EAST GERMANY
The political revolution - and the dangers that threaten it THE POLITICAL REVOLUTION in East Germany is also a spectacular rebirth of workers' democracy and excited and exciting debates about the perspectives for the revolution and for socialism. At the beginning of November, our comrade Ernest Mandel was invited by the Humboldt University to give two lectures. The opposition took advantage of this to organize a public discussion on social democracy between Mandel and several representatives of the East German Communist Party (SED). In these debates, Mandel spoke as a representative of the Fourth International and was able to present the general program of our current. He also had the opportunity to attend the mass demonstrations that preceded
The end of socialism? IMPRESSIONISM, a tendency to take appearances for reality, an inability to understand the underlying movements of history, even when they are glaringly obvious, has always characterized the ideology of the ruling class. At unexpected turning points, this does not fail to put a strong pressure on the workers' movement, including its revolutionary wing.
Never has the uproar over "the end of socialism," "the end of the revolution," "the end of communism" been as loud as it is today. Could the fall of the Berlin Wall be the final proof of the triumph of capitalism or reformist social democracy integrated into capitalism? All these charming people seem not to notice that the Berlin Wall was not overthrown by the capitalists but by the risen masses in the GDR. How long can the racket from these editorial offices drown out the roar of the streets occupied by millions of East German workers?
the fall of the Berlin Wall. ERNEST MANDEL ERNEST MANDEL T HE UPSURGE of the mass movement rocking the GDR has assumed the dimensions of a real revolution. This movement exceeds anything that has been seen in Europe since 1968, if not since the Spanish revolution. The language of numbers is clear. On November 4, 5 and 6, nearly 2 million people came into the street. On November 4, in East Berlin, between 750,000 and a million people came out in the biggest demonstration in the history of the German workers' movement.
At the same time, there were 350,000 in Leipzig, 300,000 in Dresden, 70,000 in Karl Marx Stadt (Chemnitz), 60,000 in Halle, 50,000 in Zwickau, 25,000 in Schwerin, tens of thousands in several other cities, thousands in many smaller cities. In proportion to the overall population, this is equivalent to 7 to 8 million demonstrators in France or Italy, or 5 to 6 million in the Spanish state. It is something that has never been seen in the space of three days.
There cannot be the slightest doubt about the predominance of workers in these demonstrations. Their size alone makes this clear. How in a city like Leipzig, East Germany's industrial center, could you have 350,000 demonstrators out of a population of 500,000, if virtually the entire working class had not come into the street? Are there 750,000 to a million intellectuals, housewives and high-school students in East Berlin, a city of a million and a half people?
The proletarian character of the revolution that has begun in East Germany is attested to most of all by the vast ferment in the enterprises. It is true that, unlike May 1968 and the Italian hot fall of 1969, there have not yet been strikes in the formal sense. But in most of the big enterprises, workers' assemblies are constantly engaged in discussions. In several workers' "bastions," notably in the Leuna chemical plant, the country's biggest factory, such assemblies discussed draft resolutions calling for a three-day general strike if the Political Bureau failed to resign. It had to step down.
Spontaneous explosion of demands
The November 4 demonstration in East Berlin was distinguished, besides the number of demonstrators, by an unprecedented spontaneous explosion of demands. An entire working people that had been regimented, gagged and oppressed for decades suddenly woke up, like a giant breaking its chains. This is a feature of every genuine revolution.
The humble, the downtrodden, rose to their feet, marched upright, and began to shout about everything that was wrong, about all the wrongs they suffered. This people occupied the center of East Berlin on November 4. And something never before seen happened. They did not just shout. They did not leave the formulation
What is dying is not socialism or the revolution. What is dying is Stalinism and post-Stalinism, which as most Soviets themselves say today incompatible with socialism. are Socialism's time can come precisely at such a moment in the GDR, in the USSR, as well as in many imperialist and third-world countries. The revolution, which in 1967 had been prematurely buried, can raise its head again proudly in East Germany, as it will do tomorrow in other places.
Still better, the cause of freedom can come over to our camp, and this combination of socialism-communism and freedom is invincible. It is not hard to imagine the consequences of a situation where, in East Germany, the freedom to demonstrate is more extensive than in West Germany; the electoral laws more liberal, the daily press and TV more critical of the authorities and more open to the people, where there are people's inspection committees for protecting the environment with more powers; where there is a more deepgoing elimination of poverty; greater equality between men and women; a more thoroughgoing elimination of militarism; and above all more advanced trade-union rights in the factories (self-management and not co-management). All the bourgeoisie's hypocritical talk about democracy would rebound against it.
