When I worked in Kuwait we were joined by three Polish programmers. Two really were programmers, the third was there to keep an eye on the other two. He was expected to work as a programmer but even the Arabs saw through his disguise. They were supplied by the Polish government who charged roughly what we cost but their poor workers got about 10% of the money. The offer was more than they could dream of but it didn’t go very far in uber capitalist Kuwait and they soon realised they had been ripped off.
After a while talking to one of them it transpired that the majority of the people in Poland did not like their government and wanted shot of it. I asked why they didn’t rise up and boot them out. It turns out that about 5% of the population were members of the communist party and that was the key to opening doors. The other 95% had no chance. It also turned out that the people in charge of the system, in general, would have been lucky to get a job as a street sweeper so they were fiercely determined to keep the status quo.
The third one who was there to keep an eye on the other two was the son of some commie bigwig and that was his way in to the big time. The system was only to last another ten years or so and as we all know, had there been any kind of uprising the Russians would have squashed it like they did during the Prague Spring.
A few years after the wall fell I was doing a project in Berlin and worked alongside an Ossie, that’s what the West Germans called their East German compatriots. This was a few years after the wall tumbled down but he was still really guarded about what he said, I guess old habits die hard. He had a good line in the types of joke that circulated back when the Stasi ruled the roost. One example being the Chinese dictionary definition of East Germany, a small wooded country on our North Western border. Judging by the tone of the jokes, the tiddlies were not held in high esteem.
We all know that anyone expressing criticism of the system or personalities in commie countries would get their collar felt and be in line for some robust re-education. The system of informers was massive, it seemed like ten percent were informing on the others with multiple people reporting on any gathering or event and their reports were cross checked to ensure nothing was missed, those who failed to report something were hauled in and given the third degree.
I had the idea to do an article on how the commies kept a lid on everything because there was a lot of dissent but not openly expressed. It appears to me that our dear leader would love to follow that path; he seems very touchy about being called out in anything be it rent boys or two tier policing. See our Online Harms Law which has just been used to suppress mention of two tier policing and complaints about the invaders. The rent boy story has been memory holed or that would have been on the list as well. There will be many more news items they will try to suppress.
I took the opportunity to watch Deutschland 83 again. This is available on Channel 4 catch up. It gives a good sense of what living in a communist paradise is really like and will take the liberty of enlightening you somewhat. I am sure most of you have already heard of such things but Keith will be gagging to get all this and more up and running here, well, for us anyway, not for the invaders or those of a certain religion.
One of the greatest failings of East Germany was when it built the Berlin Wall, all 96 miles of it, and had already made its entire border with the west like a prison perimeter. The official reason given was to keep out fascists and other right wingers. Previously Berlin had no internal borders though it had 4 military zones. You could travel anywhere freely. After WW2 East Germany was the only country in the world where the population declined – around 20% or 3.5 million had decided to flee. The people were voting with their feet via West Berlin. Haemorrhaging citizens would be an understatement. The great anti fascist protection rampart to give it its correct handle in the East while those in West Berlin nicknamed it the Wall of Shame was designed to keep people in, not out.
One of the slogans used by East Germany was “Socialists work together for the collective good”. How long do we have to wait until this government rattles on about our collective good.
Deutschland 83 is about a young officer in the Army who is coerced into moving to the West so he can be placed as a spy in the West German military. He didn’t want to leave his home and family, his mother needed a kidney transplant and he wanted to care for her. He was recruited by his mother’s sister, a high up in the Ministry of Justice, who promised the mother a chance to get on the transplant waiting list but only if he agreed to become a spy in the west. That is a pretty low bar there.
One of his cousins, a young teenager, was a gifted swimmer but had to shave her body because the “vitamin drink” she was being given caused her to sprout hair everywhere. Having world class athletes was very important to the comrades and they used drugs to ensure it. It was meticulously planned down to when they would be in competition and would have to temporarily stop taking the drugs to avoid being discovered. This was widely publicised soon after the demise of the anti fascist barrier.
Something dear to the heart of our Crayons would be the use of trade union reps to keep track of what subversion was going on in the workplace. Not only did they have to make regular reports they had a quota of people they had to turn in and if they didn’t, their name went on the list and they would lose their place. I get the feeling this would appeal to our deputy prime minister. She could stop all those jokes we make about her time behind the bike sheds.,
In a similar vein, every block of flats had a Blockwart or janitor who also kept an eye on the comings and goings in their block. They would also keep their ears open and listen for anyone expressing opinions not in line with either the government or Marxist-Leninist orthodoxy. I am reminded of my time in Spain though it was long after Franco. You may know that during Franco’s time you might get the dreaded knock on the door at 3am from the Guardia Civil. This is why the Guardia are still not trusted by the rest of the population. The school caretakers also listened to what the children said during playtime. My dad thinks el Caudillo is a right so and so would be reported and result would be the 3am banging on the door.
There are differences between the left and the right when it comes to suppression but the distance between them is not far at all. Their elections are far from free and fair but then can we say that ours are 100% above board, Keith has already managed to gerrymander a complete Reform thrashing in the recent local elections. East Germany had one main Socialist Party but there were several others including a farmer’s party to maintain the fiction that there was a choice. You couldn’t fit a fag paper between them and the main one, the SED, was deemed to be in control via the constitution.
The one thing these far left and far right regimes shared is/was tight control of the borders. For some time now this is one thing that has eluded us. If socialism produces such paradises why do they not survive. My two cents is that they collapse under the weight of their own contradictions. A paradise that needs such a control system can’t be much of a paradise can it. How long can Keith’s shirkers paradise survive. He is always banging on about rewarding the people working hard but then he seems to give everything to the invaders while shafting the rest of us.
© well_chuffed 2025
