Speak French to Kohl and capital
Germany's unemployed take to the streets
On February 5 thousands of protesters took to the streets of towns across Germany, demanding the government do something about unemployment. The demonstrations were a conscious imitation of the actions taken by the French unemployed movement - one of the first times we have seen militant action spreading across national frontiers in Europe.
Veronica Fagan from Socialist Outlook interviewed Daniel Berger from the RSB, German organisation of the Fourth International about these important events.
SO: Why do you think that it has been possible to spread the mood of the actions in France to Germany at this time?
DB: The Euromarches really changed the mood for many trade unionists. They got the impression that even if you are in a defensive situation you can do something. You can fight back even if this does not create new jobs in the short run, you are not really helpless.
After the 1995 strikes many people said we should do what the French do. After the lorry drivers strike in 96 this effect was even stronger. That is why we created the slogan "We must talk French to Kohl and capital". Everyone understood this to mean we must do as the French do.
There were other placards on which workers had written "It is better to have a French situation than American conditions". These sort of slogans have been popular over the last year and this prepared the ground for what was to come.
When the actions in France in December 1997 started they got a lot of coverage in the press and TV. This helped to popularise was happening in France but the media tried to undercut the political message. They presented the French occupations as something interesting but also said that it wasn't really a demonstration against the state, just asking that something would happen which after all everyone agreed. Even Kohl could agree that something must be done about unemployment.
This attitude was maintained even when the Co-ordinating Committee for the Unemployed in Bielfeld launched its call on January 20 for demonstrations across Germany on February 5. The Head of the Unemployment Service In Germany said "I understood what they want and I fully agree with those who are demonstrating". This was calculated to undercut the dynamism of the movement.
The trade unions have done nothing about unemployment for years. They did give financial support to this committee in Bielfeld, especially IG Metal gave money to fund 4 workers there. They also co-ordinated information and advice to the unemployed - you could say it was a type of social work. They never called any demonstrations or campaigned on the issue.
As I said earlier, the Euromarches really changed the mood and trade unionists began to feel that the leaderships should do something. When the French protests started in December, people felt that something should happen here too.
There was a vacuum here. When it became clear after Christmas that the French movement would go on the pressure began to mount. It was only a question of time that something would happen, though there was also an issue about who would take the initiative. Fortunately the Bielfeld group decided to make an appeal to other local groups to do something.
They got positive feedback from many local groups - there are hundreds of these throughout Germany though they only do advice work - and then they published their call on January 20.
In this situation the German TUC, the DGB, was forced to come in and support it. They did not do anything to mobilise for it but their paper endorsement made a big difference to the size of the actions.
SO: How widespread was the support on the day? What attitude did the unions take?
DB: On February 5 most of the demonstrations happened during the day time so that those with jobs could not go, never the less about 40,000 participated. In some areas the demonstrations were in the afternoon so that people could go after work. There were no strikes but in some towns where there is local resistance there was high participation from the employed too.
In Mannheim for example where there is a big Swedish/Swiss company, ABB, which has just announced mass redundancies and there had been various actions already over this. 1500 workers from the factory came after work and went to the demonstration. In most towns the trade unions supported the actions only in a passive way but in some places it was possible to do more. In Weissbaden for example where I come from, we have a good standing in the union movement and we were able to get the local DGB to give active support.
The actions in more than 200 towns were the main news headlines that evening. The biggest demonstrations were in Berlin and in Erfurt in the east. This is quite astonishing because in the 90s the mass redundancies in the East were so great that from 9 million working people there are only 6 million left today. The others either went to the west or are now unemployed.
You have 10 per cent unemployment in western Germany but 21 per cent in eastern Germany. The effects of these mass redundancies was widespread demoralisation in the east. On February 5 there were large demonstrations not only in Berlin and Efurt but also in Dresden, Leipzig, bigger than those in Western Germany.
This expressed two things. One that there is a higher rate of unemployment in the east and there is no possibility of work `on the side'. This is possible in the west because the rate of unemployment is much lower but in the east you can't hide. The size of the protest in the east is partly a result of the objective situation but it also means that people are being active again which they haven't been since 1990. This gives us hope that there might be a turning point at least in eastern Germany and I think also in western Germany.
SO: What are the plans for future action?
DB: The call is to do it every month until September on the day when the official figures for unemployment are announced. The dates are already fixed but two things are not clear.
The first is how to build up a movement that will prepare the actions and make sure that they just don't become routine. We need to develop new forms of action, not just do what everyone expects.
The second problem is what happens after September. The people that planned it tried to orient towards the General Election. We think it is important that this does not become the dominant dynamic - that people think once there is a Social Democratic government they will not need the movement any more. If that is what happens then the movement would have to be built from the beginning again when new attacks come. We use the British and French examples to explain why this is necessary. We are concerned that the more it is linked to the election date the more the independence of the movement could be undercut.
SO: Can you say what the demands of the movement are?
DB: The Bielfeld committee published a very short call and they said we don't want to be neglected any more, we want the politicians to do something rather than just talking and we want money to be spent on the unemployed not on neo-liberal projects. But there were no concrete demands and this made it easier for the trade union bureaucracy to support it and even for the head of the Employment Service to appear sympathetic. Different local committees added their own concrete slogans and the mood of the mobilisations on February 5 was very different from this.
For our part we launched an appeal through the Euromarch committees to have a day of action on January 23, saying that we need to do as the French do. We did this when it was not sure what other actions might be called, in advance of the call for February 5. Of course what we did had a smaller impact that what came later - but there were mobilisations in about 10 towns. We put forward two main slogans; For a 30 hour week and 200DM more for everyone on benefit. (You can't argue for a 35 hour week because that already affects many workers). The slogan for more money was a reason for some of the trade union bureaucracy to be critical because they said that the state couldn't afford it. They are already beginning to think about how they will run the state after the general elections. They could not put forward any coherent arguments against us and the unemployed people backed us. These slogans were taken up more wisely on the demonstrations in February.