If the East German revolution triumphs, this will be an important stage in the advance of the world socialist revolution.*
5
International Viewpoint
EAST GERMANY of written demands to the notables, as was the case of the Cahiers de doléances ["List of Complaints"] at the time of the French Revolution. They did their own writing.
The demonstrators carried at least 7,000 placards and banners that they had made themselves. Thus, more than 90% did not come from any organization or any group ing. They came straight from the brains and hearts of of the masses of working people. Rosa Luxemburg's descendents proved themselves worthy of her. Today, history has proclaimed that she did not fight in vain; that she did not die in vain.
I obviously cannot cite all these slogans here. (See box). Their general tone reflected a mixture of hope and skepticism, of humor and cheekiness, a mixture that reflects the present level of consciousness of the masses quite well. Another indication of the demonstrators' political sense was that instead of taking their placards back to their homes after the march broke up, they pasted them up by the hundreds on the parliament building.
The demands that set the tone were "We are the people," "We are staying," "Free elections," "Down with repression," "Legalize Neues Forum," "Free trade unions," "Freedom to travel."
### Cooperation between workers and intellectuals
The demonstration was organized by the trade-union locals at the four big theaters in East Berlin. It was marked by exemplary cooperation between intellectuals and workers, reminiscent of the Prague Spring and radically different from what is happening in the USSR, to say nothing of Hungary and Poland.
Twenty-seven speakers represented all the opposition currents except the far left. There were also two speakers from the reform wing of the SED, and they got a fair bit of whistling from the crowd. One speaker specified the demands drawn up by an initiative group for independent unions — higher wages, reduction of the differentials in pensions, popular control over supplies; no increase in norms without higher wages.
On the platform, as well as in the crowd, the demonstration had a heart-warming internationalist aspect. The rally started with a song for Nicaragua, performed by two young singers who had been beaten up by cops only a few weeks before. The crowd gave them prolonged applause.
An appeal was launched for solidarity with the persecuted opposition in Czechoslovakia. Placards expressing solidarity with South Africa were waved. There were signs proclaiming solidarity with the Chinese students. There was a poster reflecting a cheerful Berliner cheekiness: "Gorbi, thank you. You helped us. Now we are going to help you." A Soviet poem was read from the platform, "Letter from 6 an unknown political prisoner to Comrade Stalin."
SECAFE
All this was was not fortuitous, just as the crowd's unanimous rejection of nationalism and militarism was not. Today, the GDR is the only state in the world defined exclusively by its social identity. There is no national identity. The popular masses in the GDR reject every militarist tradition, including the abortion combining Stalinist and Prussian militarism that the SED bureaucracy has been trying unsuccessfully to graft into the youth. This is bringing about a real opening to internationalism among working class, the intelligentsia and the youth in the GDR, at least for the moment. Its future is linked to the future of the political revolution itself and its repercussions in the rest of Europe and the world.
Many gains already accumulated
In the space of a month, the upsurge of the working masses has already accumulated a great number of gains. The political and social situation in the GDR has changed with the rapidity that characterizes real revolutionary explosions.
The opposition has won acceptance. All groupings, including the far left, are working in the open. Representatives of the main opposition group, Neues Forum, speak on radio and TV, are interviewed on West German TV; and the NF is recruiting hand over fist, at least in its bastion of Leipzig. It is now fighting to be able to participate in the coming elections. Unless there is such participation by the opposition, in fact these elections will lose all legitimacy. This was accepted in principle at the SED Central Committee meeting of November 8-10. It is hard to see how it can be prevented at the
International Viewpoint #174 • November 27, 1989 last minute.
The repression has virtually ceased. The East Berlin chief of police apologized from a balcony of the "Red City Hall" for the misdeeds of his police. The hated secret police, the Stasi, is lying low. Its chief, Mielke, has been eliminated from the Political Bureau. He will doubtless also be removed from the Central Committee.
The right to emigrate and freedom of travel have been accepted. The government resigned, in accordance with the demand of the demonstrations. The new head of government, Modrow, leader of the Dresden SED, is the chief of the Gorbachevite reformers. His lieutenant, Schabowski, is trying to project a reform image in Berlin. A part (not all) of the conservatives have been eliminated from the PB, under the pressure of the crowds in the streets.
