Die Linke's Oskar Lafontaine: "We want to overthrow capitalism"

[Die Neue Zeit]

"We Want to Overthrow Capitalism" (http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,624880,00.html)



http://www.spiegel.de/img/0,1020,1520302,00.jpg



In an interview with SPIEGEL ONLINE, Left Party Chairman Oskar Lafontaine speaks about his party's chances in the upcoming elections, its alleged drift to the left and why Angela Merkel needs to work through certain aspects of her communist past.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Mr. Lafontaine, is Germany embroiled in a class struggle?

Oskar Lafontaine: The US billionaire Warren Buffett answered this question much better than the Left Party ever could. "It's class warfare; my class is winning," he said. To which I would add: The class that has been losing for years is starting to stir again.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: "Greed, avarice, selfishness and irresponsibility of the ruling class," the rich who "want to make even more money out of a lot of money" -- your party's draft platform for the upcoming German national elections sounds like Marx and Engels. Do you really believe that you can appeal to voters with such strong slogans?

Lafontaine: When the German president (Horst Köhler) talks about "monsters" and (Social Democratic Party leader) Franz Müntefering speaks of "locusts" and "losers," then we have actually made it into the center of society.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: The first draft was much more cautious. In fact, it was so moderate that your comrades from the party's left wing protested and accused it of sounding like a watered-down version of the Social Democrats (SPD). Do the more moderate elements in your party no longer have any say?

Lafontaine: We tightened up the draft. In the process, certain points became clearer. And it's totally normal for different factions of a party to write different documents. That's something I've been familiar with now for over 40 years.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: You have even introduced the term "democratic socialism" into the draft.

Lafontaine: Nobody in our party's executive committee is naive enough to think that we could change our society so much over the next four years that it could rightfully be called democratic socialist. But if the SPD is talking about democratic socialism, one will surely forgive the Left Party for using the term (laughs).

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Your Left Party colleague Sahra Wagenknecht does not want to fix capitalism; she wants to overthrow it. What do you think?

Lafontaine: The entire Left Party sees it that way. We want to overthrow capitalism.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: How would that be possible?

Lafontaine: We will change the economic order. That begins with regulating international financial markets. When we first put this subject on the agenda, our critics were still in the process of rolling out the red carpet for financial capitalism. Financial capitalism has failed. We need to democratize the economy. The workforce needs to have a far greater say in their companies than has been the case so far.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: What should we expect to happen once you've overthrown capitalism?

Lafontaine: A society in which every person enjoys the highest possible degree of freedom.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Do you seriously believe that our society does not provide enough freedom?

Lafontaine: We have a society in which people are excluded from work and live on Hartz IV (ed's: Germany reduced monthly welfare payments for the long-term unemployed introduced as part of structural reforms known as Agenda 2010 implemented in 2003 by the then-government, a coalition of the SPD and Green Party) and in which the educational system reinforces social inequalities. Such a society is not really a free society.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Your candidate lists for the parliamentary elections show a clear trend toward the far left within your party. Carl Wechselberg, your expert on budget issues in the Berlin city government, has accused you of leading the Left Party astray (ed's note: Citing differences of opinion with his party, Wechselberg left the Left Party after this interview was conducted). What is your response?

Lafontaine: The decisions of the Left Party are supported by large majorities. There are always dissenting opinions. In regard to the candidate lists, our reformist forces talk about a leftward shift, while the left wing thinks it sees a shift to the right.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: But in North Rhine-Westphalia, a series of candidates from the far left of the party hold prominent places on the list.

Lafontaine: Yes, but on the other hand, there are state party organizations in which the left wing of the party sees all the candidates coming from the right wing of the party.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Where?

Lafontaine: I'm convinced that the mixture of the candidates on our list reflects the range of positions within the party.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: But your draft platform for the national elections doesn't exactly sound balanced. You want to do a number of things, including abolishing Hartz IV, reintroducing 65 as the retirement age (in 2007, the German government increased the legal age to collect a full pension to 67), pulling the German army out of Afghanistan, introducing a €10 ($13.6) minimum wage and launching an annual public investment program worth €100 billion. With such goals, the Left Party will never be able to enter into a coalition with any other party.

Lafontaine: We have always been very clear about our prerequisites for entering into a coalition. The SPD and the Greens have both significantly changed their positions on Hartz IV. Likewise, on the issues of minimum wage and pensions, those parties have made a certain degree of movement. And when it comes to the issue of withdrawing our troops from Afghanistan, the SPD and the Greens will probably only come to their senses once US President Barack Obama realizes that the war in Afghanistan cannot be won and withdraws his military.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Your positions are all extremely firm demands; but politics requires compromises.

Lafontaine: We are also prepared to make compromises, but every party has certain positions that cannot be ceded. The Greens, for example, would never vote for nuclear power.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: You recently proposed raising the top income tax rate to 80 percent. Do you expect to be taken seriously?

Lafontaine: That is not in our draft manifesto. But, for a long time, I have been calling for that to happen with incomes that are 20 times or more the average salary. Nobody is so productive that he deserves to make more than 20 times the salary of a skilled worker.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: In the past, your poll results have been better. The anti-capitalist Left Party is stagnating in its approval ratings or losing ground precisely in the middle of the deepest economic crisis since 1929. How do you explain that?

