Fighting for the future: Left hook against right-wing forces!
The right-wing party Alternative für Deutschland (Alternative for Germany) or AfD has been wreaking havoc in Germany for more than ten years now. The party has established itself at both a parliamentary and a social level and now serves as a platform for various right-wing and fascist forces and movements. Despite numerous scandals and openly racist statements, after several years in the parliamentary system, it is now seen as a legitimate part of it and has brought extremely right-wing positions to the so-called political center.
The AfD is currently on the rise and has been scoring poll ratings of 20 to 30 percent throughout Germany. Last year, the first AfD candidates were elected to the offices of mayor and districtadministrator. State elections are being held in three eastern German states this year, in which the AfD could become the strongest party. AfD politicians in government responsibility are no longer a dystopia, but a realistic prospect for the near future. The AfD’s rise is not only reflected in polls or election results, but also in its growing social acceptance and the development of a right-wing infrastructure. The party is also managing to unite more and more groups from the extreme right. It is no coincidence that the AfD is experiencing an upswing at this time. Living conditions worldwide, but also here in Germany, will continue to worsen. The cause of this trend is capitalism: ever worsening crises, the climate catastrophe, the increasing scarcity of raw materials and distribution struggles that are being waged as never-ending imperialist wars. It seems that the AfD is gaining traction within this development due to the lack of left-wing alternatives and the lack of real solutions to acute problems. The AfD has mastered the art of profiting from its role as a „protest party“, as a supposed fundamental opposition and as the voice of the „little people“, without having to offer solutions.
At the beginning of this year, a strong wave of outrage hit Germany when the Correctiv research group published its work. With regard to the ever-increasing right-wing discourse, the research only revealed what anti-fascists have been reporting and warning from for years and what they have been fighting for a long time. They reported on a secret meeting in November 2023 at which AfD officials, members of the CDU and Werteunion and leaders of the Identitarian Movement met in a
hotel in Potsdam to discuss, among other things, plans to deport millions of people from Germany. Numerous wealthy entrepreneurs were also in attendance. The research was a wake-up call and the social outcry about the „Potsdam meeting“ was huge. Within a few weeks, more than a million people protested across the country – in some major cities even several hundred thousand. The sparked protests also reached small towns and rural regions that many had already dismissed as lost to right-wing politicians. The demonstrations focused heavily on the AfD. However, the AfD is neither the only party that stands for right-wing politics, nor is it the only party of the organized right. At first glance, micro-parties such as the NPD or the Dritter Weg (Third Way) may catch the eye, as these parties sometimes stand out due to their even more open racism and greater willingness to use violence.
However, the AfD, too, is using an increasingly racist rethoric and brandishes an anti-progressive view of humanity. It also has little interest in counteracting the increasingly unfair distribution of wealth and income in Germany, but instead unilaterally represents the interests of wealthier people in Germany. An improvement in the situation for the majority of people will not be achieved by the AfD. When the AfD addresses ordinary people or the little man, it is trying to take voters for fools. The other right-wing parties are also trying to do this, but none of them currently pose as great a threat to society as the AfD.
In terms of economic and financial policy, the AfD would be a disaster for the majority of the working class and an increasing number of poor people, as it has no concept to promote a sustainable economy. The AfD’s „solutions“ can be summarized as follows:
– Isolation of the country and the economy
– Financial Relief for the wealthy
– increasing pressure on poor people and people with middle or low incomes.
This program would cost millions of jobs in the long term and, above all, hit a large proportion of AfD voters hard. It would also would be fatal for an ageing society whose prosperity is based on exports and whose economy is increasingly reliant on services and consumption. The AfD is characterized less by economic expertise than by hollow right-wing populism, which is hardly suited to tackling the current economic, demographic and ecological challenges. Instead, entire regions are at risk of being lost due to the exodus of people and companies.
Instead of stability and recognition of lifetime achievement, people are threatened with decline and greater exploitation. Instead of building a sustainable and secure long-term economic model, the AfD’s policies risk the future of municipalities, regions and their inhabitants. This not only affects existing employment relationships, but also jobs that will be needed more urgently in the future. This includes you, your children, relatives and friends.
For the first time, young people aged 16 are also entitled to vote in the upcoming elections.
The AfD election manifesto paints a bleak picture for children and young people on many levels, not only in terms of a professionally and financially secure future, but also with regard to freedom rights and personal development.
