The high-tide of the right
ON OCTOBER 5, when the German
Democratic
Republic celebrated its fortieth anniversary, more than 100,000 enthusiastic youth paraded before the party leadership and Gorbachev. The regime seemed to be unshakeable.
EAST GERMANY ship fees. Within weeks they had to organize a campaign. This could only end in defeat.
To make it worse the democrat-
Sic movement split. The majority (New Forum, Democracy Now and others) changed their line and came out for the reunification of Germany. Under these conditions the United Left (VL) was opposed 10 a common slate. The Greens also supported reunification, but the VL now wanted to form an alliance with them. The Greens, under pressure from the West German realos ["realistic" Greens] refused. Under these conditions, the representatives of the independent women's league (Unabhängiger Frauenverband), politically more in sympathy with the left, made their realistic compromise with the greens and the VL was completely isolated. There was effectively no time for the rank and file to discuss the clection platforms. With the partial exception of the greens, these
Five months later, in the March 18 elections, there was no party left that dared to defend that system. But there can be no triumphal feeling about the end of Stalinism. The result was a devastating defeat for the workers movement - nearly 80% of
East Germans voted for capitalist restoration, 99.7% for
German reunification (many, of course, with reservations), and there is no revolutionary current. As writer Stefan Heym commented, "nothing will be left [of the GDR] except a footnote in world history".
HANS-JURGEN SCHULZ
AST NOVEMBER, when the
L liberated democratic masses themselves, polls revealed that three quarters of the population favoured a reformed Socialist system. But this was before they realized the bankruptsystem which had of a Stalinist cy exhausted its possibilities. The standard of living in the GDR was at best two thirds of that in West Germany, the productivity of labour less than 50%. Working hours were more than 20% higher, working conditions worse, and the environment more polluted. Workers had less frecdom and less income than their West
German equivalents.
Under these circumstances the three million unemployed in the West, on or below the poverty line, preferred to stay at home and did not emigrate to a country with full employment and social security. In the end nobody saw advantages worth defending. Nobody saw a realistic alternative to capitalism and nobody propagated it. Socialist convictions have not been cradicated, but there was no theory or consistent program. Thus there was no alternative.
After the opening of the Wall the state apparatus and the Stalinist SED soon disintegrated. The SED lost nearly three quarters of its membership (2.3 million) and was quickly reorganized as a reformist Socialist party. During the campaign it was ncarly paralyzed and only small caucuses could be activated. But the new leadership managed to consolidate the party and in the last phase could even recruil young members.
The former satellite parties of the SED (CDU, DBD, NDPD, Liberals), inspired by the Bonn government, demanded in February that the goverment should bring the clection date forward from June 6 to March 18. This surprised all the opposition groups. In reality they had no real organization, no trusted and experienced Icadership, no claborated program, few active members (some hundreds in cach group, perhaps a thousand in New Forum) and no money. With the exception of the SED/PDS and possibly the old parties there had been no formal election of leaderships or payment of membergroups had no paper for leaflets or placards (only in the last fow weeks did they receive some materials financed by left groups in the West). They managed only very late in the day to organize a few mectings and their TV spots were amateurish. Backed by no movement, divided, without effective organization and means, the leaders of the former anti-Stalinist opposition and spokespersons of the October days had no chance.
The political vacuum was filled by the West German parties. The social democrats recruited a few hundred members who were laught the program in crash courses and then appointed as formal leaders. Strategy and platform was in realily worked out in Bonn and the organization built up by Western specialists.
The Christian Democrats and Liberals could only take over some weak right wing split offs from the democratic movement. So without any scruples they recruited the satellite parties of the Stalinist SED - the CDU and the LDP. One of the leaders of the conservative alliance, Ebeling, openly confirmed that "without the assistance of the Wester parties we could not organize an election campaign"
The SPD, the Liberals, and the partics of the conservative alliance are in reality satellite parties. Everything was done for them. The program was formulated (only a few of the 300 delegates of the DSU knew what was in it, but the convention unanimously voted for it), the campaign planned and organized, the Icaflets and placards made in the West and distributed by Wester Icams. Prominent figures spoke with great success at mass rallies of hundreds of thousands. At least one million people alone heard Chancellor Kohl, hundreds of thousands listened to others like Brandt or Genscher. At least 50 milApril 9, 1990 • #182 International Viewpoint
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7
EAST GERMANY lion marks were invested directly in this campaign, and all the mass media were utilized.
