Germany's Left party prepares for bigger role as it elects new leadership

[Die Neue Zeit]

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,5575228,00.html



The Left party is set to choose two new leaders at their party convention this weekend, at a time when the party is deeply divided on how to adapt to its growing presence on the political stage.



Last Sunday, the Left party took 5.6 percent of the vote and 11 seats in North-Rhine Westphalia, Germany's biggest and most populous state. One in five voters live in the western state, so it's a crucial result for the party.

"This is a success, because it's the biggest and most populous state and because it's deep in western territory," Lothar Bisky, outgoing joint leader of the party said after the election.

"I'm from the East and now I realize that we're in seven western German regional parliaments. Soon we'll be everywhere," he added.

Bigger presence

At the last national election in 2009, the party managed an impressive 8.4 percent and grabbed 11 seats. It has MPs in all six eastern German states and in Berlin and Brandenburg, it forms part of the government in a coalition with the Social Democrats.

Oskar Lafontaine, a former Social Democrat from the south-western state of Saarland, is credited with making the party more popular in western Germany. The Left party was formed in 2007 with members of the former Socialist party PDS in the East and disgruntled unionists from the west.

While Bisky is the pragmatic leader from the former East, who is keen to compromise to get into coalition governments, Lafontaine is seen as a hardliner, like many of his fellow party members from the west of Germany.

The new candidates for the leadership, Klaus Ernst and Gesine Loetzsch, have similar differences.

"Klaus Ernst who is from Bavaria in the West, stands more on the side of fundamental opposition. For him, participation in government is not important, he feels that as an opposition politician you can exert even more influence," Hans Kleinsteuber, a politics professor from the University of Hamburg told Deutsche Welle.

"Gesine Loetzsch on the other hand is from East Germany and she believes that only as part of a coalition government can you be influential in politics," he said.

New manifesto

One of the main objectives for the new leaders is working on a new manifesto. The Left party's controversial policies include nationalizing of banks and energy companies, legalizing cannabis and abolishing religious education as a separate subject in schools. But the party still has a long way to go before the manifesto is a done deal.

"I want to make sure that we discuss the draft manifesto very thoroughly," Gesine Loetzsch said. "We also have to ask ourselves how we can incorporate our own work into this draft. But I believe the general gist of the draft will be reflected in the new manifesto," she added.

Ernst is a staunch union man, who is keen to strengthen the grassroots of the party.

"I get the impression that our members want to have a say in political and other topics" Ernst said. "For example, how do we involve members in negotiations on coalition agreements? We believe that members should be able to vote in referendums," he added.

Fit for government?

While many politicians from the established parties believe the Left party is not fit for government, Kleinsteuber believes that, on a regional level, it has already made an impact.

"On a national level we feel that the Left party is too inexperienced to enter any coalition government," he told Deutsche Welle.

"But on the state level, they are already a junior partner in two coalition governments and, now, the crucial question is whether that will also happen in North-Rhine Westphalia."

Negotiations in North-Rhine Westphalia are still ongoing. The two strongest parties there, the Social Democrats and the Greens, need a third partner to form a coalition, which could either be the Free Democrats or the Left party.

Author: Nicole Goebel
Editor: Andreas Illmer

[maskerade]

The coalitions formed in Germany have always been so ideologically confusing to me, but I guess it's just a trait of their electoral system. But surely the Greens and the social democrats have more in common with die linke than with fdp....but as always, the communist stigma will probably beat common sense

hoping that it won't though

[Die Neue Zeit]

http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5jekOOcng_myAXHG7gjAfRT4CxBxg



ROSTOCK, Germany — Delegates from Germany's Left Party have elected Klaus Ernst and Gesine Loetzsch to become its new leaders.

German news agency DAPD reported that 92.8 per cent of the 550 delegates voted for Loetzsch and 74.9 per cent for Ernst.

[Red Commissar]

What are their ideological positions? The new leaders, I mean.

[Proletarian Ultra]

DNZ: You called that a week or two ago, didn't you? Good work.

Gramsci: Ernst is a hack-ish union bureaucrat. Don't know about the lady.

[Die Neue Zeit]

I don't think so. The other article was on their gains in North Rhine-Westphalia.

Gesine Loetzsch is part of the same-old, same-old coalitionist tendency from the east.

