The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1948-01-15

shaping up among totalitarian and
anti-totalitarian forces which may
well prove decisive for the future
of organized labor in the German
capital and for the morale of nom
Communist workers throughout
Germany. During the last few
weeks, submerged in what seemed
more important news, the battle
lines have been drawn, the battal-
ions formed, the artillery brought
into position-and, as so often in
the past, the heavier guns turn out
to be Russian.
Briefly, this is what happened:
The Soviet Military Government,
irked by the spirit of resistance
among German workers, embarked
before the London Foreign Minis
ters Conference on an attempt tc
eco ordinate" labor in Berlin with
labor in the Soviet Zone. On Oct.
81, 1947, General Kotikov appear
ed suddenly before the Allied Con-
troll Council as the spokesman" o.
the Berlin trade unions and works
COUNCILS. "There exists" he assert
ed, "a significant difference he
tween the legal and material situa-
tion of the workers and employees
of Berlin on the one hand and the
workers and employees of the Soviet
Zone on the other hand" This If
ference had created a certain de-
gree of, what the General called,
"ill-humor" in the city and made
the maintenance of public safety
and order in Berlin more difficult"
To change this situation General
Kotikov submitted to the ACC an
elaborate program consisting of
IA points.
The existence of the difference,
its significance, and even the i'll
humor, no competent observer in
Berlin is harsh enough to deny.
However, as the reactions of trade
unionists not under direct Russian
control quickly demonstrated, the
conclusions General Kotikov drew
from the situation, and the propo-
sails he made, were not those of
Berlin's working population; they
originated in Karlshorst, the seat
of the SING, or probably even far
ther east from Berlin.
The 14-point program got OF
course enthusiastic Spontaneous"
support of all Russian-controlled
papers, of the Socialist Unity Par
ty, and of the FDGB Executive
Committee-that is the Commun-
ist-dominated trade union leader
ship. But the reactions of free trade
unionists, Social Democrats and
other Independent elements in the
non-R Russian sectors of the German
capital were of different cloth.
eve gather from press reports that
the Executive Board of the FDGB
deems the coordination of Berlin
to the Soviet Zone desirable"-to
quote from the open letter the
Work Council and Shop Union Com
mittee of the AEG-Electric Com
pany addressed to the FDGB. eve
protest against such a demand. AS
is generally known, the work coun-
ellis and the trade union commit
tees in the Soviet zone have less
power than those in Berlin. Espec-
tally in the appropriated enter
prises, allegedly put into the hands
of the people, participation of the
trade unions in the management
of the enterprises is subject to
constant pressure"
Resolution upon re so | u ton
against the subservience of the
FDGB leadership to Russian die
tates were adopted in union and
work council meetings. And as the
battle progressed, the attack shift
ed from the general to more speci-
fic aspects of Soviet labor policy.
1t became known that the SING
had introduced a new piece~rate
and job-rate system in Land Sax
ony, the industrial neart of the
Soviet Zone outSli. Berlin. The
system originated Is Marshal Soko-
lovski about two Weeks before Gen
eral Kotikov sprung his proposal
on the ACC, was haIled by the Rus
sian-controlled press as "a decisive
factor in raising productivity and
improving work discipline" Inde-
pendent unionists and laborites
were not willing, however, to par
rot the familiar language of big
business monopolists and Soviet
bureaucrats. The daily of the SPD
in Berlin, Der Sozialdemokrat,
bluntly calling the Russian meth
DDS "slave-driving," commented on
the attitude of unionists kowtoWing /
to the Communist overlords: "1t is
hard to believe ones ears when we
hear trade union leaders who them
selves used to stand at the lathe,
outdoing themselves in urging the
workers to put on "A yoke more
than any conceived Of
in the past. Workers who protested
against the introduction of these
kind of Stakhanovite methods in
the Soviet Zone, the paper reveal
ed were simply fired; in the case
of the Seachsische Aufbauwerk in
Chemnitz f. i. no less than 35 per