[Marxism] Re: German's Left Party and Proportional Representation

[l.willms@xxxxxxxxxxx (Lueko Willms)]

.    On  27.09.05
  wrote  einde@xxxxxx (Einde Ocallaghan)
     on  /ALIST/MARXMAIL
     in  28515.1127813317@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  about  Re: [Marxism] German's Left Party and Proportional Representation


>> requires a minimum of 5 per cent of the total vote share). The new
>> Left Party's achievement is really quite significant, since it is the
>> first new party in the German post-war history to have such a
>> success." http://www.iht.com/getina/files/278433.html
>>
EO> This isn't true. The Green Party managed to break through in the
EO> 1980s.

   Also, the PDS is not really a _new_ party. Actually it was founded  
in 1946 as SED, really created by the 1st Party Conference (a body  
which was not in the statues of the party) in 1948 as "party of a new  
type", renamed or, if you may, refounded as PDS in 1990, lost quickly  
most of the 2.3 million memmbers the SED had before the fall of the  
wall, dwindling to less than 200'000, of which remain today about  
60'000 (most of them are very old, and the party is losing members  
mainly by natural causes, i.e. death of its old members).

   It took a new name in July 2005, "Linkspartei.PDS" ("Left Party")  
and took some disenchanted Social Democrats on board, and with the  
wind of Oskar Lafontaine's political coup right after the May 22  
elections in NRW, managed to lose of its prospective votes just enough  
to get a few votes more than the Greens.

   BTW, the Linkspartei's parliamentary cretinism coupled with  
sectarianism lead them to leave Schröder, the outgoing Chancellor  
(Prime Minister) all room he wants to put together a "Große Koalition"  
(grand coalition) with the "black" CDU and CSU.

   They could have a big weight by announcing a vote for Schröder (or  
whom ever the SPD would put forward), unless he is in a coaition  
government with either the CDU, CSU or FDP. But the stalinists repeat,  
although on a much lesser catastrophic scale, their sectarianism  
towards the SPD shown before 1933.

   On the other hand, the leading voices of the Linkspartei.PDS  
parliamentary group let the world know that they would be ready for a  
coalition government with the SPD, just when the SPD makes a few,  
though important, concessions, but breaking with the idea of  
administering the capitalist state, is not among those "concession";  
people will remember thate the Linkspartei.PDS is part of the  
capitalist governments in the federal states of Mecklenburg-Vorpommen  
and Berlin, and pursuing policies not really different from all other  
federal state governments (the public transit workers in Berlin waged  
a strike several months ago to keep the wage cut to 8% instead of  
20%).


Yours,


Lüko Willms                                     http://www.mlwerke.de
/--------- L.WILLMS@xxxxxxxxxxx -- Alle Rechte vorbehalten --

"Das Volk, das ein anderes Volk unterjocht, schmiedet seine eigenen
Ketten."                         - Karl Marx           (1. Januar 1870)

________________________________________________
YOU MUST clip all extraneous text before replying to a message.
Send list submissions to: Marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism