We are on the brink of an ecological and political catastrophe: The AfD is marching through the state elections at breakneck speed, the Green and SPD leaders want to "deport on a grand scale", the CDU is building freeways - and DIE LINKE is in danger of failing at the five percent hurdle in the next federal election. This would not only mean that the only anti-capitalist party would be banned from parliament, but the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation would also lose a large part of its funding for the promotion of political education and culture.
We are leftists from different parts of civil society who have never felt connected to parliamentary politics. Instead, we have protested, blocked, gone on strike and organized politics and culture from below. In a world characterized by wars, rising far-right and fascist parties and threatened by the escalating climate crisis, we feel compelled to radically rethink our previous politics: many of our strategies of the past decades have failed. We now need to reorganize ourselves in order to counter the catastrophes that are threatening and already taking place.
Our fragmented social movements - just like the fragmented working class - need a unifying organization in order to regain the ability to act politically. DIE LINKE, meanwhile, is at a historic turning point: with the departure of the Wagenknecht camp, it can either reposition itself as such a unifying organization or sink into insignificance.
Therefore, we hereby declare our entry into DIE LINKE - and our will to constructively and critically, but above all actively and radically help shape the (re)construction of the party!
In order for a left-wing party to be effective and credible again, it must clearly distinguish itself from the rest of the party spectrum in terms of content and structure. Socialist politics is not compatible with the (late) neoliberal status quo. There is no such thing as 'rebellious governance' with the SPD and the Greens. This is shown by the increasing deportation practice in Thuringia as well as the blockade of the referendum 'Deutsche Wohnen & Co enteignen'' under the red-red-green coalition in Berlin. With these government projects, DIE LINKE has bent itself over backwards to form a coalition and made itself an accomplice to red-green centrist-extremism. As new members, we will work to ensure that DIE LINKE becomes and remains a credible, stable opposition to the status quo.
Social and ecological movements need an economic home. For all those who are serious about climate action, feminism, anti-racism and the fight against anti-Semitism, for LGBTIQA+ rights and other progressive environmental and socio-political issues, this home can only be in an anti-capitalist party. The party leadership has repeatedly made clear its desire to renew the party and open up to socio-ecological movements. As activists from these very movements, we welcome the initiative and want to make sure that it neither gets stuck halfway nor scratches the basic character of socialist class politics.
If the Wagenknecht wing has shown anything, it is that socialist politics must not be a career ladder. The party therefore needs mandatory quotas for lists and mandates that represent workers, the unemployed and precariously employed. Mandates must be limited to two terms of office and the income of mandate holders must be reduced to an average salary for skilled workers. All additional income must be made fully transparent and donated to the party foundation or extra-parliamentary solidarity projects.
Globalized capitalism and its accelerated information flows are constantly confronting us with new crises and lines of conflict. Old concepts, analyses and alliances are crumbling in the face of a world order undergoing fundamental change. We need to debate together in solidarity and find out what left-wing responses to current conflicts might look like. We want to develop a radical, left-wing language for the present and cultivate a culture of debate based on solidarity that we can take to the streets, the media and parliaments. The global struggles against fossil capitalism, militarization and war, as well as for freedom of movement and social emancipation are our foundation; our common task is to build a convincing programme on this foundation.
Since the turn of the millennium, the political discourse has increasingly shifted to the media and social media space. In this process, the political debate with other attitudes and realities of life has suffered greatly due to algorithms, bots and Elon Musk. However, left-wing politics must take place in real space in order to be effective. From the street to the apartment blocks, universities, pubs and villages: we are ready to take DIE LINKE and democratic socialism into all areas of political debate. The EU election campaign is the beginning of our efforts to challenge the AfD and the right-wing conservatives.
Whether housing policy, transport, energy or health: basic social needs, deprivatization and collective consumption can form the basis for an ecological class policy that is equally radical, useful and broadly accessible. Large parts of the climate movement already know that this is exactly what is needed: climate justice, decolonization and a rejection of the ideology of growth. However, a clear formulation of these keywords is often lacking. Socialist climate politics must focus on social infrastructures in order to open up clear and distinct perspectives for real crisis management beyond the technofix solutions of green capitalism.
We are convinced that the left is needed to counter the catastrophe - and DIE LINKE needs us today!
Write us at: wir_jetzt_hier@riseup.net