ABSTRACT

This chapter is concerned with the constituent Association of Workers and the party's symbiotic ties to the major union organization—the German Trade Union Federation (DGB). The Social Democratic blue-collar workers, on the defensive, will compete for power with the new middle-class groups, including youth, that make up a considerable segment of a more heterogenous and less class-conscious Social Democratic Party (SPD). The SPD will need to appeal for support from nonunion groups whose interests may clash with those of the DGB. SPD officials viewed workers' interests as being well represented in the party's programs and policies, they were most reluctant to agree to the formation in 1967 of some regional associations of Social Democratic unionists. For the SPD and Arbeitsgemeinschaft far Arbeitnehmerfragen apolitical members of trade unions or those loosely committed to another party are prime target for conversion.