Trade unions and the Left go on the offensive

Berlin voters have shown that they want real change and improvements, and have rejected the austerity policies of the conservative CDU and SPD social democrats. This is encouraging and represents a mandate for trade unions and the Left Party (Die Linke) to take effective action against these attacks and to continue building the resistance.

Around a quarter of Berliners aged 16 and over are not eligible to vote because they do not hold the required citizenship. Of those who are eligible, a quarter did not turn out to vote. Election results are always just a snapshot of the overall mood and represent only a moment in time. That really was a wonderful moment!

Successes for the Left Party

Historically, the Left Party has also been strong in certain parts of Berlin. Yet in this election, it achieved its strongest result ever in the city getting 25.7%. Following this year’s electoral setbacks in Baden-Württemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate, the disappointment in Saxony-Anhalt – where the ‘Heimat’ election campaign failed to catch on – and the predictably lacklustre performance in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, where the policy of government participation led to a loss of votes, this was a long-awaited success for the Party.

As well as reflecting dissatisfaction with the CDU/SPD federal and state governments, the Berlin election result also shows how many people – particularly in the wake of the election in Saxony-Anhalt – wanted to take a stand against the right-wing populist AfD and the conservative CDU/CSU. As a result, Die Linke was able to mobilise not only many non-voters but also former voters of the SPD and the Greens. However, the result also highlights the polarisation within the city and across the country, which – unlike in Saxony-Anhalt – is not primarily evident on the right, but here, in Berlin, particularly on the left. This polarisation is also evident within and between the districts; for instance, Die Linke emerged as the strongest force overall in Neukölln. In the south, however, the CDU and the AfD – despite significant gains for Die Linke – were, when counted together, stronger than Die Linke.

This left success also stemmed from the fact that Die Linke is in opposition. Furthermore, the election campaign was waged in Berlin more combative than in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania or Saxony-Anhalt. The rent movement helped ensure that the popular demand for expropriation of property companies was not forgotten, and it also helped that the press repeatedly seized upon the issue. In Neukölln and Wedding in particular, for example, the election campaign was waged more aggressively, and this is also reflected in the particularly strong results. Nevertheless, the party leadership undermined and watered down the election manifesto – for instance, with a five-point plan – during the course of the campaign in order to be better placed to join a coalition government.

In recent weeks, the Party has come under constant attack for its radical Neukölln district association. And it was precisely there that Die Linke secured its best constituency result and an absolute majority. In Neukölln constituency 2, a staggering 53.1 per cent voted for Die Linke! This was closely followed by Neukölln 1. The Linke candidate for the directly elected constituency seat there, Vanessa (Vedi) Emde, was supported by 46.2 per cent of voters, despite being personally attacked in the press for her stance of solidarity with Palestinians.

Naturally, many expressed concern in post-election surveys that there were anti-Semites within the Party. The issue was both overplayed and downplayed in the media and by other parties. Immediately after the election, this campaign has now literally exploded, with the majority of the mainstream press and various representatives of the CDU/CSU, SPD and the Greens warning against a left-led government in Berlin and, amongst other things, threatening to withhold funding. The campaign against the Bundestag MP Ferat Koçak over his published chat messages with a member of the Remmo family, accused of bring a criminal gang’, is also a cheap diversionary tactic to cover up their own failure.

Large sections of the ruling class are in a state of panic and fear the popular hopes that accompany the success of Die Linke and its promise of expropriation. The SPD and the Greens are driving on two tracks: they are ramping up the pressure on Die Linke to crack down on its left wing to the utmost, whilst at the same time devising an exit strategy from the negotiations on the next city government.

The allegations should have been rejected unequivocally and unanimously by the party leadership at both federal and state level: Die Linke does not have an anti-Semitism problem. Full stop. None of the cases discussed publicly constitute anti-Semitism. Solidarity with Palestine, criticism of the Israeli state and military, and calls for resistance against the institutions of the occupation are not to be equated with hatred towards Jewish people or Jewish institutions on the grounds of their Jewishness.

