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What Die Linke Should Do
Riexinger, Bernd
http://www.jacobinmag.com/2016/03/die-linke-germany-alternative-elections/Date Written: 2016-03-27 Publisher: Jacobin Year Published: 2016 Resource Type: Article Cx Number: CX19107 The German right made stunning gains in this month's regional elections. The Left must rise to the challenge. Abstract: - Excerpt: the neoliberal unfettering of competition has led to a situation in which solidarity is alien to the everyday experiences of many people, who instead discriminate “downwards” rather than defend themselves against antisocial politics and enrichment by the bosses and the ultra-rich. As Die Linke, our primary responsibility is to formulate a message of “solidarity in one’s own interest” and make our opposition to neoliberalism and the 1 percent clear and understandable in the way we speak. Our society stands at a crossroads: either growing sections of the unemployed, precarious, low-wage, and downwardly mobile middle classes will join the right-populists and prepare the ground for further antisocial, authoritarian, and antidemocratic developments; or we will succeed in building a solidary social coalition of the unemployed, precariously employed, and wage-earning middle classes capable of beating back competition and social de-solidarization. Subject Headings |