CIA Information Report, 'Plans for Strikes in East Germany'

CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
INFORMATION REPORT
SECRET
SECURITY INFORMATION

Country: East Germany Report No. [Excised]
Subject: Plans for Renewal of Date Distr.: 13 [July] 1953
Strikes in East Germany No. of Pages: 2
Date of Info.: [Excised] Requirement No.: [Excised]
Place Aquired [Excised] References

THE SOURCE EVALUATIONS IN THIS REPORT ARE DEFINITIVE.
THE APPRAISAL OF CONTENT IS TENTATIVE.
(FOR KEY SEE REVERSE)

Source: [Excised]

[ ] 1. There is widespread talk in Potsdam industrial enterprises that a general strike is to be proclaimed for the period of 13 to 15 July in the event that the chicanery of the SED continues. The same rumors are also circulating in Falkensee.

[ ] 2. [3/4 line excised] the ministry expects that a new uprising will occur in mid-July and has worked out details and very strict measures against it. The regular VP has received corresponding orders.

[ ] 3. The workers of the Hennigsdorf steel plant, in a resolution passed on 7 July, demanded that the persons arrested in connection with the June uprisings should be released from prison and that free traffic to West Berlin should be restored. The workers, allegedly, threatened a strike if their demands were not met.

[ ] 4. According to several workers of the Stalin Allee projects, a bigger and better strike is scheduled to be called in East Berlin for 17 July.

[ ] 5. The workers in Weimar are planning to proclaim a general strike on either 12 or 17 July if those arrested in June are not released from prison.

[ ] 6. On 7 July, it was learned from a member of the VP in Sonneborg-Neustadt that the VP and workers would strike on 17 July. The informant believed that 80 percent of the police would join the strike.

[ ] 7. Workers in Neuruppin have voiced the opinion that disturbances would break out again on 20 July. The workers in the Leuna Plant, near Merseburg, have been given the signal for a general strike which is to be joined by all other industrial enterprises in the zone. Labor firmly believes in this date and hopes that the objectives of the June strike will be won by the new strike.

F-3 8. It was learned from CDU circles that the workers in Schkopau, Dessau, Rostock, and [Warnemünde] have informed the plant management that they would strike if their arrested colleagues were not released from prison. Secret strike committees have issued "go slow" orders in the above towns.

Comment: [Excised ]