Tendencies and factions forming in SED
The media have opened up, not as much as in the USSR today, but much more than in the first phase of the Gorbachev era. In the party press, especially the papers of base organizations and the daily of the Communist Youth, Junge Welt, nonconformist and frankly oppositionist documents are being widely disseminated. In fact, tendencies and factions are forming openly within the SED. (This goes much further than in the USSR.) An unprecedented spectacle could be seen in the evening of November 8 in front of the Central Committee building, where the CC had just started a three-day meeting: More than 10 thousand oppositionist SED members were gathered there, carrying hundreds of slogans, calling above all for a
special party congress before the end of the year. On November 10, the party leadership gave in. A special congress has been accepted.
All the opposition groupings, including those within the SED, are preparing to launch independent publications with big
EAST GERMANY even the broadest ones, cannot in the long run substitute for such structures. The more perceptive opposition currents -both inside and outside the SED - are perfectly aware of this. They are multiplying all sorts of initiatives to promote selforganization. They are also formulating such proposals in their writings (a large number of leaflets and circulars are being general, and with certain qualifications, it can be said that there are five major currents among the political forces on the scene:
• The mass opposition current embodied by the New Forum, the Democracy Today organization, Christians for Socialism (Protestants) and the reconstituted Social Democratic Party (SPD). All these organizations say clearly that they are in favor of democratic socialism based on collective ownership of the major means of production and political pluralism. (See the "Böhlen Appeal" that they signed in common, International Viewpoint, No. 172, October 30, 1989.) But they have no clear ideas on the institutions and government of a workers and people's state. Some "bloc parties"' , especially Gerlach's Democratic Liberal Party (PLD) line up with this current, but on the basis of still less clear ideas.
Together, these currents could undoubtedly get a majority in free elections. But a differentiation seems inevitable. The right-wing of Neues Forum and some of the "Bloc Parties" are doubtless going to evolve to the right, others more to the left. The SPD is a left social democratic party (see box), which has declared itself in favor of maintaining disseminated in the GDR).
However, for the moment, the masses seem to be hesitating, if not abstaining. Perhaps this will change with the emergence of new forms of self-organization in the factories. That would undoubtedly be a new qualitative leap in the revolution.
Exceptional situation in
Leipzig
In Leipzig, there is an exceptional situation. Neues Forum has become effectively a mass organization. It has established a veritable regime of dual power. But its leadership, while able to lead vast marches every Monday and organize an exemplary corps of stewards, is not elected.
Moreover, the mass movement and the opposition have no precise political aim or any clear idea of the institutions that should be created to exercise power. In collective ownership, except in retail trade. Will this last? It is hard to make prognostications about this.
• The left current that seeks a democratized workers' state based on political pluralism, democratic freedoms, collective ownership of the major means of production and banks, democratic and decentralized planning and workers' self-management. This current is in the majority within the opposition in the SED but very much in the minority outside it. It has the sympathy of many workers, but it is difficult to gauge its overall influence.
• The conservative post-Stalinist current that wants to maintain the status quo with a few cosmetic changes. It is in a majority in the apparatus, in a minority in the SED and practically nonexistent 1. The group of official "non-Communist" parties maintained as a figleaf of pluralism in the one-party "People's Democracies."
November 27, 1989 • #174 International Viewpoint print runs.
In the plants, exciting underway about replac ing the organizational structures. (See box) Renewal of the official unions? Forming new unions? Reelection of all delegations by free multi-candidate elections? A new role for the factory councillors (Betriebsräte), who have a glorious tradition in central Germany? The decisions will doubtless be made in the very near future.
Teachers are spontaneously taking steps to give new life to an educational system that was admired throughout the world but which the bureaucracy totally undermined by its fear of "dissident thinking." Doctors and nurses are getting ready to take similar actions in the hospital system.
All these initiatives are occurring throughout the country, down to the small provincial cities, involving hundreds of thousands of people in the most various spheres of activity. For the moment, they are totally uncontrollable. In any event, their effects will be long lasting.
To cite one moving discussions are example: On
Krenz's personal intervention, kids at Ossietzky high school in Frankfurt-ander-Oder were expelled and denied the right to matriculate in any other high school in the GDR. Their "crime"? In a hand-written document, they had proposed a small reduction in military spending for the benefit of spending on education, since there was a détente in central Europe. Today, they are being feted as national heros throughout the country.