There could be no debate and no discussion. The electorate got the impression that with a speedy unification they would reach the Western standard of living within a few months and they wished to believe it. Nothing was said about future unemployment, the impossibility of immediately raising the standard of living to the Western level, nothing at all about the ownership of the factories or the fate of those employed in the apparatus of the state and organizations.
Formally it was a free election - free mass media for all, no quotas for small parties. But in reality the new organizations had no chance and there was no alternative.
All the polls indicated a great victory for the social democrats. It seemed that they could guarantee both capitalist efficiency and social security. But nearly every second voter was undecided. In the last two weeks they made their choice — a majority for the Conservatives and a minority for the PDS.
Christian Democrats get highest score
More than 93% voted; nearly half of them for the Conservative Alliance, mainly for the Christian Democrats (40.9%). The DSU, an offspring of the Bavarian wing of the Christian Democrats, got 6.3% and DA, the party of secret service informer Wolfgang Schnur, only 0.9%. This was a success for Wester assistance combined with a strong and experienced tradition of organization, even if they were discredited as fellow
Proof of the importance of the assis: tance are the organizationally farmers (DBD) and national (NDPD) partics, both two former satellite organizations of the SED. They had only a limited resonance (sce box). Both are bourgeois parties and could as partners in government give the Conservatives a majority in parliament (the Volkskammer, with 400 seats). A stronger ally would be the Lib-
It was decisive that the Conservatives won the majority in the villages (56%) and among the workers (58%, against 47% of the white-collar workers, 43% of pensioners and 32% of the intelligentsia). Their strongholds are the old proletarian regions of Saxony and Thuringia with 60% and more of the votc. In Berlin they received a meagre 21% and in the northem districts usually less than 40%. None of this means that the Conservatives will organize the workers. But in the former "workers' state" the workers voted Conservative in their great majority.
The Social Democrats are handicapped 8 ba their weak organization. The party was founded five months ago. Two thirds International Viewpoint #182 • April 9, 1990 of its members have joined in the last six weeks and most are not active. It has no real organization in the countryside and only a weak one in the south. In the district of Dresden, a former traditional stronghold, their vote fell under 10%.
The PDS's achievement in nearly two million votes came as a surprise. The new leadership around Gysi and the acting premier Modrow by far the most popular politician in the coun try) consolidated the demoralized party, which six weeks ago was expected to get only 5-7%. It received every tenth worker's vote (mainly amongst the labour aristocracy), and nearly a third of the intelligentsia voted for it. Their stronghold is the old apparatus. But their adherence is greater. In the last phase of the campaign it could mobilize tens of thousands for meetings in the northem dis-
Radical democratic movements isolated
Under these conditions the radical democratic and social reduced to small minorities. The greens, allied with the relatively strong and very lively women's movement, hoped to get half a million votes. Bundnis 90 (Alliance 90), with the New Forum (which had 300,000 members three months ago) and others hoped for much more. They hoped that the independent parties of the GDR could get a third of the votes — necessary for blocking a change of the constitution. But only 5% of the population voted for the pioneers of the uprising. The mass organizations linked to the PDS (a youth and a women's list) were also unsuccessful, receiving 52,000 votes and two seats.
Also there is no real revolutionary current. The United Left had hoped for at least 10 seats and got one. Four other revolutionary or centrist groups collected 16,000 votes, amongst them two organizations which specialize in discrediting
- the Spartacist League (2,400) and the ex-Healy BSA, posing as the "German section of the Fourth International" (374).
The situation in Germany has changed completely. A disorientated class has voted for capitalist restoration. A dependent Conservative goverment Will reorganize a currently non-capitalist society for anschluss. That will last some
In the mcantime they mass unemployment, reduction of social security, abolition of both the newly won democratic rights and the improvements in women's rights which took place under the old system. In the coming defensive struggles there is a chance to form a new revolutionary current. But if there is no left alternative, the disorientated and disorganized masses can turn to the right and there will be a dangerous nationalist
Against the