The Westerners approved of her because they don't care about coalitionist maneuvers in the east. Ernst got less support because, while he opposes unprincipled coalitions in the west, his politics are questionable, and he's a tad too old to be considered a generational successor to Oskar Lafontaine (Loetzsch is only 48). The questionability of his politics may be far enough that a hypothetical parachute-defection to Die Linke by Andrea Ypsilanti (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrea_Ypsilanti) right into the co-chair spot (a la Oskar Lafontaine) might be a better alternative to this hack.

[Ligeia]

Negotiations in North-Rhine Westphalia are still ongoing. The two strongest parties there, the Social Democrats and the Greens, need a third partner to form a coalition, which could either be the Free Democrats or the Left party.

I can't find any english-language news article for it now but:
There'll be no red-red-green coalition, Die Linke is out of the talks to form a coalition.
One of the major reasons given by Kraft (SPD-candidate) were the Linke's reluctance to withdraw their view on the DDR.
According to some news articles, the SPD and Greens first wanted to talk about the DDR and the constitution to test the Linke, and according to their answers they would either continue talks on the real issues (political programs) or stop them completely.
Anyway, it was probably forseeable that this wouldn't work,it was just a farce and another tool to villanise the Linke.

[Crux]

The coalitions formed in Germany have always been so ideologically confusing to me, but I guess it's just a trait of their electoral system. But surely the Greens and the social democrats have more in common with die linke than with fdp....but as always, the communist stigma will probably beat common sense

hoping that it won't though
And I hope that it will. Refusal to cooperate from the greens (who are unprincipled to say the least) and the SPD (who are an ex-worker's party) will only weaken the coalitionist tendencies in die linke. So here's for hoping.

[Demogorgon]

The coalitions formed in Germany have always been so ideologically confusing to me, but I guess it's just a trait of their electoral system. But surely the Greens and the social democrats have more in common with die linke than with fdp....but as always, the communist stigma will probably beat common sense

hoping that it won't though
A lot of it is to do with the electoral threat the Left pose to the Greens and that means the Greens are extremely reluctant to work with the Left both because they need to differentiate themselves but also due to the animosity brought about as a result.

[maskerade]

And I hope that it will. Refusal to cooperate from the greens (who are unprincipled to say the least) and the SPD (who are an ex-worker's party) will only weaken the coalitionist tendencies in die linke. So here's for hoping.

I can agree with this too. But I meant more in the sense that i hope Die Linke wont be marginalized even further and be taken seriously, but I guess in some ways they can get a lot done as an opposition party as well.

[Crux]

I can agree with this too. But I meant more in the sense that i hope Die Linke wont be marginalized even further and be taken seriously, but I guess in some ways they can get a lot done as an opposition party as well.
Well, I think being in coalition with the greens and the spd will marginalize them if anything. Just look at what happened to PRC in italy after they entered Prodi's government.

[maskerade]

Well, I think being in coalition with the greens and the spd will marginalize them if anything. Just look at what happened to PRC in italy after they entered Prodi's government.

Yea, I know what you mean. And the same thing is happening with Sweden's left party, though they aren't really as socialist as die linke

And to be honest, in retrospect I really do think they will be able to push forward their agenda much better as an opposition party, they'll be able to criticize both the government and the CDU, and thus strengthen their identity

[Crux]

Yea, I know what you mean. And the same thing is happening with Sweden's left party, though they aren't really as socialist as die linke

And to be honest, in retrospect I really do think they will be able to push forward their agenda much better as an opposition party, they'll be able to criticize both the government and the CDU, and thus strengthen their identity
Yes, getting into government might drop the swedish left party under the 4% line, when they officially have to be responsible for the greens and social democrats policies. There's already some dissent within the party, although many also seem to be lured by the idea of minister seats.

[Die Neue Zeit]

Yea, I know what you mean. And the same thing is happening with Sweden's left party, though they aren't really as socialist as die linke

And to be honest, in retrospect I really do think they will be able to push forward their agenda much better as an opposition party, they'll be able to criticize both the government and the CDU, and thus strengthen their identity

I read an article about the Left party there in scabby coalition talks for the first time, courtesy of Lars Ohly. They still stuck with their 6-hour workday demand, though.

[maskerade]

I read an article about the Left party there in scabby coalition talks for the first time, courtesy of Lars Ohly. They still stuck with their 6-hour workday demand, though.

Yea, I don't really like Lars Ohly. And the 6 hour workday demand barely passed (or there was at least a lot of controversy/discussion about it), it was close that the right-wingers in the party rejected it and tried to pass more "electable" demands.

