A decisive moment for the left
Over the last two years Socialism Today has
chronicled the development of the new anti-neoliberal and left movement
in Germany based around the WASG (Election Alternative for Work and
Social Justice). Spring saw a number of key developments, many of which
were reported for English readers on the CWI website (www.socialistworld.net).
ROBERT BECHERT reviews these events and what lies ahead.
WORLD CUP PARTIES could not hide the growing
unpopularity of the German government or popular fears of what the
future holds. Symbolically, Chancellor Angela Merkel used the day on
which Germany won its third game to announce that for ‘many or several
years’ pensioners will not see their pensions increase. In other words,
their real value will drop.
From its outset last November, the ‘grand coalition’
of Christian democrats (CDU and CSU) and social democrats (SPD) was
really a coalition of losers. Both Christian parties and the SPD won
fewer votes in last year’s general election than they did in the
previous one in 2002.
As the grand coalition has implemented tax increases
for the majority and continued social cuts, what support it had
initially has started to melt away. The June Deutschlandtrend poll for
publicly-owned TV channel, ARD, showed 68% dissatisfied with the
government, as the percentage satisfied fell from 40% in May to 31%. But
the bosses have urged the government to continue attacking living
standards and lowering taxes for companies and the rich.
Currently, the German economy is enjoying a period
of growth. It is now the world’s biggest exporter of goods, although the
present fragility of the world economy means that it is not certain for
how long international trade will keep growing. This has not stopped the
onslaught against the living standards of workers, the unemployed, youth
and many sections of the middle class.
Volkswagen wants to cut 20,000 jobs and increase its
working week from 28.8 to 35 hours without any increase in pay – in
1994, VW workers accepted the 28.8 hour working week to prevent
redundancies. Mid-June saw Siemens, Allianz and Dresdner Bank each
announce thousands of job losses. In the year to February, manufacturing
production grew in value by 7.6% while employment in this sector fell by
1.3%. The public sector lost 97,500 jobs (2.5%) between 2004 and 2005.
The unemployed have suffered attacks not seen since the 1930s. The
so-called ‘Hartz’ laws have cut unemployment benefits and social
security, and driven millions into poverty. There are now a record 1.7
million children living in poverty.
A number of significant trade union struggles have
generally ended in rotten deals, apart from a long struggle by doctors.
This year, the longest ever public-sector battle ended with union
leaders accepting, for many workers, a 30-minute lengthening of the
working week with no extra pay. After a wave of enthusiastically
supported ‘warning strikes’ in engineering, union leaders agreed to
plant bargaining based upon company profitability, which breaks
solidarity between workers in different companies and could open the
door to employers demanding wage cuts, etc.
At the DGB trade union federation congress in May,
it was clear that the leadership has no intention of mounting serious
opposition to the continuing offensive. Indeed, its unofficial policy of
offering support to the grand coalition was confirmed when a CDU member
was elected deputy chair. Newspapers commented there was now a grand
coalition at the top of the DGB as well.
The development of the Left
ALTHOUGH DIE LINKE (The Left, the WASG and L.PDS
parliamentary group) was the real victor of the general election, since
then it has hardly advanced. A number of opinion polls have shown a
marginal increase from the 8.7% it won last September to around 10%,
although some polls put it a bit lower.
The Left’s election results in March were
disappointing. Although it had previously won 279,000 votes (5.6%) in
Rheinland-Pfalz, this time it polled only 44,700 votes (2.5%). In Baden
Württemberg, the WASG vote fell from 219,100 (3.8%) last September to
121,800 (3.1%). Some good votes in local elections in Hessen were
overshadowed by the poor regional results.
Even last September’s result, although good, was
below expectations. A few weeks before polling day, the Left was scoring
12% in opinion polls. The actual result of 8.7% showed that only a part
of this potential was mobilised. A key reason was the character of the
Left’s campaign.
The general election had been called a year early
after the then ruling SPD’s devastating defeat in the North Rhine
Westphalia (NRW) regional elections the previous May. In the weeks
before the NRW election, Oskar Lafontaine, a previous SPD leader who
resigned as finance minister in 1999 in protest at the Schröder
government’s shift towards neo-liberalism, declared his sympathy for the
WASG without calling on people to vote for it. After the NRW election,
Lafontaine said he would join the WASG and stand in the general
election, provided the WASG and PDS (Party of Democratic Socialism, the
former ruling party in Stalinist East Germany) formed an electoral
alliance.