Lafontaine: It's true that the Left Party needs to become stronger, but past experience shows that governments tend to make slight gains in times of crisis. Granted, support for the FDP (ed's note: the business-friendly Free Democratic Party) is still growing, but I would already venture to predict that a Christian Democrats/FDP coalition would not have a majority after the parliamentary elections.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: And then?

Lafontaine: Although the (conservative) Christian Democratic Union (CDU) is stagnating in comparison to the last national election and the SPD is losing support, there's a chance we will see a continuation of the grand coalition (ed's note: the current CDU-SPD coalition government). That is exactly what the SPD's leadership sees as their salvation, so they are only pretending to run an election campaign.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: You once said that former SPD leader Kurt Beck could become chancellor immediately if he were to push through the minimum wage, restore the previous pension system, abolish Hartz IV and pull the German military out of Afghanistan. Does this offer apply to the SPD's current candidate for chancellor, Frank-Walter Steinmeier?

Lafontaine: Of course. Our positions are not connected to individuals but to content. If Mr. Steinmeier were to endorse such positions, he could become chancellor tomorrow.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: German Chancellor Angela Merkel wants to continue to measure the Left Party by its attitude toward East Germany's past.

Lafontaine: An interesting psychological case. People tend to accuse other people of their own mistakes. Ms. Merkel needs to deal with her own past in East Germany and that of her own party. She was an FDJ functionary for agitation and propaganda (ed's note: The FDJ was an official youth movement in communist East Germany). As such she belonged to the fighting reserve of the party (ed's note: the Communist Socialist Unity Party (SED)).

SPIEGEL ONLINE: What's at issue here is how one sees East Germany, 20 years after the fall of the Wall. One has the impression that this issue has not been definitively resolved within your party.

Lafontaine: The PDS has, as one of the Left Party's predecessor parties, dealt with the question of its relationship to East Germany at many party conferences and in the papers [...] Only the CDU has not done so. It swallowed the assets of two of the SED's satellite parties, and otherwise covers up its past with a cloak of silence.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Was East Germany a dictatorship in which the rule of law did not apply?

Lafontaine: The GDR was not a state based on the rule of law -- that is a much more precise answer.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: In a few days, the German president will be elected. Will the SPD's candidate, Gesine Schwan, be able to rely on your vote in a possible second or third round of voting, should the incumbent, Horst Köhler, not achieve an absolute majority in the first round?

Lafontaine: We have yet to make a decision on this issue. We will discuss how to proceed after the first round of voting, should Horst Köhler not already have been confirmed in office.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Does that mean that your own candidate, Peter Sodann, would be a good fit for the Left Party?

Lafontaine: A lot of media outlets have written about him in a very disparaging way. We continue to believe that there must be a candidate for the highest political office who castigates Hartz IV and wars that violate international law.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: You would like to become governor of Saarland. In a survey conducted in that federal state, the Left Party lost 5 percentage points and is now only supported by 18 percent of the population. Will party leader Lafontaine no longer emerge as the likely election victor?

Lafontaine: And other polls say other things. I'm convinced that we will get 20-plus percent of the vote in Saarland.

[Crux]

A potential shift to the left finally?

[JohnnyC]

This is encouraging, but I'm afraid that revolutionary rhetoric means nothing if you are reformist in practice.Good news are that chairman probably wouldn't say things like this if he didn't have the support of majority behind him.

[apathy maybe]

Lafontaine: A society in which every person enjoys the highest possible degree of freedom.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Do you seriously believe that our society does not provide enough freedom?

Lafontaine: We have a society in which people are excluded from work and live on Hartz IV (ed's: Germany reduced monthly welfare payments for the long-term unemployed introduced as part of structural reforms known as Agenda 2010 implemented in 2003 by the then-government, a coalition of the SPD and Green Party) and in which the educational system reinforces social inequalities. Such a society is not really a free society.
Funny thing, I agree that we should have a society with the highest degree of freedom, and I agree that the present society isn't such.

However, I am unsure that the method of electoral politics is the way to go about bringing that freedom.

Does anyone know if Die Linke has in it's constitution support for revolution? If they were in power, and workers started occupying factories, against the law, what is their position on that?

[L.J.Solidarity]

Die Linke has no official programme/manifesto, but "Eckpunkte" (cornerstones), a programme has been in the making for two years now and doesn't really show signs of completion. I'm pretty sure the issue of revolution isn't mentioned in the cornerstones, and I think the majority of members doesn't consider Die Linke a revolutionary party.
However the Left Party's Bundesschiedskommission (appellation court) just yesterday declared that having a "leninist-trotskyist theory of revolution" is no reason for expulsion and there's a place for revolutionaries under the "umbrella of Die Linke." However this doesn't apply for every revolutionary, as the quotes stem from the reasons given for the judgment of denying membership to Lucy Redler and Sascha Stanicic, who are members of the central committee of SAV (CWI in Germany) and should originally have been expelled for rather ideological reasons, but now they where thrown out because the SAV is running against Die Linke. in council elections in the north-eastern city of Rostock after the latter refused to enter into negotiations for a common candidacy.

