Revolutionary trade-unionist debates Greens leader have confidence in."
the Christian Democrats.
The most disappointing aspect of the election results is how many workers voted for the Christian Democrats.
Last year marked a "first" in the history of West Germany.
the workforce in one concern and apparently voluntarily gave back part of their wages to the boss in an attempt to keep their jobs secure.
Wichiger
ENE HCTONPTIVE,1
TALWER E1
Steelworkers demonstration (DR)
the fact that job security had been guaranteed by the con-
Such an action is both a boost to, and a result of, an ideology that claims that labor and capital are "social partners." This ideology, which the Social Democrats helped to develop, is gaining ground....
The West German elections were dominated by the question of economie policy. Probably a majority agreed that the Social Democrats were best qualified to deal with questions such as the missiles, education, and maintenance of democratic rights. But the majority did not have confidence in their ability to solve the economic crisis. That's why the Christian Democrats' demagogic slogan "Vote for an Upturn" (meaning a con-
Following the West German national parliamentary elections on March 6, the Swiss section of the Fourth International organized two public forums on the political situation in West Germany, along with another major left group, the POCH (Progressive
Organizations of Switzerland).
Below are major excerpts from the contributions of two participants in the forum held on March 16 in Zurich.
Thomas Ebermann is a member of the Hamburg Green Alternative Slate and a member of the Hesse state parliament.
Jakob Moneta, is a former editor in chief of the magazine of the union IG Metall.
He is presently a collaborator of the revolutionary socialist journal Was Tun, which of the Gruppe Internationale Marxisten (GIM), West
German section of the Fourth International.
The only bright spot in the results of the March 6 elections is our entry into the federal parliament. As happy as we are to have made it, we have to take note of the fact that in
West Germany, there is a Christian Democratic state on all levels.
We have a Supreme Court dominated by the Christian Democrats, a national employment agency dominated by the
Christian Democrats, a Christian Democratic president, a Christian Democratic majority in the federal parliament, a
Christian Democratic majority in the
Council of the States, and a large Christian Democratic majority in the local governments and parliaments, as well as municipalities, and now finally a Democratic-dominated federal
The slogan "foreigners out!," which up until now had gotten little response, is becoming the expression of a social
The deployment of US intermediate missiles, an essential element in strategy of NATO, is being through by growing state re-
Socially disadvantaged women can no longer pay the cost of abortions. employment and cutbacks in social welfare are increasing, and there will be an economic policy of the sort that will bring back bad memories of other times scious acceptance of the capitalist law of profit) found such fertile ground.
What is more, it is important to grasp the fact - which is often not seen abroad - that the Social Democrats did not want to win these elections. They were ready, for reasons of realpolitik to take a defeat in order to be in a better position to break up the Greens and Alternative
So we can see that the decisive battles to come between the Social Democrats and the Greens-Alternative Slates will be fought over questions of economic and social policy, although that does not mean that the Greens can neglect environmental needs or the demands for a policy
The historic task of the Social Democcrats, as defined by the financial circles, is to play the role of opposition in order to choke off the new forces that are appearing and whose activity is challenging the structural foundations of the system in West Germany.
Three years ago, anybody could easily distinguish the Social Democrats from the Greens-Alternative Slates. way we could be mixed up with the Soc-
----- pull-quotes on this page -----
GEWERKSCHAFTS-UND SPI-FERRUN ON BIE STIFLES AHME DES BETRIE SOLIDARITAY DAHLARBEN MIT DEN
ial Democrats....But it has now become more difficult to tell the Social Democrats from the Greens, precisely because of the opposition role the Social Democrats have been assigned by capital....
In order to maintain its antagonistic attitude to the Greens, the Social Democracy has developed a new argument:
"Their goals and their ideals are no
But they understand the complexities of political economy. They don't realize shortage of means and financing that state budget. And so we cannot go along with them and put into practice the ideals we hold in common."
This argument was expressed most completely in an interview given by a leit Social Democratic Party sure of the election results in Hamburg [in the June 1982 elections the GreensAlternative Slate got 7.7% of the vote], the Social Democratic Party has to return to the road of a socialist policy." And then he added: "Of course, I mean within the limits of our present financial
Thus he seems to be saying socialism is very expensive, and one might almost conclude that it is only possible when capitalism is flourishing and not in a period of crisis...
