PARTISAN REVIEW
The shabby clothes, tom shoes, and hungry faces of the demon–
strators made them appear like an army of desperate beggars, out to in–
vade the reservoirs of the rich. But they yelled for the police, for the
often-felt rubber truncheons, for the deadly order of the party-state.
Did the bottle of schnapps they received this morning go to their heads?
Of course not, for it was sold at once to the black market. The schnapps
was not a present but cost more than a weekly wage; by
s~lling
it they
realized a profit big enough to buy four loaves of bread. Maybe the
sight of the large brown sausages sold at various booths near the march–
ing-route made them love the world and all it contained? But taking
the sausage meant to part with precious ration-coupons and to face a
meatless month. No, the enthusiasm for the police, for the Communist
Party, for Russia, was not the result of bribery; it was given absolutely
free, it came from the heart, a heart obsessed by fear.
The manipulated demonstrations of the "people's will" are or–
ganized through a malignant net of organizations.
It
is not up to the
individual to decide whether or not to go. With others he is assembled
at the place of work or at his living-quarters. His trade-union functionary,
factory-representative, party-comrade, or house-warden, will know
if
he missed the call,
if
he stayed away deliberately; and he may be repri–
manded or reported. Reported to whom? That's just it. Under the
Nazis it was clear, but now one doesn't really know. However, if the
Russians should become the absolute rulers, it may be expected that a
bad record or a deficiency of enthusiasm will reach the files of a new
Gestapo. It is better to play safe, to act and talk as is expected, or
not to talk, just nod, and follow the functionary.
Communist Party trustees, backed by the Red Army, control fac–
tories still working, supervise all available jobs whatever their nature,
control the cooperatives and the municipal offices. Although rations
are small they must be bought. To live, one must work, even
if
most
work is of the make-believe kind. Some jobs qualify for ration-card
Two, others for ration-card Three, the most important jobs, as evaluated
by the Russian occupiers, for ration-card One. To get a ration-card a
work-card is needed. To keep the work-card, one must not oppose the
policy and ideology of the Socialist Unity Party.
In opposition to the planned installation of a Western German gov–
ernment the Party called for a German referendum on the question of
national unity. That no one is against unity is clear, though there may
be some who do not care to show concern. That this is not a German
question at all is also clear. What will happen in Germany and Berlin
depends on the conflicts or agreements, between the great competing
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