[Yehuda Stern]

Is this the same party which supported Israel in its last assault on Gaza?

[L.J.Solidarity]

The party didn't support Israel. Just the Berlin state organisation (which is ruling in a coalition with the SPD and has become more right-wing than the Greens) and some other people on the Party's right wing did, Co-Chairman Gregor Gysi was more or less among them. However under the present circumstances there's no way any party congress would pass anything supporting Israel on federal level.

[cyu]

Quite interesting to see what they have to deal with.

The capitalist controlled media is obviously asking quite hostile questions and yet even if Left did win, I'm not expecting much more than slightly more radical reformism than the reformism we're used to from politicians that the press is allowing on the air.

Until control of the media is taken out of the hands of the wealthy, I'm not expecting much from the German left.

[Die Neue Zeit]

Die Linke has no official programme/manifesto, but "Eckpunkte" (cornerstones), a programme has been in the making for two years now and doesn't really show signs of completion. I'm pretty sure the issue of revolution isn't mentioned in the cornerstones, and I think the majority of members doesn't consider Die Linke a revolutionary party.
However the Left Party's Bundesschiedskommission (appellation court) just yesterday declared that having a "leninist-trotskyist theory of revolution" is no reason for expulsion and there's a place for revolutionaries under the "umbrella of Die Linke." However this doesn't apply for every revolutionary, as the quotes stem from the reasons given for the judgment of denying membership to Lucy Redler and Sascha Stanicic, who are members of the central committee of SAV (CWI in Germany) and should originally have been expelled for rather ideological reasons, but now they where thrown out because the SAV is running against Die Linke. in council elections in the north-eastern city of Rostock after the latter refused to enter into negotiations for a common candidacy.

Although Die Linke isn't a revolutionary party, the more important question is: is it a proletarian party, politically and ideologically independent from the bourgeoisie and even "bourgeois workers parties"? The answer for this less-than-ideal vanguard party (contrary to Yehuda's mistaken generalisation above) is still mixed.

[I posted this thread and especially Lafontaine's pic only because I like his appearance and straight talk, notwithstanding his utter inability to think things fresh.]

[Dimentio]

Lets see how it will go for them in the next elections.

[communard resolution]

the Berlin state organisation (which is ruling in a coalition with the SPD and has become more right-wing than the Greens)

I think this is all we need to know really. It's what happens to reformist parties once they gain power.

[Rjevan]

Hm, just a few editions of "Der Spiegel", they reported about "Die Linke" trying to present themselves more middle class left-liberal and social democrat-like in order to gain more votes, because they thought that their more radical parts would fighten off too many people. And now they try it the other way around...

Last year, during the Bavarian election, I listened to Lafontaine, speaking in the city I go to school and I have to say that he's a good speaker and his speech was well-done and impressing. But he is a demagogue, embittered about the SPD for personal reasons and now trying to take revenge on them and you never know what he's really about, so I don't think his word has much weight.

Besides from being reformist, I sometimes agree with "Die Linke" but most time they are lame and very disappointing, so I don't count on them to improve anything but I'm still interested, how much votes they will gain in this year's elections.

[Wakizashi the Bolshevik]

Sounds good.
Next step: kicking out all right-wing elemenst and become a true Worker's party.

[Audeamus]

Hm, just a few editions of "Der Spiegel", they reported about "Die Linke" trying to present themselves more middle class left-liberal and social democrat-like in order to gain more votes, because they thought that their more radical parts would fighten off too many people. And now they try it the other way around...


When were they trying to present themselves as social-democratic? I imagine they were doing so before the current economic crisis, and have shifted their stated position in the hopes of taking advantage of any backlash against the capitalist system that might surface, and translating that into votes for their party.

[RaiseYourVoice]

When were they trying to present themselves as social-democratic? I imagine they were doing so before the current economic crisis, and have shifted their stated position in the hopes of taking advantage of any backlash against the capitalist system that might surface, and translating that into votes for their party.

The head of the party presented an election programm which was highly social-democratic. Due to massive resistance at the party base there is a new programm now, which seems better at least. And no this was right in the economic crisis. Oscar Lafontaine is anything but revolutionary, he is oppurtunistic scum. If people wanted to "kick the right wing elements" out of the party, it would start with him. This is nothing more than empty words (something oscar is pretty good at), but it has some truth behind it: that the base of die Linke is not buying the course to coalition with the SPD.

[Die Neue Zeit]

Hm, just a few editions of "Der Spiegel", they reported about "Die Linke" trying to present themselves more middle class left-liberal and social democrat-like in order to gain more votes, because they thought that their more radical parts would fighten off too many people.


The head of the party presented an election programm which was highly social-democratic.

Yes, it's this one:

'Left Party Lite' Woos Middle Class (http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,615237,00.html)

Programmatically, Die Linke still has a LONG way to go. Even Lassalleanism (heavy emphasis on workers' cooperatives, but with "state aid") would be two or three steps well ahead of the post-WWII "social democratic" consensus.


But he is a demagogue, embittered about the SPD for personal reasons and now trying to take revenge on them and you never know what he's really about, so I don't think his word has much weight.