The task of the Greens, therefore, is to conduct a debate to clarify the issues for
If the functioning of the society is not determined by the law of profit but by overall social production, then defense of the environment becomes
And for the sake of the environment as well, it is important to try to put an end to the capitalist functioning of society.. In Hamburg, for example, there is a full-fledged crisis in the shipbuilding industry. But what is new here is that the shipbuilding workers — a minority in the movement, are not demanding or "support for the shipbuilding industry " They have established a list of alternative products that
So, their demands go further than simply the "right to a job." That demand as such says nothing about the quality or the use of the product, or working conditions or social needs.
These workers have had to take on all the established political parties, including, notably the Social Democrats. The latter have expressed their admiration for the workers spirit of initiative and creativity.
But they come back:
is prove that a market exists for these products and that their sale would be
After that, producing them might be considered."
Even in this area, could be the buyer and could set very strict rules for the protection of the environment - even within the framework of the present system and without the break with the relationships of production that we seek - even here, every possibility for environmental investments for the future, for socially usetul invest-
Today, the Social Democrats have disproblem is that they think it should be instituted at no cost to anyone. So, they say: "The 35-hour week must not lead to any increase in the wage bill or in state expenditures." This amounts purely and simply to saying that the 35-hour week has to be financed by lowering wages....
What I say here should not be misinterpreted. I am not at all saying that the Greens are a new Dr. Keynes, a miracleworking Keynes with an environmentalist tonic, who is going to make unemploy. ment vanish by means of a complicated system of environmental investments, or cure capitalism of its cyclical crises.
We can show that there are measures that can be taken, and there is a policy for redistributing taxes that will make it possible to moderate the unemployment
But at the same time, we want to pose the issue of socializing the means of production, the goal laid out in our program, by raising questions about the usefulness of products, about social needs, and concern for the environment.
This is what is historically new about our current. It is from this standpoint that the Greens can help to expose a cer tain ossification in the traditional workers movement and its organizations. I say "they can" because the ideas I have put forward here today are very much the subject of debate and controversy among
Everything I have said - and I come out of a communist tradition and I decided consciously as a Marxist to devote my energies to the Greens - can be put forward among the Greens and can win
Of course, you can find politicians among the Greens who think can advance their orientation within the framework of the present society and its relationships of production. You can also find minorities among the Greens, like Rudolf Bahro, who advocate a return to subsistence production and think that no means of production should ever go beyond the stage of craft work.
The Greens pose the problem of how to orient the development of the productive forces, and on this point also they are much more advanced than the Social
Democratic Party's Bad Godesberg Program (adopted in 1959). This program not only waves away the problem property relations but it also looks at the development of the productive and economic growth in a wholly uncrit-
Greens, therefore, sided criticism of the Social Democracy.
Jakob Moneta thinks that the best tactic is to call for a vote for the Social
Democracy and not for the Greens.
think that this tactic is completely in-
What I have tried to do is explain to you that a new political force has appeared in West Germany.
still has many failings. But it is the most hopeful thing in this sinister Christian Democratic state.
Jakob Moneta. I glad that at the end of his talk, Thomas picked up the thread of the debate by mentioning that I called for a vote for the Social Democrats. he neglected to explain why millions of people vote for them.
I agree completely with the critique Thomas made of the Social Democrats. I have agreed with these points since joined the youth of the Sozialistische Arbeiterpartei (1) in 1931 instead of the Social Democrats. But this is not the
The real question is the following: What concrete policy could have prevented what happened in the recent elections? Even if a grouping to the left of the Social Democrats managed to get into the federal parliament on which is grounds for rejoicing, especially since the grouping in question bases itself on the mass movement - the victory of the right on the parliamentary level has meant a major setback for the left and for the workers movement. This is where the
I makes me think a bit of the Weimar Republic period (1919-1933) and especially of the German Communist Party, which congratulated itself for gaining a million votes in elections when the Nazis gained 3 million. I can't sing any hozan-
If we look at the problem of getting the masses to break Democracy to move toward socialist policies rather than vote for the Christian Democrats, we should be very clear about the character of this crisis and what is at the root of the right turn that has taken place not just in West Germany but also recent municipal elections in
To show the nature of this crisis a few figures are sufficient. In 1970-71, there were 10 million unemployed in all the developed countries. year, there were three and a half times that number, that is 35 million.
