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Workers World November 16, 2015 Interview with the GDR’s Margot Honecker--‘The past was brought back’ By Workers World staff Interview: Antonis Polychronakis Margot Honecker, born in 1927, former minister of education of the German Democratic Republic and widow of longtime Socialist Unity Party (SED) Secretary General and GDR State Chairperson Erich Honecker (1912-1994), had not commented publicly for a long time from her self-chosen place of exile near Santiago de Chile. In October, however, the Athenian and Macedonian News Agency (ANA-MPA) published the following interview in highly abbreviated form (the long version, published here, was reserved for subscribers). The German daily newspaper Junge Welt published the complete interview exclusively in the German language, and thanks the Greek colleagues for their kind permission to print. Workers World thanks both Junge Welt and the Greek journalists for permission to publish this interview, which contains much information about the history of the German Democratic Republic and its position on the front line of the class war between two social systems from 1945 to 1989. Translation from German by Greg Butterfield and John Catalinotto. Antonis Polychronakis: How did the events of 1989 come about? How did you and your spouse personally experience them? Margot Honecker: If you mean by “the events of 1989,” those of the fall of that year, and particularly the events in the GDR, which I describe as a counterrevolution, one would have to write books about it. And many indeed have already been written. That cannot be described adequately with a brief answer. Perhaps only this: There was an objective link between foreign and internal political factors. The arms race the United States in the Reagan era forced upon the Soviet Union reached its desired objective: that the Soviet Union armed itself to death. The consequent economic burden for the USSR led to serious social dislocations in the country, which meant that the leading power of the socialist camp could hardly do justice to its domestic and foreign policy responsibilities. The Soviet Union tried to regain mastery of its situation through reforms, and these were initially well intended. But soon the so-called reformers grabbed hold of the central foundations of politics and economics and steered a course toward economic disaster and the destabilization of society. The end result was the surrender of all Soviet achievements. It was not only that these changes were applauded in the West. Also, in some socialist countries neighboring the GDR, “reformers” were active and were supported by the West. The GDR was involved in this global conflict. In the end, it was part of the socialist community. And in the 1980s, the GDR was also faced with the need to develop or correct its economic policies. There were shortcomings in supply, deficits in social life, which led to dissatisfaction. We have not always done our homework properly — partly from our own inability, partly we were blocked. For the rest of the interview, go to http://www.workers.org/articles/2015/11/16/interview-with-the-gdrs-margot-honecker-the-past-was-brought-back/. _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
