Social movement | “These are not the quiet times”

Just in time for the end of the explorations, two Berlin district groups announced their merger. Photo: League of Communists After 14 years of district work in Berlin, the group “Hands off Wedding” (HwvW) merges into the League of Communists (BdK). The association was founded five years ago and has district committees in Lichtenberg, Wedding and Neukölln. Both organizations operate social centers and see themselves as revolutionary. What motivated you to join forces?

Alan: We have had similar experiences and built up structures and not only share a city, but also a neighborhood with Wedding. In the context of an escalating class struggle, authoritarian state restructuring and social cuts, the merger is a logical consequence. The goal behind this is to build a stronger communist organization.

In Berlin, many left-wing groups do neighborhood work with class struggle aspirations. Why did only your two organizations merge?

Hannes: Of course our aim is to unite many people. We have found that unity is best achieved practically, and we have been doing more and more of the same things together over the last few years. Last year, for example, a joint peace conference, demonstrations and joint projects in Wedding. We are of course open to bringing together more and more socialist groups in this city.

Alan and Hannes are part of the Berlin organization League of Communists (BdK). Until recently, Alan was part of the socialist district organization “Hands off Wedding” (HwvW), which joined the BdK after 14 years.

The paper on your association also states that the revolutionary left is facing a multitude of challenges. Which do you think?

Hannes: We see an extreme threat to the life and limb of our class: attacks on our living and working conditions, on the social security systems, on our political freedoms, plus the preparations for war. This comes in a situation where the labor movement is historically weak. For a long time, our class in the metropolises was brought up with the self-image that we are doing so well and everyone else is doing worse. We were deprived not only of class consciousness, but also of fighting spirit. We have to take a defensive stance and at the same time build ourselves up in order to be able to act. That's quite a lot at once. These are not the quiet times in which you can relax and express yourself politically here and there.

What is district work with a socialist perspective like you do?

Alan: It is an attempt to find an answer to the lack of anchoring of the movement in our classroom. That's why we make politics where wage earners live and work. District work must reach and politicize those who have not yet felt addressed.

Hannes: On the one hand, we are creating a small, territorial fighting body in the district for the future. On the other hand, we fight for every improvement in our living conditions in the here and now. And we already want to live a different way of living together. Many people in our neighborhoods live isolated from one another. Communities are isolated from each other. We want to overcome this and build a collective culture.

State-funded providers also offer advice on rent, social assistance and labor law. The Left also does this and has even taken up socialism as its flag. What makes you different?

Hannes: These actors, whether they want to or not, ultimately reintegrate into the system and have a very individual approach. I come with a supposedly individual problem, for example that my rent is too high, and let the nice lawyer at Carrier XY help me with how I can personally deal with this problem. Our approach, on the other hand, is to transform seemingly individual problems into collective struggles. Fights that not only restore calm, but show that we have to stand together if we don't want to have these problems again and again.

What specifically happens in the five social centers that you run in Berlin?

Alan: The Interbüro in Wedding is a place for lived internationalism. There are also four district shops in Wedding, Lichtenberg and Neukölln with neighborhood kitchens, social advice, parents' café and advice against military service. The stores also host political events and meeting rooms for neighborhoods showing solidarity.

Your paper talks about “proletarian counterpower” and about “anchoring yourself in the class.” Many people in the district probably have little use for such terms. What do they mean specifically?

Hannes: Yes, of course, but when we speak as BdK, we first address the movement. Above all, people experience the concrete offers of the district committees or the industrial dispute structure with which we convey our goals to the class. We see two organizational wrong paths: One is to build a revolutionary organization in a vacuum, derived solely from historical recipes. What is then missing is that the organization and its members learn in concrete work to develop the organization to meet its requirements.

The other wrong turn is to pursue a practice like district work without a strong organization behind it. If you want to tackle more than one project, you really need an organization that coordinates and thinks two or three steps ahead. So in short: you can't do one without the other. The organization realizes itself in concrete practice, and the practice needs the organization and at the same time shapes it. This is a two-way street.

The Left, the Greens and the SPD want to socialize housing companies with more than 10,000 apartments; the referendum called for more than 3,000. How do you rate that?

Alan: The Left Party wants to socialize much less than it promised in the election campaign and what the majority of Berliners decided in the referendum. The buckling is now presented as a success.

Hannes: Of course a left-wing government would be better than a right-wing one. And of course it is good and urgently necessary that we do not pay more of our wages for rent. But one should not have any illusions: a left-wing government could be primarily concerned with slowing down the enormous escalation. Anyone who has backbone will fight for every single apartment that is socialized and won't let themselves be bought. When in doubt, you are the strongest opposition and drive the government ahead of you. The base of the left should consider whether they want to continue to place their hope in expensively purchased chairs in the Red City Hall or in ourselves.

Does that mean you want a left-wing party in the opposition?

Hannes: We would like it very much if they sought confrontation in the coalition negotiations, tackled the burning questions offensively and didn't allow themselves to be negotiated down to size. Instead, she kowtows to the establishment. That's the worst way to go about this election.

Alan: The leadership of the Left Party is giving up central, left-wing demands for participation in government: With the position paper on anti-Semitism we see that the position of solidarity with Palestine is being given up, which also contributed significantly to the election success. The agreed strengthening of the police and the Office for the Protection of the Constitution is an attack on social movements. And we see that the referendum – and with it the central electoral interest of Berliners – is being left hanging.

State repression and surveillance against the left is increasing dramatically. Doesn't that make you vulnerable as a larger organization?

Hannes: The repression is directed against all leftists, regardless of how they are organized. In some cases there are silent professional bans that are currently being enforced. And there's more to come. And in the end you have to say: Yes, in a way you make yourself more vulnerable. The more relevant you become, the more you come into focus. But the logic of small, autonomous groups was intended to prevent the state from catching us all at once, and that hasn't worked. Small groups resist repression poorly, and as scattered groups we have not been able to develop strength. We believe that a large organization with a large environment and a lot of sympathy can be a protective shield. If individuals are hit, we can support them.

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