WHETHER unification comes a year sooner or later, is of no importance. • Thus spoke an expert on East Germany from the German Industry and Trade Conference (DIHT) in the face of the existing and already signed "State Agreement" between the FRG and the GDR. This agreement is, from a political point of view, nothing but a diktat by West German capital and business for the unconditional annexation of the GDR. The document of total surrender was signed on the East German side by the parties of a "great coalition". * On the federal side, there is a similarly broad coalition.
The West German government has not held back from symbolically underlining the character of the state agreement. Although Kohl has presented this document as "the birth of a free Germany" -which is true if he means the freedom to exploit - the text of the agreement was received by the governments 18 hours before they were to sign it. The GDR delegation was taken to the signing in a jet plane of the West German airforce. The agreement is emblazoned with the insignia of the Federal Republic. And already CSU (Christian Social Union) and CDU (Christian Democratic Union) parliamentarians are demanding that the East German interior minister, himself a fully-blown conservative, "kindly remove the flag of division from the negotiating room" (CDU General Secretary Volker Rühe).
Striking confirmation of
Marxist theory
The base, that is the capitalist economy, determines the superstructure, claimed Karl Marx; Friedrich Engels added "in the last analysis". And the Bonn coalition has concretized this with regard to the GDR — on the double! On the double! Get the base into line by July 1, 1990! The expected all-German elections will then give some form of superstructure after the State Agreement has laid down the base. And, while the formulations in the agreement concerning the superstructure are vague ("thanks to the fact that in autumn 1989 a peaceful and democratic revolution took place in the GDR, the leaders of the parties to the accord have reached an agreement". the stipulations about the economic base are quite precise.
• On July 1, "the Deutschmark will become the common currency" of the
EAST GERMANY offer their own experiences for the broader integration of the GDR into the world market."
• Finally, in article 17, we read that "freedom of association, free collective bargaining, freedom of workers' struggle" and so on are to be established "according to the rights established in the FRG." The Socialist Party (SPD) in both East and West rejoiced at this, because the right of employers to lockout did not appear here as emphatically as in the first draft. Pure cosmetics! In West Germany the right of employers to lockout their workers is a part of the legislation on industrial conflict. Furthermore both here, and thus after July 1 also in the GDR, political strikes are forbidden, including those opposing the anschluss. Even purely economic strikes are subject to restrictions (for example through the new anti-strike paragraph 116 of the Labour Support Law). The failure
• Article 24 explicitly limits collective bargaining rights in public employment. Wage agreements in this area must "correspond to the general economic and financial conditions in the GDR." No money, no salary, no collective bargaining.
• And finally, articles 25-28 lay down the principle that the last word with regard to all the public spending and above all with regard to new credits lies with...the West German finance minister.
The state agreement is an agreement between two parties, one of which is the buyer and the other of which wants to be bought. On this level, that of the governments, the "game is played out". The FRG has all the trumps and the GDR government has nothing to offer, because they have not wanted to bring forward the very strengths that made autumn 1989 happen — the people of the GDR of the