Greens join establishment
* Germany The Green Party has abandoned its radical youth, to become a party of the enlightened middle class David Müller
The recent special convention in Bielefeld clearly showed that the Greens have concluded their development from a movement party critical of the system into an updated party of the enlightened middle caste of the Germany system.
A large minority are frustrated with the discipline imposed by the Green's participation in the Social Democratic government. Participation in a government which is part of the NATO war against Yugoslavia does not allow for compromises. A split between the "Left" and the [pro-government] "Realos"
The ecological Greens were founded in 1980 as a clearly left project. The most important social influences on the new formation were the peace movement, sixties radicals, former opponents of nuclear power, and activists of "the new social movements." They created a party that wanted to bring the demands of social resistance into the Parliament. But the "movement" and "parliamentary" wings of the movement were never really integrated. After an uneasy coexistence, the two orientations came into conflict..
With the election of Helmut Kohl as Federal chancellor in October of 1982 and the downturn of the peace and anti-nuclear movements after 1983, the left's emphasis on the "social movements" became ever more difficult.
Radical ecologists Juta Ditfurths and Manfred Zierans and the ecosocialists Thomas Ebermann and Rainer Tramperts continued to lead the Greens because they had the solid support of a middle layer of active party members. These members were involved not only in the party but also in the diminishing structures of the social movements and other rank-and-file initiatives. This wing had numerous connections with the left alternative or left radical milieu.
The Greens' national congress in May 1987 approved overwhelmingly the boycott of the census of the population then taking place. The party also approved the left trade union demands for socialisation of the steel industry.
But the steady decline of social movements and left currents outside the Greens strengthened the Realpolitik ("realistic") line within the party. Coalition with the SPD seemed to offer a 10 International Viewpoint #313 July 1999
Green positions in government and the civil service. It did very little to oppose the continuing development of neoliberal positions in the Realo camp. The "Left" in the party accepted the strategic goal of coalition with the SPD and subordinated its own programme on every decisive faster route to social changes than the Of course, clientelism was not the Green left's laborious rank-and-file only explanation for the changes in the endeavours-which in Greens. The old left milieu from which increasingly lacked a mass base. the Greens emerged in the early 1980s
The growing political isolation of continued to shrink. The formerly rebelother left milieus strengthened the lious young intellectuals largely became adaptive tendencies within the Green left part of the establishment. As well as a predilection for provocation Many of the old left party members rather than patient politics. dropped out of the Greens. For example,
The beginning of the end for the left over 70% of the membership in Hanover in the Greens came in October 1987 have joined since 1995. The new recruits National spokesperson, Jutta Ditfurth have hardly any experience with social neo began a campaign for the release of the politics. They are heavily influenced by poli imprisoned members of the Red Army the years of Germany's "right turn a m Fraction (RAF) [an ultra-left armed under the Christian-Democratic-Liberal sup struggle group of the 1970s]. This was a government. Some Green youth functio- min justified demand, but the campaign did naries openly admit that they joined the pau little to furnish the party with a party because it was the quickest road to lack
La successful career.
The ensuing struggle led to the The process of adaptation Stri erosion of the traditional Green lefts. A accelerated massively by the formation pos large part of their adherents became ever of a Social Democrat-Green national ces: more inactive or oriented towards more coalition government. Long before the no moderate currents in the party. Without election, the Green leadership around of the pressure of social movements, left Joschka Fischer had realised that the rea participation in the SPD-led coalition led SPD would invite the Greens to join a rem to ever greater accommodation. coalition government only if the party bur was ready to dispatch the German army con Radical opposition into combat situations [for the first time Star
The party badly misjudged the 1990 since the Second World War]. election, which was dominated by the The enormous majority of Greens anc question of reunification with the members were clearly obsessed with par- of German Democratic Republic (DDR- ticipation in the government. German Luc "East Germany). The Greens chose to participation in a war in the remnants of focus on the environment, with the Yugoslavia was not even discussed by No slogan "Everybody is talking about the party left. Attempts to discuss these mil Germany, we are talking about the problems with the Greens before the que
. Voters deserted the party, election were unsuccessful because the tow which received only 4.8% of the vote in question was held to be totally absurd. all West Germany (a party needs 5% to enter The first months of the coalition Jos government provoked disenchantment
Later that year, the ecosocialists among many left-wing Greens, and even mu around Thomas Ebermann left the party some critical Realos. suf because they wanted to form a radical Finance Minister Lafontaine's dis opposition to German reunification. resignation plunged a majority of the of Nothing permanent developed from this party into frustrated gloom. The left in Th current. The next year the radical the Greens began to distance itself from inf ecologists also left the party and formed the coalition government, and to form dra the "Ecological Left," a peculiar mix of their own structures, like the initiative for dis Jutta Ditfurth's personal entourage and the "Green Rank and File" in preparation Ko an ecoautonomist current. for the National Delegates Conference.
During the Gulf war, a whole series Among the Realos there was res- ins of realpolitik personalities opposed the trained jubilation because Lafontaine's we party's refusal to support the war. Many departure meant a better chance for ma participated in anti-war protests-but adoption of their own neoliberal econowithout acting as a party, or dissemina- mic orientation. The realpolitik line of en ting a specifically Green content. complete adaptation to the ruling powers wa
By the end of 1991, the traditional triumphed with the war in Kosovo. left had been pushed out of the Greens. dif Those who remained concluded a truce mc with the party leadership. But the new An astonishing variety of green acc left around Jürgen Trittin mutated positions appeared at the National 31 job agency Delegates Conference in Bielefeld earlier Str concerned with promoting their own this year. A motion from Badenclientele into the increasing number of Würtemberg, the stronghold of the eX-
neoliberal party wing, supported the policies of the federal government while a motion of the national executive tied supporting the Green German foreign minister to the demand for a temporary pause in NATO bombing. Both proposals lacked any deeper critique of NATO.