He resigned from the SPD chairmanship mainly because of Schroeder's neoliberal Agenda 2010 crap. I don't know what personal reasons not tied to this there are.

[Die Neue Zeit]

In the meantime, I hope Die Linke does well in this weekend's elections. :)

[Rjevan]

He resigned from the SPD chairmanship mainly because of Schroeder's neoliberal Agenda 2010 crap. I don't know what personal reasons not tied to this there are.
Well, he and Schroeder disliked each other more and more, Schroeder made a pretty crude joke about the knife-attack by this mad women who almost killed Lafontaine and he complained about "a lack of team spirit and solidarity" in the SPD and by his colleagues.


In the meantime, I hope Die Linke does well in this weekend's elections. :)
Hm, according to recent polls "Die Linke" is around 10% but of course this is not sure and it's also said that some of their seats and candidates on their lists are pretty unfirm... but I think they will get their 10% if the DKP, who's also running doesn't draw voters off but I don't think so, the DKP is without real chances and most people voting for "Die Linke" wouldn't vote for the DKP anyway.

[Pogue]

Wow, a social democrat has said something radical in an interview. It must be true, clearly this man wants a revolution, thats why he spends so much time in bourgeoisie politics.

[The Deepest Red]

thats why he spends so much time in bourgeoisie politics.

What's your alternative to parliamentary democracy then?

[piet11111]

What's your alternative to parliamentary democracy then?

i will take a wild guess but how about a revolution to overthrow that circus ?

[Sasha]

What's your alternative to parliamentary democracy then?


H-L-V-S (http://www.revleft.com/vb/../member.php?u=14843)
Libertarian Communist
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: UK
Organisation: IWW/L&S
Posts: 3,164
Tendency: Anarchist (http://www.revleft.com/vb/../group.php?groupid=2)
just a hint but i think there are some clues there...

[The Deepest Red]

I meant in the here and now, not in the fantasies of young anarchists. There's no point in proposing an alternative system, such as one based upon workers councils for instance, without first demonstrating the limitations of bourgeois-democratic structures which the majority of workers still identify with and consider perfectly legitimate. The revolution to "overthrow that circus" will not happen without these people.

[Rjevan]

According to first extrapolations Die Linke got 7,5%, that means they won +1,4% in comparison to the last election and have no 8 seats, one more than before. What's really fascinating is that the conservative party of chancellor Merkel, the CDU, lost 5,5% (but is still the strongest fraction with 31%) while the market liberals, the FDP, a party for employers and businessmen, which vehemently protests against higher taxes for the rich, etc. got 11% and is therefore, with +4,9% the big winner! I don't believe it!

[L.J.Solidarity]

This outcome is rather bad for Die Linke, many had hoped for 10% and 8 would have been the minimum that could still be called a success. Of course it's more than in 2004, but back then the party was still called PDS and virtually didn't exist outside the former GDR. I fear right-wing elements within the party are going to profit from it, as they were weakened prior to the election and some of their leading figures left Die Linke, so they are now going blame the more radical(-looking) comrades for the bad result.
The DKP and the PSG (German section of ICFI) seem to have even less votes than in 2004 in the constituencies already counted, about 0.1 and 0.0% respectively. Might have to do with most workers not having gone to vote, only 43% of those entitled actually did.

[Dimentio]

According to first extrapolations Die Linke got 7,5%, that means they won +1,4% in comparison to the last election and have no 8 seats, one more than before. What's really fascinating is that the conservative party of chancellor Merkel, the CDU, lost 5,5% (but is still the strongest fraction with 31%) while the market liberals, the FDP, a party for employers and businessmen, which vehemently protests against higher taxes for the rich, etc. got 11% and is therefore, with +4,9% the big winner! I don't believe it!

Apparently, all of Europe is somewhat tilting towards the right. It is quite unfathomable, especially since the USA is moving towards the left.

[The Deepest Red]

According to first extrapolations Die Linke got 7,5%, that means they won +1,4% in comparison to the last election and have no 8 seats, one more than before. What's really fascinating is that the conservative party of chancellor Merkel, the CDU, lost 5,5% (but is still the strongest fraction with 31%) while the market liberals, the FDP, a party for employers and businessmen, which vehemently protests against higher taxes for the rich, etc. got 11% and is therefore, with +4,9% the big winner! I don't believe it!

What about the SPD?

[The Deepest Red]

Apparently, all of Europe is somewhat tilting towards the right. It is quite unfathomable, especially since the USA is moving towards the left.

The right, particularly the ultra-right, has simply campaigned better and provided a better alternative to people than the left. :(

The low turn out across the board will always favour the right too.

[cyu]

The right, particularly the ultra-right, has simply campaigned better and provided a better alternative to people than the left.

From http://www.reddit.com/r/socialism/comments/8q962/dutch_rightists_score_in_elections_whats/c0a3rzc

Parties have many different planks in their platforms. Some of their planks are used mainly just to get them elected, others are the ones that will actually be implemented when they get in power.

Capitalism today is facing one of its greatest threats. Basically everyone now knows there are serious problems with it - assuming they haven't been hiding from all news programs.

