Europe's most powerful working class begins to stir

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By GERRY FOLEY* The warning strikes of German public workers at the end of April and beginning of May mark the fading of the interlude of capitalist glory that followed the reunification of the country and the dismantling of the collectivized economy in East Germany.

One of the pillars of world capitalism has begun to look shaky, sending tremors through the world's big business press.

In the first place, the determination of the workers showed a buildup of explosive potential. For example, in the second week of the strikes, an illustrated magazine staged a stunt, sending actors dressed as soldiers to try to requisition the trucks of garbage collection workers, in the name of a governmental declaration of emergency. The workers, who did not know that they were not facing a unit of real soldiers, refused to obey their orders. They tore up the emergency order and blocked the way.

What is more, when the well-heeled and well-ensconced German trade-union bureaucracy tried to settle the conflict behind the backs of the workers, surrendering their fundamental demands, they were dealt a resounding rebuff. Since the workers, however, had no alternative leadership, the strikes ended; but the climate of social partnership and conservative consensus was deeply shaken.

The leading German magazine, Der Spiegel.. . wrote that the conflict had led to a defeat both for the trade-union leaderships and the bourgeois Kohl government. "The politicians and the unions have lost touch with feelings in broad sections of their voters and members."

The public workers union, the ÖTV, (which includes transport workers) voted 55.9 percent against the agreement. Der Spiegel commented: "The ÖTV tops were dumbfounded by the vote. Such a sharp rebuff of the president is unprecedented in the history of the organization."

Uniting public workers from transport to garbage collection, the ÖTV and its allies wielded enormous potential power. Some 2.5 million workers joined in the struggle. This was the first major strike action by the ÖTV since 1974, when it forced Willy Brandt to resign from the chancellorship.

Inflation, reunification, takebacks What provoked this breakdown of "social peace" was the decline in real wages accelerated by the "costs of reunification," that is, the subsidizing of capitalist restoration in East Germany. Instead of investing in the East, the West ...Azerbaijan (continued from previous page)

the Lezgian areas from Azerbaijan.

Thus, a democratic goverment of Azerbaijan will have to face not only the problem of the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh, but other national problems. The Armenian government and the Armenian leaders in the enclave, by the way, no longer call for unification between Nagoro-Karabakh and Armenia, but only for self-government for Nagorno-Karabakh and the right of the Armenian majority there to maintain their national character.

With the opening up of a free political process in Azerbaijan, there is at least a chance that the various national conflicts can be solved or mitigated by negotiations. If that happens, another prop will be knocked out from under the Stalinist bureaucracy.

In Tadzhikistan also, German capitalists have been deindustrializing it. At the same time, they want to expand their sales in the area.

The contradiction between destroying people's livelihoods and selling products to them has so far been covered up by enormous subsidies financed by public borrowing. One notable result of this is a big increase in inflation, which is now almost 5 percent, and is eating away at Der Spiegel cartoon shows OTV taken out from under her as the ranks real wages. Another is increases in taxes and other state charges that are expected to take about 2 percent of wages.

The government is also talking about shifting payment for health care to individuals, when for generations the country has enjoyed relatively generous socialized medicine.

Facing this death of a hundred cuts, the powerful public workers' union demanded a raise of 9.5 percent to try to recoup their members' losses.

The government and the municipalities on the other hand wanted to slice real wages still more. After months of negotiations, the authorities offered only 3.5 percent. The conflict was then referred to arbitration. The unions were awarded 5.4 percent. But the government set a ceiling of 4.8 percent. The conflict became a confrontation.

Nonetheless, the union leaders' attitude remained markedly defensive. They failed to prepare the public and the ranks politically for a strike. The president of ÖTV, Monika Wulf-Mathies, even warned against a politicalization of the strike.

to the one in Afghanistan seems to have begun. In February, the national-democratic forces began an occupation of the Shakhidon square to protest against arrests of opposition leaders. Finally, the goverment of President Nabiev, the local counterpart of the Azeri Mutalibov, gave way. But a couple of days after the agreement, the neo-Stalinists occupied Ozodi square to protest such concessions, in particular the resignation of the premier, Safarali Kendzhaev.

