Germany: Union leader warns of social unrest

[Hannah Bell]

The chairman of the German Trade Union Federation (DGB), Michael Sommer, warned recently in several interviews that the country faces “social unrest”. If the continuing economic crisis leads to mass redundancies, this will be seen as a “declaration of war on workers and the trade unions”, he told Nordwest-Zeitung. “Then I cannot exclude it coming to social unrest in Germany too”.

He told broadcaster ARD that the economic crisis was not only affecting “the margins of society, but also the core groups of blue and white collar workers and small businesses”. The danger of the crisis leading to a social radicalization should not be underestimated, he said. Current forecasts of an economic decline of “up to 6 percent” are comparable to the figures from the economic crisis of 1930-32, he said, which had “well-known consequences”. This was an allusion to the collapse of the Weimar Republic...

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/apr2009/germ-a27.shtml