In West Germany, the number of unemployed has multiplied by since 1970-71, going from 250,000 to
2.5 million, and it shouldn't be left out that there are 700,000 workers on part the other capitalist countries it took 13 years for the number of unemployed to multiply by three, in
West Germany this happened in three
This deepening of the crisis made the issues of unemployment and the jobs crisis the central question in the elections, contrary to the expectations of the
Greens and others. I have to say that this question did not get the place it deserved in the Greens election least not in the official propaganda.
Socialist Workers Party, a group founded in
1931 that brought together several currents in the left wing of the Social Democratic Party.
whole, to go beyond centrism, failed, however. as a - IV.
19
BILDUNG heine BOMBEN
'Education not Bombs' (DR) Thomas Ebermann put forward his own positions, with which I fully agree.
Was there really no possibility of a government to the left of the Christian Democrats and the Liberals (FDP), the possibility Willy Brandt talked about after the Hesse state elections in Septem-
In August 1982, the polls gave only 30% to the celebrated Helmut Schmidt, who passes for an expert in world economics and never stops talking about the "German model." between Schmidt and the Liberals. showed them the door, and hope sprang up among millions of workers and trade-union activists, who had always said:
"Why do you keep telling us that you have to carry out this rotten policy -soical cutbacks and all the rest - because you have the Liberals (FDP) in the gov-
Why don't you get out of this the traditional answer was: "O.K., but we have to accept the lesser evil, otherwise the Christian Democrats will run the country."
Then Schmidt made an aboutface and aroused so much hope that the situation was turned around, to such an extent, that in the Hesse elections, the Social Democrats, who were at the end of their rope, ended up winning. This was a total surprise. None of the pollsters predicted it. (2)
In the same period, at the end of 1982, we saw mass demonstrations organ20 ized by the unions that drew 600,000 people. It's amusing, moreover, to think that these demonstrations were decided on when the Social Democrats were still in the government to show that the unions could no longer defend the policy of the Social Democratic-Liberal
However, the Social Democratic-Liberal coalition government had fallen in the meantime, and these demonstrations were ultimately directed against the KohlGenscher (Christian Democrat-Liberal) government, against the government of the bosses.
And the outcome was that the Social Democrats, who were given no hope of winning the elections to the municipal parliament in Hamburg on December 19, 1982, came out with an absolute majority (51%), and didn't even need the support of the Green-Alternative Slate. this, a certain number of conclusions can
First of all, it is clear today where the force is that will make it possible to get rid of a rightist government. To accomplish this we need an alliance going outside parliament and uniting the mass movements, the trade-union movement as well as the peace movement and the women's
Why should we aim to reach the working class and win it to our objectives? That's easy to explain. I am a cofounder of the Club for Action in Defense of Life. This group has worked inside the trade- union movement for a different energy policy and a total stop to nuclear power.
We have had some successes. unions have come over to our positions.
In Bonn, I spoke in the name of the club to a rally of 150,000 people who demonstrate against nuclear power. At that time, I was also, as editor in chief of the IG Metall journal, in charge of the strike papers.
On a daily basis, I followed five major strikes in Bremen and in Baden-Wurttemberg. I could see the difference there is between demonstrations in which thousands of people mobilize and then go their separate ways and a strike that managed practically to paralyze the country and capitalism. I could see that in order to achieve victory it was necessary to win these masses of working people. where the difference is majority of Greens, who do not under-
I am coming to the question of the electoral tactic. I am going to explain briefly my position. If we want to convince the workers, the trade-union officers, the factory delegates who today still have confidence in the Social Demo-
In the Hesse state elections on September 16, 1982, the Christian Democrats failed to get the absolute majority the polls predicted. Liberals failed to clear the 5% barrier for repre- The sentation in parliament. The Social Democrats' vote dropped by only 1.8%. while the polls had predicted a drop of more than 10%. Greens got their highest score, with 8% of the The vote.
crats, we have to let them go through the concrete experience of having a Social Democratic government.
