An open political crisis has begun! Be prepared for everything and drive the struggles of the industrial workers forward!

Rote Fahne: The state elections in Thuringia and Saxony were political earthquakes. What are the implications of this development in the view of the MLPD?

Gabi Fechtner: We are dealing with an extraordinary situation, and the political crisis in Germany has broken out into the open. The old party ties of the masses are rapidly disintegrating, while the new ties partly have not yet been formed or hardly can be called firm. As recently as 1990, the established bourgeois parties Christian Democrats (CDU), Social Democrats (SPD), Free Democrats (FDP), PDS/Left Party, and the forerunners of the GREENS received a whopping 93.7 percent of the votes in the state elections in Thuringia. In 2014 this figure was still as high as 82.3 percent, and in 2019, 71.1 percent. In the 2024 state elections, this share fell dramatically to just 47.1 percent. The governing parties in Berlin only managed 10.4 percent there. The fascist Alternative for Germany (AfD) and the Alliance Sahra Wagenknecht (BSW) together received 48.6 percent. The trend away from the traditional bourgeois parties, which has been observed for years, has thus reached a new level. It is still unclear how a government is to be formed in Thuringia or Saxony, and whether it will be at all possible. There could also be new elections there. If a government is to be formed there without the AfD, in both federal states the CDU and BSW, among others, would have to join forces, and in Thuringia even bring the Left Party on board. This is already leading to severest contradictions, especially within the CDU/CSU.

The SPD/FDP/Green federal government received a great deal of premature praise upon taking office. Today, no one believes their promises of an “ecological and social transformation” anymore. According to the latest Deutschlandtrend poll, only 16 percent of German citizens give the coalition a halfway favorable rating, while 84 percent are dissatisfied. Their ratings have never been this low. The situation is already being described by some journalists aptly as the “twilight of the coalition.” But there is no elation over a CDU/CSU-led federal government either. As much as 52 percent of those surveyed believe that it would perform “just as poorly” as the present coalition or “even worse.” The crisis of confidence has long since reached bourgeois parliamentarism as well. According to a poll conducted in the spring of this year, 49 percent of those surveyed tend not to trust parliaments, while only 43 percent say they tend to trust them. At the same time, the crisis-laden situation has the result that the masses are becoming increasingly politicized. This is also expressed in the voter turnout of 73.6 percent in Thuringia, the highest since 1994. In Saxony, voter turnout was higher than ever at 74.4 percent.

The ruling powers are responding to the crisis-ridden development primarily with a rightward development. This has reached a new level, which they justify by citing the fascist attack in Solingen. The acute fascist danger has intensified. In Thuringia, with the AfD, for the first time in Germany since the Second World War a fascist party has once again become the strongest force in a state election and in parliament, with 32.8 percent of the vote. AfD is a ready option in Thuringia and Saxony to participate in or take over the government. It is not yet clear whether this will in fact happen. The ground is certainly being prepared for it, in that the AfD is increasingly being treated as a normal bourgeois party in most of the bourgeois media, even though it is fascist.

The social polarization is intensifying. We have an extremely unstable situation, and the question is, how will the working class, how will the masses deal with it? In any case, it cannot go on like this, and we have to prepare for everything and actively drive the development forward.

What characterizes an open political crisis? After the elections, Rote Fahne News initially spoke of an “intensified latent political crisis” or “turning point.”

Gabi Fechtner: This failed to recognize the qualitative leap that has occurred and is a violation of the dialectical method. As if an open political crisis stereotypically has always only broken out upon the collapse of the government or the calling of new elections. The qualitative leap that the masses can no longer be governed in this way, and do not want to be, but also that those in government can no longer continue in the same old way, has occurred. To assess the situation, one must consider the complete picture. In addition to all the factors mentioned, we also have an extremely unstable situation in foreign policy, and the conduct of war by the Western imperialists, with the German government in a leading role, has come to a crisis both in Ukraine and in Gaza.

Essential features of the open political crisis are:

• We have had a sustained global economic and financial crisis since 2018 and a renewed slump of German imperialism in it. As a result, the monopolies are adopting a harder line in order to keep pace with the intensified inter-imperialist competition.

