Problems mount fo officials

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dale with the fight for the political independence of the working class, breaking the unions from their allegiance to the bourgeois Democratic and Republican parties and fighting instead for a Labor Party to implement a socialist in their bureaucratic engineering, the union leaders of West Germany are running into mounting problems.

Eugen Loderer, president of IG Metall (the metal-workers' union), had good reason to congratulate himself on the deal with which he ended the recent strike in North WuerttembergNorth Baden.

The agreement conceded a 5% pay rise, and compromise terms on the introduction of new technology, speed-up and cuts in manning levels.

Although totally inadequate to meet the needs of the metalworkers, this package did represent a significant concession from the employers.

In achieving this settlement, IG Metall's Executive had successfully confined their members' militancy to a partial strike in one region, despite overwhelming support for a total national strike.

Their work seemed a model of how to contain irresistible pressure from their base by controlling the dispute so as to cause the least possible pain to the capitalists, and reduce to a minimum independent action by workers.

But Loderer's triumph was short-lived. The employers' federation refused to accept the deal as a national norm.

The terrifying spectre further strikes rose up before him, and he denounced this move as "extraordinarily inflammatory, political behaviour"

Snags had also developed within North WuerttembergNorth Baden.

Official strike action continued while a ballot was held on the agreement.

But in other factories, where employers lifted the lockout they had imposed, workers refused to go back.

This unofficial action was the first clear indication of open opposition between rank and file members and the bureaucracy.

The union officials may well be able to smooth over this difficulty, but that will not solve their problems.