But I'll still be voting for them, they're the only party (in the mainstream) which raises working class issues, and the only party which opposes troops in afghanistan. And pretty much anything is better than the right wing alliance.

Sort of doing a 180 from my original point now, but yea, let's hope that Die Linke doesn't get sucked into this trap as well.

[Die Neue Zeit]

Key debates evaded (http://cpgb.org.uk/article.php?article_id=1003954)



The German left party Die Linke is going from strength to strength. But crucial debates on the future of the party, the nature of capitalism and participation in bourgeois governments will seriously test it over the next few months. In the first of two articles (http://cpgb.org.uk/article.php?article_id=1003959), Tina Becker reports from the 2010 conference, which took place on May 15-16 in Rostock



The stormy weather outside the Stadthalle Rostock could have been an omen for the kind of stormy arguments you would expect of a young socialist party that has just begun the process of debating the recently published draft for its first ever party programme. But in fact, as soon as the 570 delegates and 300 or so visitors escaped the rain (passing a few nerdy conservative youths holding up placards bearing names of people “killed by communism”) and entered the city hall of the east German city by the Baltic Sea, it was as if they had entered a calm haven. In fact, the whole conference was almost eerily tranquil. If you did not know the arguments that are currently raging behind the scenes, you would think Die Linke is just one big, happy family. But it certainly is not.

The draft programme, published last month, will be properly debated at next year’s conference. But, of course, one comrade after another hinted at it or made reference to particular formulations within it. It is highly disputed and has already been hotly debated in the bourgeois press. It surely would have been a good idea to allow some form of debate or discussion on the draft at this conference.

Similarly, there was no space allocated to discuss any of the key speeches delivered. There were a lot of disgruntled faces, for example, when Oskar Lafontaine, who has recently resigned as party leader because he is battling cancer, described the “three key tasks of Die Linke” as “fighting for Keynesianism, the re-regulation of the finance markets and economic governance on a European level”.

Instead, the conference had only one real, properly debated point of business: the election of a new leadership. Both current party leaders have resigned for health reasons: Lothar Bisky has for many years been the leader of the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS, the former ‘official communist’ party of East Germany), one of the two components that came together to form Die Linke in 2007.

Oskar Lafontaine, on the other hand, played a crucial role in making a success of a newly emerging organisation in the west of Germany: the WASG (Wahlalternative Arbeit und Soziale Gerechtigkeit), which was made up mainly of disappointed left social democrats, union officials and the far left. He was a leader of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and minister of finance under chancellor Gerhard Schröder, when he resigned all his posts in 1999 over the introduction of a very unpopular, Blairite set of cuts and privatisations, known as Agenda 2010.

With Lafontaine at the helm, the PDS and the WASG merged in 2007, opening the way to success. 25,000 new members have joined since, bringing the total to almost 80,000. The ongoing attempt by the bourgeois media and the political elite to demonise the young party has not paid off. In TV debates, there is now almost always a representative of Die Linke present - it would look strange if its view was not heard. Die Linke is now represented in 13 of the 16 federal state parliaments, relatively comfortably exceeding the undemocratic 5% threshold. It has 78 representatives in the national Bundestag and hundreds of Die Linke members have been elected councillors. The conference was shown live for 10 hours on a popular news channel. The party has changed the political landscape in Germany, no doubt.

And all of that despite the fact that there are some rather big political differences within the membership. The next few months will help to crystallise these differences, which for the last few years have largely remained concealed. It is unlikely though that this will blow the party apart, because there is a relatively healthy internal regime, which allows for different political platforms and tendencies to come together. This is certainly a useful lesson for the British left.

Follow the leader

The 2010 conference felt at times like a farewell concert for Bisky and Lafontaine. There were long speeches by both. Then there were long speeches about both. Then they got presents. Standing ovations. Kisses. It was not quite like in the old East Germany, but ...

The elections themselves were similarly bureaucratic. To elect 44 members of the new leadership took almost 12 hours over two days. And that despite the fact that, apart from one (not very funny) joke candidate, the 10 main posts on the executive were uncontested. The three main positions - leader, secretary and party-building officer - were each filled by two people - organised not only by gender (one man, one woman), but also according to geography (one east, one west). In addition, there are four (!) vice-leaders.

