By FILS DELISLE Tribune Berlin Correspondent BERLIN — There is no capitalist country in the world where the trade unions have the rights, the freedoms, the governing powers, the prestige and the responsibilities exercised by the unions in the socialist German Democratic Republic. That is the overwhelming conclusion that emerges from a survey of the position and role of the union movement here. It is a fact that has been well-known to everyone acquainted with the 31-year old GDR. But it still has to be discovered by many people in North America who have been brain-washed and bamboozled by the propaganda of the establishment media. The propaganda distortions in the West about the role of trade unions in the socialist world have ‘*We also, of course, take part in governing the country. No laws, no legislation are approved without our agreement.”’ increased since the events in Poland. But that can- not conceal two basic facts: 1) In the leading capitalist countries, the work- ers and their unions find themselves increasingly engaged in bigger and sharper economic battles and strikes; 2) In socialist countries like the GDR, the unions are a decisive force in the planning and working out of projects to improve the well-being of their members and the general public. Unlike the union organizations in the West, which are harrassed, fighting to maintain the work- ers’ living standards and facing the violence of the police in strike actions, the unions here are dis- cussing the country’s economic plan for 1981 and working out programs for greater productivity, higher incomes, increasing production, building more homes and advancing the over-all interests of the society in which they play a major role. Those in North America who peddle stories about the unions in socialism ‘‘dependent’’ on some bureaucracy should talk to Rudi Focke. He is a veteran worker and trade union official, although under 50. As head of the organizational department of the FDGB, the GDR trade union body, and a member of its executive, he will demolish such stories with scornful laughter, an arsenal of statis- tics and the pride with which unionists here talk of their organizations. Sas The FDGB, Focke says, has in its ranks almost 9 million workers, or 97% ofall the people who work here with hand or brain. Half of these are women. What are the characteristics of the FDGB? Focke answered as follows: ‘‘We have three main concerns. We work for peace and relaxation of tensions in the world; for the expansion of produc- tion; For the improvement of the living and work- - ing conditions of the people.’’ With a broad smile, he adds: ‘‘We also, of course, take part in govern- ing the country. No laws, no legislation are ap- proved without our agreement.”’ The fight for peace in the world and for industrial advance here, Focke points out, is tied to the unions’ work for a better life for the people. The working people here collectively own the whole of industry, and unless industrial production goes up there will not be more to share. That is the exact opposite, of course, to the silly idea spread in the West that the unions here merely seek to get the workers to work harder. ‘‘We can only take out of the pot,’’ Focke says, “‘what we put into it.’’ The guiding principle in the GDR is that what brings benefits to the state should at the same time bring benefits to individual workers. In Canada, the Canadian Labor Congress makes a submission annually to the government on things it would like to see done. That relationship evokes nothing but sympathy here. The FDGB, the cent- ral organization of the different unions, does not come to the government, cap in hand, once a year. On the contrary, the government comes to the PACIFIC TRIBUNE—NOV. 28, 1980—Page 6 FDGB and the FDGB comes to the government — constantly, without interruption, daily ifnecessary. According to the GDR’s constitytion, no legisla- tion can be passed without prior discussions with all groups affected by the legislation. That is espe- cially true with regard to the unions. No legislation is submitted to the Volkskammer — the national parliament — before it has been approved by the FDGB, among others. One of the most important sections of GDR law is ‘‘the Labor Code’’ which some years ago modernized and brought together all legislation covering the rights’ of working people. FDGB spokesman Focke is proud of the role the unions. played in developing the Labor Code. There were constant consultations with the Socialist Unity Party and other organizations on the Code, he points out. The final draft received its finishing touches at the hands of FDGB leaders on the basis of 140,000 amendments proposed by trade unionists. Only then was it submitted to the Volk- skammer and approved. In the Volkskammer itself, the FDGB is repre- sented by a bloc of 68 union members. The FDGB also has a whole army ofrepresentatives on local or _Tegional governments — 35,000 in all. Such mas- sive representation all over the country gives the unions an authority they do not have in any capital- ist country. The extent to which union members participate in the life of the country is shown, Focke says, by the participation of 80% of the membership in dis- cussions of the GDR’s economic plan for 1981. A mere 1,200,000 proposals for changes in the plan grew out of this amazingly broad discussion. The adopted plan will thus not only represent the or- ganized worker’s viewpoint; it was readied for submission to the Volkskammer only after its final approval by the unions. a The GDR has one of the finest social security systems in the world. It is clearly far superior to any in leading capitalist country, with free medical treatment and a host of other services. This enormous social security system is administered by the unions, by the FDGB. That is simply impos- sible in the capitalist world. It is a spectacular fact that the GDR’s trade unions administer and oper- ate a social security system, aided by the govern- ment, in which their expenditures for social aid, medical treatment and all kinds of social services for the people were 23-billion marks in 1979. Equally spectacular, for Westerners, is the holi- day program they operate for their members. Under this program, in 1979, they organized 4,400,000 holiday trips for members at the exceed- ingly low cost of 95 marks, on average, for 13 days. They also sponsor summer camps for workers’ children for which the total cost for three weeks is only 12 marks. (1.75 marks to the dollar). For Focke, one of the most important things about the trade union organization that plays such an enormous role in the GDR’s society is the fact that ‘‘it is truly democratic. All our elections are by secret ballot, including the election of the 2,200,000 officers across the land who serve without pay.”’ The FDGB, it is clear from the above limited survey, is a solid and integrated part of the social structure here. It is a fortress that West German and other foreign propagandists cannot shatter. FRIENDS OF POLAND? Media’s two faces The big press supporting the Turkish military regime which siezed power in a Sept. 12 coup has joined with other big business media in greeting the Polish strike movement. It’s hypocritical enough when the anti-labor press in Canada does a quick turn-about and becomes backers of trade union rights in another country. But to watch Turkish newspapers laud Polish strikes while the regime they support bans unions and murders labor leaders is enough to bring home a simple lesson: they are not for union rights, rather they are against the Polish _economic and political system. Turkey’s press has filled its pages with reports about the Polish workers’ ‘‘right to organize free trade unions’’ and their ‘‘right to strike’’. This sudden interest should be seen against the follow- ing: e That same media ignored a general strike waged by 50,000 unionists in their country protesting new. anti-union laws being brought down by the military; e They ignore the fact that the new ‘‘constitution’’ deprives hundreds of thousands of teachers, technicians and health care workers of the right to unionize; e They do not report that the leader of Turkey’s Metal- workers’ Union was murdered, and other leaders are before the courts in an attempt to smash the union; e They hide the recent murder of 32-year old unionist Ahmet Hilmi Feyzioglu who was arrested shortly after the coup and, in the traditions of the South African police, was reported to have ‘jumped out of the Sth floor window of a police station”’. Twenty people each day are being murdered by right-wing terrorist gangs while the army and police look on. It is open season on unions, political parties, progressive newspapers —on every voice that is raised in opposition to military rule. It should also be remembered that Turkey is a member of NATO along with Canada and other Wester nations. Turkey 1S also a signatory to. the Helsinki accords, a fact that appears to have escaped Canadian and other western delegates at the cur- rent Madrid conference as they level their ‘“human rights’’ guns at the socialist states. The country has been under marshal law since September with all the attendent violations of basic rights this means. The Tur- kish army has been occupying 40% of Cyprus since 1974 with the covert support of NATO and its allies which consider the island an important military staging area in the Middle East. So when the Turkish press becomes suddenly pro-labor and greets the unionists in Poland it should be recalled just who 1s doing the talking and what it is they are saying.