Can a New German Party Steer the European Left in a More Effective Direction?
Can a New German Party Steer the European Left in a More Effective Direction?
Sahra Wagenknecht's left-populist party looks to unite the left in the European Parliament behind antiwar and working class issues.
BSW is openly copying fascist rethoric. Die Linke actually gained support and members after Sarah Wagenknecht and her followers left the party, she was the one most damaging the party's image with her open contempt for minorities and support for Russia. This article is garbage
It does seem to address that
Criticism from All Sides
Wagenknecht’s BSW doesn’t just get it from what’s now referred to as the German “center” (i.e., the parties of warmongers and anti-working class policies).
It also gets a lot of criticism from the left – especially [Jacobin article] on the immigration issue.
Wagenknecht, in my eyes, is a very questionable figure, with very questionable views.
This article frames the issue as identity politics vs class-based politics, and while I feel that it is very valid to want to focus on the latter, the former is also important, and she doesn't eshew it, she just holds views different from what I feel is the lefty 'mainstream', if such a thing exists. She has, for example, gone on record against the new German self-determination law, citing the well worn argument that it'd allow 'men' to enter 'female spaces'. She's also gone on record calling some gender-affirming surgeries 'mutilation'.
The things she says on migration have already been cited in this thread.
I'm not opposed to the idea of a new left party, but to me, Wagenknecht's certainly isn't it.
It's very sobering seeing our American left wing party compared to European left wing parties, and realizing those parties are considered to be ineffective and moderate.
Our "left wing" party would lean fairly conservative amongst the rest of the developed world.The trouble with our left is that they are incredibly ineffective and increasingly have no idea how to promote their ideas to the population. We're lucky to have a fairly strong socialist political heritage to live off of but it's dwindling quickly and the current left has not been able in the least to gain new political capital.
In the last elections in my country the key issue was considered to be living wages, in light of the extreme inflation as a result of the Ukraine war. This is supposed to be the left's wheelhouse. The previous center-right government made a huge mess of things, ended their run with a few major scandals right before the election. This should have been slam dunk for the left.
But they made no concrete statements about anything, presented no clear party program, just some generic polite and well-meaning "we should take care of everyone and oh yes racism is bad" They got absolutely hammered by a coalition of center-right and extreme-right.
The modern left is never effective. To be fair, it is even questionable if the left was ever effective - besides of course in sending economies down the toilet.
What? Did the left colonize the global south, destroy their economies and slaughter their populations?
The only two countries, the USSR and China, to ever pose a genuine threat to the imperial core have been socialist. The modern capitalist Russia is a disgrace to its Soviet legacy.
As opposed to the right which is extremely adept at sending its own people to the poorhouse in order to slave for the super wealthy. But hey the economy is flying!
Ahaha yes, because Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Bolivia, Cuba, Venezuela and friend that are typically full left are giving their people very good conditions indeed. lol