• Special conditions are structural crises, which are currently breaking out in relation to e-mobility and energy supply. Fierce competition is also breaking out over digitalization, and the monopolies must first squeeze the huge investments needed for this out of the workers.

• We are experiencing the year with so far the highest number of participants in workers’ and mass protests since the Second World War – already around 6.5 million (according to calculations by the Institute GSA) – although important collective bargaining rounds such as that of the metalworkers are still pending. However, the industrial workers have yet to take the lead in these struggles and strengthen their class independence. But here, too, something has been happening in recent weeks.

• We have the deepest disaffection from bourgeois parliamentarism, its established parties and institutions. This is followed by a problem that is becoming chronic, namely to form reasonably stable governments at all. Several parties have plunged into open crises, such as the Greens or the FDP, and the Left Party is even facing a crisis of its very existence.

• This disaffection has taken on the character of a disruption of previous ties and a deep crisis of confidence in the political system. This is also accompanied by the dissolution of ideological ties, such as to reformism, or to delusions such as the free democratic basic order or a peace-loving foreign policy. At the moment, however, reactionary to fascist forces are succeeding in partially reoccupying this space.

• The system of the petty-bourgeois mode of thinking as the main method of government is less and less able to bind the masses to the capitalist system and is itself undergoing a rightward development. At the same time, parts of the ruling monopoly capital are increasingly counting on its replacement by open reaction.

• All this is interwoven with international crises in which bourgeois crisis management is failing. This also applies to the global environmental catastrophe, where in the last two years a qualitative leap has occurred and the 1.5-degree target has been exceeded several times.

• A significant politicization has begun, and broad masses are being drawn into the political arena. Lenin himself assumed that “the ruling classes should be going through a governmental crisis, which draws even the most backward masses into politics….” (Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 31, p. 85)

How long will the SPD/FDP/Green government survive?

Gabi Fechtner: That cannot be predicted mathematically, of course. There are a number of indications that it will not make it to September 2025. A possible breaking point for the federal government is the state election in Brandenburg on 22 September. If the SPD loses there as well, Chancellor Scholz will no longer be tenable, no matter how thick-skinned he is. In times of an open political crisis, federal elections take on special significance and could take place quickly. Either way, we will use the federal elections for a tactical offensive against fascism, the rightward development and anticommunism, and for genuine socialism. We will now actively prepare for them and, in consultation with our allies from the Internationalist Alliance and beyond, put together the state lists and direct candidates.

What role is played by Germany’s leading monopoly capital?

Gabi Fechtner: The ruling monopolies also see that things cannot go on like this. In their statements, the leading circles have so far stuck to the present government in order not to endanger “stability.” Now, however, this stability is gone, and the monopolies’ demand for a heavier hand towards the working class and the masses with an ultra-rightist government is getting louder and louder. It can also be assumed that there are considerable contradictions within these circles. In a survey of industrial companies in East Germany conducted by the German Economic Institute in August 2024, the AfD already took third place behind CDU and FDP. There is increasing evidence that the monopolies have begun a change of tactics towards terminating their hypocritical class collaboration policy, towards open attacks on the working class, and a reactionary turn. At the beginning of September, the new head of the Hamburg regional association of the Federation of German Industries (BDI), Andreas Pfannenberg, stuck his neck out farthest. “The coalition is finished. ... Now is the time to throw everything overboard and tackle the pressing issues!” (Bild, 5 September 2024) The monopolies demand a more drastic shifting of the crisis burdens onto the masses, the dismantling of democratic rights and freedoms and of refugee rights, a tightening of the asylum law, and an increased militarization and fascistization of the state apparatus. For this they need the means of division. This new quality of the rightward development is accompanied by a vile racist smear campaign against refugees.

Why are the monopolies now tending to give up the class collaboration they have so carefully cultivated for so long?

Gabi Fechtner: The class collaboration policy pursued so far is in an open crisis. In two model projects – the co-determination in the coal and steel industry, and at VW, where co-determination is enshrined in a special VW law – it was provocatively terminated by the monopolies. At best, it is to be strictly geared to grudging submission to the basic direction of the monopolies’ plans as “having no alternative.” This is for economic reasons, namely the considerably intensified inter-imperialist rivalry. But something like that is also a conscious and highly explosive political decision. After all, the head of the most powerful monopoly association, BDI, Siegfried Russwurm, sits on the supervisory board of Thyssenkrupp. VW is the largest German monopoly, with a 20 percent stake held by the state of Lower Saxony. The termination of the “employment protection contract” at VW is no small matter. It came into force on 1 January 1994 and, together with the 28-hour week at VW, was a cornerstone of the system of the petty-bourgeois mode of thinking, used to stop the transition to a revolutionary ferment in 1993. You don’t terminate such a contract just like that. They are going to get a response to this.

