Greens join establishment
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" seems inevitable.
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 faster route to social changes than the Green left's laborious rank-and-file endeavours-which in any case increasingly lacked a mass base.
The growing political isolation of other left milieus strengthened the adaptive tendencies within the Green left. As well as a predilection for provocation rather than patient politics.
The beginning of the end for the left in the Greens came in October 1987. National spokesperson, Jutta Ditfurth began a campaign for the release of the imprisoned members of the Red Army Fraction (RAF) [an ultra-left armed struggle group of the 1970s]. This was a justified demand, but the campaign did little to furnish the party with a perspective.
The ensuing struggle led to the erosion of the traditional Green lefts. A large part of their adherents became ever more inactive or oriented towards more moderate currents in the party. Without the pressure of social movements, left participation in the SPD-led coalition led to ever greater accommodation. Radical opposition
The party badly misjudged the 1990 election, which was dominated by the question of reunification with the German Democratic Republic (DDR"East Germany). The Greens chose to focus on the environment, with the slogan "Everybody is talking about Germany, we are talking about the weather" . Voters deserted the party, which received only 4.8% of the vote in West Germany (a party needs 5% to enter parliament).
Later that year, the ecosocialists around Thomas Ebermann left the party because they wanted to form a radical opposition to German reunification. Nothing permanent developed from this current. The next year the radical ecologists also left the party and formed the "Ecological Left," a peculiar mix of Jutta Ditfurth's personal entourage and an ecoautonomist current.
During the Gulf war, a whole series of realpolitik personalities opposed the party's refusal to support the war. Many participated in anti-war protests-but without acting as a party, or disseminating a specifically Green content.
By the end of 1991, the traditional left had been pushed out of the Greens. Those who remained concluded a truce with the party leadership. But the new left around Jürgen Trittin mutated gradually became a job agency concerned with promoting their own clientele into the increasing number of
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 question.
Of course, clientelism was not the only explanation for the changes in the Greens. The old left milieu from which the Greens emerged in the early 1980s continued to shrink. The formerly rebellious young intellectuals largely became part of the establishment.
Many of the old left party members dropped out of the Greens. For example, over 70% of the membership in Hanover have joined since 1995. The new recruits have hardly any experience with social neo politics. They are heavily influenced by poli the years of Germany's "right turn" a m under the Christian-Democratic-Liberal Sup government. Some Green youth functio- min naries openly admit that they joined the pau party because it was the quickest road to lack a successful career.
The process of adaptation was Stri accelerated massively by the formation pos of a Social Democrat-Green national cess coalition government. Long before the no election, the Green leadership around of Joschka Fischer had realised that the rea SPD would invite the Greens to join a ren coalition government only if the party bur was ready to dispatch the German army cor into combat situations [for the first time star since the Second World War].
The enormous majority of Greens anc members were clearly obsessed with par- of 1 ticipation in the government. German Luc participation in a war in the remnants of acc Yugoslavia was not even discussed by No the party left. Attempts to discuss these mil problems with the Greens before the que election were unsuccessful because the tow question was held to be totally absurd. all
The first months of the coalition Jos government provoked disenchantment among many left-wing Greens, and even mu some critical Realos. suf
Finance Minister Lafontaine's dis resignation plunged a majority of the of party into frustrated gloom. The left in Th the Greens began to distance itself from inf the coalition government, and to form dra their own structures, like the initiative for dis the "Green Rank and File" in preparation Ko for the National Delegates Conference.
Among the Realos there was res- ins trained jubilation because Lafontaine's we departure meant a better chance for ma adoption of their own neoliberal economic orientation. The realpolitik line of en complete adaptation to the ruling powers wa triumphed with the war in Kosovo. sp dif Debates mo
An astonishing variety of green acc positions appeared at the National 31 Delegates Conference in Bielefeld earlier Str this year. A motion from BadenWürtemberg, the stronghold of the exa
URO 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 start.
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 undermining "Joschka." Problematical questions 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 of 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 avnmnle oftootionlounnina The damar 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 many left Greens.
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 the Greens"
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 lissT8 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] *
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