The Green Party -The Most Decided Protagonist

A commission for the restructuring of the German armed forces, the "Bundeswehr", has made proposals for reorganizing all of the troops into an interventionist force which outdo anything previous in this area. It is working under the chairmanship of Richard von Weizsaecker, a former president of the FRG, and is massively supported by the Greens, by part of the Social Democrats and also by certain "insiders".

The content of its proposals is the complete transformation of the Bundeswehr into an army for international interventions, which is brought about by virtually abolishing the compulsory military service and using the resources which are thus made available for the corresponding armament and training. The Bundeswehr, according to the ideas of the commission, is to be reduced to 210 000 professional soldiers, resp. temporary professionals, with an appendix of just 30 000 conscripts which only can be named a symbolic one. No less than 140 000 of these 240 000 men are to be formed into 'crisis reaction forces for foreign actions'. Up to now these were 50 000, and the conscripts were still 135 000.

This is a policy which aims at completely functionalising the Bundeswehr according to the strategy of international terrorization and intervention led by US-imperialism under the cover of "human rights", the enormous increase of the share of the intervention forces pointing to the fact that the future Bundeswehr will have to carry out much greater designs than in Kosovo which was just the test case for the things to come.
But also the intervention in the own country, the inward use of the army can much easier be demanded from a merchants' army than from an army of conscripts.

The political party which most fervently supports this imperialist transformation is the Greens. Even Rudolf Scharping, the defence minister (of the Social Democrats) does not go as far as they do, and from his part gets proposals worked out in which conscription still holds a certain position. Trittin, though, of the Greens, yes, the so-called leftist Trittin, puts down his reserve and calls for the complete abolition of conscription. The Greens now are the part of the government which the most are in agreement with this "restructuring commission".

Never before it has become as clear as now how the policy which aims at functionalising the country for the new imperialist intervention policy and to push through the corresponding militarization, supplemented by the suffocation of the domestic industry, 100% fits the Greens and by no means is contradictory to their political line. The criticism of this green and pacifist mendacious direction which the Neue Einheit organization has conducted for 25 years, here more than ever proves to be completely correct, whereas all other assessments prove to be fundamentally wrong.
Only the criticism which emphasizes the ultrarightist character of these Greens is correct, whereas all other organisations which shared the main points with the Greens or maybe only assess them as progressive "petty bourgeois force" or the like, are completely way out. Only the criticism of the ultareactionary character is true, which had been visible from the economic and basic program of the Greens and in the end materializes into the most open militaristic policy. The whole pacifism, the whole fuss as if they also opposed war is nothing but whitewash which falls down as soon as the things come to the point.
One can state, meanwhile: in militaristic policy the Greens are top.

It has once again to be stressed that the anti-nuclear-energy policy, the hysteria, the "fear of the atom", which in itself already is an absurdity, has been the largest manoeuvre of political deceit of the past 25 years. In this way the largest leading astray of people which formerly had been revolutionary-minded, has taken place. In this way the revolutionary forces have been intimidated and diverted, in this way the objective of dissolving the revolutionary potentials in a country has been pursued. Now it becomes clear that the campaign against nuclear energy plants and the call for "soft energy" can very well go identic with the policy of international military intervention, of intervention in foreign countries, the nuclear threat by NATO and the use of uranium ammunition included, which already has been put into practice.
There are still some anti-nuclear-energy absurd-minded people who criticize the Greens for not sufficiently committing themselves in their very own sector, the so-called "anti-nuclear policy". The Greens, though, are still making the decision to shut down all nuclear energy plants the condition sine qua non of their policy, however long its period may be. They would go along with everything, even the dropping of nuclear bombs on other countries, but would never accept that the civil use of the nuclear energy is consolidated - not that!

Hostile to the people, ultrareactionary to the bones - even a fascist current like the NPD would not be able to surpass that in the substance. This is the most rightist of the rightist stuff at all, and it cannot be otherwise because the basic content of the Greens, which we, in contrast to all the other organisations, have always been analyzing as such, dictates that in the end. A social democracy which indeed also in reality has made itself similar in many aspects to the Greens, in the end becomes identical with that. The coalition of the Social Democrats of Germany (SPD) and the Greens makes this policy, and it has still to be waited for if the conservatives will seriously obstruct it.

If the German Chancellor Schroeder (SPD) declares that one will continue marching towards a "services society" and cutting down on the "classical industry", if friends of Schroeder declare that one will reduce industrial employment even much further, to 5%, and simultaneously the country is set on an aggressive course, then one should ask oneself where the unemployed produced in this way are to remain. They are to be put exactly into military projects, and in the crisis situation the professionals' army will not remain alone. They will be put into additional paramilitary units for the safety of the system. This might be the next step in the next larger crisis, maybe after 5 or 6 years. It is not possible for a society to take a stronger rightist turn. Not the name or the tag somebody is bearing is decisive, but the real economic-political meaning of his policy.

Editorial staff of Neue Einheit

First published in German on May 8, 2000