More and more corporations are now resorting to mass job cuts, layoffs and even plant closures. The monopolies are launching a general attack on the automotive and steel workers. At thyssenkrupp Steel Europe (tkSE) in the steel sector they want to destroy every second job. At ZF, 14,000 jobs are to be cut in Germany alone. At Continental, the figure is 7,150, and at Bosch, 8,000. Ford is closing the plant in Saarlouis. At Opel, there is speculation about the threat of a plant closure in Eisenach. VW wants to destroy at least 30,000 of the 120,000 jobs in Germany and go over to outright dismissals “for operating reasons,” to slashing collective bargaining benefits; and there is open talk of closing at least two plants.

Attacks in the social sector are also increasing. A zero round for the so-called citizen’s benefit (basic income and income support) has already been announced for 2025. All this shows the pressure the monopolies are under to push through their attacks.

What is the economic background to this?

Gabi Fechtner: The particular aggressiveness has an economic background in Germany’s aggravated backslide in international competition. In June 2024, German industrial production was 14.3 percent below the pre-crisis level of 2018. In the USA and the EU as a whole, industrial production in the first quarter of 2024 was only slightly below the pre-crisis level (US 0.6 percent, EU one percent). Gross domestic product in Germany is also falling. Compared to the previous quarter, it fell by 0.4 percent in the fourth quarter of 2023 and by 0.1 percent in the second quarter of 2024. A decline of 0.1 percent is expected for the whole of 2024.

During the world economic and financial crisis, the new-imperialist countries were able to significantly increase their share of world industrial production. China’s share was 27.8 percent in 2018 and 32.7 percent in 2023. The new-imperialist countries now produce almost as much as all the established imperialist or capitalist countries in the OECD put together. At the same time, economic difficulties are also increasing in China. The domestic market is stagnating and exports fell by 4.8 percent in 2023. This is driving China in turn to a gigantic export offensive. This particularly affects Germany, which has an export rate of 50 percent.

In the auto industry, 69 percent fewer electric cars were newly registered in Germany in August than in the same month last year, and the total number of new registrations fell by 28 percent. The German auto monopolies acutely fear falling behind strategically. China’s car exports in 2023 were five times higher than in 2020. Estimates are that by 2030, car brands from China will capture one-third of the world market and sell around 9 million units outside China. This doubling of market share will be largely at the expense of European, Japanese and Korean competitors. Even in China, where European car monopolies get a third of their sales revenues, the Chinese corporations are growing while the European manufacturers have lost five percentage points of their market share in China since 2019. Speculatively, in hopes of higher sales of electric cars new car factories were built everywhere. However, this also requires the corresponding sales markets, which all imperialists are now fighting over like dogs over a bone. The reorganization of international production is in crisis, but it cannot be reversed. However, it is being partially “rearranged” and the market redivided according to the imperialist power blocs. The ongoing world economic and financial crisis, the structural crisis and the extremely intensified competition interpenetrate here.

Is a hot autumn in the offing?

Gabi Fechtner: Major collective bargaining rounds, such as in the metal and electrical industry, a whole series of antifascist protests, but also actions of the youth environmental movement and the peace movement are planned. The MLPD will actively participate in them. Most important is the situation in the industrial enterprises. In the present situation, special attention must be paid to preparing and waging union struggles, but in particular independent struggles. We give this the highest priority. This requires a particular concentration of forces. The transition to the working-class offensive is the decisive factor for the open political crisis to mature and release potential for a revolutionary ferment.

