The Left Social gathering in Germany opened its marketing campaign for the February 12, 2023 Berlin state elections with a number of temporary statements.
The celebration is strengthening “social points, social coexistence and public infrastructures,” it says on its web site. “The folks of Berlin now have the chance to determine what is admittedly necessary to them within the face of ongoing crises,” state chief Katina Schubert mentioned. The celebration’s newly chosen mayoral candidate Klaus Lederer even spoke of “restoring misplaced belief in democracy.”
These terse pronouncements themselves are primarily based on grotesque lies. First, the Left Social gathering doesn’t stand for progressive social insurance policies, however for radical cuts in social spending; and second, the celebration didn’t welcome the chance for Berliners to vote once more on these disastrous insurance policies, however tried to stop such a vote.
Even because the state constitutional court docket hinted in September that it was contemplating a whole re-run of the state elections in view of the obvious electoral shortcomings, Left Social gathering politicians Moheb Shafaqyar and Antonio Leonhardt claimed that this transfer was “not legally justified” in an indignant article within the Tagesspiegel.
Ought to the court docket stick with its evaluation, they wrote, “it could perpetuate the chaotic circumstances in Berlin and itself turn out to be a part of the issue of state organisation.” So, consistent with its Stalinist traditions, the Left Social gathering didn’t declare that the undemocratic organisation of the election–for which it and the opposite two events within the Berlin Senate (state government) have been accountable—was a “state-organisational drawback,” however fairly the court docket’s insistence on democratic elections!
In its rejection of re-holding the election, the Left Social gathering revealed the identical contempt for the voters that already underlay the disastrous organisation of the poll. The coverage of conflict and social devastation pursued by all of the institution events, together with the Left Social gathering, is incompatible with democratic common participation. The opposition to this disastrous coverage is just too nice.
That is significantly clear within the case of the Left Social gathering, which likes to name itself the celebration of “peace and social justice.” It additionally fears a recent vote as a result of, based on the polls, it might even fall wanting its poor outcome within the final election, which might then be its tenth consecutive electoral failure at federal and state degree.
The first motive for that is the Left Social gathering’s right-wing and militaristic insurance policies. It’s an integral element of the all-party conspiracy that’s stepping up the conflict towards Russia, spending billions rearming the German navy and passing on the prices of this insanity to working folks.
Whereas doing so, the celebration acts significantly aggressively towards anybody who opposes the official conflict course. In June, lead candidate Lederer denounced questioning concerning the background of the Russian invasion of Ukraine within the Taz newspaper as a “left-reactionary love of peace” and demanded complete arms deliveries to Ukraine.
Those that didn’t agree with the huge armament of Ukraine by NATO — and thus with the proxy conflict towards Russia being performed on the backs of the Ukrainian inhabitants — “don’t regard folks as topics, however as occupants of imperial spheres of curiosity and as a type of shifting mass of nice powers,” Lederer mentioned. Weapons deliveries have been mandatory to be able to take significantly “folks with their wants, sensitivities, needs and fears.”
There could be no extra cynical method to justify the destruction of a rustic within the pursuits of German and American geopolitics. NATO intentionally provoked Vladimir Putin’s reactionary invasion of Ukraine and is now utilizing it for an all-out marketing campaign towards Russia to subjugate and plunder that nation. In doing so, it’s brazenly counting on far-right battalions and neo-Nazis in Ukraine. For the Left Social gathering, these are “folks with their fears.” In accordance with this logic, the conflict towards Russia, which strikes the Ukrainian folks first and threatens to result in the nuclear annihilation of humanity, serves to strengthen the “topics” in Ukraine!
This corresponds to the perspective of the whole Social Democratic Social gathering (SDP)-Left Social gathering-Inexperienced Senate in Berlin. On Might 8 and 9 this 12 months, it banned the presence of Soviet flags at any commemoration of the liberation of Berlin, regardless of its being the Crimson Military which lastly drove the fascists out of town. Earlier, the “red-red-green” coalition dismissed a disciplinary criticism towards right-wing extremist professor Jörg Baberowski, who had bodily attacked a pupil. Baberowski is thought for his vulgar falsification of historical past, for instance, declaring that Hitler was not merciless.
As earlier than the 2 world wars, aggressive militarism is accompanied by fierce assaults on employees’ social rights. In Berlin, the catastrophic social penalties of the conflict coverage could be seen as if beneath a magnifying glass.
Initially of the 12 months, the poverty charge within the German capital was formally 16.4 p.c. One in 4 youngsters lives in a family affected by poverty or prone to poverty. Within the face of galloping inflation–a consequence of the pandemic policy, the financial conflict towards Russia and the ensuing power emergency–the poverty charge has risen drastically.
The Berlin state ministry for integration, labour and social affairs, headed by former Left Social gathering chief Katja Kipping, continues to exacerbate this poverty. In March, the Berlin state authorities handed a double budget for 2022 and 2023, which included additional sharp austerity measures, lowering the two-year price range from 78.3 billion to 76.6 billion euros. The main target of the cuts was once more on the social sectors. Even schooling, which is already in a run-down state, is being reduce additional.
As a result of the final protecting measures towards the pandemic–from which greater than 5,000 have already died in Berlin–have been dropped, the scenario within the hospitals, day-care centres, faculties and administration is turning into worse. On the identical time, the banks and companies are receiving authorities hand-outs value billions.
The primary “red-red” Senate beneath the Social Democrats and Left Social gathering from 2002 onward, which included the right-wing extremist finance senator Thilo Sarrazin (SPD), carried out austerity measures, unprecedented within the post-war interval. Wages within the public sector have been reduce by 10 p.c, jobs have been eradicated en masse and municipal housing offered off to speculators. This coverage is now being additional intensified by the SPD, the Greens and the Left Social gathering.
Given this document, the Left Social gathering shuns elections just like the satan abhors holy water. There isn’t a assist for these insurance policies besides amongst prosperous higher middle-class layers, whom each the Left Social gathering and the Greens court docket.
The Sozialistische Gleichheitspartei (Socialist Equality Social gathering, SGP) is subsequently turning the rerun of the Berlin state elections right into a referendum on the right-wing and militarist insurance policies of all of the Senate events. We don’t worry the elections, however welcome them, as a result of they supply employees a chance to settle accounts with the SPD, the Greens and the Left Social gathering.
Our election appeal concludes with the phrases: “We name on anybody who doesn’t wish to settle for outrageous ranges of social inequality, the destruction of the well being and schooling system, and, lastly, the nuclear destruction of our planet: Help our election marketing campaign and vote for the SGP on February 12! Register now as an lively supporter.”
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