Strain all your forces now to get into the parliament – and plan for the time afterwards

In the midst of the shift to the right in the ruling politics – from Trump to Merz (the leader of the conservative CDU) to the consistently pro-capitalist policies of the SPD and the Greens – there is a glimmer of hope in the German election campaign that seems brighter by the day. This is the thousands of new members joining Die Linke (Left Party) and the activation of many of them in its election campaign. In the first five weeks of this year nearly 23,500 have joined, resulting in Die Linke’s membership reaching 81,200, the highest it has ever been.

“The comeback of the year” is what the party itself calls this turnaround after years of membership losses and decline in elections and opinion polls. For here, too, there is a weak but clear upward trend – for the first time in months, various polling institutes see the Left Party back at the five percent bar to get into the Bundestag (parliament). Currently four opinion polls even put the party at six percent. Entering the Bundestag is therefore not only theoretically possible, but within reach. To achieve this, all forces should now be mobilized. Sol members will also make their contribution in the election campaign for Die Linke.

As we wrote in our election manifesto: Die Linke is “despite all its limitations, mistakes and adaptation in the direction of the SPD and the Greens – the only voice of a left-wing opposition that can make it into the Bundestag. A Bundestag without Die Linke would shift the political balance of power in the Federal Republic to the disadvantage of the working class.”

Recruits in response to Merz and AfD

The wave of entry and activation is above all a reaction to the strengthening of the AfD, the election of Donald Trump as US president and the tearing down of the so-called “firewall” to the far right populist AfD by CDU leader Friedrich Merz, but also to the further rightward development of the SPD and the Greens that is taking place at the same time. For example, they have also tightened the right to asylum and want to further increase military spending as well. They ultimately play the same tune as the other established parties on the migration issue, only a little quieter, but Olaf Scholz is proud of the many deportations and both SPD and Green politicians are involved in declaring individual acts of violence to be migration problems. Quite apart from that, they, as governing parties, have not introduced any improvements in the decisive social issues of rents, price increases, job destruction and staff shortages in many areas.

In view of these developments, but also the wars, climate change and the multiple crisis of capitalism with all its social consequences, many people draw the conclusion that a left-wing counter pole to these developments and the destructive forces that capitalism unleashes is needed. It is precisely the existential crisis of Die Linke and the danger that it will be thrown out of the Bundestag that has led to an important layer, especially young people, now turning to it.

This development is also a confirmation of our assessment that it is currently not a one-sided shift to the right in society, but a polarization, which, however, currently finds a stronger political expression on the right.

The Left Party is the only offer for a counter pole that currently exists, which has the chance to enter the Bundestag and has a certain social significance. This is all the more true after the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW), together with the CDU and AfD, not only agreed to anti-immigrant motions in the Bundestag, but also proved at record speed that it is anything but an anti-establishment force by forming coalition state governments with the SPD in Brandenburg and the CDU in Thuringia. Those leftists who have placed their hopes in the BSW have either thrown left-wing principles overboard, are disappointed and resign, like several leading members in Bavaria, or bury their heads in the sand and deny reality.

Proposals for party building

It is now important not only to turn the thousands of new members into election campaigners for a few weeks, but to activate them permanently and continue to build the party. They must be made aware that re-entry into the Bundestag must not be the goal, but only a means for organizing resistance and further building the party – and that Die Linke can only achieve as much impact in the Bundestag as there will be strikes, mass protests and demonstrations outside parliament. The following different steps can help achieve this:

• The implementation of campaigns in which the new members can be involved: against municipal cuts, against job destruction, in preparation for the coming attacks of a new federal government, against racism, against rent usury, etc., and the support of strikes and protest movements.
• The organization of left-wing structures where the new members are – i.e. in companies or industries or trade unions, at universities, in districts
• Organising a broad and democratic debate on the future policy and practice of the party, in which the controversial issues that have shaped the party in recent years and led to the crisis of the party will be addressed: should it be governed together with the SPD and the Greens, what role does parliamentary activity play, what is the relationship with the trade unions and their leaderships, should the AfD be fought in a broad alliance with all other parties, what is left-wing migration policy, should bombs be delivered to Ukraine, is Die Linke in solidarity with the state of Israel, etc. – on this basis, new elections to all committees and delegate mandates in the party
• Opportunities for political education such as reading circles, seminars to introduce Marxism and the history of the workers’ movement, etc.

Dialectic of the existential crisis

The new Die Linke leadership seems to believe that the wave of new entrants also, or even primarily, is linked to the new “unity” in the party since Ines Schwerdtner and Jan van Aken were elected its leaders and the focus of the election campaign on a few social issues, such as housing, inflation and wealth redistribution. It may be that Die Linke has conveyed more clear messages in recent months and that the end of public disputes has increased its attractiveness. In fact, however, there is a dialectic of the party’s existential crisis. In view of the strengthening of the far right populist AfD, the lack of alternatives on the Left and the continued rightward development of the SPD and the Greens, it became clear to many people that a country without the Left Party would be a much darker country – the wave of entries was, so to speak, inversely proportional to the strength and positive charisma of the party.

