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The Left party’s first national congress
THE LEFT party (Die Linke), formed last year,
carries the hopes of millions of people in Germany. According to a
recent opinion poll, it would get 15% if there were national elections,
making it the third strongest party. In eastern Germany it tops the
polls.
At its first national congress, which took place in
Cottbus, Brandenburg, on 24-25 May, it decided to campaign against the
government’s policy to increase the pension age to 67 years. In
addition, it demands an "investment programme for the future" of €50
billion to create one million jobs on trade union wage rates in the
education, health and environmental sectors.
Such demands distinguish Die Linke from all other
parties and lead to support among broad layers of the population. At the
congress it again spoke out clearly against war and is correctly seen by
many as the only party demanding the withdrawal of German troops from
Afghanistan.
At the same time as the party congress, Die Linke
got 7% in local elections in the northern state of Schleswig Holstein,
where it had hardly stood before, and in spite of not having candidates
in all the local councils. The SPD (former social democratic party) got
its worst result, with 26%, continuing its decline.
But will Die Linke’s success last? Taking place
one-and-a-half years before national elections, the congress should have
discussed how to position itself politically and strategically up to the
general election. Unfortunately, political controversies were debated
only at the fringes. For example, it is controversial inside Die Linke
whether it should continue to orient strongly towards parliamentary
activity and participate in governments with the SPD, or whether it
should emphasise building resistance against those in power. Next year
there will be several state elections in addition to the national
elections. The party leadership supports continued participation in
governments at least on state level.
A look at Berlin is sufficient to confirm the
worries of many rank-and-file members. In the capital, Die Linke forms
the state government together with the SPD and has implemented countless
wage and welfare cuts. Only this May, 8,000 school students went on to
the streets against the education policy of this so-called ‘Red-Red’
state coalition government. Public-sector workers are on strike in the
city, where Red-Red has been refusing wage increases to state employees
since 2003.
If Die Linke helps to implement welfare cuts in
further states, or even on a national scale, there would be a big danger
that its support will be soon transformed into rejection and
frustration. Therefore, members of Sozialistische Alternative (SAV – CWI
Germany) warn of a development similar to Italy where Rifondazione
Comunista lost massive support through its participation in the
government of Romano Prodi. Die Linke’s present success could be
short-lived if it subordinates itself to the neo-liberal SPD in
government.
Another important question is whether the party
remains on the level of merely criticising capitalism, or whether it is
also ready to fight for a socialist society, far away from the logic of
profit.
Oskar Lafontaine’s opening speech showed up these
contradictions. He used radical phrases about freedom and equality being
the basis of a socialist society, referring to the revolutionaries, Karl
Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg, and the November revolution in Germany
1918 in a positive way. Correctly, he labelled the SPD leadership of
that time, under Friedrich Ebert, as traitors to that revolution. On the
other hand, this was followed by limited demands, aiming to push back
"financial market-driven capitalism". This amounts to the idea that
various policies are required to carry through improvements for the
majority of the population, that there could be a type of ‘social
capitalism’, rather than raising the need for a completely different
social system.
Members of SAV emphasise that this cannot be so
because the principle of profits and competition lies at the root of
capitalism, that Die Linke must take a clear decision on which side of
the class divide it is on, and that it must aim to fight for a socialist
society. Unfortunately, the main congress document, which was voted
through with a big majority, limits itself to the statement that
capitalism is not the end of history.
At the same time, Lafontaine’s verbal radicalism,
with slogans like "freedom through socialism", and his criticisms of
some of the actions of Die Linke leaders in coalitions with the SPD,
have earned him some hostility from both the ruling class and the
rightwing within Die Linke. Right-wing elements in the party were also
not happy about the proposal for a €50 billion investment programme.
These tensions resulted in Lafontaine being re-elected co-chair of Die
Linke at this congress with 78.5% of the vote, significantly down on the
87.9% he received at the June 2007 founding congress.
In spite of the urgency of the issue of
participation in governments, the Die Linke leadership tried to avoid a
debate. Members of SAV proposed a motion to the congress that included
the following lines: "Coalitions with the SPD and the Greens on a
pro-capitalist basis, which lead necessarily to welfare cuts, education
cuts, the annihilation of jobs and privatisation, are therefore out of
the question for Die Linke. We build on the mobilisation of the millions
to break the power of the millionaires and billionaires. In this way we
will build a party of hundreds of thousands and millions of members and
supporters that will be able to form a government in the interests of
the employed, the unemployed, the youth and pensioners, that can be the
starting point for a socialist transformation of society".
A vote on whether or not to take this motion had to
be counted several times until it was clear that the congress would not
debate it. Another motion, by delegates from Bielefeld, which demanded
that the Berlin Linke should leave the Red-Red coalition, was not
debated either.
A delegate from the state of Hessen referred to the
fact that the policy of Die Linke in Berlin repeatedly causes problems
for Die Linke in Hessen. The Hessen Linke was elected to the state
parliament in January and demands a wage contract for its state
employees. Under the previous conservative CDU state government Hessen
left the employers’ national organisation. The only other state that has
left this employers’ organisation is Berlin – but under the Red-Red
coalition.
This was the reason why public-sector workers from
Berlin demonstrated in front of the congress venue. At present, they are
fighting for a wage increase, which is being refused by the Red-Red
state government. Uwe Januszewski, chairman of the Berlin state
employees works council, emphasised that Die Linke cannot hold Sunday
speeches criticising wage cuts while the Red-Red coalition in Berlin
continues to cut jobs and introduce ‘€1 jobs’. It had been originally
planned that Januszewski should speak at the congress on the situation
of the state employees but this was cancelled – officially, because of
‘lack of time’.
SAV members distributed a leaflet at the ver.di
trade union rally which included a motion for solidarity with the state
employees, which was put to the congress. The trade union official,
Werner Röpke, read the motion at the rally, appealing to Gregor Gysi,
chairman of Die Linke group in the Bundestag (national parliament), to
make a statement on it. Gysi answered that the workers should recognise
"that the state government now at least talks to you". This, he claimed,
was positive. He said that the motion should be debated at the congress,
but that it could not be fulfilled. In fact, despite pressure, the
motion was not debated. Röpke answered Gysi’s balancing act aptly: "We
always see each other twice and we will measure you by your actions".
The contradiction between the hopes put into Die
Linke and the reality seen at the party congress underlines again how
important it is to build a Marxist opposition to the party leadership
that not only criticises it in words but challenges it politically on
central issues. The question, whether the party takes the side of the
employed and unemployed people in the class struggle, will prove whether
the name ‘The Left’ is really justified. If it does not back the working
class, the most radical speeches against capitalism will be no
contribution to transforming the social relations of power
fundamentally. Immediately, the SAV says that the announced pension
campaign must not to be limited to motions in the Bundestag. A fighting
campaign is necessary, one that does not stop at criticising the pension
age of 67 but aims for a significant reduction of the pension age on the
basis of a mass mobilisation through the trade unions and Die Linke.
Lucy Redler, Sozialistische Alternative (CWI Germany)
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