The AfD’s plans presented at a meeting in Potsdam at the end of 2023 clearly show the worldview that the AfD and its politicians represents, the restrictions we would all have to expect and the control and surveillance apparatus that they have in mind that would be necessary for the implementation of these plans.
In a „clarification statement“, the AfD Mannheim refers to the fact that the event was a purely private meeting. This may be a strategy to distance themselves from allegations of organizing the meeting. However, it cannot be denied that the inhumane plans presented there are merely a consistent interpretation of the AfD program. The term „remigration“, which in this context means nothing less than ethnic cleansing, was already used by the AfD in Mannheim during the municipal elections in 2019. In general, racist motifs can be found again and again in publications of members of the local organization in Mannheim.
AfD in Mannheim
The AfD has announced 48 candidates on its election list for the Mannheim municipal council. The first eight candidates include current city councillors as well as other candidates, some of whom are well-known. The composition of the AfD in the municipal council is unlikely to change significantly, so it’s safe to assume that their participation and positions will remain similar.
So, what did the AfD city councillors do in the last legislative period? Not much, as one can already anticipate. Ther most prominent work happened during the budget negotiations in the municipal council. Proposals to cut or eliminate charitable items in the budget that did not suit the AfD ideologically predominated. Who would be helped by this remains largely open. Young, old and poor people in particular would be affected.
At local level, too, it is clear that the right-wing populist agenda clearly outweighs the interests of working people. One example of this is the demand to cut funding for integration into society and the labour market, which jeopardizes jobs and growth. This demand is contrasted with the claim that homeless shelters are underfunded. This statement is certainly correct, but what does one have to do with the other? Why is the AfD not calling for an increase in funding for homeless shelters independently of this? Because, of course, it is not interested in helping the homeless, but only in pitting groups in need of help against each other. This is rhetorical device that we are very familiar with coming from the AfD.
Right-wingers and their parties, such as the AfD, do not want to change anything about the exploitation and domination of the masses. They are merely interested in profiting even more from it. The AfD’s policies exacerbate the antagonism and thus prevent progress that could benefit everyone. This creates neither growth nor job security, but makes life less secure for more and more people.
The AfD should not be believed when it says that it stands up for the interests of the masses.
The AfD is pursuing a racist, identity politics agenda that sooner or later will affect us all. It can affect all of us, including you! There is no trace of the „economic reason“ mentioned in the municipal program. The AfD therefore poses a risk to the future of Mannheim and the entire region, whose economic success would not have been possible without migration and will not be possible in the future.
But what about the other parties in the race? After all, some of them also say that migration is a problem and that we all have to save money at the expense of social politics.
Ampel administration and CDU
In recent weeks and months, many millions of people across Germany have taken to the streets against the AfD. The demonstrations demand democracy and diversity. They are usually organized by bourgeois parties in order to suddenly present themselves as anti- fascist. In Mannheim, for example, Gerhard Fontagnier, city councillor for the Grüne (Green party), called for „Nie wieder ist jetzt”. (Never again is now, in reference to the holocaust). Olaf Scholz and Annalena Baerbock also took part in a rally in Potsdam. The backbone of these kinds of rallies, however, is a broad civil society that is taking to the streets to protest against the policies of the ruling parties, among other things.
What makes the participation of representatives of the so called Ampelparteien (parties that form the current German federal government) in the demonstrations particularly absurd is that they cry out about deportation plans and secret meetings with company bosses when, at the same time, the traffic light government calls for large-scale deportations, as Olaf Scholz did in October 2023. The corresponding law received a majority – without the AfD. Among other things, detention pending deportation was extended from 10 to 28 days and protection against house searches was relaxed. Therefore, it is not only the traffic light government that should be put through the wringer; the demands in the law were already put forward by some politicians in the CDU/CSU parliamentary group at the beginning of 2023. The CDU/CSU parliamentary group also wanted to extend the law to include border controls, for example in the direction of Poland.
Although the AfD is already a rallying point for racists and reactionaries, the governing parties are managing to drive more and more citizens into the hands of the AfD with their policies.
Not only ae they exacerbating the financial situation of working people. The Bürgergeld (new kind of unemployment benefits) introduced by the Ampel administration also fails to account for the new conception of humanity that was so generiously announced when the Ampel administration came into office. Instead, it merely puts a new face on the old idea of social politics that are defined by heavy sanctioning. The conditions for Hartz4 recipients were already getting worse under the Merkel-led CDU administration. For example, sanctions for Hartz 4 recipients were repeatedly tightened without any evidence that those kinds of sanctions bring people into work, as laws with names such as the Gesetz zur Verbesserung der Eingliederungschancen am Arbeitsmarkt (Act to Improve Integration Opportunities in the Labor Market) pretend. However, this lack of evidence does not seem to prevent the Ampel from continuing to scapegoat Bürgergeld recipients. If recipients of citizen’s allowance do not accept a job offer, they are now to receive nothing at all for two months. It must borne in mind that the citizen’s income is already the subsistence level and lower social assistance also means lower wages.
