Die Linke: Radically Against Capitalism
The Left Party (Die Linke) is focusing on stronger opposition and greater visibility – from the Bundestag to the public swimming pool
article by Wolfgang Hübner that was published in Neues Deutschland
For several years now, delegates at Left Party conferences have been bringing home a special gift. The party has developed a tradition of distributing promotional items in bright red with the party logo – sometimes a hat, a scarf, or socks – to boost the visibility of Die Linke. Judging by the selection, party conferences often take place in autumn.
This time, at the party conference in Chemnitz, beach towels were laid out on delegates’ seats, with the slogan “Tax the rich.” Summer is approaching, and the precarious funding or even closure of many swimming pools has become a political issue. Die Linke wants to continue after the federal election where it was surprisingly successful during the campaign: addressing people’s everyday concerns – those, as co-party leader Ines Schwerdtner puts it, who are “oppressed by capitalism.” That’s why the party is toughening its rhetoric, aiming to speak more clearly, more sharply, and more boldly. According to Schwerdtner, Die Linke no longer wants to speak in “coded language” but plainly about class and democratic socialism.
Co-parliamentary group leader Heidi Reichinnek stated in an interview before the conference that capitalism should not be buttressed but overthrown – a comment that caused outrage in conservative and right-wing media. The party conference’s adopted main resolution declares that Die Linke should be developed into a “strong socialist membership party for the 21st century” that can run and win campaigns beyond just elections. This means that Die Linke wants to become more effective in practice – particularly in confronting the CDU-SPD coalition under Friedrich Merz and Lars Klingbeil. “They despise our people, so we despise their politics,” said Schwerdtner about their policies. The rivalry also extends to the opposition parties, the Greens but especially the AfD.
Everyone understands that it takes persistence to push a topic through from opposition – not just into public debate but into actual law. The party sees the legal minimum wage as a model: it took years of struggle, against reservations first within Die Linke itself, then within unions, and finally with other parties before it was passed.
There’s no shortage of pressing campaign issues. The resolution mentions nationwide rent caps, and the parliamentary group is planning a campaign for tax justice. “There’s an incredible amount of wealth in Germany,” said co-chair Jan van Aken at the conference, “but it’s outrageously unfairly distributed.” Many people are lonely – because they are unemployed, because they fear losing their homes, or because they worry whether they can afford a hot meal for their children at the end of the month. “This loneliness must end,” van Aken demanded.
During the hundreds of thousands of door-to-door conversations in the election campaign, two issues dominated: “horrendous rents and high food prices.” Yet, in the CDU-SPD coalition agreement, the word “food prices” doesn’t appear once. “That’s out-of-touch politics,” van Aken criticized.
To improve the party’s campaigning ability – long seen as a weakness before the recent election – training is planned, especially for the many new and young members. After all, half of the current roughly 112,000 members joined in just the past nine months. Schwerdtner spoke of a learning party that aims, according to the resolution, to become an “organizing class party.” This involves
learning from mistakes and failures, organizing workshops, and studying the “ABCs of Marxism.” Party representatives regularly seek advice from allied leftist parties in countries like Belgium and Austria.
Originally, the resolution included a goal to increase membership to 150,000 within four years – but this was dropped. Some saw it as too timid, others as too ambitious. The final resolution only states generally that Die Linke should be prepared for effective practical political work. Co-leader Heidi Reichinnek summed up the party line early in the conference: “If it’s radical to demand that everyone gets what they need to live, then we are radical.”
Preparing for practical work is also the task for the Bundestag parliamentary group. It now has 64 members – only 13 were in the Bundestag previously, five had been there before, and 46 are new, including nurses and mechatronics technicians. Building a functioning team quickly is a major challenge.
Co-leader Sören Pellmann recalled entering the Bundestag in 2017 and finding that “nothing could be questioned, and nothing was up for discussion” – a criticism of the previous leadership under Sahra Wagenknecht and Dietmar Bartsch. “We’re doing things differently this time,” Pellmann promised.
If Die Linke wants to remain a permanent force in parliament, it must also adapt to more change. The party decided to limit parliamentary terms to three legislative periods – a move framed as anti-establishment. This means that, following Gregor Gysi, Die Linke will likely no longer have an elder statesperson in the Bundestag. The ceremonial role of presiding over a new session will go to the longest-serving member, which may now be someone from another party. Delegates also passed a motion calling on their Bundestag members to donate part of their salary to the party’s social funds.
The parliamentary group wants to focus on fighting the far right and representing East German interests. “We won’t hand over the East to the Nazis,” said Pellmann, whose faction now sits directly opposite the much-expanded AfD group in parliament. Van Aken noted that the AfD, despite its claims, is not a party for the “little guy” but a party of the rich. It stokes fear, and those in government who adopt right-wing policies out of fear of the right only deepen that fear, said Pellmann.
In contrast, Die Linke wants to offer hope for a fairer society – a cause worth fighting for. “We are the hope!” is the title of the Chemnitz party conference resolution. This also applies to the upcoming local and state elections, particularly the party’s goal of entering state parliaments in Baden-Württemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate for the first time.
According to Jan van Aken, many new members are already out again doing door-to-door outreach after the federal election. This mass contact with citizens is not meant to be a one-time election gimmick – Die Linke wants to stay visible, more than ever. Perhaps next time with a beach towel on the grass at the public pool.
Read the original article in German: Bericht über den Parteitag – Radikal gegen den Kapitalismus | nd-aktuell.de