From the S&S archives: Tieup ends; unions say point won

MUNICH, Jan. 24 (UP) — The American Zone's biggest post-war strike officially ended last midnight but it was unlikely that Bavarian industry, strike-bound for the past 24 hours, would recommence production until Monday morning.

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MUNICH, Jan. 23 — More than 1,000,000 Bavarian workers stayed away from their jobs today in protest against the shortage of food.

The strike, which began last midnight, was specifically aimed at the Bavarian government and not at the occupying authorities.

Tonight, the Christian Socialist government of Bavaria announced it would wage an all-out drive against hoarding and black marketing of food.

Spokesmen for the Bavarian Trade Union Federation immediately hailed the announcement as hitting the very conditions the strikers were striking against.

The Bavarian chancellory statement said the drive to divert food from illegal channels into a common pool would be undertaken jointly by the cabinet, the legislature, the unions and the farmers' associations.

In calling the 24-hour strike, the unions had been chiefly vexed by the Bavarian government's rejection this week of a seven-point labor program for increasing the spread of food.

The program had called for state confiscation of all food, closing of all "luxury" restaurants and "elimination of men who live on the misfortunes of the others," mainly black marketers.

Despite the Bavarian government's apparent turnabout, at least in part, union leaders said the walkout would continue until its scheduled midnight deadline tonight.

This morning, an estimated 75,000 German workers gathered In Munich's Konigsplatz, opposite Hitler's old — and destroyed — brown house, in the state's largest single demonstration.

They heard Lorenz Hagen, leader of the trade union federation; Gustav Schiefer, deputy leader; and Max Woenner, chief of the Munich trade unions, denounce the government for the food shortage.

Schiefer, noting that underfed children are dying daily of tuberculosis and rachitis, attacked those who blame the black market on foreigners.

"They forget," he said, "that German industrialists, handicraft workers and farmers are sending their products to the black market themselves."

Though the demonstrators carried red banners demanding "liberty," and proclaiming "We are Germans and not a colony," the rally was orderly.

Similarly, the other 25 major Bavarian cities and scores of towns affected by the strike reported no disorders.

The strike affected practically all means of public transportation in Bavaria with the chief exception of U.S. military trains and international trains.

Public utilities operated normally and schools functioned.

In Augsburg, Regensburg, Wurzburg and other Bavarian cities, Military Government officials reported the strike 100 per cent effective, with all except picked essential factories shut down and transportation not running.

The strike leadership was mostly Social Democrat, but MG officials said Bavaria's numerically small Communist Party took an active part after the strike call was announced.