[We are printing below an open letter to Erich Honecker, chairman of the State Council of the German Democratic Republic, signed by fifteen British socialists. We have taken the text from the May 11 issue of Socialist Challenge, the weekly newspaper sponsored by the International Marxist Group, British section of the Fourth International.]
On August 23, 1977, the state security forces of the German Democratic Republic arrested Rudolf Bahro on a charge of 'espionage,' and since that date no further information has been forthcoming on Rudolf Bahro's fate. We, the undersigned, wish to express our grave concern about this case and appeal to you to take immediate steps to secure Rudolf Bahro's speedy release.
What are the facts as known to us West European socialists? Rudolf Bahro's arrest followed the announcement of the publication of his book Die alternative. Zur Kritik des real existierenden Sozialismus [The Alternative-A Critique of Existing Socialism] by the Europaische Verlagsanstalt, the publishing house owned by the West German trade union federation DGB, and the publication of several interviews with Bahro by various West German news media.
Could it be that this man is an agent of the Federal Republic's intelligence service? We have never heard of 'imperialist spies' openly announcing their dissident views and writing and publishing books which they expect to result in their arrest. And the sad fact is that Rudolf Bahro could and did expect his arrest for publicising his political views, since all previous expres sions of any criticism of your party's and your government's policies have been met by immediate police action resulting in long prison sentences or the expulsion from the German Democratic Republic.
Article 20 of the Constitution of the GDR states that 'Every citizen of the German Democratic Republic has, irrespective of his nationality, race, his philosophical or religious convictions, his social origins and position, the same rights and duties. The freedom of conscience and belief are guaranteed.'
Why are Rudolf Bahro and others like Robert Havemann and Wolf Biermann then prevented from submitting their views to an open and democratic debate with the same rights as are exercised by the leaders and propagandists of your party? Rudolf Bahro, at the time of his arrest, was a member of the SED (and has been a member since 1952).
The Statutes of the SED declare that 'the organisational structure of the party is based on the principle of democratic centralism' and that 'all party organs are democratically elected from the bottom to the top' (Clause 23). But how can genuine internal party democracy function if party members have to fear arrest before they have an opportunity to submit their criticisms to other party members, if they are jailed, expelled from the party, deprived of their livelihoods or expelled from the GDR for the only 'crime' of holding critical views?
We believe that, far from 'defending socialism, such repressive measures only serve to discredit and therefore weaken it, in both East and West. Socialism is not only the nationalisation of the means of production and a centrally planned economy, it is also a higher form of political freedom than the political freedom even the most liberal bourgeois democracy can offer its working masses.
Unless socialism can be seen to mean the broadest working class democracy, with the freedom of political expression, debate and organisation at all levels of society, including within the socialist and communist parties, the Western working classes will continue to prefer bourgeois democracy as the devil it does know to socialism, the devil it does not know, and dissidents in Eastern Europe will continue to be forced to look to phoney defenders of human rights such as President Carter in
The National Socialist Party of America, a Hitlerite group based in Chicago, has called off its previously announced plans to march June 25 in the largely Jewish town of Skokie, Illinois.
The Nazis' decision to retreat came in the wake of massive support for a counterdemonstration called by a coalition of Chicago-area Jewish groups on the same day and site as the planned Nazi march.
In the weeks leading up to the Nazis' retreat, announced June 22, support for the action had come from District 31 of the United Steelworkers of America, the Chicago Federation of Teachers, Lodge 214 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, the civil-rights group Operation PUSH, the Metropolitan Black Caucus, the Socialist Workers Party, and many other organizations.
At the same press conference where he announced cancellation of the Skokie march, Nazi fuehrer Frank Collin reported plans to march July 9 in the Marquette Park area of Chicago.
Because this all-white neighborhood has been the scene of large racist mobilizations in the past, the Nazis-who have had a headquarters in the area for years— consider it friendlier ground than Skokie.
their despair over the absence of meaningful socialist democracy in their countries.
