This is nothing but propaganda. The warning of a Russian invasion of the whole of Europe corresponds to the lies of German imperialism on the eve of the First and Second World Wars. The same applies to the interests behind it. As early as the First World War, control of the resource-rich and geostrategically important Ukraine\u2014alongside German hegemony in \u201cCentral Europe\u201d\u2014was one of the German Empire\u2019s war aims. Hitler built on this in the Second World War. The subjugation of Ukraine played a central role in the war of annihilation against the Soviet Union, which led to the Holocaust and cost the lives of at least 27 million Soviet citizens.<\/p>\n
Even today, German imperialism is not concerned with \u201csecurity\u201d and \u201cpeace.\u201d It is once again pursuing the goal of removing Ukraine and other countries that were formerly part of the Soviet Union or the Russian Empire from Moscow’s influence and bringing them under the control of the German-dominated EU. This is what van Aken is talking about when he criticises Trump\u2014almost word for word with Pistorius.<\/p>\n
The Left Party supports the German government’s goal of developing a European war policy independent of the US. \u201cAs the Left Party, we have been saying for a long time that we need to think more and more about security in European terms,\u201d he emphasised. We have to \u201cget ready for defence\u201d in order to \u201cassume a more, so to speak, neutral, great position, as a force for peace.\u201d We must not \u201cthrow ourselves at the feet of the US or Russia or anyone else,\u201d but must \u201cact independently.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although Van Aken explained in the interview that we should not \u201cplay world power\u201d and \u201carm ourselves to the teeth,\u201d it is precisely this policy that the Left Party supports. When Gregor Gysi, the figurehead and founding father of the Left Party, opened the new Bundestag (Federal Parliament) in his capacity of honorary president for his length of parliamentary service, he declared: \u201cIf the European Union really worked,\u201d it could \u201cbecome a kind of fourth world power\u201d alongside the USA, China and Russia. We would have to \u201cwork on this\u201d and perhaps \u201csome states would have to step forward.\u201d<\/p>\n
In fact, van Aken’s entire interview is a clear commitment to German and European militarism and the escalation of the war against Russia. In response to Dlf’s comment that \u201cthe reality in Ukraine\u201d shows \u201cthat anyone who doesn’t arm themselves will be gobbled up by Russia,\u201d the Left Party leader replies: ‘Well, we say quite clearly that of course there needs to be a sufficient army in Germany and Europe for EU and national defence. I think we all agree on that.’<\/p>\n
In order to achieve his own war aims against Russia, van Aken also advocates increasing the pressure on China. As \u201cstrong allies of Russia\u2026they have an influence on the Kremlin,\u201d said van Aken. ‘That’s why we say we have to involve China. Brussels would not be neutral either. We are of course on the side of Ukraine, which is absolutely right.’<\/p>\n
The Left Party’s solidarity with the oligarchic regime in Kiev, which is dominated by far-right forces, goes hand in hand with its support for the reactionary government campaign to exclude representatives of Russia from the commemorative events marking the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War on May 8. Leading Left Party politician Wulf Gallert, Vice President of the Saxony-Anhalt state parliament, told DPA: \u201cAnyone who wages a war of aggression today, and does so without regard for the civilian population, should not take part in commemorations for peace in the name of this state.\u201d<\/p>\n
Russia’s war in Ukraine is reactionary. But that does not change the fact that the NATO powers are the main aggressors in this conflict. Through their decades-long policy of encirclement, they provoked the Russian invasion in February 2022. Since then, they have been pushing ahead with the escalation in order to crush Russia militarily and implement long-planned armament and war strategies. The exclusion of Russian representatives from commemorations underlines how directly the ruling class is returning to Hitler’s great power policy\u2014and once again waging war against Russia.<\/p>\n A few weeks ago, at an event<\/a> entitled \u201cWhy did the Left Party agree to the rearmament madness?\u201d, the Sozialistische Gleichheitspartei (Socialist Equality Party, SGP) explained what lies behind the Left Party\u2019s militarism, which is now taking on ever more open and repulsive forms:<\/p>\n The militarism of the Left Party is ultimately not simply a product of its right-wing leaders, but is rooted in the party’s political and social orientation and history. Despite its name, the Left Party has never been a left-wing or even socialist party. It has always been a bourgeois organisation that represents the interests of the state apparatus and wealthy middle classes, defends German capitalism and imperialism and is rewarded for this with ministerial posts and millions in state subsidies.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n All their Sunday speeches cannot hide the fact that:<\/p>\n 1. Their Stalinist predecessor organisation, the SED\/PDS [Socialist Unity Party\/Party of Democratic Socialism), supported the reintroduction of capitalism in East Germany and thus laid the foundation for the return of German militarism;<\/p>\n 2. Wherever it sits or has sat in state governments together with the SPD and the Greens, it resolutely supports and enforces the associated social spending attacks.<\/p>\n Workers and young people who want to fight against militarism, fascism and war must settle political accounts with the Left Party and consciously turn to a socialist perspective. The Socialist Equality Party, together with the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI), will present such a perspective at the International May Day Online Rally on May 3 at 9pm Central European time. Register here to take part<\/a> in this important event.<\/p>\n Sign up for the WSWS email newsletter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Since the Left Party backed the new German government’s war loans of \u20ac1 trillion in the Bundesrat (Federal…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":70743,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5310],"tags":[2000,299,1824,35425,332,35426,771],"class_list":{"0":"post-70742","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-germany","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-germany","11":"tag-left-party","12":"tag-russia","13":"tag-socialism","14":"tag-war"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114443094885247385","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70742","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70742"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70742\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70743"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70742"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a><\/p>\n
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