West German rearmament

By GEORG WEISS

From the veiled statements of
the Federal German armaments
budget it is difficult to ascertain
the actual purpose the sums are
to be used for. The accounts of
the concerns usually describe the
armament goods as “harmless”
products.

However, one thing is certain:
West Germany has the most up-
to-date and the most extensive
armaments production in West-
ern Europe. Even before the end
of 1968, 2.5 thousand million
marks were taken from taxes and
pumped into the armaments in-
dustry, in order to force a faster
pace of rearming, but at the
same time to make a drive in
armaments for export.

With the co-ordination of the
Bonn Ministry of War and with
the participation of the firms
Henschel, Rheinstahl-Hanomag,
Kraus-Maffai, Jungenthal and
MAN the Leopard tank has been
developed since 1957 (the final
selling price will be 1,013,000
marks). The West German tax-
payers are to be: burdened with
the total cost of 3,200 tanks un-
til 1972. The preparatory work,
which was kept secret even from
their NATO-Allies, was carried
out by engineering teams, who
gained their experience con-
structing armoured vehicles for
Hitler. The Deutsche Bank large-
ly financed this new product of
Bonn rearmament which has
brought the big West German
shareholders not only stable re-
turns on the stock exchange for
years, but also quite considerable
dividends. Armaments manufac-
turers who took part in the tank
project increased their rate of
profit by about 250 percent in
the last ten years.

The West German monopolists
also founded a so-called “Ger-
man Development Co. m.b.H.”
for “Tank 70.” Its prototype was
already assembled in the middle
of last year and demonstrated to
experts. The major companies,
which supplied about 2 thousand
million marks original stock, are:

The Rheinstahl-Henschel AG, the
Kraus-Maffai AG, (a works of
the nazi war criminal Flick),
the “Atlas Werke” (a Krupp en-
terprise), and the Engineering
Offices of Gerhard Hopp (an un-
der-cover firm of the Thyssen
trust). With this tank “70” West
German militarism demonstrates
at the same time its aspiration
to especially barbaric weapons.
One tank costs the taxpayer 2.5
million marks, it weighs 55 tons
and is driven by a 1,100 HP tur-
bine. This tank is also equipped
with a 105 mm gun, which can
also fire a new type of crushed
material shell which on impact
initiates a pressure wave explo-
sion, It is therefore not surpris-
ing that U.S.A. concerns imme-
diately acquired a license-option
on this tank,

A considerable concentration
of capital took place in one of
the most important branches of
West German armaments, that is
in the rocket industry, during
1968. The centre of this arma-
ments business is the West Ger-
man army, which is to consider-
ably enlarge its carrier basis
through the accelerated develop-
ment of rockets. According to in-
structions of the West German
General Staff, the present num-
ber of about 800 atomic wea-
pons carriers is to bé increased
to about 2,000 by 1970. To this
must be added a still unspeci-
fied number of long-range rock-
ets.

A second group of West Ger-
man armaments manufacturers
has been occupied, for about six
years, mainly with the manufac-
ture of smaller rockets for tanks,
planes and ships. In this two
giant trusts are taking a leading
part. They were able to attain
thousands of millions of marks
profits from their criminal activ-
ities in both the First and Sec-
ond World Wars. Thus the Daim-
ler-Benz Works, which belong to
the Flick trust and the Kloeck-
ner-Humboldt-Deutz trust, manu-
facture drive units for rockets.
The firms of Siemens and AEG

provide the energy supply sys-
tems for the rockets, the Siebel
trust and the Dornier Works as-
semble aeroplane rockets, and
the Boelow Works tank rockets.

In West Germany the arma-
ments manufacturers have con-
tributed for the last 15 years in
creating a wartime airforce and
fighter squadrons to be used for
offensive purposes. Contrary to
the Potsdam Agreement, and
even contrary to the agreements
the Bonn Government made in
195) and 1954 with her NATO
partners, the West German air
armament potential was re-es-
tablished.

About ten of the largest firms
are participating in the business,
among them also those groups of
firms, who were closely. connect-
ed with the build-up of the nazi
air force, like Messerschmitt,
Junkers and Dornier. But also
trusts like Kloeckner-Humboldt-
Deutz and Krupp, who worked,
above all for the land forces and
the navy in the past, are partici-
pating in this special and very
lucrative armaments deal with
considerable capital and invest-
ments or even by establishing
their own firms.

The present most important
project is a fighter plane to be
used for “atomic counter at-
tacks,” being produced by the
“Entwicklungsring Sued GmbH”
at Munich. The Bonn Ministry of
War has ordered 1,800 of this
type of plane to be supplied by
1972, and these are intended to
be used as carriers for medium
atom bombs. The value of the
shares of the Boelow Group and
that of the Messerschmitt Works,
both major participants in this
project, increased by 250 to 300
points by mid-1968, when it be-
came known that such large or-
ders had been placed.

The rapid development in one
and a half decades of an airforce
equipped for aggression was
only possible because those ar-
maments trusts which worked
for Hitler and Goering could

At present about 7,000 atomic war heads are stored in Wes
Germany. Officially they belong to the NATO arsenal, and formal}
they are supervised by American troops. But within the NATO struc
ture West German commanders are able to determine the employ:
ment of these dangerous weapons of mass. extermination.

carry on with the assistance of
the Bonn Government to prepare
a new war of revenge through
evasion and violation of existing
treaties, Up to now about ten
thousand million marks for re-
search have been flowing from

the Bonn Government to these
manufacturers.. The West Ger
man “Research Institute for Alt
and Space Travel” alone had 4
budget of 92.7 million marks for
1968 only.

