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Weekly Worker 554 Thursday November 25 2004
"The membership decides"
Christine
Lehnert is a member of the Sozialistische Alternative (SAV), the German
section of the Socialist Party's Committee for a new International (CWI).
Like the Socialist Workers Party's German section Linksruck, the SAV had
a handful of delegates at conference. Christine was delegated by the WASG
Rostock in East Germany and stood as a candidate for the new executive,
but was not elected
You were challenged by a speaker from the floor who questioned your
membership in the SAV. As opposed to members of Linksruck (the German
section of the Socialist Workers Party) you openly stated that you are
a revolutionary socialist.
And I am not the only one, I think that became clear through other interventions
and the applause I got. Many of the delegates are still a little hesitant
to openly state their beliefs. But there are many who obviously agree
that it is very important that you are open and honest about your belief
system and that we need a clear alternative to the capitalist system.
The executive has other plans for the WASG.
I think it is correct that the executive is trying to hold back the organisation
a little and that it does not appear too radical from the outside. But
it is necessary to radically search for the reasons for today's problems
and that radical answers will have to be found. We are in the middle of
a process and the end is still open. I am very confident that many people
who are joining the WASG are in search of a real alternative and for that
reason I am optimistic that our ideas will find co-thinkers - even if
that is not currently the majority. The WASG is an historic opportunity
to build a new party of the left.
Still, the programmatic outlook of the WASG seems well to the right
of Respect in Britain. But your comrades in the Socialist Party are refusing
to participate.
I do not know enough about this. But the condition for us to support such
unity projects is the possibility to have democratic input into the organisation.
If that is not the case with Respect, then I presume this is the reason
our comrades are not involved.
So, no problems in terms of choosing delegates for this conference,
for example?
Well, the executive did try to influence the outcome a little bit. For
example, in Rostock they 'recommended' two members as the must have-delegates.
And exactly those two did not get elected, but two who were supposed to
be prevented. The members still have the final word and nobody can stop
such democratic decision making.