So if you were a capitalist and you knew your system was under threat, what would you do? Would you keep supporting the parties that traditionally backed capitalism, knowing that those parties will lose? No - you'd instead support a party that will pretend to fix the problem of capitalism, but will instead busy itself with doing other things when elected, instead of changing capitalism. This is where social conservative parties come in.

Obviously, it's a bit harder to get real leftists to only pretend to solve capitalism (not that it hasn't been done) - but social conservative parties are easier. Once elected, they can just spend all their time on cultural issues, and keep the capitalists in power.

So how do the capitalists get the social conservatives into power? Guess who controls the media and can provide the most funding to the parties?

[Demogorgon]

According to first extrapolations Die Linke got 7,5%, that means they won +1,4% in comparison to the last election and have no 8 seats, one more than before. What's really fascinating is that the conservative party of chancellor Merkel, the CDU, lost 5,5% (but is still the strongest fraction with 31%) while the market liberals, the FDP, a party for employers and businessmen, which vehemently protests against higher taxes for the rich, etc. got 11% and is therefore, with +4,9% the big winner! I don't believe it!
I suspect that is simply because the FDP are the largest opposition party at present. The main opposition always do well in European Parliament elections.

[redarmyfaction38]

I think this is all we need to know really. It's what happens to reformist parties once they gain power.
i'm not sure about this, but i believe, despite being one of the major players in the creation of die lienke, the cwi were marginalised and possibly left/were expelled from die lienke after its swing to the right.
feel free to correct and educate me.

[Rjevan]

What about the SPD?
The SPD got 20,8% = -0,7% = 23 seats... so basically no change for them.


The DKP and the PSG (German section of ICFI) seem to have even less votes than in 2004 in the constituencies already counted, about 0.1 and 0.0% respectively. Might have to do with most workers not having gone to vote, only 43% of those entitled actually did.
I saw that, too... I would have expectedat least 0,1% again or maybe 0,2% becuase some workers who lost their jobs/are fearing to loose them voted for them but 0,0%... that's a bad surprise.

[Spirit of Spartacus]

I've always told German comrades that in my humble opinion, its too early to decide the precise nature of Die Linke's politics. I think it is still an open question. There are many different tendencies within the party.

I think the dividing lines now ought to be drawn between those who want to present a radical challenge to the existing structure (i.e. the revolutionaries) and those who want to present a programme of limited change within the existing structure (i.e. the reformists).

If Oskar Lafontaine has to come out so openly in favor of revolutionary rhetoric (assuming that it is mere rhetoric from him), its still a good sign, because it shows that at a fundamental level, at the grass-roots of the party, there is a lot of space for revolutionary politics.

[Die Neue Zeit]

According to first extrapolations Die Linke got 7,5%, that means they won +1,4% in comparison to the last election and have no 8 seats, one more than before. What's really fascinating is that the conservative party of chancellor Merkel, the CDU, lost 5,5% (but is still the strongest fraction with 31%) while the market liberals, the FDP, a party for employers and businessmen, which vehemently protests against higher taxes for the rich, etc. got 11% and is therefore, with +4,9% the big winner! I don't believe it!

Relative to the rest of the PEL, that's good. As for the PEL as a whole, what the hell happened?

[chebol]

i'm not sure about this, but i believe, despite being one of the major players in the creation of die lienke, the cwi were marginalised and possibly left/were expelled from die lienke after its swing to the right.
feel free to correct and educate me.

Not quite true. The CWI can hardly be described as a "major" player in the creation of Die Linke, although they were certainly involved.

In Berlin (as a protest against the more rightwing tendencies in Die Linke there, which is in coalition with the SPD), and more recently in Rostock (where I believe the CWI has pre-existing councilors), the CWI, while otherwise part of Die Linke, has stood or planned to stand, against Die Linke in elections.

This has made them easy targets for those in Die Linke who want to marginalise the left more generally, but the CWI are still part of the party. Some members have been denied (re)entry, and others are faced with possible expulsion, for the reasons above.

[chebol]

I've always told German comrades that in my humble opinion, its too early to decide the precise nature of Die Linke's politics. I think it is still an open question. There are many different tendencies within the party.

While this is, in a sense, correct, I've always responded to this kind of hand-wringing by saying that the best way to sort out where Die Linke's going to go i to get involved and try to win it to better politics while there's still a chance.

"On s'engage et puis on voit."

[Die Neue Zeit]

Die Linke disappoints



How come electoral support for Die Linke has decreased while the effects of the deepening capitalist crisis on the working class in Germany have increased? Tina Becker takes a closer look



In Germany too, the crisis of capitalism has not produced a left shift in society. Though the extreme right did not matter at all and did not win any seats in the EU elections, it was the ‘respectable right’ that was declared the winner. The Liberal Democrats (FDP) increased their share of the vote from 6.1% to 11%.

Both parties of the ‘grand coalition government’ were punished: The social democratic SPD received its lowest ever national share of the vote with 20.8% (down from 21.5%), the conservative CDU lost even more votes, but still ended up with 37.9%. The Greens, until 2005 part of a coalition government alongside the SPD, got 12.1% (up from 11.9%). As the next parliamentary election is only three months away, the EU poll can be seen as a dress rehearsal. If things do not change dramatically, we can expect a ‘black-yellow’ CDU-FDP coalition government.

