(Foto: "Der Spiegel")The Left is not dead! Despite calculated meeja attempts to bury the Left in Europe, with the victory of right-wing Sarkynose in France, and in Ireland with the disappointing performance of Labour in the recent General Election here; on the contrary, the Left is showing vigorous signs of life right now with the establishment of a new Left Party in Germany – Die Linke, and an increased vote for the Socialist Party in the French Parliamentary elections.
GERMANY
In a vibrant and packed conference in Berlin last Saturday, a new left party “Die Linke”/”The Left” was formed by the merger of the Party of Democratic Socialism of Eastern Germany and the Social Justice Party of former SPD leader and former Finance Minister of the Federal Republic, Oscar Lafontaine. In one of the fiery speeches for which he is renowned, Herr Lafontaine pointedly reclaimed the historic territory of the German Left in the tradition of Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg, iconic leaders of German Socialism both brutally murdered by the Freikorps right-wing militias in 1918 in the aftermath of WW1. Damning the welfare cuts of the previous Schroeder SPD/Green government, Herr Lafontaine stated “We are the Party of the Social State. We need a New Force, The Left, which says; ‘Yes, we want to restore the Social State’ to ecstatic enthusiasm and a standing ovation. Herr Lafontaine went on to firmly position the new party as Anti-War and Pro-Environment.
The new party, also led by Lothar Bisky of the former PDS, will be the second-largest opposition party in the Bundestag with 8% of the national poll but, with nearly 40% of the vote in the five Eastern Lander which made up the German Democratic Republic(DDR) until 1990 and nearly 30% of the vote in the capital, Berlin. Pollsters have rated the new party’s chances as gaining 24% of the national vote in the next election and 44-45% in the eastern Lander, which are the areas surrounding Berlin. The potential in the city of Berlin itself is even higher at 60%. The consequences are dire for the Social Democrats who moved their party significantly to the right in going into coalition with Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats after the last election.. Coalesce with the Right at your peril seems to be the message here.
FRANCE
In the French Parliamentary elections on Sunday last, despite cock-crowing media predictions of a landslide for Sarkynose and his UMP Party and the rout of the Socialists, the opposite happened. The Socialists gained more than 50 parliamentary seats and Sarkynose lost his new Deputy Prime Minister, Alain Juppé, to a victorious Socialist candidate. This puts paid to Sarkynose’s plans for gung-ho Yankee-Doodle capitalism in France without opposition and will encourage strong resistance to any attempts to dismantle the social state in France.
The stage is now set, in both France and Germany, the key economies of the EU, for a resurgence of Democratic Socialism, a strengthening of the International Anti-War Movement, the International Resistance to Capitalist Globalisation and the Greed Economy, the fight for Scientific Climate Change Prevention measures, internationally agreed, and the sidelining of the wishy-washy and unreliable Greens. Irish LABOUR needs to note and absorb the lessons of these events immediately.
Beatha don Eite Chlé! Vive La Gauche! Es Leben Die Linke! Long live The Left!
FearFeasa Mac Léinn
Áth Cliath/Dublin, 19 Meitheamh/JUNE 2007.
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