked up to three years in prison. The gaols filled up. Including people who had tried to leave illegally, there were some 5,000 political prisoners.
Before the end of the 1970s, there was no organized opposition. There were only — some isolated nigures sucn as won bler- • some isolated figures such as Wolf Biera. A mann or Robert Havemann with informal circles of sympathizers. Under the influence of movements in the West, however, numerous ecological and peace groups came into being, mostly under the wing of the church. This was a double-edged sword. Clearly the church offered possi bilities for legal action, but the church also ensured that the groups remained issue-specific and unpolitical. "We are not any kind of opposition centre" insisted one of its representatives.
Even so, by the beginning of the 1980s these networks were able to hold countrywide working meetings with hundreds of activists and up to 5,000 sympathizers. Despite countless arrests and expulsions to the West, the movement kept going. Its overall orientation was socialist and internationalist; it declared itself in solidarity with the peace movement in the West and issued, along with oppositionists from Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Poland joint declarations against the stationing of nuclear missiles and repression in their own country.
When this movement ebbed, along with its Western counterpart, the opposition had politically and organizationally consolidated itself, thanks to many selfsacrificing peaceful revolutionaries. Some 2,000 people remained active in small groups — not a bad figure in the circumstances.
There came into being meanwhile an alternative political culture, which communicated by means of cassettes, selfpublished books and journals with tiny print runs (at most 100 copies), which, even so, reached thousands of people, since each copy passed through many hands.
International Viewpoint #172 • October 30, 1989
have passed and nothing has happened; patience is beginning to wear thin. Since spring this year, an increasingly aggressive mood has been developing, and defiance is on the rise.
The "Flight from the Republic" has become massive. So far this year, over 130,000 have turned their back on the "workers and farmers state". The overwhelming majority of them were young people who had been brought up in this same state.
This new mood helped the seemingly fragmented opposition to re-organize. This brought to the fore political differences that had previously been kept in the background by the enormous outside pressures.
On September 10 some 100 people from throughout the Republic met to form the "New Forum". They spoke out for a socialist economy and put to the fore demands for democratic freedoms, disarmament and ecological issues. Although the authorities at once refused to give official permission for this "anti-state organiration", there were no arrests. By the start of October, the petition had already attracted 15,000 signatures. This is in itself a sign of the change in consciousness.
On the same day, the "Democratic Breakthrough" was founded as a "political association". ', stating its wish to put up candidates in the 1991 elections and raising socialist demands such as free trade unions, workers' self-management, socialist democracy and the separation of party and state.
Appeal proposes socialism with freedom
Even clearer is the platform of the "Böhlen Appeal" which was issued on September 19 by a meeting of between 300 and 500 people. It proposed a "social. ism with freedom" and criticized the "galloping social democratization" and lack of internationalism of the West European Communist parties.
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EAST GERMANY
It expressed doubt whether the reform policies in the Soviet Union would lead to a socialist development. The economic and political interference of the capitalist states was rejected along with "fraternal aid" from the states of "actually existing socialism", '. Ecological rebuilding, political democracy and self-determination were demanded: "Socialist democracy....means....the power of the working people."
These three groups have, since October 4, been meeting with the reconstituted Social Democratic Party, the "Green Network" and the "Peace and Human Rights Initiative". Together they have demanded the release of political prisoners, a democratic re-organization and issucd a general call for people to work in their groups. Presumably some kind of coordination has been agreed. The official press talked of anti-state activities. But so far matters have rested at the level of these polemics.
Mass demonstrations in several cities
The state media have other things lo worry about. Since the end of September demonstrations, as yet small, had taken place in several places. In Leipzig there were 8,000 on the streets. This is an act of self emancipation that could become the norm. Between October 7 and 9, mass demonstrations took place of 70,000 in Leipzig and 10,000 in each of several other towns.
The political demands remain unclear and often expressed hopes in wellmeaning reformers in the party. There were calls for freedom, but also chants such as "Gorby, help us" or even "Gorby, save us". But when the police and militia were deployed the crowds shouted at them "We are the people" and "we are staying here, we want reforms". That almost sounded like a threat.
Until now, the authorities have reacted in their customary way. "Hooligans formed gangs...and shouted anti-state slogans" , Neues Deutschland wrote.
Deeds matched words. The demonstrations were dispersed, sometimes brutally and there were many arrests. A thousand of the 10,000 demonstrators in Berlin were arrested. But when 70,000 marched in Leipzig, the police kept to controlling the traffic. These events mark a turning point that should be neither under- nor over estimated. The power of the bureaucracy remains unshaken. It has not once been seriously challenged. The spontaneous demonstrations have expressed the protest of the silenced, but they have not yet taken their fate in their own hands, continuing 1o demand reforms from those in power. The opposition has neither organized nor led nor even exercised much political influence on these demonstrations. It is as yet unable to establish a connec tion with the movement because there are as yet no firm structures and there are no clear ideas as to how the hopes can be brought to reality — apart from the idea of a German Gorbachev. Above all, the movement has as yet had no impact in the workplaces. Il appears as if no social demands were raised at all. The rulers have been taken by surprise and do not know how to react. Then, the police were sent in and the press openly called for the military suppression of the opposition. Al least for the moment, the latter is not possible, since it would damage the credibility of the reform policies in the Soviet Union. The DDR leadership would cut itself off from its own allies, and this it could not survive.
