Western (W): Germany (WG). Labour and Trade Unions in GDR

A file of correspondence concerning labour and trade union activity in East Germany. Subjects covered in the file include East German government criticism of workers employed by the chemical plants in the Halle region, whose attitudes it is claimed are jeopardising productivity; and further observations describing the ideological struggle between the workers and intelligentsia, and government officials. Further correspondence describes a meeting of the Executive of the East German Trade Union Federation, who debated the role of trade unions in achieving higher productivity and their responsibility for the socialist indoctrination of the workers; and a meeting of the Federal Board of the East German Trade Union Federation, whose debates concerned a campaign for socialist competition in the factories, the working programme for 1958, with special reference to the annual works' collective agreements, and the visit of a delegation to Egypt and Syria.