annexation
of East
Germany
THE FOLLOWING document, issued on March 5, 1990, gives the position of the United Socialist Party (VSP) on recent events in East Germany. The VSP is the product of a fusion between the German Fourth Internationalists (GIM) and the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) in October 1986. DOCUMENT 1. THE VSP does not believe in the possibility of a political revolution in the GDR in the short or medium term in the sense of a conquest of power by the working class. Nor does it believe in the likelihood of a prolonged period of confederation on a basis of equality between the GDR and the FRG which would in some way offer the time needed to change the balance of forces and reopen a revolutionary perspective in the GDR.
After the March 18 elections, the VSP expects to see the start of a period in which the chief measures needed for the FRG to absorb the GDR will be taken. The length of this period may vary, depending on the obstacles the project meets. However the mass flight and the imperialist pressure have created serious disorder in the GDR's economy which has, in its turn, reinforced the flight. The absence of a mass movement in the FRG increases the pressure for unification. Some are expecting an end to the exodus to the West while others await a perceptible improvement in their material situation. The tendency towards unification on a capitalist basis has become irreversible.
The federal system that is to be introduced into the GDR after the elections will also be a big help to the West German imperialist bourgeoisie to smoothly carry through the assimilation. It will allow the Länder to accept a whole series of laws
now in force in the FRG. This applies to the education system, to some aspects of social security, tax law, housing prices, property forms, electoral laws and rights such as that of referendum. The only thing that must be guaranteed is that in the case of a conflict between the Länder and federal legislation, it is the latter that decides. 2. THE "reunification" underway is not a unification on the basis of equality social systems that are incompatible. What is involved is the pure and simple annexation of the GDR, that is 1o say the seizure of social and political power by the bourgeoisie, implying the dismantling of the main social and politiconquests of the previous non-capitalist regime and the November revolution. This will remain true whether it is an outright bourgeois force or the social democracy that carries it through. On the political level, the bourgeois parties hope for a straightforward extension of the fedcral constitution to the GDR social democracy is proposing a new constitution on the model of the FRG's. The difference is however important from the point of view of allowing the masses 10 put forward their own propositions and, eventually, also democratize the federal constitution on certain points. But this docs not change the fact that in the two cases, the GDR will be assimilated into the capitalist system.
In the absence of a credible socialist perspective in the FRG at present, the only possibility for safeguarding the gains of the working class and women in the GDR lies in defending the East German state as a sovereign and independent entily in every respect. This is why the VSP is firmly opposed to the so-called "reunifica-
100 Miles
North Sea
It may be said that we are putting forward a perspective that will become redundant very quickly. This is And, naturally, it will then cease to have any meaning even if reunification has not yet been formally carried through. But we are not there yet. The GDR still exists as a sovereign state and, insofar as people in the GDR go on fighting for a non-capitalist socicty, for an alternative to the FRG, we do not have the right to say that their efforts are uscless. 3. IN the GDR the assimilation project will have devastating consequences for some layers of the wage owners and will meet ferocious resistance. At the same time there is within the working class a great readiness to make sacrifices in order to improve the standard of consumption. In the FRG on the other hand between its Eastern and Western situations creates enormous social pressure. In the West a large part of the class is afraid that it will pay for the unification From now on the employers will be demanding a "national sacrifice for the
We consider vital the establishment of a united front between workers, women, young people and the social movements in the GDR and the FRG to lead a common struggle. This is our way of fighting 4. IN the current relationship of forces, the workers have no possibility of saying "we want unification, but not expense." Furthermore those in the East will be easily blackmailed: if the social mobilization continues there will be no capital and the cconomy will collapse. To resist non-capitalist
EAST GERMANY
For the same reasons we do not think that a basis exists for a slogan such as "for a socialist reunification of Germany"
The social and the "national" are indissolubly linked in this situation, with the "national" question being systematically used by imperialism to create a national consensus that it needs to get the "sacrifices" that it requires. Confronted by the enormous effort implied for imperialism by the unification project, it has to reinneeds a climate where "there are no parties, only Germans". This will go along with the reinforcement of regressive and discriminatory legislation against immigrants, against the right of exile, against democratic rights of non-Germans and with xenophobic and racist acts. 5. AT its special congress, the VSP 100k the following decisions:
a) The VSP is decisively opposed to the campaign for reunification forms, as it has been undertaken by the goverment, the expellees associations, the bosses and the extreme right and fasorganizations. expressed this opposition without ambiguily through articles and the gencral line of its paper, Sozialistische Zeitung b) Beyond this clear anti-revanchist position, the VSP has had no debate on the national question in the framework of the socialist revolution in the FRO. Such positions have their place in the political debate and in the VSP. They cannot be denounced as revanchist.
c) Independently of this discussion that has still to be had, the VSP is of the opinion that it is not possible to raise the question of reunification in a progressive fashion in today's conditions.
At the same time the VSP is discussing an initiative for a referendum on unification. We want to be able to say "no" to the anschluss of the GDR and reinforce the desire of the masses to decide their fate for themselves. We demand a real right to self-determination, including for the five million immigrants who live in
Hamburg
Bremen
LANDS
WEST
EAST Cottbus
• Essen
• Dusseldorf
• Cologne
*
BELGILI
BONN
Frankfurt
GERMANY
FRANCE
Stuttgart
Munich
SWITZERLAND alternative. But the same caused people to leave massively for reunification, will Icad them to (PDS), the [West] Ger-
Communist Party and other reformist currents who do not clearly oppose unification, but only its costs, can only contribute to weakening a strong position against annexation of the
Germany and have no voice.
In the same way, we support the existing initiatives West German army, following the Swiss example. There is a real mass sentiment in favour of seizing the opportunity to establish a new order in Europe that is not national states, chauvinism and racism. In this respect, the VSP proposes to the United Sccretariat of the Fourth International a common initiative for the abolition of the army in every European country, in the perspective of a demilitarized Europe and for a European anti-militarist conference that could lead to an intemational demonstration.
We are working for interational solion reflexes of self-defence against the 9 darity across frontiers, basing ourselves capitalist offensive. * April 9, 1990 • #182 International Viewpoint
CZECHOSLOVAKIA