The two leaderships decided, for what they said were
legal reasons, that this meant standing on the election lists of the
Left Party.PDS (Linkspartei.PDS, the renamed PDS), and this party
dominated the electoral bloc. This resulted in a watering down of some
WASG policies, such as on the level of a minimum wage and, in some areas
like NRW, a lowering of activity by WASG members and supporters.
After German reunification, the PDS transformed
itself into a ‘normal’ reformist party, socialist in words while
stressing that it wanted to work within capitalism. It only had a strong
electoral base in the east; in the west its failure to fully distance
itself from its Stalinist past meant it could never develop real roots
within the working class and youth. Most importantly, it was incapable
of leading determined struggles, its ‘campaigns’ usually consisting of
expensively produced material with vague or very moderate slogans.
Towards the end of the 1990s, the PDS started to
form coalition governments with the SPD at state and local level which
carried out social cuts and privatisation. Especially in Berlin,
governed by a SPD/PDS coalition since 2001, many left-wing PDS members
joined the WASG. Just after the WASG was founded, its national
chairperson, trade union official Klaus Ernst, said: "I reject
co-operation with the PDS or a joint list with them in the next
Bundestag election… The PDS is taking part in two regional state
governments that carry out a policy of the social cuts". (Frankfurter
Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, 1 August 2004) This reflected widespread
opinion in the WASG. However, less than a year later, Ernst changed his
opinion on this and other issues after Lafontaine proposed unifying the
WASG and PDS.
In the 2002 general election, the PDS won 1.9
million votes, down from over 2.5 million in 1998. Last year’s jump for
the L.PDS list to over 4.1 million reflected both disillusionment with
Schröder’s government and, in particular, the huge appeal of the
newly-formed WASG and Lafontaine, its most prominent figure.
This is totally ignored by a majority of the WASG
national leadership in its drive for a merger with the L.PDS. At the
last WASG congress, the leading group around Lafontaine made out that
the WASG had no future on its own and that the only way forward was an
unconditional merger.
The test of Berlin
MANY OF THESE issues were aired in the widely
publicised controversies in the WASG. This debate, which peaked in April
and May, became focused on the question of next September’s Berlin
regional elections. Since 2001, the Berlin city government has been, in
many ways, a national pace setter in cutting public-sector jobs, wages,
education and social services, along with privatisation. One result has
been a collapse in support for the L.PDS in Berlin. In 2001, it won
21.6% of the vote. In April 2003, it was at 9% in opinion polls. Now,
the L.PDS hovers around 15% and its target is 17% in the elections.
The WASG national leadership wanted the Berlin WASG
to stand on the L.PDS election lists. After much discussion, the Berlin
WASG rejected this as it would have meant standing jointly with L.PDS
leaders responsible for neo-liberal attacks. It decided to stand
independently.
This provoked a battle within the WASG which came to
a head at its national congress in April. Against a background of public
threats by party leaders to split if they did not get their way, the
congress voted to oppose the Berlin WASG’s decision and allow the
national leadership to take measures against it. The congress was
sharply polarised. A resolution moved by the most left-wing members of
the national executive calling for a "fundamental change of course in
party building", and opposing any "administrative measures", was only
defeated by 156 votes to 143.
That decision marked a big retreat from one of the
WASG’s founding principles: that it would not participate in governments
"carrying out social cuts, privatisation and job cuts". If the WASG
national leaders were serious about their party’s principles, they would
have declared that it was impossible to stand jointly with the current
Berlin L.PDS leadership and supported the Berlin WASG standing
separately as part of building a determined movement against
neo-liberalism. But their eyes fixed on unification with the L.PDS, the
leadership clearly wanted to weaken the WASG’s position on when to
participate in government.
The WASG national leadership moved rapidly to remove
the Berlin WASG leadership and stop it standing separately. Determined
resistance and legal action defeated this and the Berlin WASG is back in
office and is standing in September. This also helped clear the way for
the WASG in the eastern state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern to stand
independently against another SPD-L.PDS coalition in regional elections
being held on the same day.
