As NATO escalates its proxy war in Ukraine, Germany’s Left Party is desperately trying to portray itself as a party of ‘peace’ and ‘diplomacy’.
On the weekend of December 17-18, the party’s executive committee passed a resolution titled “Stop Arms Deliveries – Disarmament Instead of Escalation.” This calls for “a prospect of negotiations” and “de-escalation measures in the war in Ukraine”. On Monday, December 19, party co-leader Martin Schirdewan presented the so-called “peace plan” at a press conference. He asserted that it was above all a question of “preventing the suffering of the civilian population”.
In fact, this plan has absolutely nothing to do with “de-escalation,” saving lives, or even ending the war immediately. It essentially serves two purposes: first, it is intended to advance the interests of German imperialism. At the same time, the Left Party is trying to conceal its own support for the imperialist war offensive aimed at Russia and thus absorb the growing anti-war sentiment in the population, and divert it into safe channels. .
But, this project is doomed to failure. The warmongering of the party is far too visible. From the start, he attacked the Russian invasion – provoked by NATO, without being less reactionary for all that – from the right, that is to say from the point of view of imperialism, and he supported the NATO war.
The main representatives of the party, including the Minister-President of Thuringia Bodo Ramelow and the candidate for mayor of Berlin Klaus Lederer, openly advocate the delivery of arms to kyiv. At the party congress in Erfurt in mid-June, many speakers called for sanctions against Russia and arms deliveries to the Ukrainian army, which has many far-right forces.
On closer inspection, the current “peace plan” follows this same line. Its content corresponds to the essential war objective of the main NATO powers: to defeat Russia in Ukraine. The Left Party resolution states: “An end to the war by a complete military defeat of Russia is not to be expected in the short or medium term. Peace negotiations are therefore urgently needed, even if they will be very difficult”.
It is unambiguous: the negotiations proposed by the Left Party aim to impose on Russia the “victors’ peace” that NATO hopes for, but which is still far from being achieved militarily. The Left Party’s resolution effectively demands Russia’s complete surrender: “The Russian military” must “retreat to their (official) positions of February 23.” And “the ‘People’s Republics’ of Donetsk and Luhansk, which are contrary to international law, must be demilitarized for the duration of the peace negotiations”.
In return, the European powers would undertake to “lift all EU sanctions adopted after February 24”, continues the text. In addition, there should be a “mutual guarantee of non-use of nuclear weapons…as well as the exclusion of a military extension of the war to other countries by Russia and the non-entry of NATO into this war”.
This is a transparent attempt to smoke dust in people’s eyes. It is obvious that NATO is de facto waging a war against Russia and fueling it, even to the risk of nuclear escalation. A few days ago, the United States announced that it would supply Ukraine with Patriot missiles capable of attacking targets in the heart of Russia. In return, Putin announced the deployment of hypersonic nuclear missiles on Russian warships.
The European NATO powers also support this escalation, especially Germany. German government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s trip to Washington a “very good sign, full of hope” and hailed the delivery of the Patriots on behalf of the governing coalition. The delivery had been agreed with “close allies” such as Germany. Training Ukrainian soldiers on the system could “eventually take place in Europe and more likely still in Germany,” Hebestreit concluded.
Germany has long been a strong supporter of war. It floods Ukraine with weapons and has supplied its own anti-aircraft systems, howitzers and tanks. At the same time, the ruling class is using war to reassert itself as a military leader despite its historic crimes in two world wars. Long-drafted plans to massively rearm Europe and place it under German military command are now being aggressively implemented.
There is not a word in the Left Party’s resolution on NATO aggression, which has systematically encircled Russia since the dissolution of the Soviet Union and provoked the Russian invasion. On the contrary, official propaganda portrays Russia as the sole aggressor and source of evil.
The whole resolution is directed at the imperialist warmongers to increase the pressure on Russia. “We call on the Federal Republic of Germany and the EU to take diplomatic initiatives vis-à-vis countries such as China and India. The latter can exert an influence on Russia”, indicates the text. At the same time, there is a call for “the application of sanctions that intentionally affect Russia’s ability to wage war”.
When the Left Party criticizes the federal government, it is to reproach it for an alleged failure to assert German and European interests with enough confidence. During his press conference, Schirdewan called on the German government to work towards the forgiveness of Ukraine’s debt “in order to allow reconstruction independently of international lenders”.
In other words, Germany must position itself more firmly when it comes to the division of the spoils of war between the imperialist powers. To this end, the German government has already organized a conference on the “reconstruction of Ukraine” in Berlin in October – significantly without the participation of the United States.
When representatives of the Left Party, such as former parliamentary group leader Sahra Wagenknecht, criticize NATO’s war against Russia, they do so from the perspective of German imperialism. They speak on behalf of a fraction of the ruling class that sees a return to closer economic and energy relations with Moscow as a precondition for greater political and military independence from Washington.
The two fractions of the Left Party are spokespersons for German imperialism and capitalism which are linked to the social and political orientation and the history of the party. This party is neither leftist nor socialist, it is a bourgeois party which represents the interests of the state apparatus and the wealthy middle classes. The Stalinist organization that preceded the Left Party, the SED/PDS, co-organized the restoration of capitalism in East Germany and thus paved the way for the return of German militarism, which it has actively supported ever since.
This has become increasingly clear, especially in the last decade. In 2013, former Left Party foreign policy spokesman Stefan Liebich was directly involved in the preparation of the document “Neue Macht – Neue Verantwortung” (New Power – New Responsibility). This document was the blueprint for Germany’s return to an aggressive great-power foreign policy. This was then publicly announced in 2014 by Foreign Minister Steinmeier, German President Gauck and Defense Minister von der Leyen at the Munich Security Conference.
When Washington and Berlin, backed by fascist forces like the Svoboda party and the Right Sector, staged a coup in Ukraine in February 2014 to install an anti-Russian regime there, it was backed by the Left party. Sections of the party, such as the pseudo-left Marx 21 network, where current co-chair Janine Wissler began her career, celebrated the right-wing coup as a “democratic revolution.”
The Left Party then supported the aggressive foreign policy course of the grand coalition (CDU-SPD). In early 2015, for example, party leader Bernd Riexinger “expressly welcomed the diplomatic offensive by Chancellor Merkel and French President Hollande.” Merkel has since admitted that the Minsk deal was meant to buy time to rearm Ukraine. The Left Party’s current “diplomatic offensive” has the same military character.
Workers and young people who want to fight against the war must come to terms with this policy and join the Socialist Equality Party (PES). It is the only party to condemn the war from the point of view of the international working class and to arm the resistance to it with a socialist perspective. In its declaration for the Land of Berlin elections in 2023, which calls for turning the ballot into a referendum on the war policy advocated by all the established parties, the SGP/PES writes:
The only social force that can prevent another world war is the international working class – that is, the vast majority of the world’s population – which today is bigger and more interconnected than ever. Together with its sister parties of the Fourth International, the SGP/PES is building a global socialist movement against war and its cause, capitalism. The war cannot be stopped without breaking the power of the banks and trusts and bringing them under democratic control.
• Stop the NATO war in Ukraine! No sanctions and no arms deliveries!
• Two world wars, that’s enough! Stop the warmongers!
• 100 billion euros for nurseries, schools and hospitals, not for rearmament and for war!
(Article first published in English on December 28, 2022)
The “peace plan” of the German Left Party: imperialist warmongering under a pseudo-pacifist guise