In light of the somewhat unwarranted enthusiasm on this list for the showing of the ex-PDS in the recent federal elections in Germany, I have taken the initiative of translating a critical article on the new formation from the general interest Antifa/Autonomist magazine "Phase 2" www.phase-zwei.org (for Foucault fans who can read German, the latest issue is a theme issue on "Bio-politics," alas, not yet online).
I think some of this American enthusiasm is symptomatic of the American Left tendency of always thinking the grass is always greener in Europe, when in fact radical social movements face the same hurdles there as they do in the states. The ex-PDS "Left Party" is about as Left as Ralph Nader, whose politics have already been well-criticized by Doug Henwood.
In any case, the article follows. Any errors in translation are entirely my own, and not attributable to Phase 2 or the author.
solidarity,
Angelus Novus
When in Doubt, for the Fatherland:
How German is the Left Party?
By Marcel Frost, bgr Leipzig
After another large electoral defeat was inflicted on his party in the Social Democratic soil of Nordrhein-Westfalen, Gerhard Schroeder must have felt the need to solicit anew the will of the people. The announced elections in autumn led to a hectic discussion about a new alliance left of the SPD. The provisional high point of this discussion was the renaming of the PDS as “The Left Party” and the opening of its electoral list to candidates of the WASG (Electoral Alternative for Jobs and Social Justice). Statistical research attests to a potential for the Left Party. One of the first polls even established a possible election result of 12 per cent on the federal level and 31 percent in Eastern Germany, where the new alliance was projected to be the strongest party, ahead of the CDU.
Whereas in the past a large number of organized left groups nurtured a selective and tactical cooperation with the PDS, many groups are increasingly doubting their previous associations with the party, spurred in part by the openly anti-immigrant statements of WASG lead candidate Oskar Lafontaine and increasing practical difficulties in working with the PDS. In contrast, other groups are less given to reflection with regards to the germinal “Volkspartei.” With the hope that the Left Party would “strengthen leftist positions altogether,” over 300 groups and individuals have signed an open letter to the new party which demands “the decisive opposition to racist and nationalist propaganda” while nonetheless welcoming the political demands of the new party. The open letter was initiated by the groups Antifaschistische Linke Berlin [one of two splitter groups of the now defunct Anti-Fascist Action Berlin, the other being Kritik & Praxis Berlin, or KP-Berlin – Translator’s note] and felS [For a Left Tendency, a grouping of activists coming out of classical 1980s Autonomist politics].
In view of the situation in society, it would seem necessary to throw light upon the new Left Party, both in terms of substance and practical perspectives. Proceeding from a total societal analysis, and after a short introduction, this article intends to deal substantively with right-wing tendencies inside of the “Left” Party as they currently manifest themselves.
The Right-Wing Consensus
In order to clarify the tolerance and societal support for professed neo-Nazis, the group bgr Leipzig [Alliance Against the Right Leipzig, one of the leading Antifa groups of the 1990s – translator] developed the phrase “Right-Wing Consensus” a few years ago. This consensus regroups in a fragmented manner all of the elements of a National Socialist Weltanschauung which reach far beyond the traditional Nazi scene into the wider German society. At the same time, these conceptions, compared to the historical period of National Socialism, no longer exist as a single unified conviction, but are rather deeply anchored in everyday thought alongside each other. It is therefore entirely possible that aspects of this National-socialist ideology co-exist alongside a fundamental “anti-fascist” attitude which understands itself to be in opposition to the Nazis. This constellation, which appears paradoxical at first glance, helps explain the failed attempts at a substantive argument with Nazi positions attempted by all parties ranging from CDU to PDS after the entry of the NPD into the state parliament of Saxony.
In the Right Wing Consensus, the State is granted a fundamentally authoritarian role. It is incumbent upon the state to solve all societal conflicts under its own aegis. Opposition to state organs only legitimizes itself through the alleged decline of the state, which must be freed from a presumably corrupt political class. At no time does this connote an actual substantive critique of the State form. The National Socialist model of the “Führer” is already immanent in this conception. An expressed identification of the individual with the State is a pre-condition for an authoritarian understanding of the State, which conceives of the State as an organizational expression of the collective will of the community [“Gemeinschaft” – Translator] of the German people.
