Contribution of German CP [En]

Dear comrades,

please, let me first thank the hosting Communist Party of the Russian Federation for the organization and invitation to this important meeting which takes place in a historic town which in our eyes is still to be called Leningrad! Hundred years after the Glorious October Revolution we are gathering here in moments in which peace once again is threatened and in a time when the subjective factor shows the need of a socialist revolution – but actually there doesn’t seem to be a subject to put it in practice.

Dear comrades,

about some issues regarding recent federal elections in Germany:

Compared to the federal elections before and to elections for EU-parliament more people participated in recent elections.

Both parties of the former government coalition, the reactionary conservative CDU and the old social-democratic party SPD, lost many votes.

Results of the Green Party and „The Left“ party have been relatively stable. “The Left” party lost votes in former GDR areas and gained additional votes in the west. Liberal party, which is a considerable social reactionary party, won many votes The relatively new party AFD, a racist and nationalist party open to fascist tendencies, won around thirteen percent.

As you may remember our last party congress analyzed that German imperialism will become more aggressive in foreign policy as well as in its domestic policy - towards non-monopolistic parts of the people and specially against the working class. For us the federal election results represent this tendency.

What are reasons behind the election results, especially in mass consciousness and in that of the working class?

Parts of the working class see themselves as beneficiaries of the crisis. Specially if they compare themselves to working class people living in economically weaker states within and outside the EU. Another part of the working class are deeply worried about their social prospects. They are right but they have a wrong analysis of the reasons.

They realize, and they are right do so, that refugees coming to Germany are abused to intensify competition among the exploited. It concerns among other things labour markets, housing markets, but it is also drying-out local government finances / budgets.

Their anger is not directed at those who use refugees to intensify exploitation of the working class, to which refugees mostly belong to. Their anger is not directed at those, who profit from the various forms of division of the exploited, for example refugees, migrants, local working class. Sadly, their anger is directed at refugees. They fall for the explanations of racists and nationalists, whose intention is to divide the exploited and integrate them into the strategy of monopoly capital. These tendencies materialized in federal election results.

Another tendency we have to analyze is that the left-wing movement - including us, the German Communist Party - is currently not able to convince the masses and the whole working class of our answers to their anxiety about the future that these are the right answers to their actual concerns.

Why? We think that the slogan „Refugees welcome“ is a good one. But it is not a sufficient answer to anxiety about the future. The anxiety about the future is justified. The feeling that refugees will be exploited to intensify competition among different parts of the working class is correct.

In our point of view it is necessary to explain what are the reasons for war, mass escape and poorness. And we have to explain who benefits from war, mass escape and poverty.

If we look at our own election result, than we gained about 12.000 votes. This result is a really poor one. But it was the first time since 1989 that we took part in federal elections. That is part of the explanation. The second reason is that German laws force small parties to submit around 2.000 signatures in each of the seventeen federal states to be allowed to participate in the polls. We did not succeed in seven oft he seventeen federal countries to do so.

But by taking part in this election our main goal was to reorganize the party itself, to get more „red flags on the street“ as we said. This goal we reached. So we are not content with the number of votes, but we are content with the increase of party activities.

In march of 2018 our next party congress will take place. It is the 22nd congress. You know that the 20th congress brought a change which the 21st congress stabilized by defining the party as a marxist-leninist party again. Our plan for the next congress is now that the main topic should be to define what this means for the party strategy.

The main document defines that the working class in the leading imperialist countries and also in Germany is in a defensive state since the 70th/80th of last century, beginning with Reagonomics and Thatcherism in the US and UK, and a little bit later with Helmut Kohl in Germany. This process has been enforced deeply with the counter-revolution in European socialist countries. In Germany there was a further enforcement with the annexation of GDR and the war policy and the so called „Agenda“ of the Social-democrat Schröder in coalition with the Green Party.

For our strategy we see now that the first step is to fight for ending this defensive state. This means that working class needs to learn the possibility of gaining ground in the struggle against counter-reforms. We have to propagate consciousness within the working class and other non-monopolist parts of the people, that it is not only necessary to fight against counter-attacks of the ruling class, but that it is necessary to fight against monopol capital.

Dear comrades,

at least some words about our understanding of the complicated relationship between the Communist and Workers’ Parties.

Since the creation of the SolidNet structures in 1999 and the following annual meetings, it was made an attempt to come to an understanding in political and strategical questions and to make efforts for common actions. Our meetings contribute to the analysis of the main tendencies of the international class struggle and the strategical orientation of the communist movement.

However, an increasing political and ideological unity of the communist movement would mean better conditions to resist against imperialism. Nevertheless, we have differences in issues like alliances, road the the socialist revolution, evaluations of the states with a socialist orientation or state alliances like BRICS.

As German Communist Party we act on the assumption that „every Communist Party works out its politics on its own. Every CP is responsible for it in reference to its own working class and society, and, at the same time, in reference to the workers of all nations.“

We are against any right or left wing exaggeration. With sorrow we state that in our movement there are some tendencies which concentrate simplifications and impatience. We try to come up against that.

We are in favour of open exchanges of view, on the basis of autonomy, independence, equality and voluntary collaboration – here we have good possibilities to increase our scientific ideology. In all exchanges of view, we see all fraternal parties as equal, independent of their size or their influence in the society. This approach we do expect as well from them. In our understanding disputes between fraternal parties cannot be settled out in public.

In one year the former Communist Party of Germany (KPD), which is illegal since 1956, would have celebrated a century of existence after its foundation by Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht in 1918. As its successor, the DKP would really like to host the next meeting. We could fulfill the organizational aspects, but we regret to say that our economic conditions do not allow it.

Thank you for your attention!