The Left, despite everything.
The Left, despite everything.
The Left Party has taken many positions over the past years that we do not agree with.
We also know that realpolitik parliamentary work in bourgeois parliaments cannot be the goal of left politics.
Nevertheless: Without The Left, the most left-wing person in the Bundestag would be Robert Habeck – the result is an economic and foreign policy bland mixture that represents the right-wing status quo without opposition.
Reminder: The words highlighted in red are links leading to corresponding critique articles.
We also explicitly recommend the following articles on this topic:
“The Doctrine of the Neutral State” – Why the idea of “good politics” in capitalism is false.
“The Basic Law; Property and Democracy” – 75 years of the Basic Law, 200 years of the same structures.
“The EU is not a democracy” – On the autocracy of the European Union.
“The agony of choice” – About bourgeois elections.
I know, I know.
The Left Party has gone through some difficult years.
How deep the internal and external crisis of The Left really is only becomes clear when the founding of the BSW is now one of the smallest problems of the party.
It is clear that The Left is not a revolutionary organization – The Left is a party within the bourgeois power apparatus, we are aware of that.
Elections within bourgeois democracy cannot change the fundamental mechanisms of capitalism, they can only reform them – social democracy, in short.
Unlike the European Parliament election, where we have either advised abstention or voting for a party that fundamentally rejects the structures of the EU, the German Bundestag is at least a real parliament, which within the existing conditions has at least the possibility to reform some structures – albeit not fundamentally.
Nevertheless, we want to call for a vote for The Left – why?
Real conditions
When the German communist left began to reject parliamentary work in Weimar, claiming it was “historically and politically” finished, Lenin wrote:
„This is exaggerated to the point of absurdity and obviously false. ‘Return’ to parliamentarism! Does Germany already have a Soviet republic? Surely not! So how can we speak of a ‘return’? Isn’t that a hollow phrase?”
Lenin meant that working in bourgeois parliaments is not something a Marxist should support because real political successes can be achieved through it, but that it must be continued because the parliament as an institution draws the great attention of the population and can be used for agitation.
The Left Party is not a communist party; it does not seek parliamentary entry solely as an agitational platform.
In any government participation, whether in Berlin, Brandenburg, Thuringia, or Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, The Left has not implemented anything a Marxist would wish for – how could it?
Besides the fact that The Left has never governed alone, it, like any other party, is subordinate to the interests of the state as a ruling force – if the polling numbers for The Left in federal elections were at 15 or 20%, it would be in a government, and we wouldn’t even dare to call for voting for it.
But that is not the case; according to various polls, The Left currently stands between 3% (Forsa) and 5% (Forschungsgruppe Wahlen).
Voting for The Left means voting for a party that would not have the opportunity to indulge opportunism in a coalition anyway.
The (new) party leader van Aken has already hinted in an interview with Thilo Jung that the changes he seeks are “also very possible in coalition governments,” luckily The Left does not have this chance – otherwise, we couldn’t recommend voting for it.
Klasse gegen Klasse (KgK), in their latest article on The Left, writes:
„Our response to the shift to the right cannot be to keep ‘holding our noses’ and support any party that is not the AfD. What good is a Left that always goes along with CDU and Co. at the decisive moments?“
Where KgK is right is that voting for a party that opportunistically submits to the most reactionary part of bourgeois rule is not an option for a Marxist – what they forget is that The Left can only be opposition work if it enters the Bundestag.
What Lenin states there is crucial for our argument.
Without The Left in the Bundestag, “We must finally deport on a large scale” – Scholz and Habeck for deporting to Afghanistan – would be the far left in the German Bundestag.
As mentioned, for actual politics, it makes no difference – but for the ideological status quo, it does.
Without The Left in the Bundestag, there would be no opposition to the right-wing status quo; the politicization of thousands of people in Germany, which is also reflected in the media through the Bundestag, would have only right-wing input.
If a party then claims that one can deport again to Syria, there is no contradiction – that has consequences.
SPD to AfD, which only formally differ in rhetoric, then stands alone – the only opposition to rearmament would be the BSW, which again aligns with the status quo on migration issues.
What is progressive and what is not is measured by the real conditions of society.
Of course, it would be better if there were a party in the Bundestag that more radically exposed and denounced the fundamental mechanisms of this system – but such a party does not exist.
We are not saying that one should give in to the lesser evil; we say that in this extraordinary election, the most progressive voice in the Bundestag should be voted for, because otherwise it will not even get in.
Despite the rightward shift of The Left in recent years, including the new chair Jan van Aken, the expulsion of the Palestine-solidarity activist Kilani, and the rejection of even mild social democratic demands (free public transport, expropriation of large real estate companies, rejection of the NATO), there are still voices within The Left that are not only opportunistically progressive but truly progressive.