Whereas campaigns against enemies of the people, whether retirees in Florida [a reference to the vicious tabloid campaign against “Florida Rolf,” a German pensioner revealed to be living out his retirement in sunny Florida and thus smeared as a parasite by the press – Translator], profitable investment funds, or well paid top managers, serve the establishment of an internal “Gemeinschaft,” the people also identify their external enemies. Virulent Anti-Semitism, and at the moment open Anti-Americanism, build bridges from Right to Left. Both projections have superseded the racism of the 1990s, without the latter having weakened.
Taking this analysis for granted, fragments of National Socialist ways of thinking can be located in the new Left Party and of course in its voter base.
“We Are the State”
After questioning the relationship of the Left Party to the German state it can be ascertained that participation in the parliamentary system of the Federal Republic of Germany already implies an affirmative approach to the State, which accepts the State as the representative of one’s own interests. For the senior generation which constitutes a large portion of the PDS and therefore the Left Party, there is an explanation – which in no case serves as an excuse - for this act of affirmation. In the former German Democratic Republic, taking a position for socialism was equivalent to a positive relationship towards the “Socialist Fatherland.” Nationalism was invested with a positive meaning, and since then serves as one of the constitutive elements of the German Nationalism of the Left Party. The top brass of the PDS has articulated itself in a nationalistic way since the party convention in Cottbus in 2000 at the very latest. This occurred under the motto of a “Good Germany in bloom,” and then-party secretary Gabi Zimmer proclaimed in an interview with the newspaper die tageszeitung: “The majority of leftists define themselves to this very day as being outside or against Germany, against the nation. It’s exactly that which I wish to change!” In addition, she confided to readers, “I love Germany and I hate things which cause it to appear hateful or ugly.”
Only a small amount of resistance stirred in the party in opposition to these remarks. The lack of indignation allows far-reaching conclusions concerning the thought processes of the PDS rank-and-file, who openly share this nationalism. Critics from the ranks of the marginalized “Communist Platform” within the PDS criticized Zimmer’s remarks, but nurture their own version of nationalism as befits the preservers of a distinct “GDR identity.” The party ranks supported the adopted course. PDS members defended the nationalism of their party chairwoman in an exemplary way in the pages of the newspaper Junge Welt and asked, “What in the world should keep us from opposing the socialist love of the Fatherland to the rootless cosmopolitanism [Vaterlandslosigkeit – translator] of international capital?”
These days, a few years after the party convention in Cottbus, Gregor Gysi and WASG lead candidate Oskar Lafontaine bask in the limelight of the Left Party. Gysi declared his own nationalist position in his resignation speech as chairman of the parliamentary fraction of the PDS: “Many leftists have never fought for the Nation and were therefore doomed to failure, because a Left which does not understand itself as a component of the Nation cannot struggle for the Nation.” Gysi also hinted at a quasi-pathological, left-wing “disorder” which “defines itself against everything German.” “This country still suffers under that” said Gysi.
And Lafontaine illustrated his societal vision in the Bild-Zeitung tabloid: “Open societies need a strong State. Freedom of residency for everyone and empty state coffers undermine internal and external security. Contempt for the State must have an end. We are the State!”
Lafontaine’s longed-for identification of individuals with the State is thus made open. The WASG also identifies itself with the “Volk” [note: “Volk” is often translated into English as “the people,” but such a translation does not do reflect the nationalist and racialist connotations of the German word – translator] The founding statement of the WASG is revealing in this regard: “The central attribute which must be associated with this project is, Wir sind das Volk!”
Foreigners as Enemies
Even disregarding his notorious statement that Germans should be defended against “Foreign workers [“Fremdarbeiter,” an infamous use of Nazi jargon – translator] who take their jobs away,” Lafontaine’s open racism is easily proved on the basis of his numerous published works. Lafontaine whispers in his books about “forced immigration,” which is “promoted solely by the upper 10,000 members of society.” Lafontaine advocates the withdrawal of German citizenship for all those who don’t “speak the German language, pay taxes according to their abilities and finance the welfare state.” He refers to the Germans as a community determined by fate [“Schicksalsgemeinschaft” – translator], and wrings his hands concerning the “cultural identity of Europe at the end of the century.” A particular horror scenario preoccupies Lafontaine as he declares, thunderstruck, “The land of immigration, the USA, will no longer have a white majority in fifty years.” Although the Party Program of the former PDS displays no openly racist perspectives, polls show that 59% of PDS supporters agree with the statement that there have been too many foreigners in Germany for a long time (interestingly enough, the FORSA-poll indicates that the PDS has the highest percentage of supporters expressing such a position). As a coalition party in the Berlin city government, the PDS takes responsibility for the execution of the German state’s harsh deportation policies.
