EAST GERMANY
«There should be a conference of workers' delegates" HERBERT Misslitz is a member of the Group of Democratic Socialists, which in September last year helped organize a demonstration in East Berlin against the World Bank, at the same time as the massive anti-IMF demonstrations in West Berlin. About 1000 people attended the demonstration. He is a skilled plasterer and is on the group of spokespeople for the "United Left" initiative. This interview with Misslitz appeared in the November 23 issue of Sozialistische Zeitung, the paper of the United Socialist Party (VSP) in which members of the Fourth International work. The interviewer was Angela Klein.
W HAT do you think of recent events? Did the opening of the wall come too early, as Barbel Böhley said?
I must first of all point out that there are differing opinions: that is essential for the whole project. I will therefore sometimes say "we" and sometimes "I".
On this question, however, we are all of the same opinion. The wall was opened too late, not too early. It is understandable that thousands even millions, of citizens of the GDR are taking the opportunity to travel to the West. The way in which the opening up took place has created a bit of chaos, but that is no big problem. We are, however, also of the opinion that not only the opening up and the gaining of freedom to travel, but also the way in which this came about are an expression of the fact that we get our rights from above, from a leadership that uses them as safety valves.
This leadership, furthermore, is without perspectives, as is clear to everyone. To get ones rights from a leadership in these conditions is quite different from perceiving them as an expression of the popular Will. Rights such as the right to travel could be sorted out by people for themselves. • What does that mean? What is the difference? We are trying to develop some kind of direct democracy in this country, which involves forming people's committees out of representatives of the people, chosen by those that live in this country. That would be a real expression of popular sovereign1 Wich the opening of the borders, many ty. burning problems have been pushed into background. It is for example not clear how far the SED is going to stick to article 10 l ot the constitution which affirms the leading role of the party, something that would be called into question by elections. • The central demand at the moment is for free elections. In West Germany we understand this to mean, free elections to the House of the People. Is this how free elections are understood in the GDR, or is there an audience here for your idea of another type of popular representation?
The situation at the moment is that propaganda for alternative conceptions is very patchy. Many ideas are disseminated by the Western media, and leftist concepts do not get much of a chance as far as the radio and television are concerned. Things are understood here in categories taken from the West. Thus, it is projects for bourgeois parliamentarianism that are favoured here. Also, until now the United Left has not had the opportunity to put its positions directly through its own press so as to influence the discussion. We have to rely on our own slender printing resources. We are trying to put forward our position through factory meetings and panel discussions and so on. This is not enough, and we are clear that we want to change this situation. Discussions are going on at various levels about how to develop an independent left press and also to develop some kind of paper for the discussion of theory, in which all the groups will be able to put forward their positions in detail. Then of course there are a lot of bureaucratic problems.
We are intending to involve ourselves more in factory journals. The first more in attempts are being made there. Evidently we will take part in editing such journals.
At the moment whatever is most publicized is most discussed. Aktuelle Kamera [liberal East German TV programme] and the Western media have the advantage here.
International Viewpoint #75 • December 11, 1989
• We are aware of two proposals from the opposition: firstly that there should be a referendum over the planned new electoral law, and secondly that the May local elections, whose results were falsified, should be rerun. This would make it possible for the opposition groups to strengthen their base and build themselves up. Do you support these proposals?
We certainly support the idea that there should be a Round Table that would allow all the groups, the parties in the governmental bloc, the SED and also the mass organizations to openly discuss different electoral conceptions in the media. In this way something that is urgently necessary will take place, that is to give some life to the concept of "free elections" and the specific differences will also find expression.
Our ideas about how free elections should look are quite different to those of the groups that support bourgeois parliamentarianism and multi-partyism on the West German model. We say that at the same time as the Round Table there should be a country-wide conference of workers' delegates
We are preparing for this in the factories along with other groups. It will take some time to realize this perspective, since people here are not used to taking personal responsibility for political decisions, although a wide process of politicization is now taking place.
Such a delegate conference could also consider the issue of forms of real participation and forms of factory self-management, as well as the rights and duties of independent factory councils. The election of such workers' councils would be, so to speak, the second step. The party and union organizations should orient towards this kind of elaboration of the demands of the workers.
• What is the situation in the factories?
There is a lot of discussion going on in factories. The appeals of the opposition groups are put up everywhere. The central point discussed is the possibility for increased consumption, partly also the problem of the future of the factories. If the productivity principle is consistently implemented, this will put the continued existence of many factories and combines in question. Many factories and combines do not function efficiently, and suffer from severe weaknesses in innovation.
I talked to colleagues in the Leuna works who spoke in the following way: "We do not have any desire to go on working in this filth (the Leuna works is the biggest polluter of our country, but we also do not want to be without work." They call for experts, economists and technocrats, who are now urgently needed, to take a position on these problems. The technocrats are being called on to represent the interests of the workers. • The founding meeting of a nationwide United Left will take place at the end of November. What are your perspectives and what do you expect from the left in other coun tries?
our priority 1s to put torward the idea o ocialism as something that is relevan today. Wide sections of the population have turned away from this idea as a result of the lies of the bureaucracy, who claimed that we already had a developed socialist society here. We need to work out transitional demands for this.
This is the context in which we approach the question of connections with the international left. We can see that Comoecon does not represent a workable alternative model to integration in the EEC and that there is a danger that the rich West will buy the East. That means that we have to work out solid political concepts to combat the greed of the financial sharks with the left in the East and also in West Germany. We also consider it important to work out, together with the West German left, a defensible point of view against the demand for reunification that is being raised, above all by rightist circles. Another question is, what possibilities are open to the left in the West to influence the forms of economic help. The fact is that the GDR cannot overcome its technological backwardness from its own resources. Financial help and credits are needed and perhaps even debt cancellation. This needs to be done without conditions and not, as has already been hinted at many times, on the condition that financial circles in the West are allowed to use the credits to interfere in the GDR. Here perhaps, there are some bases for common action. But common work with the left in the East is just as important as with the West. *