There Are Many And Realistic Alternatives (TAMARA, not TINA)

TAMARA, not TINA

By Wolfram Adolphi

[This article originally published in: Das Blattchens, September 13, 2004 is translated from the German on the World Wide Web, http://www.linksnet.de/artikel.php?id-1305.]

No one knows how the protests against Hartz IV will develop. Perhaps the demos will die away as the chancellor imagines. Perhaps the number of demonstrators will not become greater because the speeches every Monday are the same, nothing changes and everything remains vague. What is the goal? Who gives a cohesive direction? Why isn’t there a cohesive direction?

Those “at the top” may have rest in October. The state elections in Saxony and Brandenburg will be over. The Bundestag and Bundesrat will be back from the silly season. They will give one another pats on the back for “not bowing to the pressure of the streets”.

The situation is serious because all those “at the top” still believe life can continue as before. They self-righteously pursue and proclaim their TINA-policy (There is No Alternative) and are completely entangled in this policy. Whoever reduces economics to business administration, public welfare to the welfare of private service enterprises, parliament to an auditorium for “expert” commissions and the East to a practice field for complex deregulation with the “side-effect” of being an inexpensive supplier of the very motivated, flexible up-and-coming generation for the West reduces himself to a level no longer equal to the challenges of the age.

The situation is serious because the political class has completely ignored two things: visions and historical consciousness.

Visions are replaced with the idolization of the market. This is really an astonishing process. Economic policy is robbed of its planning, acting and decision-making subjects through constant repetition and media propaganda reiterated thousands of times. Nevertheless the decisions about the economy in Germany, Europe and the world that affect everyone are made by people, not by the dear God or “by the market”. These decisions are made by people of flesh and blood, people like you and me!

If this is taken seriously, one finds the way back to visions and fantasy. Then one rediscovers that there are always alternatives to human actions. There Are Many And Realistic Alternatives, TAMARA, not TINA. The most simple alternative immanent to the system is an economic policy oriented in Keynes: increasing purchasing power for economic stimulation. However this immanent alternative is a pure system breach today for TINA-captives. Where is there any possibility for rethinking?

Historical consciousness is reduced to the arbitrary twisting and distortion of individual events – a process inevitably connected with omitting, concealing, repressing and denouncing other views. Here are a few examples still very alive in the consciousness of the eastern population. “That a half year of political upheaval in the DDR (East Germany) followed the collapse of the wall brought about by the East with the simultaneous promotion of real socialism is “forgotten” in government offices. This occurred with visions, forms and methods that never occurred in the old Germany. That the West was the all-decisive powerhouse of life in the annexed area with the de facto liquidation of all DDR experiences either by itself or with a few acceptable persons is forgotten. That all decisions about the East were made only from the (majority-) view of the West and therefore the West has the main responsibility for all the consequences of this development are “forgotten”. The leftist opposition in the East and the Monday demonstrators are absurdly criticized for deepening the East-West division since the unemployment assistance of the Hartz IV laws, 14 years after the unification treaty, is different in the East (331 euro) and West (345 euro).

Something else that is very serious should be added. The developments of the years 1929 to 1933 are also “forgotten”. Oscar Lafontaine’s frequent references to Reich chancellor Brunning were repressed and not seriously followed. There are obvious parallels between then and today. In a very complex and complicated world economic and political crisis in Germany, the decision to emphasize deflation was made at that time by people appealing to “the market” and “the worldwide economic crisis”. This brought increased unemployment at record levels, mass bankruptcies in the petty-bourgeoisie, brutalization of working conditions, impoverishment and existential insecurity even in “secure” sectors of “stable” employees – instead of accepting the anti-cyclical fuel. How this started is well-known. However hasn’t discussion stopped in all its dimensions on the conventional model of rightwing and leftwing enemies of democracy? Sometimes people recalled the interests of “the economy” of that time that caused this mass impoverishment. Officials of the Weimar republic weary of democracy and decisions breathed again when everything was finally taken from their hands by the dictatorship.

The situation is serious because confusion grows. Even if the demonstrations pass away unsuccessfully, the potential for rebellion exists and cannot be ignored. What will result from the demonstrations? When and where will rebellion break out?

The situation is serious because the leftist opposition wavers about the goals of the leftist opposition in politically divided Germany… Movements like attac and others are active but have only a limited biding force. The PDS is presently at the top of voters’ favor. Can and will it carry this burden? A first step is taken. A Bundesrat initiative against Hartz IV should be started. This would unite “the streets” with “large-scale politics”. But is there sufficient personal courage and courageous readiness for risk? Are people ready to energetically argue with the SPD, the jointly ruling party, even outside of elections? For example, in demonstrations supported by the PDS and organized by people who know that this party recognizes their interests and pursues another policy than the government policy, will the PDS take seriously the adjectives democratic and socialist in its party name?

The situation is serious. What is at stake is whether the PDS has credibility in the parliamentary-political space, builds bridges between itself and the protest movements and leads to emancipatory forms of democratic participation. Participating in the protests and then withdrawing in the backroom of the “lack of alternatives” amid the elections would be a new shattering of hope, another evidence that “those at the top” are all the same. One must ask whether one’s actions are really appropriate to these times and this situation.

The situation is serious. Soon we will know whether it is also hopeful.