Comments on: Left leading: Interview with Die Linke leader Katja Kipping

By: james?

james? — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 11:36:54 +0000

i was told a few years ago by someone from germany that the left party would split, it still has not and in a sense unless the split manifested its self electorally it probably would go unnoticed in germany. im becoming convinced from the polls on der speigel that the left party will easily crack the five per cent hurdle this year. we are in for a rerun of 2005 i think either the spd and greens will come to deal with the left to return to government or one of them will cross the floor and do a deal with the right. it will be the strenght or weakness of the social movements that will decide what path the electoral parties take in the coalition talks.

By: Systemic Disorder

Systemic Disorder — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 23:35:02 +0000

Left solidarity across borders is what is needed. Katja Kipping’s co-leader, Bernd Riexinger, recently made a joint appearance with Alexis Tsipras during one of the Greek general strikes — I was very pleased to see that. “Socialism in one country” is impossible. There are only international solutions to the international crises of capitalism. We need parties like Die Linke in every country.

And, despite the nonsense written in the comments by “Michael Kenny” above, the party has a future ahead of it. The German “miracle” is based on a decade of wage cuts suffered by German workers, and when exports slump, internal demand won’t be able to pick up the slack because of those wage cuts. Austerity does not respect border any more than multi-national corporate plunderers do.

By: Pete King

Pete King — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 22:50:33 +0000

Don’t be taken in by know it all Michael Kenny above.

By: Michael Kenny

Michael Kenny — Fri, 09 Nov 2012 16:03:54 +0000

Ms Kipping’s comments reflect the current “rudderlessness” of the Linke. It’s doing very badly in the polls, holding steady at 6%. They got 11% at the last election, so that their support has practically been cut in half and if it drops below 5% at the next election, they will lose all but 2 or 3 of those 76 seats. Given the distribution of population, the eastern Linke cannot get more than 4% nationally by itself (which, indeed, was the reason, and probably the only reason, why the PDS merged with the WASG in the first place) and the western Linke is slowly but surely being wiped out at the polls. They’ve been kicked out of every state Parliament elected in the last year or so and without the “wessies”, the “ossies” have no chance of getting 5%.
Equally, as is clear from the introduction to the article, the two sides of the Linke are still very much separate parties and are perceived as such by the electorate. The eastern Linke (PDS) was the re-named communist party and was intended to be, not so much a political party, as a trade union for ex-apparatchiks, trying to hang on to as much as their wealth and privileges as possible. 23 years after the Fall of the Wall, most of those ex-apparatchiks are now old (and many have died off) and they no longer feel threatened. Hence, the eastern Linke has largely lost its rasion d’être and is thrashing about trying to find a new one. But precisely because of that dubious origin, I doubt if the Linke will ever succeed in being credible in Germany as a far left party and, indeed, its existence actually impedes the establishment of such a party. That probably explains the Pirate Party and its relative success: an attempt to create a “dissident” party without the communist albatross that hangs around the Linke’s neck.
Finally, Ms Dowking asks the perfectly ridiculous question “What are the challenges for Die Linke in government?” Well, Ms Dowling, the principal challenge is to find someone who will enter into coalition with it! Neither the CDU nor the SPD is willing even to envisage the hypothesis of a coalition with the Linke and whatever the outcome of the next election is, one of those two will dominate the government. Thus, the Linke is NOT going to enter the government in 2013! That, however, is one of the factors undermining the party’s cohesion, with a young generation of moderates, close to the SPD but who were already too tainted to be let into any of the other parties in 1990 (i.e. Gregor Gysi, Petra Pau …), now seem to be itching to leave the Linke and join the SPD. There could thus easily be a split in the eastern Linke in the run-up to next September’s election.
Thus, I would doubt if the Linke will ever succeed in overcoming the inherent contradictions of its origins and will probably continue to decline.