Instead, Berlin Party officials have already announced in interviews that they will take a hard line against alleged anti-Semites within Die Linke. Yet the message should be: there must be no expulsions or disciplinary proceedings on the grounds of alleged anti-Semitism. A detailed analysis of this by Sol (CWI in Germany) can be found here (in German). The vast majority of Die Linke’s voters have recognised that this campaign is a pretext and also support the Party’s anti-war stance, particularly that of the Party’s left wing.

The fact that the party garnered around 48 per cent support amongst young people cannot be overestimated. The Party and the Linksjugend (Left youth) organisation must find ways to organise this group of teenagers and young adults and integrate them more closely into the Party’s structures.

Defeat of Merz-Klingbeil

With Stefan Evers, the ‘cuts minister’, and Steffen Krach, who is entangled with healthcare conglomerates, the CDU and SPD fielded two fine representatives of their austerity policies in this Berlin election. As in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, they were dealt a resounding defeat as a result. Merz’s appearance on the evening of the election was reminiscent of a captain who refuses to accept that his ship is sinking. Yet he is determined to push through his attacks and, ideally, to ban expropriations as well.

The trade unions must capitalise on the current mood to organise resistance that can truly halt the Merz-Klingbeil government. The social protests on September 26 called by the DGB (trade union federation) are a further step in this direction. But if no second step follows, the resistance will falter. Sol has published proposals on this here (in German).

For if this mood cannot be channelled into determined, united and mass resistance by workers, the AfD will be able to continue gaining ground. Even though the AfD fared worse in Berlin than in the polls, the danger is not over, as it still managed to make significant gains compared to the last election and became the largest party in Marzahn-Hellersdorf. And in some constituencies, for example in Treptow-Köpenick, it also secured the most votes – all places where Die Linke used to be the largest party.

What does ‘left-wing government’ mean?

The vast majority of Die Linke’s voters want the party to govern as part of a red-green-red (Linke-Green-Social Democrat) coalition. This reflects a fear that austerity policies might continue, and many hope that things would be different under Die Linke and that living conditions would improve. You can hear this, for example, at the picket lines of the nursing staff at the Charité hospital group, who are fighting back against a brutal attack on their staffing levels. That is understandable. But the reality would be quite different.

The Left should explain what is really needed in the city to make it affordable, and what a socialist government policy should look like. Elif Eralp, the leader of Die Linke in Berlin, and the elected representatives must now go into the neighbourhoods and workplaces and hold mass meetings there to call on the people of Berlin to protest and resist in support of a radical programme. The Party must make it clear that only class struggle from below can bring about fundamental improvements, and that a radical left-wing programme would immediately meet with resistance from the other parties, the federal government and the courts. Merz’s threats to immediately ban expropriations nationwide, for example, make this clear.

Such a radical socialist programme in the city could include the following points, which the Reuterkiez branch of Die Linke in the Neukölln district has proposed in a motion:

• the reversal of all privatisations and cuts of recent years
• the implementation of the referendum on the expropriation of property groups and the defence of the referendum on the preservation of Tempelhofer Feld open space.
• the immediate introduction of a reduction in working hours to 35 hours per week in the public sector, with full pay and staffing compensation
• massive investment and the recruitment of more staff in the public sector, including in the fields of education, health, climate protection, integration, culture and social services
• the expansion of public transport and the introduction of free local public transport, alongside the development of new, environmentally friendly mobility concepts for the city that are socially responsible
• a comprehensive building programme by municipal housing associations to provide affordable council housing, a reduction in rents to a cost-covering level of €5.50 per square metre (excluding heating costs), and the introduction of a rent cap for council housing
• an end to forced evictions and relocations, and an emergency programme to eliminate homelessness
• the drawing up of a needs-based budget that prioritises the needs of Berlin’s workers, tenants, young people, pensioners and the socially disadvantaged
• measures to improve the budgetary situation at the expense of the super-rich, banks and corporations: including a significant increase in business rates; an end to unnecessary and expensive prestige projects (e.g. the A100 urban motorway extension); and an end to interest payments to the banks. A call on the federal government to provide more funding for the federal states and local authorities, including through higher taxes on large fortunes, profits and inheritances
• a ‘no’ to all deportations and a commitment to equal rights for everyone living here.