As is clear from the printed evidence, Rudolf Bahro wrote his book as a communist militant committed to genuine socialist democracy. We may not all agree with every aspect of Bahro's views, but we agree that every citizen of the German Democratic Republic should have the right to form his or her own opinion and discuss it freely and openly with the author's participation in such a public debate.
We therefore demand the immediate release of Rudolf Bahro from prison, the publication of his book in the GDR, and a public discussion of his views in the mass organisations, the political parties and the media of your country.
Robin Blackburn Ken Coates Tamara Deutscher Ferenc Feher Trevor Griffiths Quinton Hoare Agnes Heller Tom Litterick, MP Denis Macshane [President National Union of
Journalists]
Ralph Miliband Stan Newens, MP Tom Nairn Bruce Page, Editor New Statesman E. P. Thompson Raymond Williams
Collin said he would prefer to march "among white people" there, rather than face "a mob of howling creatures" in Skokie.
However, a Chicago civil-rights coalition including the Jewish Council on Urban Affairs, NAACP, Operation PUSH, and other groups has called for a counterdemonstration July 9, and if enough support can be built the Skokie victory may be repeated.
Marquette Park has long been a battleground in the fight for Black rights in Chicago. Open-housing marches, led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., were viciously attacked when they entered the area.
When the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Movement tried to demonstrate in Marquette Park in 1976 to revive that struggle, they faced organized racist violence in which the Nazis participated.
A massive, united demonstration by Black, Jewish, Chicano, and Puerto Rican groups, and by the trade-union movement, would thus not only give a fitting answer to the Nazi hate propaganda. It would also be a blow against the racist opponents of school desegregation and housing desegregation in Chicago.
On the legal front, the Chicago Parks
Department announced June 26 that it will appeal a federal court decision allowing the Nazis to march in Marquette Park. The court decision, handed down June 20, struck down a requirement that a $60,000 insurance policy be posted before any demonstration could be held in a park. The Park District is seeking a stay of all demonstrations-including the planned antiracist, anti-Nazi counterdemonstration-until its appeal is decided.
Meanwhile, a June 24 picket line by twenty Nazis from around the country, held in downtown Chicago, drew 1,500 counterdemonstrators. Various left-wing groups, the right-wing Jewish Defense League, and a number of anti-Nazi activists who had come to demonstrate in Skokie participated.
More than 900 Chicago cops were mobilized. They sneaked the Nazis into the federal plaza, and surrounded them in a ring of cops six-deep. Thirteen of the anti- Nazi protesters were arrested.
One anti-Nazi demonstrator, Rich Kaufman, commented: "I've been involved in civil rights demonstrations and peace demonstrations. The police never gave us the protection they're giving these lunatics. When I marched with Martin Luther King in Marquette Park in 1967, the crowd was throwing bottles and rocks at us and there were no police."
On June 25, a rally against Nazism called by the Jewish Community Relations Council drew about 1,000 protesters in New York City. Numerous capitalist political figures in the state, including Governor Hugh Carey, showed up to speak.
The rally was endorsed by major reliorious organizations in the New Vork area gious organizations in the New York area, the Hellenic-American Neighborhood Associations, the Irish Societies, and 100 Black Men, an organization of Black civic leaders.
Many speakers, including Carey, demanded a government ban on pro-Nazi demonstrations. The capitalist politicians and Zionist leaders who spoke also affirmed their commitment to Israel and sought to equate anti-Zionism with anti- Semitism.
Dr. Mohammed Mehdi of the Action Committee on Arab-American Relations came to the rally to express his opposition to anti-Semitism and his solidarity with the anti-Nazi struggle. But because Mehdi is an Arab and a supporter of the rights of the Palestinian people, he was attacked by a gang of Zionist thugs. Police finally rescued Mehdi.
Socialist Workers Party members at the rally carried a banner saying, "Stop Racist Terror-from Crown Heights to Skokie" and petitioned against the racist police murder of Black Crown Heights community leader Arthur Miller. This sparked sharp debates with others at the rally who denied any connection between anti-Black racism in New York City and Nazi anti- Semitism.