Wednesday, December 19, 2012

The real war threat is imperialism


Mr. Alfred Grosser, being of German-Jewish origin is considered an outstanding French intellectual by Wikipedia. This learned political publisher deserves respect  as an upright conservative. On several occasions he spoke  out courageously commenting dangerous developments in Germany. It was him who introduced the term "Berufsverbot" into the French vocabulary, when he spoke out against  limitation of civil rights under Willy Brandt and his socio-liberal government at the time.  It was  then the prize to be  paid for the re-birth of a new communist party DKP, while the traditional KPD has been sentenced illegal in 1956 and still is. The NPD (neo-Nazis in clear terms) can, however, move unhindered. Communists and  people labelled as such were refused access to public office in that period.
 Alfred Grosser  has not only been defending   civil rights but also lately dared to side with Günther Grass for his brave poem "What need to be said", where the nobel literate  declared Israel's policy as a danger to world peace.  The pressures on Grass and Grosser were enormous.
We need to therefore thank Mr. Grosser   for the withdrawal of his signature under a pamphlet that falsely sails under  the flag of a peace-loving writer 's association. 
Not many personalities would take such step. Whereas I assume that most of  the signatories had   signed in good faith, without having thoroughly read the document before. However,  we must encourage such an attitude that shows readiness to step back if one can see ones mistake. Mr. Grosser's gesture and that of the sing a song writer Konstantin Wecker, too, who also withdrew from another harmful pamphlet  needs to be set as an example.  May others  follow their brave step.
The example shows, how easily  we can be manipulated. We must learn that anything that touches big politics  needs careful reading.  We must acquire a full and global comprehension of a conflict at stake, before we take sides. And of course the old fashioned  question "whose interests are at stake?" is a good one to raise.

Yes, I did call the signatories "ignorant", I could also have called them naive, because they let themselves  be fooled into siding with a very dangerous war policy. There is a need to step back  and study the deep implications of  Immanuel Kant's categorical imperative. We must learn anew how  to use  our own brains! The basic pre-condition of course is  access to unbiased information, which is sometimes difficult to get in a society which relies on brainwashing and buying off its intellectuals . 

The signatures of politicians like Andrea Nahles (SPD), Claudia Roth (Green Party) and Katja Kipping (Die Linke) are much more scandalous, they should intuitively know better and they sure do. Their signatures reflect a development  that has begun a while ago, it shows the leaning of the  "Left Party"/DIE LINKE towards Social Democracy with all its fatal consequences.  In history such policies  led in 1914  into World War I by  accepting the war budget. In 1933 such policy  blocked  a dearly needed unity between the working class parties who  together could have prevented  the rise of fascism. The  socialdemocratic SPD has long ago made their peace with power, helping only their rank and file into careers. The Greens under Joschka Fischer have consented to the  unprovoked war of aggression against Jugoslawia. By doing so, they  have lost their innocence in 1999. Since spring 1999 their leading personnel has been striving only for powerful positions in the apparatus. Unfortunately  this is true for the Left Party leaders too. Katja Kipping is among the most opportunistic  LEFT-leaders, siding with  neoliberal policies and defending Israel's aggressive war  policy. There are,  however, better representatives, like  Oskar Lafontaine and Sarah Wagenknecht  who represent much more  the feelings of the grass roots Party membership. They are famous, their analysis is valid, their rare  speeches draw a big audience but their influence is being kept limited.
This  is why, I am sorry to say, that the attitude of the mentioned signatories  represents relatively well the leading circles of what ever you may or may not want to call the  "LEFT" in Germany. Such lack of political  leadership of course has had  enormous impact on all grass rootes movements, not only  on peace policy issues. In the field of war and peace  such tendencies are particularly desasterous, however. The Rosa Luxemburg Foundation  is highly affected by them. Next to RLF the pro-zionist Bak Shalom circle within the Left Party has  great influence on "LEFT"-policy, although it is being played down as tiny. However, the  remnants of a once powerful peace movement bear the brunt of opportunism. It is very  difficult, if not impossible, for individuals or a small group like the "Arbeitskreis für Friedenspolitik - atomwaffenfreies Europa" (Working Group for Peace Policy - Nuclear Free Europe")  to act within any one of the given frameworks, which seem to be coined forever and whose "leaders" are not elected in many cases.

The same is of course true  on the Parliamentary level.   Fortunately  the Left  Fraction has voted against the deployment of patriot missiles in Turkey and a handful of courageous deputies have  held brave  anti-war-positions, but this does usually  not go unchallenged within their own rank and file.  Generally  the positioning of DIE lINKE is too soft and half hearted. For example  do they  not connect the militarization in general with the social question, they do not show how military expenditures, as well as sending patriots to Turkey  undermine our economy. Such acts of  support for war deprive money from socially important structures and so forth. German peace forces  do not point out how NATO - missiles, ironically called  "patriots", will  destabilize the entire region and expose Turkey rather to a new war threat. They do not  challenge the enemy image which is the key factor in justifying war fare. Whereas the German people, like  others, do not want  to be involved in such acts of aggression, there are unfortunately enough intellectuals who  are ready to assist into  brainwashing others.The intelligentsia  is not very intelligent due to their class bias. 
By the mainstream  in my country, Turkey is  considered a highly suspiscious ally with a strong element of Islam and of course with respect to the Kurdish problem and its record of human rights violations. That "we" now  side with "the Turks" as partners, creates frictions of a new kind. It poses a new explanatory  problem for those in power. The term "imperialism" or "aggressive imperialist strategies" does not occur anywhere, such language is considered dogmatic, biased and not analytical, in other words intellectually unacceptable.
Yes, there is, unfortunatelly,  a widespread tendency among German scholars to accept the mainstream explanations according  to which "we" export democracy. In this  view, biased by colonialism, Islamic countries cannot develop democracy on their own behalf. Because  Islam is considered as anti-democratic to the core and therefore the  Orient is  generally looked upon as un-enligthened, untouched by "modern democratic and human rights values". Israel  is therefore considered the only democracy in the Middle East. The colonial implications  of this attitude is largely not understood, in LEFT- circles neither. My personal views are not representative at all. I had, however, an opportunity to give a talk last April,  where I outlined that the Arab Spring is "neither". In clear language this is to say, that the so called revolutions in the Middle East, hailed by imperialism, are in reality inspired by the reactionary Empires of the North. In other words they were mostly instigated, preventive actions to stop real revolutionary transformations from occuring at its very cradle. To my understanding religion is being used  by those in power, as an extremely dangerous weapon this time, with the intention to split the masses. (We only remember too well the enemy image that was coined for another generation and was then called  the allegedly subhuman Jew.) Today it seems more complicate, but only at first glance. Today, on the one hand Western powers  are involved in an ongoing  war against terror, a war against Islam mostly. On the other  hand, Islamists are  being fed  by imperialism whose needs they serve in reality. Latest example Syria.  The war threat  allegedly coming from this country is  a projection. Syria and Iran are both pictured as a threat to peace, whereas the real threat is not seen, which starts here in our world,  in the West.  More correctly expressed:
The  real name of the war threat is imperialism. 

Imperialism is capitalism in its latest stage. We, the people must organize everywhere against this growing threat, as people  of other generations once did  more successfully.

Let us overcome our barriers and work together for a more peaceful future which can only be if  based on justice.

Berlin Dec.19th 2012

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