 

Right now the Party should now make it clear, through a broad solidarity campaign, that the current struggle of the employees at the Charité against their bosses’ attack on their hard-won collective agreement is the most important workplace struggle in the city at present. In the Berlin House of Representatives, it could table motions calling for the executive Senate (the Berlin city government) to issue a shareholder directive to the Charité’s management to accept the colleagues’ demands in full. In this way, it could put pressure on the Greens and the SPD. If they refuse to cooperate, there will simply be new elections and an even stronger result for Die Linke.

The Left Party should tell it like it is: every future government faces a yawning budget deficit and enormous pressure to make cuts. Yet these cuts must be reversed. The Hans Böckler Foundation, the trade unions research body, estimates that Berlin will require an additional 100 billion euros in investment by 2035. The people of Berlin deserve nothing less. Only a city government that demands this money from the federal government, positions itself at the forefront of social struggles, and calls for mass protests and strikes in Berlin and other federal states could prevent cuts and push through improvements. Only a government that is prepared to hold regular meetings in neighbourhoods and workplaces to allow its policies to be debated, and that lets democratically elected representatives of trade unions, workforces, tenants and young people decide on its policies, could stand up to the resistance of capital.

Exploratory talks?

If Die Linke were to enter into exploratory talks at all, it should do so only with such a socialist government programme and a commitment to class struggle. But in what world would the SPD and the Greens go along with that? The bourgeois smear campaign of recent days would descend into utter madness in the face of such a declaration of war. And what basis is there at present for exploratory talks with the SPD and the Greens, when they are driving forward the public smear campaign against Die Linke and the SPD rules out expropriations? If such talks are to take place, they should be transparent and public. Representatives of social struggles and movements – such as activists from the rent movement and the school strikes, colleagues from the Charité hospital, or those directly affected by cuts – should be directly involved.

All experience shows that the SPD and the Greens are parties that block expropriations, sooner or later demand cuts, prevent critical activists from holding key offices, and, apart from token gestures, hold back improvements. Everything suggests that, in a red-green-red coalition, Die Linke would find itself at odds with social movements and its own voters, and would lose their support. This is exactly what happened in the past, such as in the 2000s, when the then PDS, following strong election results, entered into coalition with the SPD, helped drive through mass privatisations and cuts to social services, and subsequently lost a huge amount of support. This can also be explained to the people of Berlin.

If it becomes clear that the SPD and the Greens are refusing to engage in genuinely left-wing governance and are aiming for a coalition led by the CDU/CSU, Die Linke could offer the SPD and the Greens the chance to form a minority government in order to prevent another CDU mayor. The Party could then, on a case-by-case basis and without a coalition or tolerance agreement, support any legislation that represents an improvement. But, even if that came to nothing, a ‘Kenya’ (CDU-Green-Social Democrat) coalition of the election losers facing a strengthened, class-struggle-oriented Left would be a weak government. With the right strategy and determination, a significant strengthening of Die Linke in a following general election would be possible as a step towards a future absolute majority.

Instead, however, there is a risk that the Party leadership will further scale back its demands in order to join a government with the SPD and the Greens. This process had already begun during the election campaign. It is therefore now of the utmost importance that critical members and public representatives organise themselves so that they can engage in the discussion about the next steps. There must now be sufficient time for debates within the party at all levels on the question of participation in government and on a possible draft coalition agreement with the SPD and the Greens. Rather than recalling delegates to last year’s regional party conference there must be the opportunity, at district level, to re-elect delegates to the regional party conference on the basis of these current political issues before such a conference adopts a position on the coalition agreement. To democratise the process, if the views of Party members’ differ from the position of the regional Party conference, then the discussion should continue. After all, delegates can better represent the party’s active grassroots and are a genuine part of the negotiations on these key issues. If the party’s left wing is fragmented, it will not be heard. That is why Sol is involved in the alliance ‘Linke in der Linken’ (‘Left in the Left’, LidL).

The Berlin Left Party, and its PDS predecessor, has a sad history of participating in governments and implementing cuts. The spun-off subsidiaries of the state-owned hospitals alone could tell you a thing or two about that. The people of Berlin have now given the Party the chance to do things differently this time. Let’s make the most of it.