Sebastian wrote:
> No practical implications are expected.
The practical implications are contingent upon a sustained extra-parliamentary movement emerging in Germany. The demos last Saturday were a good start, but the permanent state of organization is nothing like in the US right now.
Still, the point is that it's putting the cart before the horse to expect the party to *lead* in terms of practical implications. A party *responds* to movement. Remember that the majority of the Bolshevik leadership was against the Soviets taking power! Lenin had to drum it into their heads to accept what was going on in the streets.
The broader significance was, remember, that the bourgeois press has been crowing for months that this party will tear itself apart between its left and right wings. That has not happened. At the programmatic level, the right-wing has just received a solid drubbing. The whole global atmosphere generated by OWS ensures that any substantial move toward further compromise with the pro-coalition forces in the party would result in a serious loss of credibility. The entire spectrum of the bourgeois press is outraged by the party digging in its heels and pursuing an verbally left course. Stefan Reinicke has an article in the Green/left-liberal Taz bemoaning the party's affirmation of "Robin Hood" politics: http://www.taz.de/Kommentar-Linkspartei/!80473/
I mean, Die Linke is not a r-r-revolutionary party. It's not supposed to be. It's aspirations are to be a broad, multi-wing socialist party. And even at that modest level, it still scares the shit out of the bourgeois chattering classes that they have to constantly hammer away at it, 24/7, in their newspapers and on their television programs.
Also, you're deliberately picking the most unfavorable poll data. The party has been constantly hovering between 7 and 9 percent for the better part of a year.