A position paper by Christian Ströbele and others opposed the Realo positions and called for a unilateral cessation of NATO attacks. It contained no appraisal of the motives of the states of the West-probably for tactical reasons. A decidedly left motion by remaining fundamentalists from Hamburg and Lower Saxony made many correct points but had no chance from the
In the realpolitik camp the maintenance of the coalition stood at the centre of the issues. The otherwise somnolent Ludger Volmer became enraged when he accused the environment minister of North Rhine Westphalia state of underquestions such as the duplicity of NATO towards Kosova and Kurdistan were not alluded to at all in the speeches of Joschka Fischer or Angelika Beer.
The argumentation of the left was much better on several questions but suffered from the limits of coalition discipline. An analysis of NATO or even of German war aims was widely absent. The creation of Western zones influence in view of the ever more dramatic developments in Russia was not discussed. Nor were the concerns of the Kosovo Albanians.
The left reticence was the result of an insufficient analysis of the conflict as well as the hope of still winning a majority for their side by such restraint.
The left's leading personality, federal environmental minister Jürgen Trittin was so disciplined that he did not even speak. His silence added to the difficulties for the left. In the end the motion by the federal executive was accepted by 444 delegates, compared to 318 for the left proposal by Christian Ströbele and others.
The accepted proposal was a classic example of tactical cunning. The demand for a temporary halt to NATO bombing convinced enough critical Realos to secure a majority in the meeting. At the same time it was obvious to most participants that this would not influence the policies of the government or even the Green parliamentary fraction.
This is a new path for the Greens. Until this conference, the Greens were the parliamentary party with the closest concordance between resolutions and actual politics.
The Green fraction in the federal Parliament had already made it known that it would not make or support any demand for a halt to the bombing of Serbia, in order "not to endanger" pursuing "solution by "negotiations."
NATO attacks increased in the weeks after the party conference, and more and more civilian targets were bombed. Although all the resolutions at the conference rejected the use of NATO ground troops, the party majority's support for "German foreign policy" (as presented by Joska Fischer) opened the way for use of ground troops. Left network
The defeated left-wing Greens are still deciding how to proceed. Probably a network of left Greens and alternative lefts will be formed outside the party. Various possibilities are being discussed, from the founding of their own party to the creation of a network of left opponents of the war. A Green Left network was created on 6 June, but in less-than-inspiring conditions. Participants who had already left the Green Party imposed a resolution which explicitly rejected voting for the Greens in the European elections. This needlessly polarised the meeting, and alienated those still inside the Greens.
Unless a large antiwar movement develops, the only haven for these disappointed left Greens seems to be the ex-Communist Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS—the former ruling party in East Germany Most left Greens do not have the energy or patience for a new "long march' of rank-and-file work in the social movements. For the moment, however, the PDS is a taboo question for
The most important question facing the left and dissident Greens is the war in Kosovo. There are many possibilities for joint work. Though some leftists had the bad idea of organising a puppet theatre with the theme "Smash NATO, Start with
There is mounting disquiet about the war. The left at least has a chance to transform this disquiet into protest. This will not be easy. But the way to go is clear: the creation of broadly conceived coalition structures and mobilisations against the NATO attacks and for the rights of the Kosovars. * Reprinted from our Geman sister-magazine Inprekorr. Translated by Ed Kovacs, Los Angeles Solidarity lis618
Britain
Left results
To complete the article on page 2, we present the results of Britain's June election to the European Parliament. Northern Ireland Social Democratic and Labour Party (28.1%), Sinn Fein (17.3%) Scotland Scottish National Party (27.2%), Green (5.8%), Scottish Socialist Party (4.0%), Socialist Labour Party, (1.0%) Wales Plaid Cymru ("Party of Wales") (29.6%), Green (2.6%), Socialist Labour (0.7%) England The scores for left lists were London: Green (7.7%), Socialist Labour (list headed by Arthur Scargill) (1.7%), Weekly Worker (0.1%). East Midlands: Green (5.4%), Alternative Labour List (Ken Coates) (2.4%), Socialist Labour (0.8%). Eastern: Green (6.2%), Socialist Labour (0.6%). North East: Green (4.7%), Socialist Labour (1.2%), Socialist Party of Great Britain (0.4%). North West: Green (5.6%), Socialist Labour (1.1%) Weekly Worker (0.1%) South East: Green (7.4%), Socialist Labour (0.5%). South West: Green (8.3%), Socialist Labour (0.6%) Yorkshire and the Humber: Green (5.7%), Alternative Labour (1.3%), Socialist Labour (1.0%). West Midlands: Green (5.8%), Christine Oddy (deselected Left Labour MEP) (4.3%), Socialist Alliance (0.9%), Socialist Labour Party (0.6%). [Compiled by BS] *
International Viewpoint #313 July 1999 11
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dence, we are trying to gradually widen
" - the scope of the participatory process, by
bringing in more and more non-economic questions. Concretely, to widen the space for human rights in popular political discourse and government action." The party began by forming a Human Rights Commission, as a kind of coalition between the various discriminated social sectors: women, blacks, old people, and homosexuals. The commission became a centre for receiving and
ORÇAMENTO
rechannelling the demands of the different sectors. But there was only limited PARTICIPATIVO collective work, and the issues the commission identified were not unified into a general struggle." VOCÊ É QUEM FAZ UMA CIDADE DE VERDADE
But the commission was a springboard towards a city-wide conference on human rights. "A very rich experience for the participants and for the party," remembers Bonhumá. The conference for right netw syster syste questi incred gover one sector togeti Thes terrib , some peopl tory b of th victin lence comn