Political orientation was not officially a selection criterion, but clearly had to be considered too. There are about 50 political platforms within the party, some of them organised on single issues, but the most important ones group together comrades who have a common view on a whole range of issues. The biggest ones are:

- Forum Demokratischer Sozialismus (FDS): based mainly in the east and Berlin, it brings together the realos - those particularly keen on government participation so as to bring about ‘real change’ in society.
- Antikapitalistische Linke (AKL): The soft Stalinist Kommunistische Plattform from the east of Germany is the most organised force within this group - it has recently been growing in the west too, mainly because of its formally radical language. At conference, however, it was almost invisible and agreed with most things pushed forward much more energetically and visibly by the Sozialistische Linke.
- Sozialistische Linke (SL): Politically, it is based somewhere between the AKL and the FDS, with its motto being “Radical and realistic”. At the core is the group Marx 21 (formerly Linksruck, the German section of the Socialist Workers Party). Somewhat amusingly, a couple of sympathisers of the SL tried to convince me that Linksruck had indeed closed down and that Marx 21 members are operating independently of the SWP - an illusion that has certainly been fostered by comrades who have been very good at acting like the party’s loyal opposition.
- Emanzipatorische Linke (EL): EL brings together a slightly weird ragbag of ideas, centrally their demand for Grundsicherung, a basic ‘wage’ of around €1,200 that everybody in Germany should receive from the state, no matter if they are a millionaire or a pauper. The idea is not very popular inside Die Linke, but publicly the party is often associated with it.

While the six main leaders belong to either the right FDS or the non-aligned centre, among the four vice-leaders are Sarah Wagenknecht (leader of the Kommunistische Plattform) and Katja Kipping (leader of the Emanzipatorische Linke). The Sozialistische Linke is well represented in the wider party leadership, with Christine Buchholz and Janine Wissler being their most prominent representatives.

As far as I can tell, the Sozialistische Alternative (SAV), the German section of Peter Taaffe’s Committee for a Workers’ International, is not represented on the leadership. Because of a lack of any coherent strategy in Die Linke, it has pretty much manoeuvred itself into a position where very few people take it seriously. For example, in the WASG it argued against merging with the PDS, unless the latter ended all participation in regional governments. Then the SAV decided to join Die Linke in the west, but not in the east, and stood against the PDS in Berlin and later against Die Linke in Rostock.

Later still, the SAV changed its line and tried to join Die Linke everywhere, but some of its leading members were refused entry into the party using undoubtedly very bureaucratic means. However, almost nobody in the membership batted an eyelid, let alone tried to organise any kind of solidarity action. This is a shame, in my view, as politically the SAV has many good and principled things to say. Principles that the Antikapitalistische Linke and the Sozialistische Linke, for example, have given up without a fight (more below).

The new official leaders of the party might be called Klaus Ernst (former leader of the WASG) and Gesine Lötzsch (a longstanding member of the PDS in the east). But in reality it is Gregor Gysi, the very charismatic lawyer, who calls the shots. For a while, the former leader of the PDS was happy to share the limelight with Lafontaine, but he has made it very clear that he does not think of Ernst or Lötzsch as being in the same league. And, as he holds only one official position - that of leader of the party’s fraction in the Bundestag - the magazine Spiegel has called him “the secret leader” of Die Linke. Only it is not a very big secret. He was omnipresent at conference, delivering a total of around five hours of speeches.

He is as unaccountable to the membership as George Galloway was in Respect and a lot of people rolled their eyes when he - yet again - got up to deliver this or that report. Incidentally, both Klaus Ernst and Gesine Lötzsch were heard for exactly seven minutes each - the time allocated to all candidates to introduce themselves.

Red holding lines

I will look at the party’s draft programme in more detail in another Weekly Worker article. But to quickly sum up: the draft, published last month, is a big step to the left, especially compared to the previously published Programmatische Eckpunkte, which has served as a pseudo-programme since 2007. This mentioned socialism only once, as an aside, and was not much more than a Keynesian shopping list. The new draft clearly criticises capitalism and repeatedly names its goal as that of “democratic socialism”. This move to the left could be down to Lafontaine’s influence or it might just reflect the party’s need to appear more radical in the face of the crisis of capitalism.

But there are plenty of controversial issues that will come to the fore in the next few months. For a start, the party will have to clarity what it actually means by “democratic socialism”.

Because the right was first off the mark and started criticising the draft as “painting a horror scenario” of capitalism, the left has been forced into a defensive position. Both the Antikapitalistische Linke and the Sozialistische Linke are keen to highlight the positive things in the programme in order to rescue it from attacks by the right.

