East German women 'kicked downstairs"

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uary 1992 issue of Avanti!, a journal published by the Fourth Internationalists in When they are pushed out of the labor market, such facilities are reduced. And all this the former East Germany.—the editors.

Below we have translated and slightly abridged an article that appeared in the JanIn the German Democratic Republic, as in the other "Eastern Bloc" states, about while is familiar with the mechanism. 92 percent of women were working. As in the industrialized countries of Wester Europe, their average wage was about two-thirds that of men. Unemployment benefits and pensions were calculated in line with that, and therefore low. In East Germany also, poverty is feminine.

Now, it is clear that the aim of labor-market policy is to reduce the level of female employment to the Western level, that is to about 45 percent. The companies are saying this quite unashamedly. Jobless women are not left without work to do. They can keep themselves busy with housework, at least until they have eliminated some of the previous years' burden of double work.

Then the mechanism that is well known to women in the West goes into effect.

They cannot take jobs unless there is childcare. But there is no childcare for unemployed women. Thus, the percentage of female unemployed is markedly higher than for men. (At the end of August, 9.6 percent of men were jobless, as against 14.5 per- $240) and 220 marks in the East. cent of women). In the former East Germany, 61 percent of the unemployed are women. In West Germany, it is 48 percent.

The decline of the textile industry in East Germany is putting mainly women on the street. Because of their family ties, women are not so mobile as men. They can- hand-to-mouth jobs. not become commuters just like that. For this reason, as well as the orientation of the labor market, they have less possibilities for going to West Germany.

The biographies of East German women show that it was possible while the East German state existed for them to fulfill their wish for children without being pushed entirely out of employment. Through their right to abortion, women could largely determine the number and timing of their children. The present attempt to criminalize abortion and remove their ability to space their children is of course aimed at putting women at the mercy of the labor market.

When women are needed on the labor market, certain childcare facilities are offered is accompanied by the appropriate ideology to make it clear to women that they are either good or bad nurturers. Anyone who has followed West German policy for a That women in East Germany understand the sort of situation they are in is shown, for example, by the fact that the women's congress of I.G. Metall [the largest industrial union] could not get agreement on a ban on night work. Women from East Germany fought furiously for the right to do shift work and night work, because otherwise they would be less competitive on the labor market.

The danger this involves is indicated by the reflections of the Bank, Retail and Insurance Employees' Union (HBV) over the fact that less and less employees are being covered by the contract. There is a steady increase in those who are either kicked upstairs into jobs not covered by the contract, or those who are kicked downThe latter, of course, are the majority. They are being pushed into jobs without any social protection, for which the wage in the West is 480 marks a month (about It is estimated that 4 million to 5 million people are employed in such unprotected jobs! Thus, it is urgent to support the demand of Heide Pfarr (the minister for women and social welfare in the state of Hesse) that social insurance be extended to these The small number of women in the German parliament makes it unlikely that much initiative on this question will come from there. Finance Minister Waigel has postponed until 1997 his pledge that kindergarten places will be provided for all children between the ages of three and six by 1993.

Women in East Germany are already reacting by being more reluctant to have.children. Many'are trying to be sterilized and thus solve the problem once and for all. At the same time, the activity of the women's groups is declining.

When will women finally wage a united fightback?

SOCIALIST ACTION_ MARCH 1992