Committees for Democracy and Socialism

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Committees for Democracy and Socialism (KDS) were a political association of former K-group members (mainly from the Communist League of West Germany (KBW)), which existed from 1979 to around 1982. After the failure of the attempt to become a “reservoir for all revolutionary forces”, most members of the Green Party joined.

Development of the committees

On 13./14. In April 1979, around 140 former members or sympathizers of K groups (KBW, Communist Party of Germany (structural organization) , Communist Workers' Union of Germany ) met, who from around 1976 had turned away from their political organizations with disappointment or had been excluded because of criticism of the party line, in Mannheim for a working conference. Most of the participants saw themselves at that time as Marxist-Leninists who wanted to eliminate the bourgeois state apparatus as an instrument of the “ ruling class ”, whereby the use of force was not excluded. The claim to leadership of a single party was rejected. Short-term goals were the mobilization of the workers, infiltration of the trade unions, the police and the armed forces. In fact, the theoretical work was in the foreground.

A second working conference with 150 delegates took place on 8./9. September 1979 again in Mannheim. They also met in early May 1980 on the eve of the Socialist Conference in Kassel . In 1979 the KDS consisted of groups and initiatives in 24 cities (1980: 26), u. a. in Mannheim and the former KBW strongholds of Heidelberg and Bremen .

As early as 1980 it became apparent that the KDS could not achieve its goal of becoming a gathering point for the socialist-communist movement and contributing to the building of a revolutionary party of the working class. The organizational framework was retained until 1982 - without developing any major activities - then the KDS mostly dissolved into the Green Party , in which a number of prominent members had worked since 1980.

The KDS published issues for democracy and socialism from the end of 1979 to May 1981 with a length of about 60 pages, which u. a. dealt with the politics of the K groups, the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China as well as with the founding phase of the Green Party . KDSler were initially involved in the magazine Moderne Zeiten ( MOZ ).

Well-known members of the KDS were Willfried Maier (editor of the “hefte”), Ralf Fücks , Dietrich Hildebrandt and others.

The KDS were observed by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution and some states and the results were reported in the reports for the protection of the constitution .

Publications

  • Conference documents on Democracy and Socialism. Mannheim, Easter 1979 , Mannheim: self-published (Willfried Maier, Dietrich Hildebrandt), 1979
  • booklets for democracy and socialism , Mannheim: W. Maier, [1. Vol.] 1979, No. 1; [2.] 1980, 1 (February / March) - 6; 3.1981, 8 (May)
  • Marxism, Ecology and the Green Party .: Texts for discussion. KDS, KB, center group , Hamburg: Hamburger typesetting and publishing cooperative 1980

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Internal Security , No. 58/1981, p. 4
  2. ↑ Protection of the Constitution 1979, p. 96
  3. ↑ "Stronghold" for K groups means about 0.5% (for the KBW in the 1976 federal election in Bremen and Heidelberg)