Statement

Statement

Government breakup in Germany - Fascist Trump elected in the USA - MLPD to run nationwide in new elections

Statement of the central committee of the MLPD

  1. The 6th of November 2024 caused a (global) political bang. The open political world crisis and the open political crisis in Germany reached their temporary climax. In Germany, the coalition government broke up. This is an open government crisis. The monopolies and their associations demand a radical change of tactics to open attacks on the working class and the masses.
  2. In the USA, Donald Trump won the presidential election with an openly fascist program. Fascism is an acute threat there. His America First policy shakes up world politics. He claims to be fighting against the “establishment”. But behind him are the oil and gas industry, the arms industry, venture capital firms and a significant proportion of the tech monopolies. Above all Elon Musk (Tesla; “X”). These monopolies are demanding that the USA be run like a corporation by a CEO as a “dictator”. The acute threat of world war is intensifying; environmental protection measures that were won are now on the hit list. Sharp attacks on social rights and the working class are planned. This is extremely dangerous and many people are rightly worried! A broad united front and in the USA also a popular front is needed against this.
  3. In Germany the monopoly associations agree that it is time for an “economic turnaround”. They are vehemently pushing for new elections – preferably before March. The head of the capitalist association Gesamtmetall, Wolf, demands: “A decision on the direction we take is needed.” The direction of the corporations is clear: they want to rule unopposed with their dictatorship of the monopolies. With his protectionist policies, Trump will also create a problem for the export-dependent German economy. Trump wants to wage a merciless economic war, with punitive tariffs of up to 100 percent. The crisis in the reorganization of international production is being carried to extremes. This will lead to the relocation of entire plants to the USA and plunge the German economy even deeper into crisis. Politicians in Germany are already pointing to this in order to intensify their anti-people policies: they are loudly calling for tax cuts for corporations and an even bigger military build-up, cuts in welfare benefits and pensions, increases in social security contributions, and wage cuts. Brazen!
  4. All this is a declaration of war on the working class and the masses and all progressive people in Germany and all over the world. Let us take up the challenge! 85 percent of Germans surveyed are rightly fundamentally at odds with the present government. They no longer want to be governed in this way. The ultra-reactionaries of the FDP and CDU/CSU and the fascists of the AfD now see their chance. In Saxony, the exploratory talks between the CDU, SPD and BSW have fallen through. Instead, Minister-President Kretschmer of the CDU is talking with the AfD. The MLPD is the only party that takes a clear stand against fascism. We are a real workers’ party that stands for the path of struggle for worker interests. We are the party that has a genuinely socialist alternative. Those who do not want things to go on like this certainly must not turn to the right or to fascism. In this situation, they must join forces with the MLPD and support it. Forward to the working-class offensive and to genuine socialism, instead of sinking into fascism, world war or environmental destruction!
  5. Now the workers and the masses must speak up! Since September, 300,000 industrial workers have protested at militant staff meetings, on protest action days, and in warning strikes and independent militant actions. They are defending themselves against massive job destruction and further wage cuts. Now is not the time for shabby compromises. When the wind is blowing in your face, you don’t jump overboard but set sail properly! Now is the time for mass strikes and hard popular struggles for social gains. With offensive demands, with trade union and independent mass strikes, the workers can go on the offensive!
  6. Scholz does not want to call a vote of confidence until January 15 and is planning new elections for the end of March at the latest. Whether his weakened government can hold out that long is uncertain. Behind the differences between Scholz and Habeck on the one hand and Lindner and the CDU/CSU on the other is a power struggle in the camp of those in power. Scholz and Habeck are also moving to the right and stand for the dictatorship of the monopolies. Scholz wants to increase spending on the bloody war in Ukraine by three billion euros. For fear of workers’ strikes and mass struggles, however, both continue to rely mainly on dampening the class contradictions and on the system of the petty-bourgeois mode of thinking. Scholz never tired of invoking the importance of “social peace” and the need to preserve jobs. Yet unemployment has long been on the rise again.
  7. The MLPD protests against the massive electoral obstacles for smaller parties. It is absurd that the MLPD has to collect 60,000 supporting signatures for every federal election. In previous years, it has certainly already submitted a total of around one million supporting signatures. It is the only small party that has been able to run in all federal elections in all the German states. The monopoly parties want to exploit the tight schedule for new elections in order to keep progressive and revolutionary parties away from the ballot. The MLPD demands the abolition of the signature requirement for participation in elections or at least a drastic reduction to a maximum of ten percent. Yesterday (!) the MLPD received a letter from the Federal Returning Officer. In it she brazenly threatened not to allow the MLPD to take part in the election, citing formalities as a pretext. In a number of constituencies and states, the necessary lists for collecting signatures are not being handed out. The MLPD is calling for a special meeting of the Federal Electoral Committee and will submit an urgent application to the Federal Constitutional Court against the signature hurdles. Every signature for the MLPD is also a signature against undemocratic machinations. Signature lists are being continuously published at www.mlpd.de.
  8. Yesterday the SPD complained on the radio that new elections before mid-January were not possible for them, that they were not yet “ready to campaign”. We are! The MLPD has long since started preparing for the election campaign and is ready to campaign from a standing start. The Internationalist List/MLPD will run in all 16 federal states and with many direct candidates. It is very well positioned in terms of content, personnel and finances. Everyone who wants a determined fight against the fascist danger, who thinks revolutionary working-class politics are good, who is searching for a fundamental alternative: Support the election campaign of the Internationalist List/MLPD! Become a member of the MLPD and its youth league Rebell!