Dear comrades, dear friends,

We would like to inform you again about important developments in Germany. The development of the government to the right is rapidly assuming greater dimensions, in close connection to the other European governments. We are experiencing the deepest political crisis in Germany since 1945. It is connected to a great discontent among the masses of people, which is changing to a progressive change of mood and an enlivening of mass struggles over issues of wages, jobs, rents, child care, health care, the new police laws and the proto-fascist party “Alternative for Germany” etc. It is not surprising that in this situation massive attacks on the MLPD are also increasing. In their reports the secret services certify the grown influence and alliance broadness of the MLPD.

We are looking forward to your response, opinion and solidarity.

Warm regards

Monika Gärtner-Engel

Person responsible for internationalism

Stop the rightward development of the government!  MLPD calls for new elections

After a few hot days and nights, on the evening of 2 July “reconciliation” was achieved between   Angela Merkel and Horst Seehofer. The “compromise” signals a further ultra-reactionary tightening of refugee policy. Even before that, Merkel and Seehofer were “fully in agreement on 62.5 of 63 points”. They concern faster, rigorous deportation; expansion of detention capacities for deportees – if necessary, even by putting pre-deportation detainees together with criminals; expanding of collective deportation. Aggressive measures are planned against refugees, prettified with all kinds of demagogic terms: “anchor centers” as a kind of closed-off internment camp in Germany, “protection zones” in North Africa. The existing camps in Libya already are notorious for terror, mass rape and slave-trading and have been rejected by all North African countries. And now finally the “transit centers” at the German-Austrian border. The SPD grumbles a bit – but Andrea Nahles ultimately has signaled approval if a few cosmetic changes are made.

All of this is done with the aim of brutally keeping as many as possible of the people fleeing from war, environmental destruction, poverty and hunger away from Europe. Yet it is the imperialist countries, those from the EU as well, that are dramatically responsible for the causes of flight: by destroying independent economies, furthering the threatening, ever advancing global environmental catastrophe, or through wars for power and spheres of influence.

It is planned to greatly expand the Frontex “border guard force”. Rescue ships of refugee helpers are criminalized and the intention is to ban them. This year alone 1,137 children, women and men already have lost their lives in the Mediterranean!

However, the causes of the deepest open political crisis in decades have by no means disappeared with the so-called agreement. The developments of the past few days have turned the Berlin government crisis into a full-blown open political crisis. The very next, foreseeable dispute in the government can be potentially explosive. This is because a deep crisis of confidence, open party crises, crises of the bourgeois refugee, health, environmental and housing policies, the crisis of the EU and so forth converge in this crisis.

Gabi Fechtner: The entire government must be removed – stop the rightward development!

The German federal government has initiated and expedited a drastic development to the right in all fields of politics. “This comprehensive, reactionary rightward development must be stopped,” says the Chairwoman of the MLPD, Gabi Fechtner. The MLPD demands the resignation of the entire Merkel/Seehofer/Scholz government. This is not only about refugee policy. The EU governments pursue rollback policies in environmental protection, launch attacks on working hours and labor rights, dismantle democratic rights and freedoms, further a general tendency to imperialist preparation for war, etc. “New elections are the order of the day,” Gabi Fechtner continues. “With foresight, on 24 June the Council of the Internationa­list Alliance already discussed the participation in elections as Internationalist List/MLPD, and this was approved by many organizations as a joint project in the event new elections are scheduled. We stand for this election as only uncompromising antifascist and progressive force. On 2 July we announced our participation to the Federal Election Commissioner as an anticipatory measure. Let the people have their say!”

