March 26, 2003: In the Wake of the Iraq-Crisis Chancellor Schroeder Declares “Social War” On Own People

1. The intensified dismantling of social achievements and labor rights at home and the rising aggressiveness in foreign policy are two sides of the coin. The German government claims to play a leading part in the redivision of the world after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The transformation of the federal army into “operational armed forces” being engaged all over the world and the deployment of troops in 14 countries in the world corresponds to this line. Negotiations are currently conducted to engage troops of the federal army in the military occupation of Iraq after the war. Even the bourgeois newspaper “Der Spiegel” refers to this context: “So: more flexibility in dismissals, cut unemployment benefits, away with unemployment assistance and more individual contribution to the health system. On the other hand: more billions for instruments of foreign policy mainly for a modernized federal army.” (24 March 24 02)

2. Bush and Blair launch programs in order to shift the huge costs of war onto the shoulders of the masses by means of mass taxes. In addition to his record military budget of 329 billion dollars in 2003 Bush demands 75 billion dollars now! And all that in a country where 31 million people – this is 12.5 percent – have already not enough to eat. There are already considerations within the European Union to undo the criteria of stability in order to finance the costs of war and its consequences! When is the war tax going to be implemented in Germany?

3. In the wake of the war the German government attempts to carry out its crisis management at full speed. Chancellor Schroeder brushes aside criticism coming from his own ranks with the threat of asking for a vote of confidence. The employer's associations, CDU/CSU and FDP are defaming the trade unions as “organizations living in the past”. Consequently it is “modern” to rigorously dismantle decades of social achievements of the working-class and trade-union movement. The dissolution of equal contributions in the nursing care insurance, later in the pension scheme and currently even in the health and unemployment insurance is a flagrant attack on the real wages. By canceling sickness benefits, by the drastically cutting unemployment benefits, by revoking the protection against wrongful dismissal social benefits are rigorously cut down. The unions must be defended and extended as fighting organizations. More and more employees already demand to frustrate Schroeder's social declaration of war by means of strikes and mass struggles.

4. There must be no domestic peace with the government! The active resistance for the immediate ending of the war on Iraq must be combined with the struggle of the blue- and white-collar workers against the tax increase and dismantling of the social insurance system by the anti-people government!