In general, wage earners have suffered real wage losses in recent years. Recent strikes have hardly led to any real wage increases either, as the wage increases fought for were often below the inflation trend. Consumer prices have continued to rise, whether in supermarkets or for electricity and gas. The price of gas rose by 31.3% between 2022 and 2023 and the price of electricity by 21% between 2022 and 2023. Food prices also rose by an average of 12.33% between 2022 and 2023. Fortunately, these developments have regressed since the end of 2023, but people on middle and low incomes in particular continue to suffer greatly. Our wages have not risen in line with inflation and even the increases in the minimum wage introduced by parliament have not offset the cost increases. Due to war and crises and the resulting rising costs, on the other hand, it is not only arms companies that have been making billions in profits for years. This is also due to exports of weapons to Ukraine or to Israel, where these weapons cause incredible suffering and do not contribute to deescalation.
The lobbying of the gas and oil companies cannot be denied either. The companies secure their profits. What the decisions are usually not about are the needs of the people.
It is no wonder that the population is becoming increasingly frustrated under these circumstances. The AfD’s current upswing does not come from a void. It is also linked to the increasingly precarious situation of people whose prosperity is tending to decline. The AfD is finding scapegoats and simple faux solutions for this, as well as an apparent alternative to the other parties. It then blames the causes of the precarious financial situation on migrants in Germany, for example, who also belong to the disadvantaged groups. What is lost sight of are the corporations that are raking in billions through war and crisis.
But it is not only the AfD and other forces that are concealing this connection; the other establishment parties also support this system. The AfD is not the only party that meets with CEOs. The other parties also find pretexts to coordinate with German corporations and form policy in their interests. Be it to strengthen Germany as a business location, as the Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht or BSW (Sahra Wagenknecht alliance, new party founded by ex-Left-Party member Sahra Wagenknecht) likes to announce, or the decisions of the current government regarding arms exports. The CDU has also shown the true motives behind its decisions in the emissions scandal and the mask affair. This was all about money that was tied to the capital of corporations. Overpriced and low-quality masks were supplied to the health ministries of North Rhine-Westphalia and Bavaria. This happened due to the efforts of CSU and CDU members of parliament. They were not interested in people’s health or the climate. They put their own profit before human lives. The other parties also like to offer non-solutions or present themselves as being close to the people and socially responsible.
For example, with regard to the climate crisis, a renovation program for private buildings is being launched and a ban on oil heating is being called for, the costs of which would have burdened many people directly or in the form of rent increases, all while coal-fired power plants continue to pump vast amounts of CO2 into the air.
This means that the costs are apparently once again being passed on to working people and the less well-off, while corporations remain untouched. Nevertheless, the Ampel administration wants to present itself as if it had achieved significant traction for climate protection efforts.
It should be clear to everyone that this is completely inadequate and does not hit the producers of most of the CO2, namely corporations and the rich. Nevertheless, this staging is intended to integrate the dissatisfied sections of the population with regard to climate policy and distract from criticism of capital.
The policies of the other parties in the Bundestag therefore do not fundamentally change the system that disadvantages large sections of the population, and the demands and actions of the AfD are more likely to exacerbate the problems of many. Fascism and right-wing parties are just the other side of the same coin called capitalism. They are part of the same system to which the Ampel administration, CDU and other parties belong.
This is also regularly demonstrated by how the state relates to them. Be it right-wing chat groups in the police force, but also the penalties for neo-Nazis or the failure to ban the NPD.
This state regularly shows us, whether under a grand coalition or Ampel coalition, under Green-Black or Jamaica, that it ultimately serves the interests of the corporations first. This would not change under the AfD either. Nevertheless, the situation for working people would become drastically worse and life for migrants and queer people would become even more precarious and dangerous.
European context
Elections to the European Parliament will also be held on 09.06.2024. In several countries, right-wing parties are also gaining ground or are already in government. In the Dutch parliamentary elections, Geert Wilders‘ party was elected with around 24%, giving it the most seats. The FPÖ also governed Austria from 2017 to 2019 and Giorgia Meloni has been Prime Minister of Italy since 22 October 2022. In France, Marie Le Pen and her party are the
second-strongest political force. This list can go on and on.
