automatic cost of living against price rises, the struggle to defend the welfare state damental bedrock any perspective in Western Europe.
Second'v the West curonean working class must link up with the internastruggle CONCE acallls!
While capitalism is not increases was the lett morement organised. are the funsovialist organisation to achieve it.
The right capitalism. going to be Central out in only one country in Europe - Russia the workers In Germany international socialists such as kosa Lux emburg and Karl Leibknecht fought against the cataclysm of war but had no wing the workers organise the left both nationally and internationally - are the kev tasks of socialists in Europe They should and must form the core of any real socialist manifesto for the European elections. They policy for participating in the EEC but for fighting to destroy it. THE FIGHT being waged by West Germany's giant engineering 35-hour week with no loss of pay is escalating rapidly. week the employers' federation, the DGB, intends to lock out tens of thousands of workers in retaliation for the IG Metall strikes.
have threatening a one day general strike in the industrial regions.
The struggle for the 35-hour week — a reduction of five hours — has been launched by the IG Metall leadership to moving towards three million in West Germany. Led by the union's new vice-president Franz Steinkuhler, the union has argued the case for the 35 hours on an explicitly anti-capitalist basis.
Faced with total intransigence trom the employers, who refused even to negotiate on the question, the union has responded by carrying out a series of ballots among its membership for strike action Under West German law need a 75 per cent 'yes' ballot to go ahead with a strike. In its first ballot in industrial Wuttemburg around Metall got over 80 ballot in favour of a As a result 60 thousand workers in the region, which includes several large Cal including Daimler-Benz network, strike for nearly two weeks.
A total of 14,000 workers in the car and car components industry are on strike in the region. The employers, and especially responded by they will lay off thousands of workers in plants outside the region who will no components Daimler Benz intended 21,000 workers at their Sindelfingen plant, but a total of 65,000 workers could be affected by the lockouts.
Already workers have been locked out of the BMW holding a demonstration plant on the slogan deserves to be locked up'.
The right wing Helmut Kohl has intervened decisively on the side of the employers by getting the Federal Labour Office to announce that workers layed off as a result of the strike would not receive unemployment benefit. This, said the Labour Office, 'neutrality' in labour struggles!
The second of IG Metall's ballots, in the Hesse region around Frankfurt, also produced an 80 per cent in favour of a strike. From this week 32,000 workers in the region will be out on strike, including at the Opel car factory. As a result of the strike in this region, lay off an incredible 60,000 workers from this Wednesday.
All in all, with the support of the printing union IG Druck, hundreds of thousands of workers will be affected IG Metall for Starting this The responded by rapidly unions of BadenStuttgart, IG LIRI huge have been on German Daimler-Benz have saying that next Week Leaders lo lay off tion' symptomatic plant in Munich, left. , outside the 'Who locks out government of The widely tradition majority Wing Volkswagen are threatening to by lock-out and strike. The toughness empioyers reflects the huge stakes involved in the struggle. The granting of a 35-hour week to combat unemployment will represent some sort of admission that the workers are not responsible for the economic crisis, but much worse will significantly lower the productivity of West German industry. Moreover, the employers realise that granting a 35 hour week to IG Metall will have a knock-on effect throughout mousury. A success for the workers would result in a rash of demands throughout German industr! and the rest of Europe for a reduction of the work week.
of the SPD. Germany's equivalent of the Labour Party, have been calling for a 'compromise soluat their annual Essen. The appeal for a compromise is of the desire by part! leader Hans Jochen Vogel to 're-centre the party after its recent swing to the Vogel has called for moderation to win back middle class voters to the party. Only on defence has the SPD leadership maintained a left-wing position.
leftward move of the SPD leadership in the last iwo years was interpreted as an attempt to head off the development of a left wing at the base of the party. Whether this 'moderation' will rebellion at the base has yet to be seen.
The big German companies are now saying that they are not prepared to give a single hour off the working da but are prepared to offer 'work-time flexibility' on a company by company basis. It seems certain that this would not amount to any reduction in work without loss ot pay, but rather shorter hours in return for a wage cut as proposed in Britain by Len Murray.
With hundreds of thousands of workers on strike or locked out, the IG Metall leadership could not easily ac cept such a climb down.