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Preface:
Cornelia Hildebrandt / Birgit Daiber
After thirty years the victorious march of neo-liberalism has ground to a halt at the beginning of the 21st century, having plunged the world into financial and economic crisis. For the first time a financial and economic crisis has coincided with social, environmental and climatic crises. The scale of the social deformations causing all this, the increases in social divisions,hunger and poverty, are already visible in all European countries. But no one knows yet how this crisis will end, and that goes for those on the Left as well.
In the past the European Left has identified and analysed many problems and proposed solutions. Many of these proposals, such as the control of financial markets, the Tobin tax, the closing down of tax havens, the banning of derivatives and hedge funds, the expropriation of shareholders of big corporations, putting together stimulus packages, and the introduction of a minimum wage, are being adopted under pressure of necessity by the ruling elites, who are even including some of them in their own programmes.
The crisis shows how right the demands of the Left were, though it also exposes its own crisis. The Left has so far proved incapable of social leadership. Its ability to rise above social, political and cultural differences and successfully act in concert is still in its infancy. Only now does the Party of the European Left have its first joint election platform.
On the other hand, there is plenty of common ground. All left-wing parties in Europe, of which we examine only a selection in this publication, stand for social justice, democracy, and a Europe in which people can live in dignity, social security and peace. All the parties presented here are arguing against the neo-liberal policies of the ruling elites and in so doing representing the interests of most Europeans. The European Left has sufficient experience and potential to wage joint struggles, such as those against the Iraq war, the neo-liberal slant of the proposed EU constitution, and the Bolkestein Directive. But all this has never been enough to rally people around a unifying alternative project that could mount a challenge to neoliberalism.
This raises several very different questions: Where are the causes of this situation to be sought? Where is existing potential for development being blocked and by what? How must the Left change in order to build up an alternative hegemonic bloc? How can it create a society in which the freedom of the individual is the condition for the freedom of all, a society which the left-wing parties of Europe can call socialist?
In order to discuss such questions with parties, trade unions and social movements on the spot the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation – supported by its offices in Brussels, Warsaw and Moscow – works closely with its partners Transform!Europe and the parliamentary group of the Left in the EuropeanParliament. Together with the latter a long-term project on the non-socialdemocratic Left in the European countries was launched. Within this framework the country reports collected here constitute a first snapshot, a necessary basis for the elaboration of a joint research programme.
The primary intention is to give the reader an overview of the history and current situation of left-wing parties in Europe, it being remembered that the articles express solely the views of the authors.
The Left presents a very different picture in each of the individual countries, resulting from the different traditions and political structures in the country under consideration and from differences in the sense of identity of the various organizations. Among the left-wing parties selected by way of example for the present volume are some that have evolved out of former ruling communist parties, some that have a Eurocommunist background, some that come from the non-social democratic reformist Left, some that belong to the traditionally communist Left with a feminist extension, and others.
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Inhalt
Western Europe
Paul-Emile Dupret
Possibilities and Limitations of the Anti-Capitalist Left in Belgium
Cornelia Hildebrandt
Protests on the Streets of France
Sascha Wagener
The Left in Luxemburg
Cornelia Weissbach
The Left in The Netherlands
Northern Europe
Inger V. Johansen
Denmark - The Social and Political Left
Pertti Hynynen / Anna Striethorst
Left-wing Parties and Politics in Finland
Dag Seierstad
The Left in Norway: Politics in a Centre-Left Government
Henning Süssner
Sweden: The Long March to a Coalition
North Western Europe
Thomas Kachel
The Left in Brown’s Britain – Towards a New Realignment?
Ken Ahern / William Howard
Radical Left Politics in Ireland: Sinn Féin
Central Europe
Leo Furtlehner
The Situation of the Left in Austria
Stanislav Holubec
The Radical Left in Czechia
Cornelia Hildebrandt
DIE LINKE in Germany
Holger Politt
Left-wing Parties in Poland
Heiko Kosel
The Communist Party of Slovakia (KSS)
Southern Europe
Mimmo Porcaro
The Radical Left in Italy between national Defeat and European Hope
Dominic Heilig
The Spanish Left Alliance Izquierda Unida between regionalisation and authoritarian politics
José Soeiro
The “Bloco de Esquerda” and the founding of a new Left in Portugal
South Eastern Europe
Julian Marioulas
Communists in Power: Cyprus
Dorothée de Nève / Tina Olteanu
The Left in Bulgaria
Dorothée de Nève / Tina Olteanu
The Left in Romania
Cem Sey
ÖDP – A Turkish Left Party between Patriotism and Left Liberalism
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striethorst@rosalux-europa.eu© Rosa Luxemburg Foundation Brussels Office 2009