The mountil
German uni
ON OCTOBER 3, East
Germany is going to join the
West. This is what the East
German parliament has decided, as the country has ground to a halt.
MANUEL KELLNER
HE WEST GERMAN politicians warned us - before the citizens of the GDR could enjoy the benefits of the free market economy, there would have to be a tough transition period, during which unemployment and other unpleasantness would be inevitable. West German Chancellor
Kohl and his East German sidekick de
Maizière, as well as Count Lambsdorff of the already united FDP (the liberal party), never denied that national unity would necessitate a few social sacrifices.
On the other hand, Kohl also made a promise that has now been thoroughly discredited; "After monetary union",
, he said, "nobody will be in a worse situation than before." In fact the mood after the introduction of the D-Mark in the East has been anything but hopeful or enthusiastic. The failed attempt by Kohl/de Maizière to bring forward all-German elections to September was a sign of the beginning of panic amongst the political architects of the capitalist annexation. They wanted to get themselves reelected quickly, before the disastrous consequences of the Anschluss made too many of the people who had voted for the bourpuppet parties in geois
March, in the hope of a rapid improvement in their living standards, think again.
the campaigns of the labour movement and through promoting maximum unity in action. We see as a priority the need to contribute to the Workers Charter campaign both in ensuring the greatest participation of all workers and by making an input into the Charter itself so that working class perspectives such as workers control, workers' unity, workers' leadership are concretized around an anticapitalist programme of demands....* ng cost of fication
One of the main dogmas of the governing conservatives and liberals, repeated over and over again, is that of the fabulous "purifying effects of the market". In fact there is nothing to justify the slightest optimism about the economic outlook for East Germany. The only success registered by the market so far has been in totally dismantling the GDR's infrastructure.
In the GDR's old economy, state orders played a key role. Already, under the Modrow government, this mechanism was seriously weakened.
### East European trade undermined by D-mark
For example, the Postal Ministry cancelled almost all its orders with suppliers in the GDR. Now, this important aspect of the economy has been reduced to more or less zero. Commercial agreements with Eastern bloc partners remain in force, but the introduction of the D-mark means that the partners in the East cannot pay because they do not have the hard currency.
In the framework of its relative isolation from the world capitalist economy and in the framework of the division of
JUST SAY NO TO A UNIFIED GERMANY!
SOUTH AFRICA / GERMANY labour within COMECON, the GDR was the 10th largest industrial power in the world. Industrial production has now tallen by nearly 10% and will continue to decline. The crisis is still more serious in the agricultural sector, despite a record harvest.
What about the receipts from privatization? Already under Modrow a Fiduciary Society had been set up. Its job is to man-. age the 8,000 Combines (nationalized industrial complexes) and VEB ("enterprises belonging to the people" -a euphemism for state enterprises) which employ more than 80% of the active population of the GDR, that is 6 million employees. The economy that was previously managed by tens of thousands of bureaucrats is now under the control of less than 150 functionaries. Of course, the chiefs of this institutions are West German top managers. At their head was the ex-chief of the West German railways, Reiner Gohlke, but he resigned after five weeks, despite an annual salary of 800,000 marks (about US$530,000). Detlev Rohwedder, ex-president of Hoescht AG, one of the big West German steel trusts, took over in the third week of August.
How did Gohlke do? According to a statement quoted in the Financial Times, he said that none of the GDR's enterprises would be competitive. Some 730 of the 2,300 most important enterprises were beyond all help, and another 695 were on the edge of collapse.
Capitalists not ready to pay a serious price
The idea of the Fiduciary Society, which had DM10 billion at its disposal, was to finance the recuperation of some of the enterprises by selling off the rest. But the Society's money is tied up as a guarantee of the credits of the big West German banks being used to pay salaries.
Meanwhile the Society has been unable to find capitalists ready to pay a serious price and take the risk of investing in an unclear and unstable situation. The transactions that have so far taken place have been on an insignificant scale, and are often fraudulent, as with the often fraudulent, as with the Steigenberger chain, which is looking forward to profiting from the best hotels in East Germany at rents very much lower than they would have to pay in the West. It is hard to see why Rohwedder should do any better than Gohlke. Except perhaps that after the fusion of the states on October 3 capital may have more confidence — and the Fiduciary Society's president even fewer scruples. In the meantime nobody knows how next week's wages 17 or pensions are going to be