Of most interest to us is, of course, the result of Germany’s new left party, Die Linke. In a word, it was disappointing: with 7.5% of the vote, it fell far short of its self-declared target of 10% (which would have given it 10 MEPs). Only a few months ago, Die Linke was polling at around 14%, and 7.5% is lower than even the most cautious voices predicted. It is also disappointing in comparison to the 8.7% the party achieved in the 2005 parliamentary elections, when it saw 57 members elected.

So how is it that support for Die Linke has fallen while the deepening capitalist crisis is making its effects felt on the working class in Germany? Was it, as the first reaction from the party’s headquarters in Berlin suggested, because supporters of Die Linke are “not interested in Europe”, as they “currently have a lot of other problems, with some fighting for their day-to-day survival”?

Or was it, as joint party chair Lothar Bisky said, the party’s “in-fighting, which had nothing do to with Europe”, that put off potential voters? He certainly is not alone in this view. The bourgeois media gleefully reported the rather unpleasant consequences of candidates who failed to be selected for either the EU or national elections choosing to contest the decision in the courts. Or was the loss of electoral support caused by the “10% of nutters” bringing Die Linke so much discredit? This is the charming phrase coined by Gregor Gysi (joint leader of the parliamentary faction) to describe the “sectarians” in the party - ie, those defining themselves as revolutionary socialists or communists.

German decline

This much-repeated phrase at least points to a truth, in my view. The left in Die Linke is growing in influence. The voices calling for a more radical, more clearly anti-capitalist politics are getting louder. The deepening crisis is demanding radical answers that go to the root of the problem - ie, capitalism’s illogical and destructive need to generate profit. It is quite possible that the German voters have punished Die Linke for being too tame.

A radical alternative is certainly needed. The crisis has led to increased attacks on working conditions. At least 1.1 million employees have been forced into the so-called Kurzarbeit, a shorter working week. Most of these employees now work four instead of five days, with some of the financial shortfall made up by the state. In most cases, they suffer a cut in wages of about 10%. This special arrangement, normally restricted to six months, has existed in German employment law for many years and is supposed to avoid lay offs when a company is going through a temporary rough patch. But the crisis has changed all of that and there are now hundreds of companies that have been operating the Kurzarbeit, some for more than six months.

Elsewhere, workers are forced to take their holidays when it suits their employer - when there is a slump in orders perhaps. Not surprisingly, there are no official figures for this. But I personally know of workers in the once thriving media sector, who have had to take almost half their annual leave in this way.

Unemployment is widely expected to rise to over five million (around 10%) in 2010. Currently the figure stands at 8.4%, despite the various efforts of the government to massage it by shoving unemployed people into useless training programmes or forcing them to take up the much-hated ‘one euro jobs’ (thousands of long-term unemployed are threatened with losing their benefits if they refuse to work in menial jobs, which pay as little as €1 per hour in addition to their benefits).

There is no country more dependent than Germany on the fortunes of global capitalism. In 2007, it was responsible for 17% of all exported goods worldwide. One in five employees in Germany is working in the production of commodities solely for export. But the crisis has led to a dramatic collapse in orders - in 2008, Germany exported almost 8% less than the year before. For 2009, a further 10% decline is predicted. In the main export industry, cars, demand has fallen by 20%.

Germany’s ruling coalition has intervened in the economy to an unprecedented degree. Two Konjunkturpakete (financial packages for economic growth) have so far seen state investment of around €100 billion. In addition, a number of banks have de facto been nationalised by the CDU-SPD coalition, ‘emergency credits’ have been granted and the government is currently preparing to give a ‘debt guarantee’ of €1.5 billion to the new owner of the troubled car maker, Opel, after the collapse of its parent company, GM Motors. There has even been some talk that, instead of allowing certain companies to go bust, its owners should have some of their property seized by the state.

But so far the anger over these attacks has not translated into industrial or political action. The main sentiment is fear - people are afraid for their jobs - and who can blame them? The unions too are on the defensive. Almost all union leaders continue to support the SPD as the lesser evil (a sentiment expressed by many speakers at the large anti-crisis demonstrations of May 16). Most are cooperating in pushing through Kurzarbeit. In the case of Opel, the powerful shop stewards committee a few months ago even suggested that the workers should buy the company (together with Opel traders) - a “voluntary cut in wages” would raise the necessary €1 billion. Not that they expected an increased say for the workers in the running of the company - the committee suggested that “GM Motors should retain its majority on the company board”. After all, they had managed the company so well up till then, right?

Conservative chancellor Angela Merkel is more or less doing what the left had been demanding for years: state intervention to aid industry. Before the current crisis, there was a certain space for the kind of warmed-up social democracy advocated by the leadership of Die Linke. Now this position is firmly occupied by the rightwing government.

So there is lots of room for manoeuvre, to put it mildly. But, led by the realo wing around Gysi and Bisky, Die Linke has so far avoided taking a clear anti-capitalist stance - they do, after all, have to think about their potential SPD and Green coalition partners. In Berlin and the east German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Die Linke has now been part of the government for several years - and has itself been responsible for introducing cuts and closures. Despite this experience of having to oversee such attacks, the majority of the party’s leadership is very much in favour of working towards a national coalition to manage capitalism.