However, no one should be carried away by spontanéist euphoria, and think that this magnificent revolutionary movement is going to endure and triumph just because of its breadth. This revolutionary explosion is marked by two grave weaknesses that could condemn it in time to failure.
First of all, there are only embryos of real self-organization. Demonstrations,
Slogans at the East Berlin demonstration
"Deceived police, turn against Stalinism"
*The left against those on top.
*No neo-Nazis here
"Chemical Industry, introduce lilters.
'Workers, use your gray matter, be on the alert to the dogs who only bark." (A rhyming phrase In German.)
"All power to the editors.
"No more lies."
(Slogans carried by lournalists.)
"Only dead fish go with the current."
"Instead of co-management, self-management."
"For the right of conscientious objection."
"Demilitarized schools.
"A monopoly of power produces abuse of power, even under socialism.
"Equal pensions for all."
'The coach Is too deep in the mud, all those who have been guid-
Ing the team of horses have to be removed."
'The streets are the platform of the people."
"A proposal for May Day, let the leaders parade in front of the people."
"Use your power, Form workers' councils.
'"The same rights for all the parties."
"Monitoring of the state and the police by elected popular bodles."
"Rehabilitate the victims of Stalinism.
*Without truth about the past, there can be no truth about the present
"Found political parties."
"The October 1989 Revolution.
"Put the security police to work in the factories.
"Krenz zu tisch."
(A play on words, "tisch" means "table" in German, but it is also the name of the general secretary of the trade-union confederation, the FDGB, who had just resigned under pressure from the workers.
So, this slogan called for Krenz s resignation.)
Slogans at the East Berlin demonstration
"Deceived police, turn against Stalinism"
'Workers, use your gray matter, be on the alert to the dogs who only bark." (A rhyming phrase In German.)
"Instead of co-management, self-management."
"For the right of conscientious objection."
"A monopoly of power produces abuse of power, even under
'The coach Is too deep in the mud, all those who have been guid-
Ing the team of horses have to be removed."
'The streets are the platform of the people."
"A proposal for May Day, let the leaders parade in front of the peo-
"Use your power, Form workers' councils.
"Monitoring of the state and the police by elected popular bodles."
*Without truth about the past, there can be no truth about the
"Put the security police to work in the factories.
(A play on words, "tisch" means "table" in German, but it is also the name of the general secretary of the trade-union confederation, the FDGB, who had just resigned under pressure from the workers.
So, this slogan called for Krenz s resignation.)
EAST GERMANY among the unorganized masses.
• The "reform" current in the apparatus. This current has a big majority in the
SED but is (still) in a minority in the appa-
Appeal for building independent unions ratus. For the moment, it is not striking much of a cord among the non-party population. But this could change, if it carries through substantial reforms. It is subdivided into a technocratic wing, which tends toward a neo free-enterprisism, on the Hungarian and Polish model, strongly attracted by a Swedish-style"market economy"; and a wing more sensitive to working-class pressure and the socialist tradition.
A split of the SED into three or four parties seems possible in time, or even probable.
• A current that could be termed pro-capitalist, favorable to unconditional reunification with West Germany, which in present conditions would mean the absorption of East Germany by imperialist West Germany. The smallest of the Bloc Parties, the National Democratic Party (NDP), seems for the moment to be the culture medium for pro-capitalist tendencies. It has struck virtually no cord in the mass movement. During the big demonstrations of November 4-6, not a single placard called for reunification. Only two placards out of 7,000 in East Berlin called for a "social market economy." A few placards called for freedom for craftsmen, which, moreover, is not something that need be rejected a priori.
Politically capable vanguard needed
However, a lot more time and a lot more work will be necessary, and especially a vanguard capable politically of applying a vanguard capable politically of apolving a united-front tactic toward all the working-class masses involved, in order to define definite institutional objectives, in the political as well as economic spheres, in order to open the way for the victory and consolidation of the political revolution.
For several weeks, the population of the GDR and especially the opposition circles have taken seriously the threat of violent repression, or even a "German Tiananmen." The very fact that the demonstrations have continued despite this worry demonstrates the extent to which the masses have become conscious of their power and have thrown off the burden of fear and resignation. Once again, these are the signs of a real revolution. Especially so, because this worry was not without foundation.
