The mounting cost of employ more than 80% of the active pop ulation of the GDR, that is 6 million employees. The economy that was previously managed by tens of thousands of
German unification
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 politi-
- before the cians warned us 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 bourgeois parties
1n puppet
March, in the hope of a rapid improvement in their living standards, think again.
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 infrastruc-
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!
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
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 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