However, the opposition to this course is gathering momentum. About a third of the party’s 44-strong executive can be counted as critics of this course, to one degree or another. At the congress that selected the candidates for the EU elections, a majority rebelled against the realo wing and elected leftwing peace campaigner Tobias Pflüger. On the other hand, Sylvia-Yvonne Kaufmann and Andre Brie, both leading so-called ‘reformists’ and keen advocates of government participation alongside the SPD, were cast aside by the congress. Not exactly gracious in defeat, Kaufmann has since joined the SPD, while Brie has publicly attacked the “leftwing drift” and declared it “questionable whether Die Linke will survive Lafontaine”.

Die Linke left

Oskar Lafontaine is an interesting figure within Die Linke. He is a prime example of a political opportunist. As former finance minister, he resigned from Gerhard Schröder’s government in 1999 over the introduction of a neoliberal package. He certainly lacks a clear, coherent political programme, but he responds quickly to a shift in circumstances and recently declared that “we want capitalism to be overthrown”. He is currently something of a figurehead for the Die Linke left and retains a powerful position as co-chair of both the parliamentary faction and party.

He pushed through the party’s anti-crisis programme in March, which marked a small, but clear step to the left - despite the terrible name Schutzschirm für die Menschen (protective shield for the people). It talked about the need for “real alternatives” to the “economic system of capitalism”, which is not much - but a lot more radical than most documents published by the party.

Since then, though, the right has been on the march again. The draft programme for the September elections, prepared mainly by Gysi and his ally, Dietmar Bartsch, is a 58-page celebration of nothingness and meaningless phrases. For example, there is a lot of talk about the need for more “economic democracy” - a concept as empty as it sounds. The first draft did not even mention socialism - “It’s an election programme. If anybody believes we will introduce socialism in the next four years, he clearly has a screw loose,” explained Bartsch. The opposition was so strong that two more drafts have been published, to be debated at a national congress on June 20-21. The latest at least contains a commitment to “democratic socialism” - though what exactly that is or how we could get there remains unclear.

The loudest anti-capitalist voice in Die Linke is, somewhat incredibly, that of the Kommunistische Plattform. Made up almost entirely of old and lost souls from the former East Germany, the KP has succeeded in gathering a certain momentum. Its leader, Sahra Wagenknecht (a spitting image of Rosa Luxemburg, including the beehive and the limp), has been on TV chat shows, demonstrations and meetings non-stop since the financial crisis began. If anybody is looking for a comment from a commie, they seek out this eloquent academic.

She was instrumental in forming the Antikapitalistische Linke platform, which has brought together the cleverest members of the internal opposition. AL has produced hard-hitting criticisms - clearly written by comrade Wagenknecht - of the of the realo wing of the party and its draft election programme. In a powerful article, published in the daily left newspaper Junge Welt on April 17, the comrades outline how in some respects the election draft is to the right of the government’s anti-crisis programme, which, for example called for a national minimum wage of €10 per hour, whereas the first Die Linke draft only demanded €8. Instead of a maximum working week of 35 hours (anti-crisis programme), Germans should now work a maximum of 40 hours (election programme). Instead of a “5% tax for millionaires”, the party leadership now thinks a one-off “millionaire’s levy” would be sufficient. And so on.

What about the rest of the internal opposition? Contrary to the KP, Marx21 (formerly Linksruck, the German section of the Socialist Workers Party) stands out as the most loyal ‘opposition’ group within Die Linke. It have been rewarded with a number of top places in regional election lists (in the federal state of Hesse, 27-year-old Janine Wissler is the de facto boss of their six-member Die Linke parliamentary faction) and about a dozen or so Marx21 members are employed by MPs or the parliamentary party in Berlin.

You would be hard pressed to find any comment on the Marx21 website on the programmatic debate. Apart from a quarterly magazine, the comrades do not seem to write anything. But then, how could they engage meaningfully in this debate? After all, leading Marx21 member Christine Buchholz had already ‘theorised’ that Germany does not need a socialist party when writing in 2005 (then about the WASG): it “would become superfluous if it adopted a socialist programme, because it would exclude many of the people who could be won to the WASG”. No wonder this kind of ‘opposition’ is not attracting many comrades. The membership of Marx21 still hovers around the 200 mark - roughly the same as five years ago.

Another group that has manoeuvred itself into a position of total impotence is Sozialistische Alternative (SAV), the German section of the Socialist Party’s Committee for a Workers’ International. In 2005, it tried to get the WASG to agree to the merger with the PDS only on condition that the PDS discontinued its participation in the government coalition in Berlin. When this was unsuccessful, it withdrew from Die Linke in Berlin and the east of Germany and concentrated its efforts on a Berlin-based campaign, which stood against Die Linke (then still the PDS). With dismal results.

In the west, however, it was apparently OK to remain in Die Linke. This was silly, unprincipled politics - after all, there was one national leadership, one party programme, one internal battle to be had against the in Realpolitik of the executive. In September 2008, the SAV finally recognised the bankruptcy of its position: “We have come to the conclusion that, despite the politics of Die Linke in Berlin, it is useful to work in the party in order to help build a strong, fighting and socialist party.” Nothing had qualitatively changed to justify the SAV’s sudden U-turn.