As long as the Liberals were in the government, there was an easy explanation for such people. Everything was the fault of the Liberals, who were a bourgeois party with which it was "necessary to make compromises."
That's why, as a trade-unionist, I supported the call for voting for the Social Democrats, along with some other people, including Green candidates, one of whom, Jurgen Reents, was elected to the federal parliament. In conjunction with this appeal, we pushed the following ideas: If the Social Democrats were in a position to form the next government, we demanded first that they not make any alliances with any bourgeois party and that they give no support to a bourgeois minority government.
Secondly, we demanded that they accept the support of the Greens, which would mean that the Social Democratic candidate for chancellor, Hans Vogel, agreeing to be elected with the votes of the Green members of parliament against the rightist candidate.
On this question, once again there were two positions among the Greens. Some said: "We are only going to vote for Vogel if he is ready to do something to meet our conditions." Others, and I agree with them, thought that this line led to perpetuating the illusion that the Social Democrats really could respond to such demands. There is one condition right off the bat that the Social Democrats are never going to meet - the demand to get out of NATO.
Instead, what I think is important is to mobilize people who identify with the Social Democratic Party. That is what we did with the electoral appeal I spoke of, in which we said that a new Social Democratic government should be against the deployment of the NATO nuclear missiles in West Germany, it should vote in a law enacting the 35-hour week, it should come out for women's rights, and for the state-financed tasks. That is what we demanded as trade
We know that a Social Democratic government cannot meet these demands and will not meet them. But we also know that the workers electing a Social
Democratic government would expect it to meet them. We know that we are not going to convince Vogel or Dohnanyi (the mayor of Hamburg. What is important in our view is that the workers come on their own to see who is for them and who is against them. This is the only chance to break them away from the Social
A still more important point is to form links now with those forces that are ready to strike or to come into the streets to
There is the example of steel, where it has reached the point that tens of thousands of workers have come onto the streets and the factory delegates in the Hoesch trust have demanded nationalization of the company. (3)
### STOP
NATO
The Hoesch trust workers, moreover, were not left on their own. Delegates in other factories have demanded not only nationalization but nationalization with a guarantee of maintaining jobs.
If you start from the principle, as some Greens do, that self-management can be set up immediately in the factories, then you have to ask yourself a
What would self-management mean in the steel industry, when the whole industry is in the throes of a crisis? Such a project would be condemned to failure. Moreover, if you say at the same time, as the Greens do in their program, that it is essential to decentralize the concerns, then the problem becomes insolu-
Thomas says that he is for socializing the means of production if this is on the basis of an alternative economic model. My question is what this alternative society should be. If this question is not settled from the start, then the bosses' logic will continue to prevail. In fact, this involves the question of transitional
If the working class takes up demands such as the one for nationalization of the steel industry for example, then its struggles and mobilizations will come objectively into conflict with the logic of capital and the capitalists....
[After the change in government in Bonn in the fall of 1982, a discussion took place in the left regarding a broad alliance of the Greens, the Alternative Slates, and other socialist groups. GIM came out for such an alliance, as well as the Democratic Socialists (4), a grouping around former left figures in the Social Democratic Party. mann was asked about this proposal. He replied as follows:]
Thoms Ebermann. I can't see, after all that Jakob Moneta has just another sort of policy of alliances by the
Greens, with, say, the Democratic Socialists, would make it unnecessary for him to call for a vote for the Social Democrats.
Now, the Greens are being criticized from two different standpoints. On the one hand, we made an error by not calling for a vote for the Social Democrats.
On the other, we rejected an alliance, for example, with the Democratic Socialists.
Balancing off these two arguments, I come to the following conclusion: If the GIM, perhaps along with the Democratic Socialists, had been a moving force in an electoral alliance with the Greens, then calling for a vote for the Social Democrats would have been wrong. The right thing would have been to support this electoral alliance.
Since the electoral alliance was put together without the Democratic Socialists and without the GIM, we get a very deep analysis of why, in the light of the relationship of forces among the classes and the general level of consciousness of the class, it was necessary this time to call for a vote for the Social Democrats.