With the open crisis of the class-collaboration policy, the bonding force of reformism is waning. In the Thuringia state election, the SPD barely managed to get four percent of the vote among workers! Political and ideological barriers – especially among the core of industrial workers – are weakening. The bonding force of the current class collaboration policy, of its representatives in works councils and trade union leaderships, also wanes when the relevant contracts are terminated. This improves the conditions for mass struggles to occur. The harbingers of this can be seen in the now three days of independent warning strikes by thousands of steelworkers at tkSE. Although they were still under reformist leadership in the main, it is getting increasingly difficult for them to maintain this leadership, and independent elements and an independent leadership are emerging. The actions at tkSE were marked by a strong spirit of militancy, and at VW, too, the discussion is growing that they must now really go on a proper, independent strike across the whole company.

It is conspicuous that rightist reformist union leaders increasingly are deploying fascists like those from the Turkish Gray Wolves (steel) or German fascists like those from the AfD or Zentrum Automobil (ports, Mercedes) – mainly to take action against class-militant colleagues and the MLPD. With the failure of the reformist class-collaboration policy, these fascists are gaining in importance as order upholding factors, but they also evoke resistance. The völkisch¹ variant of class-collaboration politics is supposed to reintegrate the workers. Active supporters of the AfD spread caustic negativism, egoism and a subversive mood in the factories. The working-class movement must attack and overcome such fascist influences. At the same time, the struggle must, of course, be jointly waged by the workforce on a non-party basis and across ideological or religious boundaries.

All this leads to a very agitated situation. It is important that we conduct membership recruitment initiatives in this situation in order to strengthen the workplace groups of the MLPD in particular, but also the MLPD as a whole. After all, many colleagues are saying, and not without good reason: “Who is going to lead these struggles?” They have to be convinced to take on responsibility, to overcome relics of the petty-bourgeois anticommunist mode of thinking, and to take their relationship with the MLPD to a new, trusting level.

When you assess the election campaign of the Internationalist List/MLPD in Thuringia, how is the MLPD prepared for this development?

Gabi Fechtner: It was clear to us that in this general political climate, with the fascist danger, we would not achieve a breakthrough in our election results. However, we conducted an excellent election campaign that will have a lasting effect well beyond election day. We have learned as never before to conduct the struggle over the mode of thinking offensively on a mass scale. And this in a truly polarized situation, into which our election campaigners bravely entered. The deployment of our youth league Rebell also had a particularly attractive effect. From its summer camp, it actively shaped the work, especially in southern Thuringia, but also at the campaign launch in Gera. We can see that our influence is growing, but that it is also being restricted by the countermeasures of those in power.

Many people, including progressive organizations, saw the danger from the AfD under Björn Höcke. The MLPD led the way in this situation and developed offensive strategy and tactics, and strategy and tactics in the struggle over the mode of thinking. In the Thuringian election campaign we developed a new type of antifascist work that should set a precedent. This mass struggle over the mode of thinking is also a lesson from the Weimar Republic, where the ideological struggle against the danger of fascism was underestimated. In the past, we usually had main slogans that were directed straight at the political opponent. This time we referred with the main slogan to the decisive battle in the mode of thinking of the masses: “A vote for AfD is a vote for fascism!” We wanted to make every worker and every young person aware of what they were doing by voting for the AfD, and call on them to think this through to the end! With this clear position, we often met with huge sympathy among antifascists. We got a great many people to think about it, but of course also rubbed others the wrong way. This was absolutely necessary in the face of all the playing down of fascism as “populism” or “extremism” in society. As CDU, SPD, FDP, BSW and partly also the Greens and Left Party are moving to the right themselves, they refrained from a clear antifascist campaign. We decided in favor of it because it is necessary, and because we have full confidence in the masses that they will sooner or later understand the fascist character of the AfD! We were already able to turn a number of debates in our direction in the election campaign and took advantage of the fact that the mode of thinking is transformable, especially today!

We experienced huge dissatisfaction with the government, which is largely justified. “Things can’t go on like this!” – this is the majority opinion in Thuringia. At the same time, the Socialist Unity Party (SED) revisionists have damaged the image of socialism in many people’s minds just as deeply as the West German state religion of anticommunism. This still acts as a firewall against a mass turn to socialism. Under these circumstances, and with ludicrous accusations being directed at migrants by the bourgeois media and politicians, many Thuringians saw “the Right” as the new alternative. This is another reason why we always linked the fight against the AfD fascists with the fight against the government, the rightist opposition and the monopolies, and with the idea of helping to gain new esteem for socialism.