Protest is left

This is also stressed by Stefan Engel, Chairman of the MLPD for many years and head of the Theoretical Organ, when he pointed to the militant potential among the masses of the population during the Gelsenkirchen Monday Demonstration on 2 July: “There is a progressive change of mood among the masses, who turn away from the bourgeois parties, withdraw their confidence from them. There are protests, there are mass demonstrations where one never would have expected them. I remind you of the Police Law in Bavaria. Suddenly there were 65,000 people on the streets. In Munich alone 40,000. These supposedly docile Bavarians – demonstrate! In the latest opinion poll about politicians, 39 percent of the Bavarian population¹ declared: the main problem is not unemployment, not the refugees, but the CSU (Christian Social Union)! The true mood among the masses is far different from what the media present and what politicians want to believe.”

The progressive change of mood finds expression in workers’ struggles with millions taking part in warning strikes during the collective bargaining rounds, mass demonstrations for more nursing staff, affordable housing and places in child daycare centers. Against the partly proto-fascist police laws. Against the AfD, wherever it rears its head. Against the ever increasing erosion of the right of asylum and the violation of the Geneva Convention on Refugees by EU governments.

Seehofer and Söder claimed at the beginning that they were introducing all their reactionary measures on behalf of the general public! But they miscalculated: the ratings for the CSU in the opinion polls have taken a radical tumble, and this is surely a major factor in the suddenly more conciliatory tone of the CSU towards Mrs. Merkel. They don’t want to lose the benefits that go with government participation! More and more people no longer want to follow the anticommunist state doctrine. That could be seen just recently in the countrywide storm of protest when, at the initiative of Interior Minister Seehofer the antifascist, internationalist Rebellious Music Festival was threatened with a ban. MLPD representatives like Stefan Engel were defamed as “dangerous persons” and threatened with severe punishment. For naught! A thrilling festival took place and Stefan Engel enjoyed international solidarity!

It is becoming increasingly obvious what the AfD demagogy of the alleged “protest party” really amounts to. Their sources of inspiration in the right-wing government of Austria are currently in the process of reintroducing the possibility of a 12-hour workday and a 60-hour workweek. At the AfD party congress on 30 June, AfD chairman Meuthen called for the financing of retirement pensions exclusively by every individual himself or herself! For its new foundation the AfD wants to tap 70 million euros in tax money – they have the same self-service mentality as the other Berlin parties! One thing is clear: Protest must come from the left!

Attack on the MLPD, its friends and allies

Interested circles are apparently trying to compensate for the setback they suffered when attempting to repress the MLPD on the occasion of the Rebellious Music Festival. At the end of June the municipal authorities of Gelsenkirchen issued an immediate ban on the use of the Horster Mitte Cultural Hall (each use is to be subject to a fine of 10,000 euros – or arrest!).

This is not just any hall, but an event location as part of a group of buildings of the national headquarters of the MLPD. This Cultural Hall is popular among many people and well frequented; since 2008, surely 1,000 highly diverse events took place there, ranging from dances into May and Zumba to top-level political events – with more than 60,000 participants. The City of Gelsenkirchen has known about the use of the Cultural Hall since 2006. Entirely invented allegations, such as violations of regulations on fire protection and statics, have long since been refuted by expert opinions of state-certified experts.

The Cultural Hall must remain – strengthen the Internationalist Alliance, the MLPD and the youth league Rebell!

Neither the MLPD nor the enthusiastic users of the house are going to put up with this. “First they wanted to take St. Joseph’s Hospital away from us, then the public pool is on the closing list – and now, to top it all off, the Cultural Hall“, the people of the district are protesting. Numerous protest signatures we collected in a very short time. Sooner or later this anticommunist attack will experience its Waterloo.

Come to the big, informative, militant protest rally and cultural event
on 4 July 2018 at 6 p.m.!

The most important conclusion is not to rely anymore on the degenerate bourgeois parties of all colors, but to take the future into your own hands! Strengthen the Internationalist Alliance, become a member of the MLPD and the youth league Rebell.

¹ Zeit-Online 27. 6. 18

First protest rally against the “prohibition of usage” –
in and around the Cultural Hall Horster Mitte
Wednesday, 4 July 2018, 6 p.m.

Schmalhorststr./on the corner of An der Rennbahn
45899 GE-Horst