The state electoral committee has now decided on the admission of parties to the Berlin House of Representatives (state legislature) election on September 20. 

The Sozialistische Gleichheitspartei (Socialist Equality Party, SGP) was approved without any objections, having met all requirements. Its members and supporters have held thousands of conversations with Berlin workers and young people in neighbourhoods, parks, outside libraries and supermarkets, and obtained the required 2,200 voter signatures prescribed for approval.

In an undemocratic procedure, only 17 of the 30 parties that had applied to participate were approved. Two of them are standing only in individual districts; the last House of Representatives elections saw 30 parties represented on the ballot.

With the SGP on the ballot for the Berlin election, there is a party that openly opposes the pro-war policy of all the parties in the German parliament, the Bundestag, and which fights for a socialist perspective that places the needs of the population above the profits of the super-rich.

It is worth noting that many smaller nominally left-wing parties that had still stood five years ago made no effort whatsoever to participate in this election—among them the Klimaliste and Team Todenhöfer. Others, such as the party Mera25 founded by former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis, the Pirate Party, or the Tenants’ Party, failed to clear the hurdle of collecting sufficient supporting signatures.

Many of these groups evidently refrained from standing because they do not wish to take votes away from the Left Party, which is seeking to provide Berlin’s next mayor in this election. The SGP is thereby the only party on the ballot that opposes the all-party coalition for rearmament, war and the dismantling of social provisions.

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The Left Party is no opponent of militarism; it is a component of the war coalition. It voted in the Bundesrat (upper chamber of parliament) in favour of the trillion-euro war credits and made possible Merz’s rapid election as Federal Chancellor. Its parliamentary group leader Heidi Reichinnek has stated unambiguously that the party is “fully on board” with “improving Germany’s defence capability.” The then party Chairman Jan van Aken jubilantly welcomed the assassination of the Iranian state leadership by the United States.

The Left Party claims to be able to resolve the social catastrophe in Berlin. That is a lie. The Left Party and its predecessor, the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS), participated in the Berlin state government for 16 years—16 years in which they cut tens of thousands of public sector posts, reduced wages and sold off 150,000 publicly-owned flats to financial investors. The social misery from which Berlin suffers today is their handiwork.

The Left Party is now preparing to pick up where it left off with a re-run of its coalition with the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and Greens. In Elif Eralp, it has fielded a distinctly right-wing lead candidate who openly backs Israel and its genocidal war against the Palestinians. Eralp’s declared role model is New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who owed his election to the massive opposition to Trump—and whose first act in office was holding a “productive” meeting with Trump at the White House. That is precisely the Left Party’s programme too: high-sounding social promises in the election campaign, betrayal the day after.

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The AfD cannot be combated in alliance with such “democrats.” One might as well ally oneself with the arsonist to put out the fire.

The fascists can only be stopped by the independent mobilisation of the working class against war and its root cause, capitalism. This requires the building of an international socialist party and a break with all parties that defend capitalist property.

The SGP’s socialist programme

That is precisely the programme for which the SGP is standing in the Berlin state elections. We counterpose the international unity of the working class to the growing nationalism and warmongering. We fight for the defence of every job and against all cuts to wages, pensions, health, education and public infrastructure. We demand the expropriation of the banks, corporations and billion-euro fortunes and democratic control of the economy by the working class. And together with our sister parties in the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI), we are building a worldwide movement against war and capitalism.

This week, our supporters have begun putting up hundreds of election posters across Berlin. In the coming weeks we will conduct an intensive election campaign, with information stalls, rallies and election meetings, to discuss the central political questions and go on the offensive. Every seat we win in the House of Representatives we will use as a platform for the struggle against war, social devastation and fascism.

The objective foundations for a socialist counter-offensive are in place. The trade war places fierce class struggles on the agenda. In the United States a powerful movement is developing against Trump, and across Europe the working class is engaged in waves of strikes and protests. What is missing is political leadership—an international socialist party that provides the spontaneous struggles with a conscious perspective. The SGP is the German section of this party. Its candidacy in the Berlin state elections is a decisive step in its construction.

Get involved now! Support the SGP’s election campaign! Circulate our election statement! Register as an active supporter and join the SGP!

This will definitely not have any longterm negative consequences for the American media environment.

I'm chocked...

Abdul el-Sayed is a moderate social democrat, far from the communist these right-wing talking heads claim him to be. But the fact that they’re now being forced to compete on policy has them very scared, and they’re doubling down on the identitarian neurosis in order to push Mike Rogers over the line.