Strangely enough, though, Die Linke has not been too keen on welcoming the SAV back into the fold. The membership applications of 11 comrades were rejected. And while it was still arguing its case before various party commissions, the SAV stood again against Die Linke in the eastern city of Rostock last moth - giving the party leadership the final piece of ammunition it needed to permanently exclude the SAV.

The party congress in June will show the current power relations within Die Linke, with a lot of decisions undoubtedly influenced by the position taken by Lafontaine. While his move to the left has to be welcome, it is clearly problematic to rely on someone akin to George Galloway on a good day.

Clearly, there is a desperate need for an organised opposition that is democratic, socialist, anti-Stalinist and anti-capitalist - and we are seeing the beginnings of such a formation. It would have a real chance of taking on the rightwing leadership - especially in this very fluid political period.



http://www.cpgb.org.uk/worker/773/dielinke.html

[Louis Pio]

but now they where thrown out because the SAV is running against Die Linke. in council elections in the north-eastern city of Rostock after the latter refused to enter into negotiations for a common candidacy.

Well you make yourself easy targets then. Running against the party one belongs too is never popular and of course good amunition for the rightwing.
There should be really massive gains to be made by running before it makes any sense too me.

[Die Neue Zeit]

Well you make yourself easy targets then. Running against the party one belongs too is never popular and of course good amunition for the rightwing.
There should be really massive gains to be made by running before it makes any sense too me.

Isn't that "running against the party one belongs to" a violation of democratic centralism, anyway?

[Nothing Human Is Alien]

...bourgeois-democratic structures which the majority of workers still identify with and consider perfectly legitimate.

Do they? Then why, in a large number of countries, do half - or more - of the population not even bother to vote? Why did 2/3 of the European electorate abstain from the recent EU elections?

Even in the much vaunted 2008 presidential elections here in the U.S., only 61.7% of eligible voters cast ballots.

[robbo203]

" (http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,624880,00.html)
Lafontaine: The entire Left Party sees it that way. We want to overthrow capitalism.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: How would that be possible?

Lafontaine: We will change the economic order. That begins with regulating international financial markets. When we first put this subject on the agenda, our critics were still in the process of rolling out the red carpet for financial capitalism. Financial capitalism has failed. We need to democratize the economy. The workforce needs to have a far greater say in their companies than has been the case so far..


Self evidently , "Die Linke" does not want to "overthow capitalism" or, at any rate, they just dont understand what is meant by "capitalism" (just like so many other leftists habitually do, capitalism is simplistically equated with the free market) . The above excerpt alone is more than enough to demonstrate that this is just another left wing reformist party with state capitalist pretensions to regulating capitalism rather than getting rid of it. This is complete dead end and it is pointless getting exited about it

[Louis Pio]

Isn't that "running against the party one belongs to" a violation of democratic centralism, anyway?

I don't think Die Linke has democratic centralism. But I guess that most parties would see it as a severe breach of discipline regardless of wheter they subscribe to democratic centralism or not.

[L.J.Solidarity]

Isn't that "running against the party one belongs to" a violation of democratic centralism, anyway?

What democratic centralism? Die Linke is a broooooaaad left party and as such extremely pluralistic. You'll find everything from diehard liberals (see Brie and some other guys in Berlin) to "SPD of the good old days"-social democrats (a large part of the active membership in western Germany), basic income crusaders with no clear line on anything else, semi-Stalinists (KPF), trotskyists with (SAV) and without (marx21) principle, self-proclaimed anarchists and with some luck even the occasional maoist. So, trying to impose democratic centralism on the party as a whole would blow it apart immediately. That doesn't mean some leaders wouldn't try to do it anyway, but mostly with little success.
Apparently at the moment there are no additional expulsions on the way, but rumor has it that some members of the youth organisation's central committee will try to have SAV thrown out of Linksjugend altogether at the next national congress. However due to deep-rooted pluralism among the delegates(especially within Linksjugend ['solid]) this seems to be bound to fail.

[Die Neue Zeit]

"Basic income crusaders"? :lol: Yeah, I heard about them. :D

Democratic centralism was a concept long introduced by the pre-war SPD, not by Lenin and the Bolsheviks.

[Die Neue Zeit]

http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUSLR21809120090628

The basic points of Die Linke's election "manifesto":


Wants a "redistribution from the top to the bottom". Only incomes of above 12,000 euros per year should be taxed and the top tax rate should be raised to 53 from 45 percent. Wants a "millionaire's tax" on private wealth.

I prefer plebiscites to implement special income taxes for millionaires and billionaires myself (http://www.revleft.com/vb/socio-income-democracy-t92929/index.html).


Private banks should be nationalised; employees should have a larger stake in their companies; mass layoffs at firms not facing insolvency should be banned.

There was recent fuss over the SPD becoming the "party of state aid." Since nobody amongst the political pundits knows the connection between this phrase and the Gotha Program, I'd like to know why Die Linke hasn't taken a "co-op formation with state aid" approach to mass layoffs (http://www.revleft.com/vb/pre-cooperative-worker-t88629/index.html).