In order to cultivate a bond with a population whose preoccupation it was in the post-reunification period to burn down homes for immigrant asylum seekers, it is necessary for the PDS to take a certain distance from foreigners. Helmut Holter, active Minister for Labor and Construction in the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and member of the PDS, expressed his opinion a few years ago in the Sueddeutsche Zeitung, that of course there are going to be conflicts when “more foreign than German families are settled into an apartment block.” A matter of course in the Eastern part of Germany.
America and Jews as Enemies
Whereas the so-called “anti-capitalism” of the PDS is directed chiefly against internationally active banks, corporations, and financial speculation, the worthy East German small businessman is intimately courted by the party. The PDS press service proudly reports concerning the valiant struggle against the circulation sphere of capital in the form of an attention-getting action by leading PDS politicians. Under the slogan “Investment, not Speculation!” said politicians blockaded the entrance to the stock exchange in Frankurt am Main and declared in a paper that stock exchanges “are the point of origin and symbol for large-scale social destruction and economic menace” whose root cause is easily recognized: the lust for profit on the part of “those, who don’t even know what to do with their wealth anymore, other than to hit the exchange” and the obligatory greed of the largest banks.
The argumentation of the PDS reproduces central elements of anti-semitic ideology. The poorly understood socially mediating relationship of capital is understood in a projective way as an artificial division between “productive capital” and “predatory capital.” The identification of conspiratorial, globally active and therefore rootless powers that pull the strings in the background on the basis of their financial power is the central program of anti-semites. While the PDS condemns anti-semitism as a matter of course in its parliamentary speeches, it’s actions speak another language.
For example, the PDS supported a radical pro-Palestinian demonstration in April 2002 through the Mitte district of Berlin, during which Israeli flags were burned and the slogan “Juden raus!” was shouted. In the midst of flying Hizbollah flags and children wearing mock dynamite-vests, the foreign policy speaker of the PDS, Wolfgang Gehrke, expressed his solidarity with the goals of the Intifada and demanded a military intervention in the Middle East – with the participation of German troops.
Whereas Gregor Gysi during his resignation speech in Muenster called for the “building up of the European Union as a counter-pole and competitor to the United States” to the laud applause of the audience, his party has long been working to realize this goal. For years, the PDS has been insinuating itself at the head of so-called “peace demonstrations” which turn out to be anti-American marches. During the visit of American President Bush in February of this year, aside from the obligatory “Bush go home” slogan whose affinity with the “Amis Raus!” slogan of the Neo-Nazis is difficult to hide, members of the PDS promoted the slogan “Two World Wars are enough.” A history lecture held in German, so to speak.
That these are not regrettable individual occurrences is suggested by the utterances of the audience during an event in Leipzig with David Lindemann, former American General Consul, and Conny Ernst, State chairman of the PDS Saxony. A sprightly PDS retiree in the audience explained indignantly that the United States are the “founders of mass extermination” due to the bombing of Dresden and are “fascist, because imperialism is the highest state of capitalism and fascism is the highest state of imperialism.” The PDS ranks were united behind this razor-sharp analysis.
Rivalries
It is obvious that a Left Party with such content poses real competition for classical Nazi parties. Accordingly, the “Kameradschaftsfuehrer” Thomas Wulff called on all “National Socialists” to join the WASG.
The prominent Nazi explained that the political demands of the Electoral Alternative are recognizable as a “national Socialism” and that the “allegedly leftist socialists have emerged on the Right after analyzing the political situation.” Although this demand is easily unmasked as a slanderous attempt at discrediting a potential political rival, it nonetheless lends credibility to the insight that the Left Party and NPD are competing for the same base. The head of the NPD fraction in the state parliament of Saxony, Holger Apfel, states with recognition: “Oskar Lafontaine is contributing to the destruction of a taboo in German political discourse when he clearly and distinctly takes a position against foreign wage pressure and wage dumping and attacks the consequences of globalization. He is taking care to ensure that the concept of Volksgemeinschaft is rooted in the middle of society. From our perspective, that is something to be welcomed.”