We made at least 49 street marches in residential areas. This special form of personal address is also suitable for our work in the rest of the country and the federal election campaign: appealing, convincing and polemical short speeches, plus music that represents the culture of the international revolutionary and working-class movement – over loudspeakers in the streets – followed up by personal address at every single residence. We set greatest store by personal discussion and put almost no material in letterboxes. In such complicated times, personal discussion is necessary, which a piece of paper can never achieve.

We made at least 100 visits to companies in the mining, automotive, steel and food industries, holding intensive discussions with the Thuringian working class, which often is very international in composition. First new workplace groups were also formed in Thuringia.

In addition, we actively confronted the fascists in their strongholds and inflicted defeats on them. For example, at our opening rally and demonstration in Gera, in our participation in many protests, and in the successful blockade of Höcke’s appearance in Jena, together with many other antifascists. We participated in and encouraged antifascist protests in numerous cities. There were also countless smaller direct confrontations in our rank-and-file work. This was not without danger, because fascists tried to intimidate us with threats, the Nazi salute, attack dogs or a crossbow. Our comrades courageously put one or the other fascist block warden to flight here, and in almost all cases came out on top. Many residents were secretly delighted or openly thanked us for it. Many people were encouraged to show their colors and dare to take a stand against the seemingly overwhelming fascist danger. We filed six complaints against the fascist terror and its cover-up by the CDU mayor and public institutions in Gera. The broad, determined antifascist front put Höcke on the defensive at the end of the election campaign. On 28 August the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported, based on internal AfD circles, that Höcke was deeply “annoyed” by the drastic “criticism” he was encountering in Thuringia.

In addition to a more active election campaign on the internet, we made at least 120 appearances in city centers, 95 in residential areas, six at universities, and 57 at schools. We did not limit ourselves to the big cities, but hung as many as 19,000 posters and set up our booths in front of supermarkets in even the smallest villages. As a direct result of all this work, we were able to directly win 730 people who want to work with us on a permanent basis, and have already won the first new members for MLPD and Rebell.

What about the election results?

Gabi Fechtner: The MLPD received 1,342 second votes in Thuringia. Compared to the 2024 European elections, where it received 693 votes, it gained 647 votes and thus almost twice the number. We also increased our votes per 100,000 voters from 66 to 110. Our direct candidates received 0.4 to 1.1 percent, up to six times the result compared to the second votes. Of course, in purely numerical terms, this is still a poor election result, and the votes decreased significantly compared to the 2019 state election, which took place under different political circumstances. Of course, this was also caused by the massive obstruction we met with. We also have to continue to deal with the effect of the petty-bourgeois parliamentary mode of thinking, through which still too many people allow themselves to be diverted to a supposedly new hope in the parliamentary system, such as this time the BSW or AfD, or who tactically voted for the CDU to “prevent Höcke.”

It is clear that we need to strengthen ourselves considerably in order to be able to exert a decisive influence on such social culminations and on the development of society as a whole. Interestingly, the best electoral districts are precisely those where our local branches have been working for years. No matter how motivated a temporary election campaign may be, it can never be a match for systematic rank-and-file work with solid organizational structures. Therefore, the decisive conclusion is to strengthen our local branches in Thuringia, to intensify their cooperation in order to concentrate our forces, but also to continue the sponsorships – for example with organizers or initiative groups. Everyone who thought our courageous election campaign “A vote for AfD is a vote for fascism!” was right must now take the second step: “Those who want to fight the fascism of the AfD must support the MLPD!” The best way to do this is to become a member of the MLPD or Rebell.

All this did not go unopposed, also by the state!