The most controversial point is the formulation on the question of government participation. For the time being, the left is concentrating its fire particularly on defending the ‘red holding lines’ in the draft that are supposed to protect the party from taking part in ‘bad’ capitalist governments:

“Die Linke seeks participation in government only if we can achieve an improvement of the living conditions of the people. It shall not take part in any government which pushes privatisation and promotes the erosion of social benefit and jobs. On a federal level, Die Linke, moreover, shall not participate in a government which is engaged in wars, permits military missions of the Bundeswehr abroad and advances rearmament and militarisation.”

However, despite this question being the most hotly debated issue within the organisation, it was hardly discussed apart from in passing during the debate on a couple of motions to conference. Each motion was rushed through with one speech for, one against, lasting not more than three minutes each. This is a very worrying characteristic of Die Linke conferences, especially when compared to the time allocated to the election procedure, The issue of government participation is still as disputed and unresolved as it was before conference.

But it is a most pressing issue. On May 6, Die Linke managed to scrape into the regional parliament of the west German federal state of Northrhine-Westfalia. 5.6% of the vote does not sound like much, but it is no small feat in the biggest of the 16 federal states. As a result, neither a conservative bloc of Christian Democrats (CDU) and Liberal Democrats (FDP) nor a ‘red-green’ coalition of Social Democrats (SPD) and Green Party had the necessary majority to form a government. Because of the German electoral system, there is almost no regional government that is not made up a coalition. And, as Die Linke grows in popularity, this situation is repeated more and more often across Germany.

The SPD in Northrhine-Westfalia officially approached Die Linke to form a ‘red-red-green’ coalition, which would have been the first of its kind in west Germany. But after a few hours, the negotiations were called off - by the SPD, it needs to be stressed. Officially, they did not like what Die Linke had to say about East Germany. But in reality, they were never serious about trying to form a government (unlike some - not all - of the representatives of Die Linke at the talks). As an aside, it is interesting that the SPD must had felt enough pressure from its own left and its voters to pursue such negotiations. Only last year, in a similar situation, the leader of the SPD in the west German state of Hesse had to resign precisely because she wanted to hold such talks.

Worryingly, it is now undisputed within Die Linke whether it should at least try to get into regional governments. And that despite the fact the party’s participation in the regional governments of Berlin and the east German states of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Brandenburg have already proved what such participation as a minority in a capitalist government actually means: you have to take part in forcing through cuts, cuts and cuts again. Especially in this period.

Well, that is because there were no ‘holding lines’, says the left. They are supposed to show that it is not Die Linke which is blocking this or that red-red government - it is the SPD, which will not move far enough in a left direction. But Lucy Redler of the SAV is right (see interview): these purely defensive holding lines are a cheap trick to fool the electorate. The left does not dare speak the truth - that Die Linke should fight in opposition - so it reverts to an outright lie. But that is a very slippery slope and comrade Redler puts her finger on it when she asks, if the SPD were to accept two of Die Linke’s three conditions, then would that not still be better than a government of the CDU and Liberal Democrats? Would there not be the same kind of pressure from “the movements” and “the electorate” to participate in government?

Maybe because they are aware of this slippery slope, the comrades on the left are currently developing another ‘strategy’ to deal with the dilemma: that of tolerating a government of SPD and Greens. Particularly the SL is pushing the idea that Die Linke could use its votes in parliament to help a ‘red-green’ government to take power as a minority - but not take part in that government. They are proposing that Die Linke should help elect such a government without any conditions. The comrades believe that in this way they would absolve themselves from any sins committed by such a government, while at the same time they would prevent a conservative one. This might sound like a preferable option, but it is still an illusion to think Die Linke would not be tainted. It still would have helped to choose the butcher. Incidentally, the SAV also supports this position.

I think that the comrades seriously overestimate the illusions that working class people have in bourgeois governments. As a strong, principled party of the opposition you can have as much - if not more - impact on pushing through reforms. For example, in the west German state of Hesse, the SPD government felt so much under pressure from the growing popularity of Die Linke that, just before regional elections, it scrapped tuition fees - one of the key election demands of Die Linke (as an aside, this was not enough to save the downward spiral of the SPD and the conservatives are now in power there - but they too have not dared to reintroduce the very unpopular tuition fees). And Christine Buchholz’s example of using parliament as a platform surely goes go show that you do not have to be in power to make a real difference.

For all their talk of “the movements”, the left in Die Linke show very little confidence in them.