No progress for The Left party in Germany
THE NEWSPAPER, Neues Deutschland, which is very
close to Die Linke (The Left party), evaluated its 7.5% of the vote in
the European elections as an "electoral setback". Its target was 10%
plus. In the last general election in 2005 the formation, led by Oskar
Lafontaine, got 8.7%. Compared with the euro elections five years ago,
100,000 votes have been lost in the east. There are real dangers that
the result in the coming general election (27 September) again could be
disappointing and that Die Linke is not exploiting the existing
potential.
In the general elections four years ago the PDS
(Party of Democratic Socialism) and the WASG (Electoral Alliance for
Work and Social Justice) – which took off on the basis of mass protests
against attacks on unemployment benefits in the summer of 2004 – stood
together in an election for the first time. Led by Lafontaine, who was
the chairperson of the Social Democracy (SPD) at the end of the 1990s,
this platform reached four million votes. Now the fused party received
only 1.97 million. In the west, 3.9% voted for Die Linke, 21.4% in the
east. Overall, 21% of the unemployed and 10% of blue-collar workers
voted for Die Linke. Backing was stronger amongst male voters and older
people. Below the age of 45 years, Die Linke got only 6%.
As in the whole of the European Union, the turnout
in Germany was 43%, a historically low level. Many voters turned their
back on both parties of the grand coalition, the Christian Democrats and
the SPD. Only one third of the electorate voted for the governing
parties. The 20.8% result for the SPD was a disaster. Given that the
former SPD chancellor, Gerhard Schröder, implemented the so-called
Agenda 2010 and declared war on the unemployed, millions of workers and
the poor are full of hatred towards the SPD.
But why was Die Linke unable to mobilise more of
this huge layer of disappointed people? Why did the Green party benefit,
with 12.1%, despite the fact that it was part of the red-green Schröder
government and is implementing the same policies as traditional
bourgeois liberals in Europe?
Because of its dependency on exports, Germany will
be especially hard hit by the global recession. The OECD is expecting a
contraction of GDP by more than 6% in 2009. Since the beginning of the
year, more than two million employees have been put on short-time
working. Immediately after the general election, at the latest, a wave
of sackings is expected. The national debt will increase from about 60%
to 80% in the next two years. Against this background, the government of
Angela Merkel is planning cuts of nearly €40 billion for next year so
far. The prospect of a dramatic deterioration of the benefit system, an
‘Agenda 2020’, and an increase of unemployment from three to five
million (officially) until the end of 2010, will add to a prolongation
and deepening of the crisis.
Many workers still hope against hope that they will
not be affected by the onslaught of the bosses. But every real
initiative for a fightback has so far found a good response. After two
demonstrations organised by left-wing activists in the factories, trade
unions, universities and social movements, in which 55,000 attended, the
German TUC felt under pressure to mobilise more than originally planned
to its national demonstration in Berlin on 16 May, part of the European
Trade Union Confederation’s Europe-wide day of action. Thousands of
child-care workers have been on strike for weeks. And, on 17 June,
250,000 took part in a national education strike. Against this
background, Die Linke’s results are even more meagre.
In today’s global crisis the capitalists are not
able to blame anyone else. For most people it is quite obvious that the
profit system is responsible. There is more and more openness for
anti-capitalist and even socialist ideas. That does not mean that a
left-wing party automatically gains. What is urgently needed – and so
far missing in relation to Die Linke – is a programme and policies which
show a way out for workers and youth.
Confronted with the bankruptcy of companies and the
closure of whole factories the question of ownership is becoming a key
question. But the leaders of Die Linke desperately try everything to
avoid the issue of nationalisation and democratic workers’ control and
management, given that they are not prepared to challenge the trade
union bureaucracy. In dealing with the 26,000 jobs which are at stake at
Opel, Die Linke argues for the participation of the workforce in running
the enterprise. The majority of Die Linke’s national committee is in
favour of the steps taken by Opel’s management: that employees get 10%
of the shares, while wages and holiday pay are cut. That means not only
that the workers must pay for the capitalist crisis, but that – against
the background of 40% overcapacity in the car industry – the question of
sackings and closures is postponed not solved.
For the millions of workers and youth who abstained
in the euro elections, it is still unclear if Die Linke is a credible
alternative to the parties of the establishment. One main reason is the
limited character of its programme. Another crucial point is the
weakness so far in it becoming a driving force in support of struggles
and protest movements, giving them practical help but also political
advice. Take the education strike. Die Linke should have mobilised its
nearly 80,000 members to campaign for weeks in support of the students.
It should have taken advantage of its media coverage and parliamentary
positions to explain the protestors’ demands and put forward
corresponding resolutions in the Bundestag. It should have developed a
strategy on how to achieve the demands and to strengthen the movement
politically. In contrast, Die Linke stood on the sidelines, only
participating in the demonstrations – and even then, in small numbers.
In the federal states of Saarland, Thüringen and
Sachsen, länder (regional) elections take place on 30 August. In these
states, leading figures in Die Linke hope to participate in governments
with the SPD and, maybe, the Greens. At the national conference in June
the issue of government participation dominated. It is no accident that
it was organised in Berlin, where Die Linke – and, before it, the PDS –
has been part of a SPD-led regional government since 2002. In their
opening speeches, Berlin party leader, Klaus Lederer, and economy
minster, Harald Wolf, went on the offensive, celebrating the record of
Die Linke’s Berlin policy – which has meant, for example, privatisations
or wage cuts in the public sector, which have provoked many bitter
struggles. In the main conference speech, Lafontaine, who wishes to
become the next premier in the Saarland, also supported that aim. He
warned the SPD: "The only chance for you to fulfil your election
promises will be in coalition with us!"
The main features of the congress were demands for
regulating (instead of overcoming) the capitalist system, for employee
participation in companies (instead of nationalisation), and for an
openness to further coalition governments with the SPD. In the dozens of
pages of the election manifesto drafted by the national committee, the
word ‘socialism’ is mentioned only once. And, in this case, it is not as
the goal to overthrow capitalism and replace it by a new social order
but as a "system of values". That goes hand in hand with the attempts by
the party leaders to look for solutions inside the framework of the
market economy.
However, despite its participation in the Berlin
government, and its influence in many east German communities, in the
west and on a national level Die Linke is still seen as an opposition
force. Despite all its political deficiencies, in the election campaign
it prominently demands a public-sector programme of €100 billion to
create two million new jobs, rejects privatisation and cuts, and opposes
sending German troops abroad. Despite the weaknesses in energetically
orienting to workers and youth in resistance, it has not completely
turned its backs on protests, and the main tests are still to come on
the basis of intensified class conflict. But, proceeding along today’s
course will most likely mean that in September, Die Linke will register
below the 14% which it got in opinion polls 18 months ago. Stagnation
means retreat in a time like this, to paraphrase the great German
Marxist, Rosa Luxemburg.
There is the real danger that in the coming
conflicts and struggles important opportunities will be lost to double
and triple the membership, to sink roots in the working class, to
establish an anti-capitalist, socialist programme and to take real steps
in the direction of becoming a fighting working-class party – as a
decisive weapon in the class struggle.
Aron Amm
