Die Linke: recent developments?

[Die Neue Zeit]

After the recent Hesse debacle between the SPD and the German workers' vanguard party - Die Linke ("The Left") - what will future trends be like for Die Linke and its factions (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Die_Linke#Currents_and_tendencies), their unifying programme (http://die-linke.de/fileadmin/download/international/programmatic_points.pdf), and Oskar Lafontaine's apparent desire to incorporate portions of the Communist Manifesto into Die Linke's own manifesto and/or programme (http://www.deutsche-welle.de/dw/article/0,2144,3264553,00.html)?

[redarmyfaction38]

After the recent Hesse debacle between the SPD and the German workers' vanguard party - Die Linke ("The Left") - what will future trends be like for Die Linke and its factions (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Die_Linke#Currents_and_tendencies), their unifying programme (http://die-linke.de/fileadmin/download/international/programmatic_points.pdf), and Oskar Lafontaine's apparent desire to incorporate portions of the Communist Manifesto into Die Linke's own manifesto and/or programme (http://www.deutsche-welle.de/dw/article/0,2144,3264553,00.html)?
i would say die linke would be moving in the right direction if carried forward the communist manifesto in its programme.
the policies outlined by oskar are proving increasingly popular amongst the working class, not just in germany but in europe as a whole.
the "liberal captalist" philosophy of the last 30 years that has been prevalent throughout the world has been found wanting, privatisation etc, has not served the needs of either the working class or the nation state.
our problem is to show that nationalism is not an alternative to "liberal capitalism" but more of the same old shit just different paper.
to do that we have to find, like die linke, a way of unifying the left oppossition and radicalising a working class that has lost its confidence in itself.
imo.

[Wanted Man]

the German workers' vanguard party - Die Linke ("The Left")
Are you kidding?

[Enragé]

Are you kidding?

well, its the closest thing to it. The problem lies in it that it's not revolutionary, and structured like a soc-dem party.

[Die Neue Zeit]

Are you kidding?

Nope:

Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands (http://www.revleft.com/vb/sozialdemokratische-partei-deutschlands-t79754/index.html)
Unabhängige Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands (USPD) (http://www.revleft.com/vb/unabh-ngige-sozialdemokratische-t95038/index.html)

"As we set about the task of rediscovering Lenin's actual outlook, the terms 'party of a new type' and 'vanguard party' are actually helpful - but only if they are applied to the SPD as well as the Bolsheviks. The SPD was a vanguard party, first because it defined its own mission as 'filling up' the proletariat with the awareness and skills needed to fulfil its own world-historical mission, and second because the SPD developed an innovative panoply of methods for spreading enlightenment and 'combination.' The term 'vanguard party' was not used during this period (I do not believe the term can be found in Lenin's writings), but 'vanguard' was, and this is what people meant by it. Any other definition is historically misleading and confusing. (http://books.google.ca/books?id=8AVUvEUsdCgC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_summary_r&cad=0)" (Lars Lih)

[Q]

Here are some recent CWI articles on Die Linke:
Year-old Left Party third in polls (http://www.socialistworld.net/eng/2008/10/06germaa.html)
Marxists under attack from Left Party leader (http://www.socialistworld.net/eng/2008/10/24germaa.html)
Attempted exclusions from Left Party - update (http://www.socialistworld.net/eng/2008/10/30germaa.html)

[Die Neue Zeit]

Before reading the article below, I was expecting Lafontaine to be on the "right" of the party and the PDS folk on the "left." Can someone fill me in on this?

http://internationalviewpoint.org/spip.php?article1560


Die Linke is a much more solidly reformist formation than anything envisaged by the LCR. It is, however, defined by the struggle between two tendencies – a right-wing, powerful both numerically and in the apparatus, constituted largely by the ex-leadership of the PDS, and a more left reformist current that is dominated by the ex-SPD trade-union officials clustered around the figure of Oskar Lafontaine, who is pursuing a project of reconstituting German social democracy on a more left-wing basis.

Also, what are the goings on with the female spokespersons (nice to see women have a more prominent role in Die Linke), namely are Sahra Wagenknecht, Katja Kipping, Lucy Redler, and the rightist Petra Pau?

[chebol]

More background on Die Linke:

Die Linke, one year on
(http://communistwombat.blogspot.com/2008/07/germany-die-linke-one-year-on.html)
Germany's Die Linke: some history and some lessons (http://communistwombat.blogspot.com/2008/01/germanys-die-linke-some-history-and.html)

Lafontaine: "We have the wind of history in our sails" (http://www.greenleft.org.au/2008/753/38906)

Die Linke: Flunking the written (http://communistwombat.blogspot.com/2007/10/die-linke-flunking-written.html)

A new european socialist movement? The rise of the Left Party in Germany (http://links.org.au/node/315)

Rising struggle aids german left (http://anticapitaliste.blogspot.com/2008/04/rising-struggle-aids-german-left.html)

Hamburg and the horns of a dilemma (http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/grossman250208.html)

[L.J.Solidarity]

Before reading the article below, I was expecting Lafontaine to be on the "right" of the party and the PDS folk on the "left." Can someone fill me in on this?

Well, it's not as simple as that. Most leading functionaires from the former PDS (e.g. in the east german state organisations of Die Linke) are actually "Realos", that means they support making coalition governments with the SPD like the one which currently exists in Berlin, so they're the right wing of the party. They're organised mainy in the so called "forum democratic socialism" (forumDS), which in my opinion doesn't have much to do with any form of socialism. Petra Pau is perhaps the most well-known member of forumDS, Gregor Gysi isn't a member but shares most of their positions.
Oskar Lafontaine uses a lot more radical rhetorics than the Realos/right-wingers, while at the same time aiming to become the Ministerpräsident (head of government) of his home state of Saarland (which due to his popularity is the party's only real stronghold in western Germany) in a coalition with the SPD. So what makes him seem to be a socialist is very much just the rhetorics.
Actual socialists/communists within the party are organised in the KPF (communist platform, from what I have seen of them they're a mix of diehard Stalinists, people from the east who want GDR back just the way it was and various other communists. They seem to be mainly a discussion circle which doesn't do too much in terms of public activities, but maintain a high profile as the secret service (Verfassungsschutz) keeps targeting them as the most "anti-constitutional"/dangerous part of the party),
the AKL (Anticapitalist Left, they don't exist in Hamburg where I live so I don't know much about them), SL (Socialist Left, mainly trade union leftists who have spent decades opposing the social democrats in the unions), Marx21 (Linksruck, the German section of IST, having dissolved and gone party platform, also quite active in the party's (semi-)afilliated youth organisation Linksjugend ['solid], of which one of their comrades is a speaker) and SAV (Socialist Alternative, German section of CWI I am a member of, maintains its structures outside of the party and is mostly active in ['solid]).
The German section of IMT (Der Funke) and part of one of two sections of FI (isl) are also working inside Die Linke.
I could have written more on the status of the marxist opposition in the party or answered the question about the female MPs, but I can't do it at this time of night, sorry.

PS: Please excuse my bad English, it's the education system's fault (also a major focus of struggle in Germany, if you're willing to combine the words "major", "struggle" and "Germany" ;))