The decisive day undoubtedly was October 9. Tanks took up positions in Leipzig, with the order to fire. Whole rooms were cleared in the schools and hospitals to care for the wounded. The nurses immediately warned the trade-union locals in the big plants. 8 It is rumored that the order to fire was cancelled only two hours, or even a half
Fellow workers.
WHAT has the FDGB (the single official confederation] done for us in 40 years?
Has It raised the question the question of the shorter workweek as a fundamental demand on the enterprise managements?
Why has it not fought with us to win a 40-hour week? Has it been concerned about our wages, which are often falling behind
Inflation? Why are charges not set In accordance with wage levels?
Where were the FDGB leaders when new work norms were ntroduced in the enterprises
Were they on our side? Did they oppose the norms that were not in our interest?
Can we consider the FDGB lo be a real representative of our
Interests, when our fellow workers In the West get, on the average, ten more paid days of vacation a year than we do? Has the FDGB done anything to reduce the power of nonworkers? Has the union leadership ever rejected state plans opposed to the Interests of the workers? Have we yet seen the unions go against the party and the state?
For 40 years, no one has been defending our Interests. That's enough! hour, before the start of the mass demonstration. The decision came from the Political Bureau, and was transmitted by Krenz. Undoubtedly, this was the result of strong pressure from Moscow.
Gorbachev is supposed to have warned Honecker that if he opened fire on the people, the Kremlin's whole foreign policy would collapse. They would find themselves again in a Cold War climate worse than when the Berlin Wall was built, with disastrous economic consequences for the USSR and for all the East European countries. It is important to verify this report. But it seems plausible, since it represents a realistic judgement of the international repercussions of such a crime.
The very breadth of the demonstrations, however, also influenced the Political Bureau's decision. This makes a crackdown unlikely in this stage, even if there were a change in leadership in the Kremlin. A police provocation certainly cannot be excluded. But the opposition is trying to reduce this threat as much as possible, by correctly stressing the nonviolent character of the movement, apply-
We must not let ourselves be organized anymore, even by the "new men." Wa must organize ourselves. The coming years are not going to be a picnic for us
The fetters have to be denounced
Prices will go up; wages will go up much less. The task of the state is to govern the society, but it threatens to abdicate in short order. We have to get the coach out of the mud!
To prevent a drop in the standard of living of many of us, we need our own representatives.
- General assemblies have to be called and present the bill lo the union leaderships.
The workers have to be able to express themselves
They have to present their own demands to the plant managements
They have to be supported, when they run into difficulties.
• The results of the struggles have to be made public immedi ately, so as to prevent reprisals
Contacts have to be established with workers in other enter:
prises.
- Independent unions have lo be built! *
Contact Bureau
"Initiative Group for Independent Unions"
Berlin ing a rule of self-control among the demonstrators and surrounding the police stations with lines of stewards in order to avert any direct confrontation.
This question has to be put in a broader geographical and historical context. Since 1917, all revolutionists have hoped for a linkup between the German revolution and the Russian revolution. This would represent a decisive breakthrough for the world revolution. Conversely, the international bourgeoisie (and subsequently both the bourgeoisie and the Kremlin bureaucracy) have left no stone unturned to find gendarmes to nip the possibility of a victorious revolution in Germany in the bud. Noske and his Freikorps; the Reichswehr; the SS and the Wermacht; the victorious armies of World War II; and NATO and the Warsaw Pact have successively fulfilled this function.
Today, for the first time since 1918, the political revolution in the GDR is beginning in an international situation in which no one, in the immediate future, can play this gendarme's role. This is the result of a great number of changes that have occurred on the world scale and that have
International Viewpoint #74 • November 27, 1989
EAST GERMANY curred in the Mot occurred in the USSR after Gorbachev's rise to power, such as the abandonment of the Brezhnev Doctrine of Limited Sovereignty.
It is necessary to recognize the repercussions that a victory of the political revolution in the GDR, a seizure of power by the working class of the GDR (which is possible, although neither certain nor probable) could have for the world revolution. A spark from the GDR could set all Europe, even the USSR and China alight.
