Workers' Liberty

GIS is a group which has come out of the IS-SWP tradition, but is now rethinking its politics somewhat. Its irregular publication, "Sozialismus oder Barbarei" ("Socialism or barbarism") can be read on the website, with some issues also available in Turkish ("Ya Sosyalizm ya Barbarlik").

Gruppe Arbeitermacht ("Workers' Power") is the affiliate in Germany of the "League for a Revolutionary Communist International". Publishes the irregular journal "Arbeitermacht".

A radical-democratic activist youth group. The "Jungdemokraten" were the youth section until 1982 of the FDP (Liberal) party, when it split from the FDP over the party's decision to bring down the SPD-Liberal coalition and swap allegiance to Kohl's Christian Democrats. The "Marxistische Jugendvereinigung Junge Linke" - Marxist Youth Organisation Young Left - emerged as part of the revolution in Stalinist East Germany in 1989, as a nationally-organised Marxist youth group, independent from the state and its youth front, the "Free German Youth" (FDJ). In 1992, the West German Jungdemokraten and the East German MJV-Junge Linke merged, hence the organisation's name "JD-JL". It is the most important political youth organisation not connected to a party in parliament. Despite this, JD-JL is a useful springboard for wannabe parliamentarians to get a post in the PDS, for example. Does a lot of anti-militarism and pro-drugs work, and work around education and the school system (organises burnings of school reports, for example).

The MLPD is a fairly large Maoist organisation, and the largest Maoist group in Germany. Produces the weekly populist paper "Rote Fahne" (Red Flag...what would Luxemburg and Liebknecht have had to say about that???) The paper can be read on the website, the advantage of the printed edition is that you can then play (possibly for money) "how many photos of party guru Stefan Engel (and/or his wife, Monika Gärtner-Engel) are in the paper this week?". Members are regularly expelled for "non-proletarian thinking", i.e. disagreeing with the leadership. This is reported in the RF. The MLPD's youth group is called "Rebell", the children's section (!) are the "Rotfüchse" ("Red foxes"), Tries to emulate the German CP in the late 1920s. For the MLPD, the Soviet Union etc. were all "capitalist", from the moment Kruschchev made his secret speech criticising Stalin in Moscow in 1956. Before this, these states were "genuinely socialist" and the USSR or the GDR pre 1956 are the model for the states and systems the MLPD wishes to erect after a proletarian revolution.

The group "Arbeiterpolitik" can be best described as being "right-communist", having its roots in the "Brandlerite" KPO, the "Communist Party - Opposition" in Germany in 1928-9, founded by Heinrich Brandler and August Thalheimer.

The "junge Welt" ("young world") is a daily newspaper published in Berlin. It could be best described as being "orthodox Communist" i.e. Stalinist, being particuarly close to the "Communist Platform" of the PDS, and the DKP (Communist Party) youth section, the SDAJ. Other revolutionaries and left-wing reformists do get space to air their views and opinions, it is highly critical of the PDS leadership. Formerly the organ of the East German state organisation "Free German Youth", the Junge Welt was the most read, and most trusted (and most critical) newspaper in the Stalinist GDR. Today the junge Welt is the daily paper with the youngest readership, which is strange, as one only ever sees pensioners reading it. Has been criticised as being anti-semitic and its politics can be summed up pretty well in the phrase "my enemies' enemy is my friend". Rumours that the paper was written and printed in Belgrade during the NATO attacks on Serbia and Kosova have not yet been proven.

FelS - "for a left wing current" describe themselves as being part of the "radical undogmatic left". "Post-Marxist" with criticism of the "autonomist" groups dominant on the German left. Based in Berlin, publishes the widely-read but irregular theoretical journal "Arranca!".

Sozialistische Zeitung used to be a fortnightly paper (founded 1986) published by the then section of the United Secretariat of the Fourth International, the VSP. Since the slow collapse and the final winding-up of the VSP, the paper has gone monthly and is offically not a "party organ". In reality it is published by ex-VSP members who have grouped themselves in another organisation, the ISL, which is a sympathising group of the USec in Germany.