This is a contradiction that shows that among you also there are narrow group interests that influence your decisions.... If I may also refer to the Marxist classics, in this case to Lenin, I would call this a "tail-endist policy."
In order to lay out a socialist or proenvironmentalist policy, can't just base yourself on the consciousness of the workers. You also have to apply the criterion of whether a group is ready to break with the bourgeois state and with the parties linked to it by bourgeois ideology.
Jakob Moneta. If an electoral alliance had been formed, that would not have meant that we would have joined the Green Party. It would have meant that we would have proposed a program on a whole series of points that would have gotten our common agreement....It is correct to say that if a program containing the seven or eight points that we have put forward as essential had been drawn up, then it would have been necessary to line up together behind it and call for the whole left to come out in support of it....
That did not happen, and so we just had to make a decision. Should we call for a vote for an organization with totally fluid positions, when there was no way of telling what would jell tomorrow out of the churning of its various currents. Or should we go to the workers and say to them, it's not wrong to vote for the Social Democrats today.
will nationalize the factories.
But if you think that, put them in power, and go through the experience yourselves.
Those were the two possible options, and we made a choice.
See "The Impact of the World Economic
Crisis on West German Unions" by Peter Bartelheimer 1n International Viewpoint, No 31,
May 30, 1983. In March 1982, there was a public discussion on forming a new party to the left of the Social 4.
Democrats at a conference attended by 1,200, including representatives the GIM. The
Democratic initiative Democratic Party such as Manfred Coppik, who of figures expelled from Socialists were formed the Social on the was fraction expelled for opposing from the Chancellor SPD parliamentary Schmidt's rent that broke with the SPD leadership to the nuclear policy. This formation drew in a cur left in recent years, a small current of union and a section of the environmentalist activists, current and the position of West German Fourth Inter- Greens' policy. conscious On of the the Democratic limitations Socialists of the
Internationa. Viewpoint, No 4, April 12, 1982. nationalists to New Socialist this Party in development, West "Germany?" see "Toward in
21
Volvo workers going to demand wage rise (DR)
that nearly everyone at Volvo is in the union.
Before the union-local elections, at the beginning of the year, there were shop leadership elections. I was elected chairman of the largest section of the truck assembly workers with 70% of the vote.
In this shop, the opposition got a majority of the section leadership, with an average vote of 60%. We also made a breakthrough in the elections for another shop leadership.
Up until then, the only leadership posts we held were in the truck assembly section. But this time the opposition managed to win two places in another shop leadership. In both other shops where we ran straight opposition candidates, we got about 35% of the vote.
But there are a number of representatives in other section leaderships that sympathize strongly with us. They may hesitate to take part in all our activities or to run under the label "Union Opposition." But they can back up the opposition in various skirmishes that occur in
Ten years of building class-struggle unionism in Sweden's biggest plant the plant and in battles in the union.
Q. What's the situation like at the other levels in the union?
A. If we take Volvo/Gothenburg as a whole, there are 600 elected union representatives. The number supporting the opposition has varied over the recent years. But we have steadily made inroads into the union apparatus.
For more than ten years, Scandinavia's biggest plant, a concentration of 12 to 13 has been the scene
Democratic union leadership and a trade-union opposition in which revolutionary socialists play a leading role.
The fight is over working conditions and the workers standard of living. It has inevitably raised the question of leadership
Volvo local of the Metallindustriarbetarfoerbund (Engineering Workers Union).
Volvo/Gothenburg is not only the biggest plant in Scandinavia.
most influential. And since Volvo carries a lot of weight in the Swedish economy, it tends to set the pace in the trade-union movement.
For more than a decade, the Social Democratic party organization at Volvo has done what it could to strike back and isolate the union opposition and the political forces that underpin it.
But the opposition has held on firmly. And in this year's elections for section and local leadership, it made some new advances.
These gains were also made in a new political situation in Swedish society. After the September 1982 elections, a Social Democratic government is at the helm. The
Social Democrats dominate both government — including a lot of municipalities - and trade-union life from top to bottom.
most of the union locals.
The gains of the trade-union opposition at Volvo in Gothenburg reflect the fact that the Social Democratic unionists are having a harder and harder time defending the severe austerity measures that the Palme government began to introduce following last