“The revolution begins in Neukölln”
With one of these fundamentally progressive members, Ferat Koçak, the direct candidate of The Left in Berlin-Neukölln, we met for a coffee a few days ago.
Koçak is a member of several progressive organizations, including the Red Aid and the VVN-BdA. His parliamentary work, which he has been doing since 2021 in the Berlin House of Representatives, follows the realization that parliamentarism must be a means for political agitation.
Anyone who has attended a demonstration in Berlin as a leftist probably already knows Ferat Koçak; as a steward or demonstrator, he is present at every opportunity on the street. In the House of Representatives, he is already regarded as an “activist in parliament“.
He often approaches left groups during agenda discussions and asks what he can say for them in the House – and he then does it.
Although his voice has so far only been heard in Berlin’s parliament, he uses his speaking opportunities not only to block the AfD but also to draw attention to the overarching contradictions of capitalism;
This has led to moments like the first “Long live international solidarity!” in the German Bundestag.
While other parts of Berlin’s left capitulated to opportunism in coalition with SPD and Greens, Koçak positioned himself against the upcoming coalition:
“I want to tell voters: Vote for us and we will fight together. Not: Vote for us and we will govern for you.” (TAZ)
Due to his extra-parliamentary activities, including work related to Palestine, anti-racist efforts, and openly addressing police violence, he faces repeated heavy attacks both inside and outside his political work.
Koçak’s antifascist work made him and his family victims of a Nazi arson attack on their parental home in 2018 – Tilo P. and Sebastian T., the neo-Nazis responsible, were sentenced to seven years in prison last December after nearly seven years of a grueling trial – “seven years for seven years,” Koçak tells us.
During the trial, it was revealed that both the domestic intelligence agency (Verfassungsschutz) and the Berlin State Criminal Police Office (LKA) had been informed weeks earlier that Koçak was being monitored and persecuted by neo-Nazis:
„There was a meeting between an LKA officer and one of the main suspects, Sebastian T., in a Berlin pub. The meeting was observed by the Verfassungsschutz. When this came to light, the Verfassungsschutz was put under so much pressure that several versions of this observation emerged, until eventually one of the officials claimed he could have been mistaken,” Koçak reports to AK.
The attacks on Koçak and his family are part of the “Neukölln Complex”, a series of at least 72 right-wing extremist crimes, including 23 arson attacks on leftists and migrants in Berlin-Neukölln, which often show connections between the Berlin neo-Nazi scene and security authorities.
“Basically, the perpetrators motivated me to become even more active,” Koçak emphasizes to the investigative committee.
The chances for a direct mandate for Koçak have never been better.
With him, there would be someone in the state’s ruling apparatus who not only does not fit in but actively opposes it.
The “Ferat Team” has carried out the largest door-to-door campaign in the history of The Left in the past two months – the direct mandate is not a distant hope but a real possibility:
“In Neukölln, a unique situation presents itself that does not exist anywhere else:
We need fewer votes than ever before because the SPD will lose and the CDU will gain.”
The candidates from SPD and Greens will anyway enter the Bundestag.
This is because they are secured by the percentages of their parties and their high positions on the state lists.
This offers us the chance to convince many SPD and Green voters to choose me—to save the social opposition in the Bundestag, to send a committed antifascist who wants to do things differently into the Bundestag, and to change politics.
People like Koçak show that The Left is still needed to organize opposition from outside the Bundestag, especially now when we do not have to worry about coalition opportunism.
Political consciousness is formed through perception; if no left voice can be heard in the Bundestag, many people miss the chance to organize and educate themselves to the left of The Left.
For many, speeches by Gregor Gysi, and today perhaps more by Heidi Reichinnek, in the Bundestag were their first encounters with left ideas, regardless of how they perceive the politics of these persons or the party today.
It is obvious that we would prefer more than one left party in the German Bundestag, and that they would hold consistently more progressive values, but that is not the case for this election.
Regardless of the 5% threshold, The Left hopes for direct mandates in the Berlin districts of Treptow-Köpenick, Lichtenberg, Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg, Mitte, and Neukölln, as well as in Leipzig II, Erfurt, and Rostock – voting takes place on Sunday, February 23, 2025; mail-in ballots can already be requested.
If The Left receives less than 5% of the total votes but wins at least three direct mandates, it will enter the Bundestag.
The party hopes to secure at least three direct mandates with “Operation Silverlocke,” including Bartsch, Ramelow, and Gysi.
With Ferat Koçak, a consistent anti-opportunist antifascist, would enter the Bundestag representing Berlin-Neukölln – that is what we hope for, that is what we call for, despite everything.