Today's "Inprekorr" is the "information bulletin of the (United Secretariat of the) Fourth International". "Inprekorr" stands for "International Press-Correspondence". The German edition is available on the net to download in PDF as well as an archive in HTML. As very few of the articles are actually written in German, reflecting the weakness of the USec's sections in German-speaking areas, the German edition is almost exclusively made up of translations from other languages, notably French, that appear in the German edition sometimes months after they were first written. Those who can read French are advised to read "Inprécor", available from the LCR, and on the net (see France links), or the English-language "International Viewpoint". The future of the German edition of "Inprekorr" is in doubt.

Linksruck ("Left Turn") is the official German section of the International Socialist Tendency (in England and Wales, the SWP).
A few articles from the current fortnightly paper, also called Linksruck, can be read on the website. For the rest, look at http://www.socialistworker.co.uk

The IS is a group adhering to the International Socialist Tendency (IST, in England and Wales, the SWP). The IS comrades were expelled from the previous section, the SAG, when the SWP leadership told them to dissolve themselves into German Social Democracy, and form Linksruck (see Tony Cliff's autobiography). The IS's monthly journal, Klassenkampf ("Class struggle") can be read on the website. The IS present themself as being the official section of the IST, but this is not the case.

Junge Linke, a youth group, "against capital and the nation". Describe themselves in a long self-description as "Marxists", but exactly why and how this is meant is hard to see.

The title says it all.

AK ("analysis and criticism - newspaper for left-wing debate and practice") is a monthly publication dealing with theory from a (on the whole) Marxist background. AK originally stood for "Arbeiterkampf" ("Workers' Fight") and was the publication of the Maoist group Kommunistische Bund (Communist Alliance). The paper remains today as an end in itself and is not related to any political organisation.

The DKP was funded for years directly from East Berlin and was therefore politically as well as financially dependent on the former GDR. Since then the party has lost most of its members and its daily paper UZ has had to become a weekly (since the day the money stopped coming in 1989 in fact).
Stalinist, "pacifist", "for peace and socialism", aging rapidly. The largest "socialist" group left of the PDS in Germany.

The ISL is a sympathising section of the United Secretariat of the Fourth International. Publishes the monthly newspaper "Sozialistische Zeitung" while trying to distance itself from the publication.

Homepage of the RSB / IV. Internationale, which is a sympathising group of the United Secretariat of the Fourth International. The RSB's journal "Avanti" can be downloaded and read in HTML or PDF format, as can various leaflets and workplace bulletins.

The PDS "emerged" out of the East German Stalinist ruling party SED in 1989, the party was originally called "SED-PDS", and has been moving to the right ever since. The PDS is basically a left-wing social democratic party. German political commentators often wonder how long the "artificial split in the workers' movement", as they see it, caused by the German revolution in 1918-19 and the founding of the German Communist Party, can be overcome, with the merger of the SPD and the PDS. The PDS's daily paper is "Neues Deutschland", with a large format and quite big print for the ever aging members. The PDS is literally dying away and its attempts to appeal to radical youth are undermined severely by the party's desire (at all levels) to be "realistic" and to be allowed to play the political game on the same terms as the other bourgeois parties.

Antifaschistische Aktion Berlin - Anti-fascist Action Berlin. Very much a part of the "left-wing scene" where style wins over substance every time. The fashion student's favourite revolutionary organisation, post-this, post-that, post-the other, the AAB is best known for organising apolitical demonstrations with sound-systems to block out political content, such as the "Revolutionary 1st May" in Berlin, which is little more than an excuse for a riot. The AAB sell a wide range of merchandise, including hooded tops, masks, and "riot" or "antifa" t-shirts, available in "boy" or "girlie" cuts. The AAB (mis)uses the logo of the original Anti-Fascist Action set up by the German Communist Party in the early 1930s. This time however, class plays no role in the AAB.
The AAB has for years tried to concrete its central role in German "anti-fascism" via its grouping AA-BO ("federal organisation"). This has virtually collapsed due topolitical differences.

The SAV is the German section of the Committee for a Workers' International (in England and Wales: Socialist Party). Publishes the monthly paper "Solidarität - Sozialistische Zeitung" (formerly "Voran").

The DGB is the German Confederation of Trade Unions (the German TUC). It is made up of 8 trade unions, the two largest are Verdi (United Service Industries Union) - the biggest free trade union in the world, founded after a merger of 5 unions, 4 of which used to be members of the DGB; and the IG Metall (engineering and electrical workers' industrial union), which until the founding of Verdi was the biggest free trade union in the world. Parts of the DGB's website can be also read in English, French and Spanish.