However, this must also be seen in the context of the current crisis and the war. A population that is in an increasingly precarious financial situation is looking for answers. The right-wing forces seem to be offering them these answers. However, it is also evident in other countries, and not just with the AfD, that right-wing politicians are not acting in the interests of working class people, and it is also clear at EU level what interests they represent.
The AfD works together with other right-wing populist and nationalist parties at EU level, such as the Austrian FPÖ, the Italian Lega Nord and the French Rassemblement National. They are part of the European far-right group Identity and Democracy in the European Parliament. The group generally represents a Eurosceptic and nationalist position. They advocate a return to national borders, more individual responsibility for the member states and a restriction of EU competences. The group is also known for its opposition to measures to combat climate change and promote renewable energies. Members of the Group oppose measures to promote equality, LGBTQ rights and other progressive social causes. However, these are urgently needed. In 2020, 728 crimes were committed against the LGBTQ community, including assault. This figure does not include the number of unreported cases.
The parliamentary group is committed to protecting traditional gender roles and family structures. These gender roles are partly responsible for the fact that 16% of women in Germany are at risk of poverty in old age, while the figure for men is 5% lower. In terms of labor market and social policy, they tend to advocate for a decrease in regulation, lower taxes and a greater emphasis on individual responsibility. This does not serve the interests of working people at all. This strengthens corporate profits and leads to less occupational health and safety and poorer working conditions.
At EU level, too, it is clear that the other parties do not represent completely different interests. And the EU as an institution does not represent our interests either. This can be seen, among other things, in its behavior with regard to securing the EU’s borders. Military force is being used against people fleeing war. Frontex, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency, will receive a budget of €845 million from the EU budget in 2023. This body is supported by pretty much all EU countries, regardless of whether they have „right-wing“ parties in government or not.
Here, too, we see continuity between the policies of right-wing and other bourgeois forces. Their policies are not in our interests at EU level either.
Left-wing alternatives
But what is in our interests and what real alternatives are there? If we look at the parties in Germany, many will come to the conclusion that real change in favor of the wage-earning population is hardly to be found in any election manifesto. However, this should not lead us to hang our heads and retreat into our increasingly expensive own four walls!
Politicians in Germany repeatedly emphasize that the only way to change things or exert influence is to vote on election day. It’s the same ritual every four years: going to the ballot box, choosing the lesser evil and, above all, the mostly futile hope that you haven’t voted for the next disappointment. The hope that something will really change this time. It is true that a vote can be cast out of the tactical consideration of not giving too many percentages to racist parties such as the AfD. But it certainly doesn’t feel satisfying and it won’t bring about any real change. So the question arises: what to do?
Our answer is: Get organized! There are various groups and opportunities to get involved politically in Mannheim. This way you can tackle things yourself instead of waiting for others to do it (or not). Of course, perspective is important. When we say that capital is behind fascism, we mean that although demonstrating against the AfD is a start, it is not enough to bring fascism to its knees in the long term. We must not forget that fascism and misanthropy are only a symptom of the exploitative conditions that make up capitalism.
The AfD in government would be a disaster for large sections of the wage-earning class, our class. The despair of the CDU and the Ampel parties clearly shows how helpless the democratic parties are in dealing with the AfD. Their helplessness results in a shift to the right and a desperate bid for votes. But they cannot really fight the AfD because they are not adressing the root of the problem. They cannot properly fight forces like the AfD because they are not fighting capitalism and its competitive pressures and, above all, they cannot fight the AfD because they also benefit from the system of exploitation! Between increasingly severe crises and the daily grind of wage labor, the impression arises that there is no way for us to break out of these conditions, this cage. It is easy to forget that WE are the ones who really have to nip the right-wing danger in the bud.
Our ways and means are diverse, our greatest weapon is solidarity! Be it by demonstrating, blocking campaign rallies or distributing leaflets. Be it by getting involved in trade unions to fight shoulder to shoulder with our class brothers and sisters against exploitation and crisis. Be it by standing up against warmongering, the exploitation of our planet, racism or patriarchy. These struggles shake the foundations of the exploitative system of which the AfD is now a symptom.
It seems almost obvious: if we unite and fight together, we can achieve far more than any tick on the endless ballot papers of the lesser evils. It’s time to fight for the future, left hook against right-wing forces!