Frank Puskarev
First of all I would like to thank you for the invitation to your congress. In my opinion it is very important to share the experiences of left movements all over the world between us. This is the way we learn from each other the most, this is what international solidarity builds. It is a great honour to share the experiences of the left party in Germany with you.
Within the next few minutes I want to give you a short view into the german situation since 2004, when we started to plan the creation of a new left party in germany.
This process was not planned over a longe time. But it was necessary at a specifical, historical moment. In 2004 the ruling coalition in germany between social democrats and the greens have dismantled and wanted to dismantle furthermore the welfare state, sent german troops on military mission abroad, and were on a neoliberal way to implement the deeply anti-social so-called agenda 2010 policies, cutting pensions and social benefits especially for those who can´t fight back as children, people without jobs and older ones.
At this time we have had no relevant national left force to struggle against that. The party of democratic socialists (PDS) have had some 60.000 members, but most of them on the territory of the former GDR, now called the new federal states. Here the PDS was a party with strong influence, 13 – 28 per cent of the votes within the new federal states, but very weak in the western (or old) federal states. Therefor, and because of the history of the GDR, the PDS was not able to offer a solution for the whole left movement, and to articulate the protest against that policies, against that government.
At the same time, some 10.000 disappointed left-wing social democrats, trade unionist, attacies and other social movement activists formed a new social movement, strong mainly in the western federal states, and transformed this movement into a party until the end of the year 2004, called Party of Labour and Social Justice – The election alternative (WASG).
In 2005 chancellor Schröder decided to call for new national elections one year earlier than planned after the big looses for the social democrats of the elections in spring 2005 in the biggest federal state in Germany.
At this point we, the left movement in Germany, have had to decide whether we want to fight everybody, every party on there own – and maybe loose the elections because of the failing of the 5 percent line to enter the national parliament – or to fight together with the possibility to win more than 10 per cents of the vote. As far as this thoughts were published in the newspapers the polls went up to 7 – 8 – 9 per cent in addition of both parties.
For the first time we decided to run this election together. Not with a new party, but with a platform of common programmatic points and candidates of both parties on one common list. The success was great. We won 8,7 per cent of the votes or in numbers 54 deputies within the national parliament, the german Bundestag. The people expressed in this way the necessity of a new party, on the left of the social democrats and the greens. And, in the review, we understood that sign.
This was the moment when we decided to fight together. But how? Nobody have had any experiences with that. So there were a lot of meetings between the executive boards of both parties, between lawyers and financial specialists. At the end of the day we decided to make a contract. That contract promised to every part of the new coalition the same rights, the same number of seats in the executive boards for a time of transition of 2 election periods. Furthermore this contract asked to the different divisions of the party on the regional and federal state level to make contract by their own because we knew, the success of that process depends on the participation of the members of our parties. Last but not least we had to decide about the policies we want to have as something like a basement.
At this point I would like to cite my friend and one of our leaders of the WASG. He said at a congress in preparation of the founding of the new party to the delegates: What we want is to build a new house for the german left. For that we need a basement, some walls, some steps and a housetop. What we do not need is to discuss about the wallpaper the new house should have until we haven´t finished the house and we are moved into.
I am citing this because this is a good picture what we have done at the end of the day. We became to an understanding of the basements of our policies, but we knew that there a some question open. And we will have a lot of time to discuss positions, to find solutions almost everybody is able and! willing to sign.
For the practical way we created some common working groups, with representatives of both parties, to find common programmatic values, a financial and an organisational constitution. All those bodies have had the same number (and votes of course) for every party.
We called that the same eye level. For that it was an important thing in this process to gave every part of that coalition to feel equal with the other. Sometimes it hurts, sometime we had long and emotional debates, but it was a process of learning every day, of finding friends, and of building a new community.
We created a new constitution for our party, where the fundamental rights of every party member is written down. Those rights including a 50 per cent quote of women in executive boards and election lists on every level of the party. They including the don´ts and do´s of every party member, at first the right to take part in every decision the party make want to make. There is included the possibility to call for a referendum, and there is included transition rule as the double leadership, quotas for eastern and western federal state delegations on national congresses. So these rules are not perfect, but they do help us to run the party as fair as possible and with the most possibility of participation of party member and people in the diaspora of the party. And mostly it works.
Let´s move to the todays situation. In between we have hade some 5 elections on the federal state level where we won between 5,1 and 7 per cents of the votes in the western federal states, compared to 0,9 to 1,3 before the new party. We won more than 1000 additional mandats an the municipal level within this time.
Today the left party in germany is having some 80.000 members, in almost every municipality a department and seats within the local parliament. We´re the only german party that is growing at this time.
And, and in my opinion that is the main success we can report, we are setting new political debates. We are able to urge the other parties with social themes they never wanted to speak about. One example of that is the minimum wage in germany. We dont have a national minimum wage in Germany as 21 of 27 european states do have. There are a lot of people who needs social benefits despite of they are working the whole day. For example: A room in a hotel in hamburg costs 1900 euros a day. But the cleaner get 2 euro for an hour of work.
Therefor and because of the deregulation of the employment market it is necessary to set a basic line of income somebody have the right to earn. In 2005 we requested such a minimum wage from the government. In spring 2006 the trade unions also requested a minimum wage from the government. And now look whats happened. In autumn 2006 the social democrats, still in government with the cristian democrats, our national conservatives, since 2005, requested also a minimum wage from the government – where they are in!
So what we have done? We decided to bring a motion for a minimum wage into parliament, then all the parties have the opportunity to vote for a minimum wage or not. And what do you think the social democrats have done in the parliament? They didn´t agree and voted against their own request! They refused this request and called us demagogues as we are trying to divide the coalition they argue. But the debate about minimum wages never stops, and so the so-called grand coalition between social democrats and conservatives was urged by the pressure of trade unionist and the left to implement minimum wages for several industries. That´s something what we are proud of, because our pressure was the reason for better circumstances for a lot of workers and their families in Germany, and that´s although we are a small party in comparison to the other and in opposition to the government.
But, we are in difficult times. Nowadays we´re facing the crisis of the financial market and, in my opinion, a crisis of the capitalistic system in general. The people are asking what we, the left in germany, can do for them. For them it is not enough to listen us referring the right analysis, they want us to help them in reality. For that we have to do a lot of more work. In the eastern federal states we have a well prepared network of municipal mandats, federal state mandats, offices and stations where the people can come together, asking us question and getting help in different cases. Now we want and have to build such a network in the western states, as the last elections for the european parliament may assume to us. Without that, without the local support of our menbers, without the people who wants to know what we are doing for them, the left movement in germany has no chance to survive. We have to do so if we want to change the situation for the people into a better one. And thats what leftist should do also in our opinion. And with a lot of work we will win 10 per cent + X at the this year national election.
Only with a strong and united left the world will be a better place to live in, more social and peaceful for everybody.
Thank you very much.
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