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NEWS & LETTERS, October 2004Our Life and Times by Kevin A. Barry
German
protests fizzle
The
demonstrations began in the dead of summer in eastern Germany.
With unemployment in the region a catastrophic 18.5%, people were
outraged when the social democratic government of Gerhard Schroeder enacted a
law sharply curtailing Germany’s comparatively generous unemployment benefits.
They
adopted the tactic of Monday demonstrations, a deliberate echo of those that had
brought down the Stalinist regime 15 years earlier, in 1989.
In a region better known recently for its political apathy, the idea
caught on. By mid-August the
demonstrations had swelled to 70,000, with the largest crowds in Leipzig,
Berlin, and Magdeburg. The old 1989
chant "We Are the People!" now began to be heard. While
the demonstrations exhibited a grassroots character, political tendencies like
the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS, formerly ruling Communist Party) were
also present in force. So were the
small neo-Nazi parties, which have made eastern Germany a target of their
organizing. Then came the Sept. 19 elections in two eastern states, Brandenburg and Saxony. The PDS did exceptionally well in Brandenburg, with 28%, just behind the social democrats, and scored 24% in Saxony. However, world headlines focused on something else. Two neo-fascist parties had also gained ground, with the most fanatical one scoring 9% in Saxony, the highest vote for such a party in Germany since 1968. Humiliated by this sorry outcome, the masses turned away. The demonstration on Monday, Sept. 20 drew only a few hundred. Never was it clearer that the Left will fail if it limits itself to what it is AGAINST, without spelling out what it is FOR. |
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