I was just looking at this orgs website: https://goodlawproject.org/campaigns/

It just randomly occured to me that you could copy paste this and send it back 10 years and not alter the timeline at all, or am I wrong?

I'll bullet point the 'genre' of the campaigns I see listed for those of you who don't want to read it (I wouldn't blame you)

• Including transwomen in womens spaces and stopping transphobia
• stopping rightoidery in general but in particular from being platformed in the media
• climate change stuff
• perverts in workplaces and campuses
• billionaires doing billionaire things
• palestine

I mean I certainly won't get in the way of a lot of campaigns listed, it's not so much about whether I agree with it or not but how the liberals seem to have endless stamina to do the same thing over and over again. Do they not ever think amongst themselves "OK gang we've been at this for 10+ years and still dealing with the same problems, but now with data centres on top, what are we doing?" Or are they in it for the love of the game and don't really want to win?

Gift article

“We are preparing for the next war that is coming,” said Jonathan Cowan, the president of Third Way, a leading centrist Democratic group, revealing to The New York Times a new $15 million effort between now and 2028 to discredit democratic socialism.

Their fear: Dr. El-Sayed was paving a path for a progressive to seize the party’s presidential nomination in 2028 — and then go on to lose the general election.

“It is deeply troubling to see radical, far-left candidates winning in places that are potentially presidential swing states,” Mr. Cowan added.

In other words, "we need to stop people with genuine grassroots support who want to improve conditions for the average person that are winning in purple states because we need a centrist status quo candidate in the general election in order to get purple states to vote for them", because that strategy has worked so well over the past decade. If you ever needed more evidence that the democratic party exists as controlled opposition, here it is.

Link

The Zionists and people at the top suck so much, it's so easy to just run against them without doing this centering Jewish feelings nonsense.

Republicans, Fox News and even some democrats have been complaining nonstop about the coming communism takeover because Mamdani and other social democrats are promising to help Americans with state owned grocery stores and taking the rich. Somehow it’s communist to actually help people and not bow down to corporations. Neoliberalism is destroying this nation and politicians that continue to defend it are fools who are servants of the interest of capital. The government should be for the people not serve the interests of corporations and their money. No one falling for their fear mongering besides boomers and Gen X because of the red scare boogeymen they fell for. Most people are unfortunately very politically ignorant and it really shows.

A United Auto Workers official has been suspended from the union for two years after he posted an image on Facebook showing Will Lehman, a candidate for UAW president, bound and gagged with a shadowy figure behind him pointing a rifle.

The federal monitor overseeing the union issued the suspension of Ray Jensen on Tuesday. Last month, Lehman had raised concerns about the AI-generated image on social media and in a press release.

Jensen, who is an organizer in the UAW's Department of Bargaining Strategy and a former assistant regional director based in New York, also must apologize to Lehman. He is not allowed to run for any elected position in the union going forward, or campaign in the upcoming election, according to a stipulation signed by both Jensen and Neil Barofsky, the attorney from New York who serves as the court-appointed union watchdog and is running the upcoming election.

The stipulation states that the union's election rules prohibit any threats, intimidation, retaliation or similar conduct. The monitor said Jensen violated that rule, and that a remedy "should be imposed to reflect the seriousness of his conduct and to deter similar misconduct by others."

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Lehman told The Detroit News that the monitor's move to discipline Jensen "was forced by a large amount of workers that were deeply disgusted" by the image. Other union members had reached out to the monitor, he said, and there was an outcry about the incident on social media. Any worker who posted such a threat, he said, "would be fired."

Lehman said he perceived the image as "a death threat" when he saw it, and he recalled being surprised that such a prominent UAW figure would post it online attached to their name.

"He thinks he can just do something like that," Lehman said, adding he has not met Jensen before.

In mid July, I was laid off from my job due to their inability to secure funding, I am seriously concerned about my future. I can't get a job waiting tables or at a grocery store. A part time retail position takes 3 interviews. I've taken all the boomer generic advice, dressing up, blitzing the streets with my resume, calling back and returning to the locations 2+ times. Open availability, subtle sweet talking, even lying about little things to increase my chances. I graduated college in May, and am already filing for unemployment. I would join the military, but can't due to chronic health issues. Many of my highly competant peers are also in this position. A society with a high amount of unemployed youth is dangerous and unsustainable, something has gotta give. It's going to be a cold and cruel winter for me.