Left forum

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The Left Forum (Lifo) was a left-wing socialist movement within the German Greens.

The Left Forum split in the Perspektiven-Kongress on 17. – 19. June 1988 by the eco-socialists . According to Makoto Nishida, it represented the change from a protest to a concept party, as opposed to the majority in the eco-socialists, which he perceived as dogmatic. The taboo on the coalition question and the principle of anti-statehood were criticized.

The Left Forum thus developed parallel to the Awakening 88 , but remained critical of the system in terms of its political aim. It relied on extra-parliamentary movement, but in 1988 it supported a paper recognizing the state's monopoly on the use of force. However, it refused - according to Ludger Volmer,

"To submit declarations of submission to the conservative forces."

There was no unity on the question of whether the grassroots democratic approaches such as the principle of rotation should be maintained or whether professionalization should take place. The Left Forum was - like the current of the eco-socialists - opposed to market economy concepts, called for a democratization of the economy, radical reduction in working hours with full wages and the socialization of key industries. In terms of foreign policy, it was critical of NATO, but - unlike the eco-socialists - welcomed perestroika.

The Left Forum understood the Monday demonstrations in the GDR - again like the eco-socialists - as reactionary nationalism.

A majority preferred a coalition to toleration of an SPD minority government.

Many members left the Greens in 1990 and joined the PDS. The grassroots democracy was called into question more clearly than before, and the state's monopoly on the use of force was recognized. In relation to Alliance 90, however, the Left Forum refused to commit to a market economy.

Most members took part in the Babelsberger Kreis from 1993 onwards .

The forum had around 350 members and sympathizers and was able to mobilize a third of the green delegates.

Members

Publications

swell

  • Makoto Nishida: Strömungen in den Grünen (1980-2003): An analysis of informally organized groups within the Greens , Münster 2005, pp. 129 ff. And p. 377 f.
  • Joachim Raschke : The Greens. What they became, what they are , Cologne 1993, p. 176 f.

Individual evidence