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lic, leaving a red, bloody trail
behind them,” writes Stern ma-
gazine.’ “With iron rods and
truncheons they beat up every-
one at their meetings who hap-
pens to be of a different opin-
ion. These rowdy squads wear

‘the same helmets as the police,

the same buckled belts as in
the Third Reich, and their style
is similar to that of the storm
troopers of the Weimar days.”
Their aggregate strength, says

Stern,.is already upwards of.a .

thousand.

The country is still astir over
the bloody outrages perpetrated
by these “orderlies” in Frankfort
on Main at the end of July. De-
scribing the scene, Stern quoted
one of the “orderlies” as saying:

“It’s a pity we've no machine
guns.” oe

The passivity of the police
was by no means accidental. It
was indicative of the official at-
titude to the neo-nazi outrages.

On August 10 von Thadden’s
crew planned to hold election
rallies in Duesseldorf and Frank-
fort. In Frankfort the anti-fas-
cists were able to foil the scheme
in advance. In Duesseldorf the
gathering did take place, under
the protection of a huge police
force. But nearly ten thousand
people came out to demonstrate
against the latter-day Hitlerites.

The anti-fascist _demonstra-
tions in the two cities showed

‘that resistance to the activiza-

tion of the neo-nazis is mount-
ing.

The current election campaign
is also significant in another
way: it shows that there are
forces in West Germany who
want change, who are looking
for new paths. Historical exper!-

ence and common sense tell .

them that the course the Federal
Republic has hitherto followed
has no future. They realize that
it is just as feasible a thing for
the G.F.R. as for any other coun-
try to break with the traditions
of anti-communism, to develop
normal relations with the Soviet
Union and the other socialist
states.

Of interest in this context are
certain statements by the G.F.R.
President, Gustav Heinemann. In
a recent interview he told a
Spiegel magazine correspondent
he would not sign any bill or
other document giving the Bun-
deswehr or the Federal govern-

The workers of the Mannesmann works in Du
" metal workers’ strike, demanding higher wages an

isburg-Huckingen, West Germany, have joined the
d the right to a greater say in the running of the

CHANCELLOR KIESINGER

GFR elections: New Forces

ment the right to decide on the
employment of nuclear weapons.

I remember the talks I had
with people-from different walks
of life in the Federal Republic.

The people I talked to in Lue-
beck were eager, and not only
out of politeness, to find points
of contact, between the G.F.R.
and the Soviet Union. You
know, they would say, a Soviet
ship called here the other day.
Good thing imports of Soviet
timber and coal are growing.
We're handling upwards of a
hundred thousand tons of Soviet
cargoes annually. But the figure
could be much greater, surely. ..

“It is time we resumed our
ties. That would be in keeping
with tradition and the needs of
today,” the city’s Burgomaster,
Herr Max Wartemann, told me.

That idea kept cropping up in
the conversations I had with
municipal and public leaders in
other cities.

Addressing last. month’s Su-
preme Soviet session, U.S.S.R.
Foreign Minister Andrei Gromy-
ko said:

“A turn in our relations is pos-
sible, and we want it, if the
G.F.R. follows the path of peace.
This means that plans of revenge
for the last war would have to
make place for the realization
that the future of the G.F.R. with
its substantial economic and
technical resources lies in peace-
ful co-operation with all states,
including the Soviet Union...”

I can recall no other G.F.R.
election campaign attended by
such a broad discussion of the
state of West German-Soviet re-
lations. Indeed, the idea of nor-
malizing relations with the so-
cialist countries appears to have
won such currency among the
general public that the political
quarters too are forced to give
it serious consideration.

A rather definite stand is taken
by the Free Democratic Party.
Its program urges renunciation
of the Hallstein doctrine with
its sole representation claim, and
says that the German Democra-
tic Republic should participate
as an equal partner in the pro-
posed all-European conference
and that both Germanys should
seek admission to the United Na-
tions. These propositions, Sie-
gel magazine points out, are

_ “oriented on the realities.

The FDP leaders’ visit to Mos-

cow has had a strong impact and
provoked a lively discussion in
West Germany. However, pretty
loud in this discussion is the
voice of those who cling fast to
the principle that what is good
for the Soviet Union is bad for
the G.F.R.

For one. thing, there is the
hackneyed contention that talks
with the Soviets are possible
only from positions of strength.

For another, the reactionary
circles obviously intend to con-
tinue with their subversion
against the socialist countries as
part of their ‘Eastern policy.”

Lastly, certain quarters are
trying to make improvement of
relations conditional on all kinds
of concessions. Rainer. Barzel,
for instance, says G.F.R.-Soviet
relations will be normalized only
when the German Democratic
Republic "opens: its state fron-
tier.’ This is another attempt to
dictate terms and interfere in
the internal affairs of other
states.

€

A key problem in the election
is the failure of the Social Demo-
cratic Party to fight for definite
alternative policies. They are
talking a great deal about “an
active policy of peace’’“and “de-
tente,” but they take care to
avoid saying anything concrete
as to how they propose to carry
out the program. On the con-
trary, it contains a point which
at once puts the party leaders’
peaceable assurances in a dubi-
ous light: ‘We shall continue
to strengthen the North Atlantic
alliance. This is one of the prin-
ciples of our peace policy.”

A genuine alternative to the
present policies of the Bonn rul-
ers is offered by the German
Communist Party. In the months
since its establishment in Sep-
tember last year its membership
has grown to 22,000.

The Party stresses that the
working people of the GF.R.
need a government that would
take vigorous action against
neo-fascism and the swing to
the Right. It supports the Buda-
pest appeal of the Warsaw
Treaty states urging the convoc-
ation of an all Europe confer-
enc on European security. It
calls for the recognition of the
German Democratic Republic.

The German Communist Party
has entered the pre-election
struggle within the framework
of the Action for Democratic
Progress, a broad electoral alli-
ance uniting the democratic and
socialist forces of West Ger-
many. It seeks to co-operate
with all those forces in the in-
terests of European security, de-
mocracy and .social progress.
Such co-operation is supported
by many rank-and-file Social De-
mocrats, local trade union func
tionaries, and members of stu-
dent associations and peace or-
ganizations.

(The above materials are ex-
cerpted from articles by A. Gri-
goryants and A. Efremov in the
Soviet weekly—New Times.)

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—SEPTEMBER 19, 1969—PAGE 9