### Kremlin leaders face
Insoluble dilemma
This points up the real dilemma facing the Kremlin and Washington/Bonn/ NATO. If the USSR intervenes again, as in Czechoslovakia in 1968, Gorbachev's entire policy will collapse. At the same time, a formidable wave of protest, equal to, if not greater than, that of the American people against the Vietnam war would be unleashed in the USSR. But if Moscow lets a democratic workers' power become established in East Berlin, this will quickly have repercussions in the USSR, East Europe and West Germany, with the "destabilizing" effects that Gorbachev fears like the plague.
Likewise, if Washington and Bonn intervene against the East German workers, a formidable mass protest would explode in West Germany, with the possibility of a general strike, and incalculable repercussions in the rest of Europe, or even in the United States. But if if they got away with it, the perspectives for the stability of capitalist Europe would not be any better.
Already on November 9, a representative of NATO drew the paradoxical conclusion that today the Warsaw Pact is an essential factor of stability in capitalist Europe. But for the moment the Warsaw Pact is virtually powerless to intervene against the workers in East Germany.
The conclusion, from the standpoint of the workers' and revolutionary movement, follows logically.
Sovereignty of East German workers must be defended
We have to defend the unlimited sovereignty of the workers of East Germany. We have to oppose any diversion, any provocation, that would permit the governments in either the East or the West to prevent the workers of East Germany from freely determining their own fate, which would facilitate the intervention of any gendarmes against these workers.
The bureaucracy at bay is maneuvering today to regain control of the rebellion by announcing and carrying out real, but limited reforms. In view of the masses' distrust and the breadth of the upsurge, coopting it through mere promises is absolutely impossible. Neither the appointment of Krenz as general secretary nor the resignation of the government and the formation of a new Political Bureau on November 8 are more than rearguard battles by "conservatives." These "transitional solutions" will prove only ephemeral.
More serious would be an attempt at a "Gorbachev-style" reform, based on a coalition that would include, along with the reform wing of the apparatus around Modrow, a section of the more moderate opposition leaders. The latter, out of opportunist Realpolitik considerations at the same time as fear of intervention by the Kremlin "if it goes too far" (a fear that persists despite everything), and undoubtedly also out of the fear of a "leap into the dark" that overlaps with fear of a genuine workers' revolution, are probably prepared for a "Polish-style" solution, at least in the political sphere. (That is, a solution that would involve sharing or even heading the government along with the SED reform-
Can such a reform succeed? In the short term, yes; purely in the constitutional sphere. But it will not stop the flowering of the mass movement. It will not choke off their thousand-faceted self-activity. To the contrary, it could even stimulate this. This is the great difference from the Polish situation.
In these conditions, such reform would also stimulate political differentiation. Hybrid political institutions would have little chance of stabilizing. In the medium term, it seems probable that the "reformers" will fail.
Experience shows that a mass movement, not even the most spontaneous and the broadest, cannot last indefinitely. It must win a decisive victory, if not it will start to ebb. No one can determine the time limits in advance.
If the mass movement begins to ebb; if skepticism begins to set in and if hope evaporates, if in those conditions the number of East German citizens emigrating to West Germany increases qualitatively, if the economic situation gets much worse (for example because of such a massive exodus and unsolved problems of currency convertibility), then at a certain moment that political situation could turn.
Population ready to defend social gains
The majority of the population remaining in East Germany could come to consider that joining West Germany in one form or another would be a lesser evil by comparison with deepening poverty. Even then, the population would remain ready to defend its social gains (full employment, social security, the elimination of poverty) in the framework of a united capitalist Germany.
The West German bourgeoisie, for its part, may calculate that economic advantages of reunification and its repercussions on the rest of East Europe can cancel out the financial costs and the politicosocial risks of the operation (which in any case would be considerable).
The political revolution would then be defeated through attrition and the lack of political solutions. The East German working class would fall back into a defensive position, with immense disillusionment but without having lost its potential for struggle. In the long run, this potential could even boost that of the West German working class.
Großmutter, ers, while the control of the armed apparatus remained in the hands of the nomenklatuwarum hast du ra.)
The election victory that the opposition can expect in the event of free elections so große Zähne?
would favor such an option.
Even the SPD, with the direct support of the West German
SPD, could take that road.
However, opting for this hypothesis today is assuming defeat before the decisive battle is waged.
