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> WSWS : News & Analysis : Europe : Germany
>
> New faction in the German Green party
>
> Right-wing young Greens go on the offensive
>
> By Ludwig Niethammer
> 18 August 1999
>
> Back to screen version
>
> The right-wing turn by the Green party is intensifying weekly. At
> the beginning of July a large section of the so-called "Young
> Greens" went public with a statement in which they demanded a
> totally new programmatic orientation for the party.
>
> The statement likens the current program to an attic, and calls
> for the dumping of nearly everything that has been thought of as
> essential to Green politics. The authors write: "We think it is
> time to clean out the attic, to keep what's valuable and get rid
> of the rubbish."
>
> This was written only two weeks after the NATO attacks on Serbia
> began. The Green Foreign Minister of Germany, Joschka Fischer,
> won support for the war from the majority of his party. In
> addition, Social Democratic Chancellor Schr�der's legislation for
> 30 billion deutsche marks in cuts in the social sector has been
> carried through with the help of the Social Democrats' Green
> coalition partners. On the basis of this record one might think
> that the Green party's metamorphosis was complete.
>
> But this is not so. The Young Greens think that the turn to the
> right by the party is neither fast nor far-reaching enough. They
> think of themselves as "second generation" Greens. Their
> understanding of politics seems to consist in establishing the
> most effective means for satisfying their own needs. Openly
> indifferent to the social needs of the majority of the
> population, they consider such questions solely as cost factors.
>
> They proclaim: "We are fed up with seeing people of our age going
> in large numbers to the other parties, and then being treated in
> a patronising manner ourselves when we speak about our activities
> in the Greens. The time of peace and compromises is over�what is
> needed is a clear decision over the correct orientation of the
> party in the future. We stand for a clear, power-conscious,
> pragmatic position, but also for a partial replacement of the
> party�s membership."
>
> One is reminded of the famous saying of Berthold Brecht that the
> government should elect a new people. The Young Greens, it seems,
> would like to elect an alternative to their party's weary
> following.
>
> The Young Greens write about the founding generation of the
> party�the generation of 1968�and reveal the decaying innards of
> their organisation. "Put an end to the tales of 1968: we
> understand very well that the founders have difficulties with the
> change from a movement to a party.... They achieved a lot. Many
> thanks. But please, stop getting on the nation's nerves with your
> stories from way back when, and be more courageous in admitting
> your own mistakes.
>
> "Yes, you were for another system. Yes, you undertook the valiant
> but unsuccessful struggle against capital. Yes, for you the
> employers were part of the Evil Empire. That was false at the
> time, is still false today, and when it comes down to it, you
> know it as well as we do. Just admit it, instead of turning your
> speeches into endless, vain accounts of the mistakes and errors
> of your youth. Those of us from the second generation, at least,
> aren't interested in how you made your peace with the market
> economy. The point is that you have. For us, any questioning of
> the system arose only for a short period, then it became clear,
> we are for the system, although we recognise its faults and want
> to put them right."
>
> This address, authored by two Greens from the German state of
> Hessen (Jens K�cher and Mathias Wagner) received a positive
> reception from broad sections of the party. Amongst the
> initiators were several members of parliament, like Matthias
> Berninger and Cem �zdemir. The latter pair are political pupils
> of Joschka Fischer and another leading Green, Rezzo Schlauch.
> They initiated the so-called "Pizza Connection", i.e., regular
> meetings with the "Young Rebels" (young Christian Democratic
> members of parliament) in an Italian restaurant in Bonn.
>
> It is not just the Young Greens who openly speak about inheriting
> that which remains of the Free Democratic Party (FDP). The Green
> leadership as a whole is competing with the FDP over which of the
> two parties will represent the "better off" layers of society.
>
> There were, of course, angry reactions to this right-wing
> declaration, under the banner "The Green Party deserves a second
> chance," and the caterwauling, so characteristic of the Greens,
> began again. The "left-wing pragmaticians" complain about the
> harsh tone and methods used by the right because they fear, with
> good reason, they could be purged from the party.
>
> In fact, there is no way back to the old days of political
> consensus and social equilibrium advocated by the "left
> pragmaticians" in their paper, which is entitled "Turn away from
> the new centre".
>
> The right-wing offensive of the Young Greens could be compared to
> a boomerang thrown by the old Greens. The political conception
> with which the old guard founded the Greens rested on a rejection
> of the fact that politics are ultimately about conflicting social
> interests. This did not prevent them from serving the interests
> of petty-bourgeois layers. Over the past 15 years, however, some
> of these layers have achieved considerable prosperity and are now
> raising their own political demands.
>
> Most of the Young Greens come from this privileged milieu, having
> joined the Greens in the beginning of the 90s. From their point
> of view the Green Party had two advantages: it was somewhat more
> modern than the old established parties, and there were fewer
> obstacles in the way of rapidly making a career.
> -----------------------------------------------------------------
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