The LINK: An Interview with an SPD activist in Berlin who has led
the campaign
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stefan
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Oct 07, 2005 01:26 PDT
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GERMANY
After the elections of September 18: An Interview with an SPD activist in
Berlin who has led the campaign to vote SPD and kick out Schroeder
Q: How will the crisis opened on Sept. 18 -- a crisis unprecedented in the
history of the federal republic-- unfold?
A: To respond to this question it is first of all necessary to respond to
the following question: What are the roots of this crisis? Despite all the
predictions of the national and international experts, the German people
inflicted a severe defeat on Merkel and the CDU-CSU, which was unable to
obtain an absolute majority with the FDP.
But the German people have, in the same movement, rejected the policies of
Schroeder. The SPD lost around 2 million votes, but tails the CDU-CSU. The
SPD remains the number one party in most Landers, except Bavaria,
Bade-Württemberg, Palatinate, and East-Saxony. It became, once again, the
number one party in North Rhenany-Westphalia, where it suffered a major
defeat last May 22. There is no clear majority. It is a complete crisis.
I personally called for a SPD vote here in Berlin. My position was clear: To
kick out Schroeder (who is responsible for the tragic situation confronting
the people) and to fight Merkel (who wants to continue and deepen the
policies of Schroeder) it is necessary to vote SPD.
I have often been met with incredulous responses. "You're not being
logical," people told me. But what did the workers and citizens do by voting
SPD? In extremely difficult conditions they fought against Merkel and
disavowed Schroeder, who paved the way for Merkel´s rise to power.
Q: The lesson is clear if we are to judge by the reaction of the newspaper
Handesblatt, which bitterly notes that "the electors refused to give a
mandate for reforms" and reproaches Merkel for imprudently calling for a
radical change, because "never before in the post-war have the elections so
clearly posed the question of whether one was in favour or not of the
economic reforms."
A: Without a doubt, the German people said, "Enough counter-reforms! Annul
the Hartz Law! Annul the ´reform´ of health insurance!" The people said no
to the 2010 Agenda, which brings together all these counter-reforms.
It was a defeat for the policies directed against the workers, the poor, and
the youth. It was a defeat which, according to the International Herald
Tribune, threatens to "destabilise the political dynamic in Europe, where
the coming-to-power of a center-right government was in general seen as
having the potential to modify relations with the United States and to
permit economic changes."
Isn´t this the heart of the question? Who dictates all these measures
against the people in Iraq and the world with the support of the national
governments? Isn´t it Bush, the IMF, and their instrument, the European
Union?
Q: This won´t prevent the fact that, in the wake of the elections of
September 18, despite the declarations and manoeuvres of both Schroeder and
Merkel, negotiations will take place to create the mega-coalition demanded
by the bosses.
That's the truth. We hear all sorts of rumours, all of which point towards a
mega-coalition. It is revolting. Who do they take us for? They dare to
propose to deepen, in a mega-coalition government, the policies implemented
by Schroeder since 1999?
However, what has Schroeder done? He has done what no person in Germany
could have expected to be done.
With the Hartz laws, he has destroyed the system of unemployment insurance.
Thus, during every month since January 1, 2005, dozens of thousands of
unemployed workers lost, within one year, all their rights to unemployment
insurance, which they had paid for during their whole working lives. Now
these families are forced to depend solely on social assistance.
Since January, hundreds of thousands have already been thrown in endless
misery in the East and the West. This is unfathomable!
Today, in Germany, they dare to demand that a party that claims allegiance
to the working class force workers to work for one Euro an hour in
workplaces where the bosses prohibit, from this point on, regulated jobs in
order to definitively smash collective bargaining agreements and to obtain
an unimaginable drop in "labour costs," in a country where the average
salary has officially dropped for the past 10 years.
They dare to demand from this party that it legitimates job employment
agencies that permit the eviction of some of the unemployed, due to the
Hartz law, because they supposedly live in houses that are too spacious for
people who benefit from social housing! Shame on those who want to continue
this drive!
But on September 18, the working class and people of the country showed that
another path is possible.
Q: Yes, but what path is this?
A: Let us talk about Berlin. The Land of Berlin is an image of the Germany
reunified in 1989. It is the East and the West. I called to vote for the SPD
for the reasons given earlier. But I have good comrades, traditional voters
of the SPD, who voted for Linkspartei-PDS to demonstrate their total
rejection of Schroeder. Take note that Berlin voted 34.3% for the SPD and
16.6% for the Linkspartei. The millions of electors who voted SPD and
Linkspartei-PDS did not vote for the continuation of the policies of
Schroeder implemented by the SPD-PDS coalition which runs Berlin, policies
of the destruction of public services and the collective bargaining
agreements of public services workers, and the privatisation of hospitals
and schools. They did not vote for those policies. A short while ago, they
mobilised against these policies. They demonstrated great intelligence in
thwarting Schroeder's plan, who paved the way for Merkel to come to power.
Today, I say that there is no solution capable of opening up a solution for
Germany, for the exploited, and for the oppressed, other than the creation
of a SPD-Linkspartei-PDS government, mandated to satisfy the demands of the
working population!
Q: Can you be explain this further?
A: I am calling for the creation of a SPD-Linkspartei-PDS government. This
doesn't mean that I support the position of Gysi, who is opposed to the
demand for nationalisation and, instead of calling for the complete
cancellation of the Hartz law, suggests "correcting" and "going beyond" the
law. Neither do I support the positions of the leadership of the SPD. I
think that the creation of such a government responds to the aspirations of
the workers and would contribute to promote even more the true demands of
the workers and to implement them. I have addressed all my colleagues here
in Berlin that, to open up a solution, it is necessary to create a
SPD-Linkspartei-PDS government mandated to satisfy several immediate demands
and emergency measures:
-- The abrogation of the Hartz laws and the "reforms" of health care and
pensions; the reestablishment of the parity system which sheltered the
workers from misery since the war;
-- The reestablishment of the child care centres in the East, which were
social property, the prohibition of their privatisation/destruction, their
remunicipalisation, and the extension of the system to the West;
--The reestablishment in the East and the West of the health, transport, and
housing public services, by renationalizing those which have been
privatised, and having them turned over to the communes for their
administration;
--The reestablishment of the principle of tariff autonomy, obligatory
national collective bargaining agreements for all workers, as well as the
trade union prerogatives;
-- The prohibition of restructuring-delocalisations, layoffs at Siemens,
Daimler, and Volkswagen; those companies which resist this measure should be
nationalised;
-- The return of all German soldiers stationed in foreign countries, in
respect of the "Pledge of the German people" of 1945.
This is what the defence of political democracy requires today in Germany.
This is how to open the road to social democracy.
(1) Christian-Democratic Party, the main formation of the right
(2) Liberal Party
(3) Social Democratic Party
(4) The product of the fusion of the movement of Oskar Lafontaine, the
ex-leader of the SPD, with the PDS of Gysi, which came out of Stalinist SED
in ex- East Germany
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