On the same day, Nabiev appointed Kendzhaev head of the State Security Committee. That was not enough for the neo-Stalinists, but it was too much for the opposition, which resumed its demonstrations. Thus, in early May opposing groups were conducting ongoing demonstrations in two different squares.

The opposition demonstrators in Shakhidon square were protected by a self-defense force of youths wearing white headbands with the slogan "Freedom or Death." In the leading Dutch magazine This is despite the fact that public opinion was favorable to the union cause, even though public workers' strikes mean immediate hardships for the population at large.

Some 60 percent of those questioned in polls expressed "understanding for the strike." Furthermore, the ÖTV's coffers were filled with 600 million marks (about $400 million), and it thus was in a good - an :220 head Monika Wulf-Mathies having the rejected 5.4 percent wage agreement.

position for a determined struggle.

However, the unions did not declare a open-ended strike. The postal and railway unions staged walkouts of a few thousand workers. The OTV of over a hundred thousand, but only for a short time. Business was disrupted but not stopped. It seemed that the union leaderships hoped that the authorities would still see the light, even though belatedly.

On the average, 150 thousand workers were on strike every day in the first week of the strike. In the second week, the number jumped, as garbage collection and transport were partially or entirely shut down. The daily average of strikers rose to 300,000 and finally reached 400,000.

There were other hopeful signs. Despite the low level of unionization of hospital workers, about 10 to 20 percent of the hospitals were shut down. A lot of unorganized workers joined in the actions.

Where there were more consistent union leaderships, as in Hamburg, demonstrations were organized that were almost as big as the Labor Day marches on May 1, but much livelier. The giant metal workers Elsevier of May 16, Margreet Strubosch wrote that the self-defense forces were unarmed but their commander had warned that "when the time comes, the weapons can be found."

Armed clashes were being reported in early May between opposition forces and armed neo-Stalinist units, such as the Presidential Guard, which is supposed to be dissolved.

Settlement fuels demoralization But then, as the strikes seemed to be spreading, suddenly the ÖTV leadership settled on May 7 for the arbitrators' award of 5.4 percent. They failed even to try to explain the compromise to the ranks. "The strikers heard only the next day that the struggle was over," Der Spiegel reported in its May 18 issue. "Many were called during the night by their supervisors and told to came in on the early shift." The ÖTV president recognized that as a result "a lot of the workers felt demoralized."

Given the rate of inflation and increases in taxes and other payments to the state, the settlement means a further decrease in real wages. (That did not keep the union leadership from hailing it as a "political victory" because it exceeded the government's ceiling.)

Nonetheless, the bosses were not satisfied with holding the line. Employers' Association chair Murrman announced that contracts in industry "will and must fall below this level." That means that the bosses are determined to force major declines in real wages.

Going into a new phase of struggle, the German unions have suffered an initial tactical defeat as a result of the capitulation of their leaderships. Nonetheless, the strikes showed an important shift in the attitudes of the union members and the population.

This was the first wave of strikes since 1984. More than a half million workers actively took part, and gained a sense of their own strength and feeling of solidarity. The ranks saw the strikes in a very political light. According to the polls, more than 60 percent of the population viewed this conflict as the beginning of the end of the Kohl government.

Taking together all the unions involved in the strikes, close to two-thirds of the membership voted against the settlement. There were majorities for it only among postal workers and the police.

The class-struggle activists in the unions played no special role in this conflict, having been left scattered and unprepared by the long quiescence since 1984. Nonetheless, they renewed their ties during this struggle. The conditions now exist for strengthening the class-struggle nuclei in the unions.

An important issue in the reviving workers' movement will be democratization of the unions and an analysis of the weakness of this strike wave. Why should the unions go into conflicts one after the other and not together? And, moreover, why should union members have to pay the costs of strikes. The Polish Solidarnosc, for example, a decade ago won the principle that strikedays should be paid for by the enterprises.

* Most of the facts and assessments for this article have been taken from a more detailed piece written for the German Fourth Internationalist press by Axel Sienknecht and Hans-Jürgen Schultz.

anyone could think the Tadzhik opposition wanted an Iran-style Islamic republic. She summarized: "Rebirth is against any form of totalitarianism. What is happening...is simply a revolution." International