Further dismantling of the welfare state As soon as this package of cuts in social rights and entitlements had been agreed on by 96 percent of parliamentarians, leading politicians enthused it had been a “good day for Germany.” Finally, the mould had been broken and the employers could be offered further relief, or in the words of the German health minister Ulla Schmidt, notorious for her disastrous health policies: The reform is dead. Long live the reform! The trade unions have played an especially cowardly and despicable role in the implementation of “Agenda 2010.” In the spring of 2003, a few individual trade union leaders declared their opposition, in the hope they could pressure “their Gerhard” to refrain from doing away with everything all at once. When they learned that the government was not prepared to make the slightest concession, they turned over on their bellies and stopped all forms of protest. Trade union bureaucrat Frank Bsirske—chairman of the service-sector trade union Verdi, a member of the Green Party and widely regarded as a “left,” who had occasionally criticised “Agenda 2010” as “socially imbalanced”—took it upon himself to enter into a “constructive dialogue” with the government. A national demonstration against attacks on the welfare state held on November 1 in Berlin was boycotted by all the trade unions. The fact that 100,000 nevertheless took part in the protest indicates a growing social movement against government policies. The SPD-Green Party government allows itself to be driven forward by the conservative opposition, the business elite and the media. Such a phenomenon is not limited to Germany, but is characteristic of social democratic governments all over the world. It has its roots in the crisis of the capitalist system, which no longer sanctions any policy based on relative social equilibrium. An effective policy for the defence of all social and democratic rights requires a fundamental re-division of society’s wealth. The interests of the broad majority of the working population in every country can only be met on the basis of a reorganisation of economic life. This in turn requires a broad popular movement and the construction of a new workers’ party. wsws.org/en/articles/2004/02/spdg-f04.html
Posted on: Fri, 08 Aug 2014 22:36:25 +0000
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