DUSSELDORF TRADE-UNION CONGRESS
The special DGB [Trade Union Council] congress held in Dtisseldorf November 21 and 22 adopted a new "program of principles." .This constitu-— tion, like the Godesburg program of the SPD [Social Democratic party of Germany] consists of high=sounding phrases having no basis~in any serious analysis of the situation in either Germany or the.world as a whole, It is much less interesting than the discussion which led up to its adoption,
At Munich in 1949 the DGB laid down some general principles that envisaged socialization of the key industries, The SPD dropped much of this "out of date" socialist stuff in order to "modernize" itself, meaning adapting to the petty-bourgeois current that might be led to vote social- ‘ist. The SPD "new Look" was fostered a good deal by the unprecedented and almost uninterrupted prosperity of Germany during the past fourteen years. The DGB leadership, too, wanted to follow the course of the SPD, The main figure in the fedération of sixteen unions favoring this was Georg Leber, boss of the building laborers, ;
Leber made his first big move a year ago Octcber at the Hannover DGB congress when he advocated adoption of a resolution agreeing to “emergency laws" to be adopted by parliament that would grant unusual powers to the government in case of any "emergency" inside or outside Germany. _. IG Metall [the metal workers union], almost 2,000,000 strong (the DGB has some 6,500,000 members altogether), maintained, however, that existing legislation gave sufficient power to the government to cope with any emergency, Leber was beaten by a two to one vote,
Since the Hannover congress several, scandals have shaken German public opinion, Strauss, the minister of defense, an ardent follower of the —
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Dulles! cold-war line, had to resign because he ordered the arrest of mem« bers of the editorial staff of Spiegel, a liberal German weekly, under accusation of high treason. This involved publication of a report about | military maneuvers in Germany which proved the superiority of Soviet armed forces, ,
In. ordering the. arrest of Spiegel's editorial staff, Strauss was "somewhat" illegal. His real concern was that Spiegel possessed proofs that he was not too clear on the dividing line between his personal accounts and the government defense budget,
Another scandal involved Hécherl, Minister of Interior and a friend of Strauss. He came under public fire because he agreed to secret censor= _ ship by Occupation authorities of all mail sent to Cuba from Germany. It turned out that Hécherl!s own administration, charged with the "protection of the constitution," had not refrained from tapping telephones and open-. ing private correspondence.
All this had made a deep impression on the delegates at the DGB consress in Dtisseldorf., They realized that IG Metall was quite right in contending that the government had sufficient legal powers and didn't require any more, Therefore, at Dtisseldorf, a new paragraph was introduced in the new "constitution" of DGB, stating explicit opposition to any new emergency laws or regulations. Out. of 425 delegates, only about-20 were opposed!
In another vote, following a somewhat scholastic discussion about the meaning of a paragraph characterizing exploitation under the capitalist system which was formulated so that it could be interpreted as covering only the past, or as covering both the past and the present, Georg Leber was beaten by 425 to 40. -
‘Leber contended that there's no such thing as "proletarians." The unions, he argued, have won so many improvements in the past one hundred years that it is-a fallacy to. continue such outdated language. — oe
Unfortunately the discussion did not probe very deeply and the congress decided in a rather formal way to approve a dubious compromise worked out by the rules committee which offered a variable interpretation. The personal defeat of Leber, however, had a profound political meaning.
The DGB congress at Dtisseldorf registered a victory for the workers in the metel, chemical and printing trades unions. They were joined by others. who Pelt more by instinct than by any clear explanation that the "new style" proposed by Leber in relations with the employers does not lead to results which can be defended face’ to face with the rank and file.
No doubt the strike end particularly the lockout of 350, 000 metal workers last May in Baden-Wurttemberg must have impressed some union bosses who otherwise would have probably followed the "new style" of class collaboration in which: the unions play the role of permanent fire brigades. :
It is, however, too early to conclude that the Dtisseldorf congress of the DGB isa vietory for the "left," That will depend very much on the development of the German economy, on the necessity to fight when the
employers. can no longer offer yearly "wage gifts." It will depend, too, . on how much pressure the left and the right wings of the DGB exert in order to shift the trend in either direction,
MANNHEIM WORKERS DEMONSTRATE AGAINST HIGH COST OF