The shift to the right of the Social Democrats and the Greens has opened a huge space, leaving thousands of activists and millions of voters without proper political representation.
The second is that Die Linke has been able to challenge effectively the prejudices that people have against the idea of a left party.
The party has shown it can work together.
Its activists put aside internal fights and power struggles.
They have created a party that is neither a purist ideological enterprise nor simply an exercise in realpolitik.
The third reason is that the process of fusion at ground level has led everyone to accept a much higher degree of plurality, diversity and equality than you would normally find in a left party - a precondition for success in a complex society with very different social experiences and political traditions.
The future of Die Linke depends on these conditions continuing to hold. But on the basis of the foundations created so far this will be measured not in years but in decades. It is written.
http://www.redpepper.org.uk/article417.html
I support duty, decency and decipline which Die Linke upholds.
Compare the contrast here
"
"The Labour left lost because New Labour won, building on the right-wing shift started by Neil Kinnock. New Labour capitalised on the party's despair after the 1992 election defeat and convinced too many party members that only New Labour would make the party electable - and that becoming electable required shutting down the party's democratic structures (such as they were), preventing the left having a voice in the party, and promoting neoliberal values.
Many party members - and many Labour voters in 1997 - believed that this was a smokescreen to get into power. But Tony Blair was speaking the truth when he said ?'We were elected as New Labour and we shall govern as New Labour.' Since his election as party leader in 1994, the Labour Party has become the party of privatisation, authoritarianism, war and racism. Thatcher's greatest achievement has been to re-mould the Labour Party in her own image. Gordon Brown was as much an architect of New Labour as Blair, and the ideology of New Labour continues under his premiership.
When New Labour shut down the democratic structures, it ended any chance of socialists in the Labour Party being able to make a difference. No matter how many party members are horrified by war, privatisation, the assault on civil liberties and so on, their voices aren't heard, and they certainly can't change the policies. The leadership's iron grip prevents any real challenges - just as it did with McDonnell's bid for leadership.
It's not surprising, then, that the party membership has changed. Jon Cruddas's vote showed that it's now predominantly trade union members - not Labour Party members - who are dissatisfied with the leadership
. Given that McDonnell's exemplary campaign couldn't even get the left off the starting-block, the question must be asked:
what can the Labour left possibly achieve by staying in the party?
http://www.redpepper.org.uk/article424.html