Not only the NPD is excited. Apparently, the appointment of former Schill Party candidate Michael Kausch as treasurer in the local WASG association in Harz is not scandalous enough [note: the Schill Party was a right-wing law and order party rooted primarily in Hamburg and environs – Translator]. The Hamburg association of the WASG was immediately built up by other former members of the Schill Party.
When the Left Party and Nazis canvass for the same Volk, of which more than one third are of the opinion that “the Federal Republic is flooded with foreigners at almost dangerous levels” and one fourth reveal that “What Germany needs now is a single, strong party, which embodies the Volksgemeinschaft,” electoral success is almost assured.
Conclusion
This new constellation is problematic, and for the radical Left not easily ignored, because the Left Party is able to determine in a hegemonic manner what is considered to be a leftist position in the broader society. If those who want to contribute to bringing an end to German conditions and make emancipation a reality start to identify with the new Volkspartei, it will be increasingly difficult to openly advocate a critical position.
All the more incomprehensible is it, then, when parts of the Radical Left get behind the Left Party and “nonetheless welcome” it in the previously mentioned open letter. That the Left Party functions as means of societal integration is demonstrated in the case of Value Critique groups who signed the open letter [translator’s note: Value Critique refers to a radical current of Left Communists in Germany who concentrate on the value and commodity form analysis in chapter one of volume one of Marx’s Capital. Exemplary for this tendency are the Chicago-based sociologist Moishe Postone and the German journals Krisis and Exit. This tendency is noted for its principled opposition to Work as a form of social mediation]. That these comrades, noted for their fundamental critique of capitalism, “welcome” the Left Party and view its conceptions as “leftist positions” is a paradox. The marginal reference to the Party’s attacks as “racist and nationalist demagogy” plays down the situation, particularly since the Left Party is a declared enemy of critics of Work. The conception of Work as the single legitimate foundation for the participation in social life is not contested inside of the Left Party. Just as the PDS, during the previous national election, spread hundreds of posters with the slogan “Work Should Rule the Land,” the WASG is also clear. In a statement on “incompatible political positions,” the WASG declares that “groups who refuse the right to work and who only view work as an instrument of oppression may not count on our support.” The WASG states further in a program summary from 2004: “Massive unemployment is the main problem and main evil in the Federal Republic.” That Value Critics are able to overlook such difference in the interest of enabling support for the Left Party, is an exemplary demonstration of the integration potential of the Left Party, as well as how radical critique can disappear behind the call of “everybody against Neo-Liberalism.”
If in the past the PDS offered Antifa groups a useful infrastructure in particular situations and regions, with Antifa work not infrequently being dependent on the PDS in regions with a marked Neo-Nazi hegemony, a possible cooperation in the future should be fundamentally thought through.
For the Antifa movement, which is at the moment experiencing a resurgence, the PDS will start to become a real hindrance, since even a merely practical cooperation will be plagued by the substance of the PDS’s orientation.
The PDS state parliament member in Saxony and speaker for anti-fascist politics, Kerstin Koeditz, for example, negotiated a compromise with local police forces during the demonstration last year in Pirna, to the effect that the planned demo route was foreshortened, thus making an effective demonstration impossible.
The PDS no longer functions as a hindrance when civil rights in the brown nests of eastern Germany are subsumed under state prerogatives. Before the demonstration, local PDS politicians threatened to leave the party if the Antifa demonstration was permitted to take place.
The meaning of such cooperation with the PDS on the part of leftist groups, which was always limited to specific individuals inside of the PDS, is already disappearing to the extent that the Left Party’s program approaches that of the national socialists, just as the few remaining non-right-wing projects in the “National Liberated Zones” are also disappearing [translator’s note: “National Liberated Zone” is the term that Nazis use for locales which are effectively under Nazi influence].
If the critique of such criticisms is to be audible, then a clear act of polarization – even against the Left Party – is indispensable.
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