Gabi Fechtner: Indeed. We also encountered fascists and reactionaries in police uniform who used their state powers for their anticommunism. We experienced life-threatening fascist attacks on five of our candidates, with whom the party and many other people expressed their solidarity. In 25 cases, legally completely legitimate electioneering activities were criminalized and harassed by the police. The personal details of around 100 campaigners were unlawfully recorded. The global corporations Bosch and Amazon, for example, tried to prevent our election campaign at their gates. One of our candidates even received a police warning as “potential offender” because he “endangered” an AfD rally. The Gera Administrative Court rejected our bias challenge to a proto-fascist judge. Such incidents are a scandalous demonstration of the beginning infiltration of state organs by fascist forces or at least their sympathizers, and show the true face of the extremism theory, which purports to be so democratic. De facto, it was used by fascist forces in the state apparatus, riding on the wave of anticommunism, to obstruct the Marxist-Leninists in the exercise of their basic democratic rights and in their antifascist and pro-socialist work. Of course, our people on the ground never took this lying down and refused to be stopped! Nevertheless, it has an effect on the population when our election campaigners are repeatedly surrounded by police. Especially since, unlike in the last state election campaign, the national press largely ignored us.

What conclusions do you draw from these experiences?

Gabi Fechtner: The achievements of the election campaign in Thuringia must become part of the party’s general work. This includes a self-confident, offensive spirit and the willingness and ability to enter into the polarized struggle over the mode of thinking on a mass scale.

Bodo Ramelow also partly called AfD’s fascism what it is. However, on election day he summed up that for his campaigners it had been a “campaign of fear.” This shows how important solidarity against fascist threats is across organizational boundaries. I extend my hand here to all antifascists! But it also shows that the Left Party, despite its great resources as the party of the Minister-President, does not have the organizational strength, the backbone, the argumentative tools, and the trust in the masses. The MLPD gladly accepts the formative role it must play in the struggle against the fascist danger.

Another lesson is the high level of persuasiveness that is ultimately crucial to our being able to win over the working class and the broad masses for the struggle for socialism. It was important both to polemically pick apart the specific demagogy of the AfD and to attack the principles of fascism, with its völkisch worldview, from a working-class point of view. In doing so, we always also publicized the achievements of socialism, attacked the betrayal of socialism in the Soviet Union and the German Democratic Republic from the mid-1950s onwards, and presented our ideas for a future genuine socialism based on the proletarian mode of thinking. In particular with regard to the social question, we still have to improve our arguments for the Bundestag election campaign.

However, there were still deficiencies in the in-depth work. For example, the planned in-depth discussion rounds on the essence of fascism and its modern variants were not held almost anywhere. But there is a great need for them. Especially towards young people, all progressive and revolutionary forces have a responsibility for antifascist education and awareness-raising work. We now want to hold discussion rounds everywhere on this, and on the processing of the election results, as well as the conclusions for the work in the open political crisis.

Any worship of spontaneity is out of place. A revolutionary ferment will only come about if the working class consciously embraces Marxism-Leninism and the ideological-political line of the MLPD, if it consciously overcomes the petty-bourgeois reformist and revisionist, and today also petty-bourgeois nationalist, modes of thinking, and consciously adopts the proletarian mode of thinking.

The election campaign also taught us lessons on how we can and must develop our alliance work to a higher level. All antifascist forces are called upon today to discard all sectarianism, anticommunism and blinkered thinking. I was pleased that it has become more natural in many antifascist actions to work together as equals, to respect the autonomy of each organization, and to deal objectively with differences of opinion. The MLPD has also shown greater flexibility in this regard in order to make this possible in the face of these drastic social developments. We must significantly strengthen this alliance work.

The MLPD will also actively promote the preparation of the Women’s Political Council in Kassel from 1 to 3 November 2024, because the militant women’s movement is the force that is best able to bring together alliances “from religion to revolution.” In general, the importance of non-party self-run organizations of the masses is increasing considerably in this situation. Of course, we will also make sure not to neglect the second most important line of struggle, environmental work, or the important peace struggle against the preparation of the Third World War. In our work among the youth, we will start a membership drive for the MLPD and our youth league Rebell.

Our local branches and county organizations will surely evaluate the work in Thuringia in detail and draw conclusions for their self-transformation.

What needs to be done now?

Gabi Fechtner: It is very important first to understand the new situation thoroughly and from all sides and to adjust the work accordingly. People are agitated and realize that they have to make decisions. The ICOR seminar “Lenin’s Teachings Are Alive” is currently playing an important role in thoroughly discussing the most diverse questions. More than 500 people, including speakers and participants from 25 countries, have already registered for it. Others have been excluded due to visa denials or workplace harassment.

Many thanks to everyone for their intensive efforts in the last few months in complicated times, and good luck for the further work!