SAV’s role and the attacks on it
SOCIALIST ALTERNATIVE (SAV, the CWI in Germany) has
played an important role in the WASG’s development. Last year, SAV was
amongst those who argued against the national leadership that the party
should stand in NRW. At the same time, an attack on SAV for being
socialist was defeated. This was before the WASG national leadership
agreed with Lafontaine to merge with the L.PDS.
The important role that SAV has played in Berlin has
won it significant support amongst the best WASG activists and
increasingly in the wider workers’ movement, as demonstrated by the
massive publicity for Lucy Redler, one of its leading national
spokespersons, elected as the Berlin WASG’s top candidate in September’s
election. Lucy Redler’s many appearances in the media have started to
popularise the idea that ‘Trotskyism’ symbolises opposing social cuts
and fighting for a socialist alternative. One result is the increased
numbers contacting SAV to discuss socialist ideas and how to campaign
for them.
SAV’s policy has been consistently opposed by
Linksruck, the German sister organisation of the British SWP. They have
argued that the most important next step is the WASG and L.PDS merger,
and that the policies of the Berlin L.PDS could be challenged inside the
new party. But given the numerical superiority of the L.PDS in Berlin, a
joint election list would mean supporting leaders who have carried out
neo-liberal policies. Linksruck is arguing that workers should vote for
leaders who have consistently for over four years attacked their living
standards in the name of ‘budget consolidation’.
This position led Linksruck leaders to work closely
with Lafontaine and the WASG rightwing to block the Berlin WASG’s
candidature, a policy which has seen a number of them rewarded with jobs
with members of parliament or in L.PDS-controlled organisations.
From the WASG’s foundation, Linksruck argued that it
was ‘sectarian’ to even mention socialism within the party. In contrast,
SAV argues that it is both necessary and possible to link the immediate
issues working people and youth face with striving to win support for
socialist ideas. For a long time, SAV has argued that a new workers’
party is needed but never puts forward the acceptance of socialist ideas
as a precondition for participating in its formation. It welcomed the
WASG as a step in that direction while explaining that a new party needs
to adopt socialist policies if it is not going to end up as a ‘SPD Mark
II’.
This policy was rejected by Linksruck as limiting
the appeal of the WASG. It argues that day-to-day campaigning and
propaganda should be restricted to the immediate issues. Now, the WASG
and L.PDS leaders are, in words, more to the left than Linksruck, as the
draft manifesto for the new party positively refers to "democratic
socialism". Because the debate on Berlin has been so much in the public
eye, Linksruck’s effectively 100% support for Lafontaine on this issue
is well known and has undermined its credentials as serious fighters
against neo-liberalism.
There is tremendous significance in the Berlin
WASG’s success in being able to stand and defeat suspensions. This
public debate and struggle has pushed to the forefront the issues of how
exactly to fight the cuts and on what basis a new left party can be
built. As these questions were debated in the media, it made it harder
for the WASG leadership to silently move the party away from its
founding, anti-neoliberal positions. Activists throughout the country
followed this debate and are now looking at the outcome of the
elections.
The 17 September elections will have an important
impact on the immediate future of both the WASG and L.PDS. The Berlin
WASG will be especially looking towards public-sector workers, the
unemployed and young people. Public-sector workers have been hit by
thousands of redundancies, privatisation and wage cuts – for example,
10% for Berlin city transport workers. The unemployed have been hit by
the cuts in benefit and forced labour schemes that the Berlin coalition
has implemented, but they can be a hard layer to motivate to vote. Young
people have also suffered and, according to one recent opinion poll,
around 9% of under-29s in Berlin were looking to vote for the WASG.
This same poll indicated that the WASG was on 5%,
the threshold to get elected into the city parliament. But this was just
one poll more than three months before the actual vote. Lafontaine and
the national WASG leaders will intervene to support the L.PDS,
emphasising ‘left unity’ against the federal government and promising
that the Berlin L.PDS will be different in the future. Unfortunately,
while the Berlin L.PDS leaders have made some cosmetic changes, it is
still sticking, for example, to plans to reduce the city council’s
workforce by 18,000 by 2012.