To the contrary, in the present conditions, the task of revolutionists is to go against the current and help the East German workers, to defend, protect and aid, with all their strength, the political revolution that is beginning in East Germany, so that it can triumph as rapidly as possi 9 ble. *
EAST GERMANY
"Berlin 1989 is May 1968 and the
Prague Spring rolled into one"
IN RESPONSE to the East German mobilizations, the Ligue Communiste Révolutionnaire, French section of the Fourth International, published 100,000 copies of the following statement. The text has been somewhat abridged for space reasons. ROUGE
SPECTER is haunting Europe A
- the German revolution! The worries of the great powers of the world show through their initial expressions of very moderate satisfaction.
What makes the chiefs of the Western world tremble is fear of a destabilization of the East-West balance in central Europe, the fear of revolutionary contagion!
The spirit of Yalta hovers over Malta
This is what is what is impelling the leaders of the big industrial powers of the capitalist world to make an urgent agreement to maintain the status quo. The spirit of Yalta (the division of the world between US imperialism and the Soviet bureaucracy) will hover over the coming conference in Malta between Bush and Gorbachev.
The weapon of all the big powers, the USA and the USSR, as well as the other major Western countries, remains the presence of NATO troops in West Germany and Warsaw Pact troops in East Germany.
Our first concrete demonstration of solidarty with the German people is to demand the departure of all foreign troops from both West and East Germany. French troops must get out of Berlin and West Germany now.
The democratic and socialist aspirations of the people of East Germany are today the best lever for creating the conditions for a future united socialist Germany in a Europe in the service of the workers. 10 In 1943, Roosevelt and Churchill came together at Casablanca Conference. This
MN GORES, INCINE MEETING YOU OUT HERE - NOT IN ANY DISTRESS,
I TRST.
FARE I A AND WHETHER Na WAMLE us Too meeting set the demand for the "unconditional surrender of Germany." Why was this demand raised? Because Churchill and Roosevelt knew that the front held by their troops would define a new frontier.
At the end of the hostilities, the frontier of the Western Camp would be defined by the front of Anglo-American troops facing the East Camp defined by the front held by Red Army troops. A race began between the two blocs to crush Nazism and at the same time to gain as much territory as possible.
### Roosevelt equated executioners and victims
The ideological disguise for this military competition in a nutshell was the notion of "collective guilt" of the German people for Nazism. This concept put the Nazi party's hangmen together with the communist and socialist working-class activists imprisoned in 1933 in the first concentration camps. "It has to be instilled in the heads of the German people taken as a whole," Roosevelt wrote in 1944, "that the entire nation was engaged in an unbridled conspiracy against the laws of modern civilization."
Stalin still made a distinction in 1942: "It would be ridiculous to equate the Hitler clique with the German people, the German state." That did not prevent him, we might note in passing, from turning over Communists who took refuge in the USSR to the SS at the time of the Hitler-Stalin Pact. In 1943, he lined up with the view of his allies and signed the Yalta Resolution along with them.
"We have agreed on common political plans for applying the terms of unconditional surrender that will be imposed on
CERTINLY NOT -HOWEVER WE COUL) DISCUSS WE WEATHER WALE WE'R убо Nazi Germany after Germany's armed resistance is finally crushed."
The doctrine of unconditional surrender and collective guilt were the basis for dividing up the country into four occupation zones, placed under the tutelage of the two camps, the East and the West. "The lies of Goebbel's propaganda," commented the manifesto of the European Executive Committee of the Fourth International issued in December 1945, "claiming that Hitler and the German people altogether formed an indivisible whole today serve as the pretext for the treatment allotted to this people by the victorious allies." Special sort of democracy In
West Germany
In the West, the allies agreed to set up a very special sort of democracy. Its application led, among other things, to the banning of the Communist Party in October 1951. The leading force of the stubborn but little known resistance to Hitler from 1933 to 1945 was outlawed. In the East, a stage-managed unification between the Social Democratic Party and the CP in April 1946 produced the United Workers' Party (SED). Walter Ulbricht was to rule over East Germany for 30 years before being replaced by Erich Honecker.
In June 1953, the strike of building masons against "production norms" spread from East Berlin to all the big industrial cities before it was quickly drowned in blood. The cold war got continually worse after the failure of the Moscow conference in 1947. Some 2,600,000 East Germans fled to the West to escape Stalinism. The Berlin Wall was built in 1961 to stop this exodus. The 14,000 frontier
International Viewpoint #174 • November 27, 1989
guards killed 79 people and wounded 115