Prevent a Strauss Government: Vote SPD

[p026] a Prevent a Strauss Government VOTE SPD Statement of the political committee of the Bund Sozialistischer Arbeiter. (German Section of the International Committee of the Fourth international) THE CDU/CSU* must be de- feated in the elections on Nov- ember 19, 1972. The working class must restore an SPD majority in parliament. This will beat back the plans of the employers who want to bring a CDU/CSU government to power at all ccsts, in order to dis- cipline the workers, cut wages, and create mass unemployment. For the first time in the his- tory of the Federal Republic, the parliament has been dissolved and a premature general election has been announced. The cause lies in the irretriev- able end of the economic boom. The coming elections are thus of the greatest importance for the future of millions of workers. In all the capitalist countries an economic crisis is developing of unprecedented extent. The desperate attempt of the capi- talists to defend profits in the struggle against inflation is forcing them to cut wages and crush the working class by mass - unemployment. This is what is concealed behind the call for stability. The struggle of the capitalists to bring a CDU/CSU government to power is a direct part of the class struggle and is their most important preparation for the attacks on the working class. A few months ago Strauss said that 400,000 unemployed are necessary. Later he attacked the strength of the unions and de- nounced its socialist tendencies. The spontaneous wage strikes in the steel and metal industry a few weeks ago and the metal workers’ demand in the coming struggle present a continuous threat which the capitaNsts can- not tolerate a day longer. Otto Wolf von Amerongen, the president of the German Indus- trial and Trade Congress, demanded that the wages move- ment of the unions be stopped. He is therefore calling for a gov- ernment which makes no guaran- tee of full employment. We warn all workers: a Strauss government after November 19 will differ fundamentally from a CDU/CSU government in the 1950s and 1960s. a In contrast to those years, it will revive the most significant features of the Briining govern- ment on a new level. Briining became Chancellor of the Reich at the end of the Weimar Republic, following the overthrow of the last social- democratic Chancellor, Hermann Miller, in March 1930. He passed all the laws against the unions as well as the Enabling Act, and thus began the preparations for the dictatorship of the ruling class through Hitler. The capitalists want to force the working class back to the conditions of the 1930s. In all countries they are starting to abandon bourgeois-parliamen- tarian forms of rule and prepare their political dictatorship against the working class. The primary and most urgent task which faces the working class today is to prevent a CDU/ CSU government. This requires a clear class decision: VOTE SPD! Despite this important deci- sion to vote for the social demo- crats on November 19, we must march separately from Brandt in the election campaign. Brandt is not prepared to mobilize the DOCUMENTS: Trotskyism and the West German election 1972 working class against a Strauss government. ‘In the April Days, thousands of workers succeeded in prevent- ing a Strauss coup in a political struggle. But Brandt then called on the CDU/CSU to co-operate in combating the political radical- ization. - In the disguise of a witch-hunt against a few petty-bourgeois terrorists, he enlarged the Federal Border Guard to form an army of civil war, introduced imprisonment without trial, and increased the expenditure of the Federal Criminal Office from DM22 million to DM122 million. These measures in ‘internal security’ are powerful weapons of the capitalists, aimed directly at the working class. It was this betrayal of Social Democracy alone, which enabled the CDU/CSU to force new elections. Brandt is a handyman of the capitalists and is trying in the election campaign to find sup- port on the basis of nationalist and anti-working-class emotions. His role is to hold back and disarm the working-class move- ment until the bourgeoisie is ready for huge attacks. This is why Strauss and the capitalists are not after Brandt, but after the workers. The task of settling accounts with Brandt can never be left to Strauss and his supporters, but must be done by the - working class. This requires the struggle for socialist policies which defend the interests of the workers un- conditionally. All factories threatened with sackings must be expropriated without compensation and pro- <3.

[p027] duction put under’ workers’ control. Likewise, full wages must be paid for short-time work. These demands can only be fulfilled in the struggle for political power. Therefore the decision to vote SPD on November 19 must be the first step in the struggle for an independent SPD government, pledged to socialist policies. The Stalinists of the DKP play an extremely dangerous and reactionary role in these elec- tions because they fraudulently present themselves to the workers as the only party with socialist policies. Their appeal to vote DKPt splits the undivided battle front of the working class against Strauss, and serves as direct election support for the CDU/ CSU. We appeal to all members of the Communist Party and to all possible DKP voters to reject the false sham socialism of the DKP and to vote SPD. The struggle for an indepen- dent SPD government pledged to socialist policies is the only way to fight Strauss and the attacks of the capitalists. At the same time, this struggle creates the best conditions to defeat the traitors in the work- ing-class movement and build a new, revolutionary leadership. This task can be taken up only by the Bund Sozialistischer Arbeiter and the SJB, the Ger- . man section of the Fourth Inter- national. @ No return to Weimar @ Prevent a Strauss government Vote SPD @ Build the BSA and the SJB ~ 27.10.72 * Christian Democratic Union] Christian Social Union; the right-wing alliance in the Ger- man Federal Republic elections. t German Communist Party. O THE INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE F THE FOURTH INTERNATIONAL In Defense Just arrived from England. Basic . statement of the International Com- mittee on the ques- tion of Marxist philo- sophy. Fundamen- tal answer to the re- visionism of the OCI and of George No- vack of the Socialist Workers Party. ‘Available From: Labor Publications 135 West 14th St. New York, N.Y. 10011

[p028] 0% Vertreter des Finanzkapitals und der Wirtschaft fordern von der meven yen ginny von Subventionen, Stevererhéhungen und eine Lobnpolitik. Ludwig Poullsin, Vorstandsversitzen- dee der Westdeutschen Landesbank fordert 10 % Konjunkturzu- SBeiche fordert der Wirtschafteminister und gute Freund von Ludwig Sed seme tes Stabilitstagesetzess prin Stevererhohungen rackgingle gemacht werden. Bereits bei den OTV-Tarifverhandiu: soll Rachgegeben werden. Von der neuen Regierung keine Reformversprechungen gemacht werden, da diese nicht bezahit werden kéanten, erklirte Conzen, Prisident der Hauptgemein- schaft des Deutschen Einzelhandels. Der Prasident des Zentralverbands werbes, Frit: Hackert, fordert die Unternehmer schiag, unbefristet und nicht rickzahibar. Das . sowle die Anwendung holmagen Siar 8 % sollen Garch & desdeutachea _ anf, die “soziale Marktwirtechaft” zu verteidigen. Det Stabiititeruf der Kapitaii- Dies ist der Beginn, ston bedeuiet die Ricknshme aller der Achoitertiane seit dem 2. Weitkries a- ‘Der Funke’, November 15, 1972