But there is no doubt that the new party leadership has also done some things right, above all it has succeeded in triggering a confident mood among the members and the election campaign has pushed the conflict issues into the background. It has also implemented a successful social media campaign that has increased the party’s reach. According to the party, more than thirty million people listened to Heidi Reichinnek’s speech in the Bundestag in the recent migration debate – and many of them were certainly enthusiastic about her combative words and credibility that stood out so vividly from the jelly-like performance of most other politicians.

In addition, no one in the party is currently proposing an orientation towards government participation with the SPD and Greens at the federal level, and Die Linke thus appears less as a left-wing part of the establishment. However this is not because this no longer corresponds to the political convictions and objectives of many Linke politicians, but because such a coalition is simply not on the agenda. So now the election campaign launched with the slogan “Everyone wants to govern. We want to change.” is also being made by those in the party who want nothing better than to govern in coalitions with the SPD and possibly also the Greens. Such coalitions are still in existence in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Bremen and which have seen Die Linke representatives approve of cuts in Bremen and, in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, supporting the federal government’s new security package.

Warning

Therefore, we issue a warning, despite all the justified joy and enthusiasm about the positive development of the last weeks and months. None of the political reasons for the party’s crisis have been resolved, with the exception of the conflict with Sahra Wagenknecht.

Unless there is a socialist change of course in Die Linke the political orientation that led to its years of crisis will, sooner or later, regain weight. As before this will be around the issues of the focus on parliamentarism instead of class struggle, the willingness to enter into pro-capitalist coalitions with the SPD and the Greens, the bureaucratic structures in the party – all of which will again prevent the development of Die Linke towards a socialist workers’ party.

But despite many good demands, such as the abolition of billionaires, there are no signs of this socialist change of course so far. In Saxony and Thuringia, the party has helped CDU state prime ministers into office, in Bremen and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania it manages the grievances together with the SPD and the Greens. Party co-leader Heidi Reichinnek, when asked whether there is a willingness to form a coalition with the SPD and the Greens, did not explain politically why Die Linke does not want this, but rather expressed regret that this will probably not be possible right now. In her angry speech in the Bundestag she also complained that the CDU leader Friedrich Merz does not talk to Die Linke. This fits with the former Die Linke leader Gregor Gysi’s statement at the party conference a few weeks ago, when he declared the AfD to be the only opponent, while the other parties were only competitors.

What is needed is a political clarification of the disputed issues, regardless of whether the party enters the Bundestag or not. If it comes in, influential forces in Die Linke will again try to align the party in the direction of the SPD and the Greens. If it doesn’t get in, either by going over the 5% bar or winning three direct seats, then navel-gazing will begin anyway.

The comrades of the group ‘Socialism from Below’, who recently left Die Linke, argued for years as members of Marx21 that one must and can renew the party on the basis of activism without debating and resolving the political issues. This has not worked in the past and will not work in the future.

Working class?

In addition, there is another question: without knowing exactly the sociological composition of the new members, all experience indicates that they are mainly young people in larger cities, often with an academic background. If you win members especially in certain milieus, this is no guarantee of strengthening support amongst the broad working population. Even ten or twenty thousand more members do not automatically lead to higher voting results and anchoring among the masses. The five-digit membership figures that parties such as Die Basis or the Pirates have show this.

There is no doubt that Die Linke has also been able to mobilise support in sections of the working class, as the selection of some candidates shows. This is especially true for hospital workers, whose struggles have been strongly supported by the Left Party in recent years. But the party is far from regaining, let alone expanding, the support it once had in sections of the working class—when it was nearly 12 percent in the election after the Great Recession of 2008-09. This requires a conscious orientation towards companies and trade unions, intervention in trade union debates, support for strikes, organisation of Die Linke Party members in the workplace and a critical attitude towards the policies of the Social Democratic-dominated trade union leaderships instead of trotting after them.

Avoid frustration

This and many other things must be discussed in the party. But if the “mantle of unity” is now placed over it and no discussion takes place, then events will take revenge. The many young members have little experience and may not yet see the importance of many of the questions raised in this article. But the reality of the issues facing Die Linke will catch up with them, and only open, democratic debates and a socialist change of course, as we have often called for, can prevent this reality from leading to frustration and withdrawal, as has been the case with many new members in the past. On a socialist basis, Die Linke, or parts of it – together with other forces – could contribute to the building of a mass party of wage earners, a workers’ party, which is so urgently needed.

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