Depending on turnout, between 60,000 to 75,000 votes
are needed to reach the 5% bar, but even 30,000 votes for a clear anti-neoliberal
stand would be significant. A serious campaign by the Berlin WASG could
not only achieve an important vote but, more crucially, build the forces
that will continue to fight neo-liberal cuts after the election.
Die Linke - the likely new party
A SUCCESS FOR the Berlin WASG would be a national
signal against the L.PDS’s politics of compromising on cuts and would
raise again the question of what policies should a new party follow.
However, the Berlin WASG getting elected is unlikely
to stop the launch of a new party, probably called Die Linke, next year.
The L.PDS is overwhelmingly in favour and, since its last national
congress, Lafontaine’s grouping has strengthened its grip on the WASG.
The fact that Lafontaine’s grouping was prepared to use threats and
disciplinary measures at the national congress to get its way means
that, one way of another, it is likely to force through unity. This
could change if there was a very good election result for the Berlin
WASG and a very bad one for the L.PDS, but this is not the most probable
scenario.
But it is unlikely that the new party will be one
with a vibrant, active membership. Quite possibly, those who supported
the Berlin WASG candidature will be excluded from a new party. Already
in most areas, there has been a stagnation in WASG membership growth
since last year’s decision in favour of a merger, as well as a dropping
off in activity. The L.PDS, despite some recent recruitment, is
fundamentally an old party. According to its own figures, it has around
61,000 members, nearly 60% of whom are over 65 years old. It is
estimated that around 5,000 of the 6,000 L.PDS members who attend
meetings also hold elected positions ranging from local to national
level. With large financial resources, the L.PDS employs directly or
indirectly around 1,000 people.
While the launch of a new party could see people
outside Berlin joining, the combination of the L.PDS’s massive apparatus
and the increasing grip of the grouping around Lafontaine will act as a
disincentive to be really active. Certainly, Lafontaine’s willingness to
quit the WASG if he did not get his way will be seen by some members as
a warning not to go too far in their criticisms.
However, Lafontaine is playing a dual role. In his
drive for unity with the L.PDS he helped water down the WASG’s founding,
anti-neoliberal principles. At the same time, Lafontaine voices
radicalism against capitalism, support for general strikes "as in
France", and repeatedly speaks of "democratic socialism". He regularly
gets a rousing reception as he travels the country speaking to trade
unionists and workers in struggle. But even when arguing for "democratic
socialism", he puts forward the Scandinavian countries as examples, in
other words, accepting that capitalism will continue.
This means that Lafontaine can help attract support,
especially votes for the new party but, at the same time, threatens its
future by rejecting a policy that challenges capitalism. This is a
concrete issue as the WASG was born in a completely different period
from the first four decades of the German Federal Republic.
Today, globalised capitalism, marked by
over-capacity and increasing international competition, does not leave
much space for reforms. Even in ‘boom’ times, the achievement or defence
of reforms needs mass action. Such struggles can achieve results, but
they will inevitably be temporary as the capitalist class will return to
the attack when it can. This puts every new party to the test very
quickly and is the reason why, within two years of its foundation, the
WASG has been gripped by the debate over Berlin.
The time of stable reformist parties with mass
memberships, as we knew them in many countries after 1945, has gone. The
crisis facing the old parties means that there will be new attempts to
build workers’ parties. The danger is that some will not last for long
because reformist forces will drag them into participation in
governments where they implement social cuts, and they will not become
lasting poles of attraction. But in these processes and class struggles,
there will develop a new generation of fighters who will start the fight
for a real new workers’ party and who will be open to Marxist ideas.
The WASG, despite not having a socialist programme,
was a first such step in Germany and SAV members worked to build the
WASG and to help develop this embryonic formation into a mass workers’
party with a socialist programme. Now, with the probable formation of
Die Linke, the immediate future is more uncertain.
SAV will continue to strive to build a new party of
the left, with activists in the workplaces, social and youth movements,
the WASG and L.PDS. But it warns that a new left force will only be
successful if it is principled, rejecting all neo-liberal measures, and
is democratic. At the same time, such a party will only achieve a
lasting solution to the many problems humanity faces if it adopts
socialist policies. In this sense, SAV strives to build a movement in
Germany that applies today the best traditions of Marx, Engels, Bebel,
Luxemburg, Liebknecht, Lenin and Trotsky.
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