[The following article appeared in the February 24 issue of Rouge, weekly newspaper of the Revolutionary Communist League (LCR), French section of the Fourth International. The translation is by Intercontinental Press.]
The winners of the Second World War - U.S. imperialism and the Soviet bureaucracy - planted a time bomb in the heart of Europe: the division of Germany. For a long time this bomb lay forgotten. Recently we have begun to hear it tick again, although still only faintly.
With all due respect to the song and dance artists, there is only one single German nation, even though two German states exist. In earlier times even the existence of a dozen states could not prevent this nation from existing and from becoming conscious of itself.
The formula "two German nations" is as absurd as Stalin's famous discovery of "two world markets." When several states tear up a single nation, the resulting contradiction is fraught with the danger that a conflagration will sooner or later erupt.
The division of Germany into two states froze the relationship of forces that existed in Europe at the end of the Second World War, and more specifically at the beginning of the cold war. It tidied things up for all the powers.
The Soviet bureaucracy got the protection of a valuable military and industrial area in the German Democratic Republic. U.S. imperialism was able to integrate West Germany's potential economic power into its economy and its international military alliances. The other European imperialisms — especially French imperialism - saw a traditional and formidable adversary weakened and turned into a durable ally.
As regards the German bourgeoisie, which was crushed by its defeat and trembling in fear of the Soviet Union, it could tell itself that at least the basic thing - private property - had been saved. Pursuing its industrial expansion, but this time basically through peaceful commercial and financial means, the bourgeoisie could further believe that in contrast to 1914 and 1939, this time it would be in the camp of the "potential winners."
Fundamentally, it was the German working class and the European workers movement that paid the price of this division of Germany. For the immense majority of the workers, the German Federal Republic and the German Democratic Republic are mutual foils, condemning the working class to forsake major political initiatives.
The East German working class hates the bureaucratic dictatorship. But it instinctively distrusts the regime of the Adenauers, the Kiesingers, the Helmut Kohls, which are synonymous with social inequality and the threat of unemployment and speedup.
The West German working class is increasingly turning away from this same regime. But it has no desire to trade it for the regime of Stalin, Ulbricht, or Honecker.
Under these conditions, the German workers remain basically outside the political arena. This weakens the likelihood of the socialist revolution in Europe and the likelihood of seeing the emergence of the Socialist United States of Europe since the German proletariat remains as much as ever the principal segment of this continent's working class.
Dangers of collective suicide
Today, however, the capitalist crisis, and especially the missiles crisis, seems to be slowly thawing the German national question, which has lain dormant for 35 years. Broad masses of people in West Germany are feeling a muffled nervousness. They are conscious of the fact that a world nuclear war threatens to destroy their country - and them - in the first hours of the conflict. The instinct for selfpreservation pushes them to reexamine West Germany's place in the international imperialist alliance, an arrangement that the great majority had accepted for a long time.
In no way has their repugnance toward the bureaucratic East German dictatorship diminished. But they are asking themselves whether the advantages of capitalist property, advantages that are slowly being undermined by the crisis, are worth "defending" even at the obvious risk of collective suicide.
The German working masses are not yet ready to fight right now for a reunified socialist Germany. But they are increasingly taking a path that leads to a Germany that is separated from the imperialist alliance, that is neutralist and disarms unilaterally.
Since they are fully conscious of the international context in which this shift in opinion is taking place, they sympathize with an analogous, deep-seated movement taking shape among the youth in East Germany. Out of this flows the renewal of hope for a reunified Germany with neutralization as its price. This is a proposal that the Soviet bureaucracy put forward on several occasions since Stalin's death.
'French' bombs versus 'European' bombs
The initial signs of this reawakening worry the international bourgeoisie, and especially the French bourgeoisie. Not only would the international imperialist alliance be significantly weakened by such a realignment, but the specter of the socialist revolution and the socialist reunification of all of Europe would take on new relevance.
[Jacques] Chirac and Company are ready to play with fire to counter this risk. Dramatically overturning one of the classical tenets of Gaullism, they are ready to offer the West German bourgeoisie the alternative solution of a European nuclear army, whose first priority would be the "defense" of "German territory." This would entail substituting a "European" (above all a Franco-German) bomb for the "French bomb."
In this way the German bourgeoisie could turn the renewal of the German national consciousness to its own profit (and to the profit of its own war preparations, which would be quite as deadly as those of U.S. imperialism).
For its part, the international workers movement must be conscious of the historic perils embodied in this adventure. Its interests lie totally in the opposite direction. When there is a revival of German national sentiment, which is inevitable in the long run, it is imperative that through a return to the pre-1848 situation this sentiment should be favorable to the revolution, that this time it should be integrated into the struggle for socialism.
This means: understanding and explaining that the only way German unification can be achieved without a suicidal war is if it takes place on the combined basis of a victorious socialist revolution in West Germany and a victorious political revolution in East Germany.
But it also means: understanding that the revival of national consciousness among the German working masses, as well as their pacifism, can be transformed into a powerful motor force of anticapitalist and antibureaucratic movements. But that can happen only if these views are not removed from the context of the workers movement and the profoundly democratic social movements that are their allies. It can happen only if they are in no way taken over by bourgeois political forces.
That is why the initiative of the Landau soldiers calling for the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of occupation troops from Germany is highly positive.* It contributes to the objective of bringing the powerful potential of the German proletariat into play in the common struggle for the Socialist United States of Europe. Only in these Socialist United States of Europe can the German nation regain its definitive socialist reunification through peaceful means.
Notes
*In October 1983, three draftees in the French army stationed in West Germany were indicted for "inciting troops to commit acts contrary to discipline and duty and violation of orders" for having signed a petition calling for the withdrawal of foreign troops from West and East Germany. In all, some 500 French soldiers in West Germany had signed the petition, but only the three, all members of the Revolutionary Communist League (LCR), were brought up on charges.
A trial of two of the three took place February 23 at a French military tribunal in Landau, West Germany. They received one-year suspended sentences.