Re: [Marxism] Germany: Beginning of a rupture between unions and SPD

["Johannes Schneider" <Johannes.Schneider@xxxxxxx>]

On Tue, 06 Jul 2004 10:18:47 +0200, Einde O'Callaghan <einde@xxxxxx> wrote:


> There are great problems with the PDS in the East. Firstly, there is teh
> problem of its heritage. Because it never decisively made a break with
> the SED past

What do you expect from them? Adopting the teachings of Tony Cliff and
saying the GDR was capitalist like the West?
'Break with the SED past' has become a catch phrase in German political
discourse actually meaning to denounce everything that was different in
the East from the West.

> There is also a question as to how "left" sections of the PDS actually
> are. In some of the villages and small towns the PDS has been simply the
> SED under a new name. they have no problems forming alliances with the
> CDU - "After all we know each other from earlier times" (a reference to
> the fact that the East CDU was part of the "National Front" that ruled
> in teh East under the hegemony of the SED).

I could adopt your line of argument here and say that socialist should
fight for the socialist character of the PDS, since there are so many good
comrades on the ground...

> More importantly the PDS is compromised by it's participation in state
> governments in Berlin and in Mecklenburg where they are carrying out the
> same old shit as the SPD, the Greens and the bourgeois parties - cut,
> cut, cut until their traditional voters turn their backs on them.

Dont you remember the old PDS slogan: "Change starts with opposition"?
They did not start as a party in government, but proclaimed opposition
such like the Electoral Alternative does today.
But since PDS and Electoral Alternative share the same ideas about the
state beeing a neutral instance they both argue that 'another policy is
possible' within the existing framework and do not exclude particpation in
government.

Johannes

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