(PANORAMA DDR)

US.

ommunists adopt

action program

The four-day convention of
the Communist Party, U.S.A.,
which ended May 5, developed a
program of action for the party’s
struggle to achieve the maxi-
mum mobilization of forces in
the fight for peace and for work-
ing class unity against racism,
poverty, and  neo-colonialism.

At a press conference follow-
ing the convention Gus Hall,
who had been reelected as gen-
eral secretary, said the most sig-
nificant development on _ the
American scene today is the tre-
mendous upsurge in the shops
and unions.

The “rank and file working
class revolt” in the labor move-
ment will “revamp the trade
unions and\the character of the
class struggle,” he said.

In reply to several questions
on the student movement, Hall
warned that America should not
get “hung up” on the tactics
used by the students. It should
get “hung up” on the “real is-
sues.” These issues are the right:
of every youth to an education,
the rejection of “tokenism” as a
response to the demands of the
black, Chicano and Puerto Rican
students, and the divorce of
education from the military.

Asked about “violence” in the
student. movement,, ,Hall, Said, |

there “tends to be violence when
there is resistance to just de-
mands.”

The three focal points of the
convention, Hall said, were: to
end the unjust war policy, and
get the nation out of Vietnam;
automation, job security in the
shops; and racism.

The Nixon administration is
not thinking of getting out of
Vietnam, Hall said in reply to a
question. The people of the U.S.
“will have to force this Admin-
istration to get out of the war,”
he said. “Gimmicks will not do
it.

The assessment of the positive
and negative aspects of the
peace movement as considered
by the convention represented a
significant contribution to the
peace movement, Hall said.

The convention gave full sup-
port to the “anti-imperialist and
Communist movements” in Latin
America, and to the “building of
socialism in Cuba.”

The party program adopted at
the convention, which was four
years in the making, is the first
fundamental program that the
party has ever formulated.

With efforts to’ weld an anti-
monopoly coalition based on the
working class as its central stra-
tegy, the convention agreed on
the, following:

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—MAY 16, 1969—Page 8

PROGRAM FOR LABOR

© Supported the organization
of black caucuses in the trade
unions.

©@ Supported the black Revol-
utionary Workers Leagues in
Detroit, Chicago and other areas;
declared that white Communist
trade unionists must participate
in the development of ‘Left rank
and file caucuses that also fight
against racism,” and cautioned
that “black workers fighting rac-
ism alone are in danger of be-
coming isolated.”

e@ Declared that the struggle
against racism is in the self-in-
terest of white workers.

e Called for the building of
rank and file movements in the
rade unions.

@ Called for building the unit-
ed front in the form of Left-
Center coalitions.

e Described the Alliance for
Labor Action as a “hesitant
break with the bankrupt policies
of the AFL-CIO leadership,” ad-
ding that the ALA “continues to
have the potential to be an im-

portant factor in redirecting and |

revitalizing the labor move-
ment.”

® Welcomed the rising chal-
lenge of the workers to those
who advocate defense of U.S.
capitalism and support “‘manage-
ment prerogatives.”

BLACK LIBERATION. The
struggle for black liberation has
attained a “stage ... where pow-
er has become the common ob-
jective.” It is described in such
concepts as “black power, peo-
ple’s power, representative gov-
ernment, self-government and
community and determining their
own destiny.”

“Even though black people do
not now constitute a nation,”
the resolution said, ‘‘we do not
place any limitations upon furth-
er development of the national
struggle of black people to satis-
fy their aspirations up to and
including their right to develop
self-government and to exercise
the right of self-determination.”

On self-defense, the conven-
tion had before it two resolu-
tions, representing majority and
minority views on the black li-
beration panel. Both views ag-
reed On the right of self-defense.
The minority view stressed, in
addition, as increasingly import-
ant, the preparation of self-de-
fense in the “black communities’
ability to continue and develop
its struggles for complete liber-
ation.”

The minority view lost by a
vote of 80 for, 146 opposed, and
four abstentions. The majority
view was then adopted with only
a few opposing votes.

The convention approved Ie
solutions calling for cooperation
with and defense of the Black
Panther Party; for unity of black
and white workers against rat
ism, as the conditions for the
struggle for democratic demands,
for the overthrow of capitalism,
and the building of socialism.

It supported also determined
struggle for the democratic de
mands in a “revolutionary” rath-
er than a “reformist” way; reje
tion of “black capitalism” %
“cultural nationalism,” 4
against a “rigidly defined
‘stages’” theory concerning the
attainment of various demands,
the Plainfield, N.J, and Huey »
Newton defense campaigns.

WORLD CONFERENCE. The
main line of the document sub
mitted for the coming world com
ference of Communist and Work
ers’ Parties, scheduled for June
in Moscow, was approved.
document is entitled “Task :
the present stage of the struge
against imperialism and ep
action of Communist and wor
ers’ Parties and all anti-imper@
ist forces’’. ;

CZECHOSLOVAKIA. Appr
ed a resolution reaffirming 16 |
position adopted by the pa
national committee last Sept”
ber on the situation in Cze¢
slovakia.

s al