Bureaucracy seeks to gain time The authorities showed that they understood this. With the willing help of moder ate church leaders, they entered into negotiations. Promises and concessions will follow. But it is doubtful that these will lead to a real liberalization. Nonetheless the bureaucracy has gained time through its flexibility, time in which in adapt its policies to the new conditions.But the demonstrations have also changed the consciousness of the masses. Passive resignation is vanishing and the experience of independent activity will leave permanent marks. People are no longer going to be used like parrots. If it becomes clear that all that is on offer is some reforms rather than a real democratization, some of them at least will become more radical.
The opposition has now organized openly and gained courage and tactical skill in the process. It has been strengthened by these actions and enjoys the spontaneous confidence of the population. These are good conditions for its future development. As yet, no mass movement in the workplaces has appeared. But the ice has been broken. The atmosphere is becoming more relaxed; perhaps the dancing will 5 soon begin. *
HUNGARY
W gary today cannot be under- HAT is happening in Hunstood without a review of the period of Kadarism (from János Kádár, the party's general secretary from 1956 to 1988). This involved a specific method of controlling socicly without wholly stifling it.
Kadarism was a method rather than a coherent neo-Stalinist policy. It took form after the bloody suppression of 1956-58, which put an end to the hopes raised by the Republic of Workers' Councils (see following interview). The repression, backed up by Soviet tanks, continued long after November 1956 with more than 20,000 arrests and executions, including that of Imre Nagy in 1958. Kádár, as the party's general secretary was involved in all this. In fact, he was the author of the appeal made at the beginning of November 1956 calling on the Soviet Union to step in.
However, starting from the 1959 Congress of the HSWP, the Kádár leadership moved 1o a more liberal position. In the 1960s, it searched for a compromise between the popular aspirations and the exigencies of its links with Moscow.
Bureaucracy reorganizes in face of crisis THE expected occurred. At a Special Congress held on
October 6-9 in Budapest, the Hungarian Socialist Workers'
Party (HSWP) became the Hungarian Socialist Party (HSP), with some 85% of the 1,274 delegates to the Special Congress voting in favour of the change. Apart from its symbolic significance — all mention of "workers of the world" has disappeared, while the delegates sang the Hungarian national anthem "God bless the Hungarians" to mark the occasion — the decision is a historic one that will have repercussions on developments in the other
• Kadarism supported by
Khrushchev Its room for manocuvre was increased by, on the one hand, the suppression of the workers' councils, and on the other by the ousting of the most conservative wing of the Stalinist regime. This compromise, which seems to have been supported by Khrushchev, who was in power until 1964, developed via the amnesties of 1960 and 1963, improvements in relations with the Catholic Church (1964) and the economic reform of 1966.
The regime's concessions in this period can be summarized thus: restrictions on the political demands made on the populalion, avoiding interference in people's private lives; emphasis on the possibilities for consumption, above all in the 1970s, in sharp contrast with the other East European countries; respect for limited private property in agriculture, and, more importantly, a transformation in the functioning of the kholkhozes [collective farms), which were given increased responsibility for defining their production plans; an opening to Western Europe, particularly in the easing of visa regulations; a relative creative freedom for the intellectuals, even in sensitive areas such as sociology and nıstory.
Kadarism thus expressed a desire to avoid conflicts with popular aspirations as far as possible, and reduce repression, while maintaining the control of the HSWP - legally the only party since
1956, and in fact since 1948 — over sociely. Al the same time the leadership kept a firm grip on the HSWP. Refounded after its collapse in 1956 (from 900,000 mem6 bers in October 1956 to 190,000 in February 1957), it had 600,000 members at the start of the 1960s, and, it seems certain, more than 800,000 in the 1980s. The 1980s saw the end of the period where, in exchange for concessions, the party could feel free from pressure from the workers, who had been smashed in 1956. The shadow of the Soviet "big brother" was obviously an important factor in this situation.
Reformers draw inspiration from Moscow
What led to collapse of Kadarism? The changes that have taken place in the Soviet Union since the arrival of Gorba chev, have clearly been important. Hungarian special correspondents in Moscow have reported the ideas appearing in those Soviet journals most favourable to perestroika and glasnost, and the party reformers have drawn inspiration from this. The fear of the population of the Soviet "policeman" and belief that it will step in to prevent really profound reforms have considerably diminished.
But most important are the internal changes in Hungary itself. The new generation are no longer satisfied by the limited concessions of the 1960s and 1970s. Furthermore, the economic situation has deteriorated in the 1980s, further weakening the authorities. One of the first signs of the crisis of Hungarian society came in 1985 with the drafting and then publication the
Soviet bloc countries. ROBERT NOIREL following year of a report of 68 experts that was discussed by the Central Committee. Entitled "Changing Course and Reform", it criticized the errors of the govemment and the cconomic policy and proposed nothing less than its resignation. Something rather unusual in the Soviet bloc, even in samizdat | underground] publications.