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Elections In Germany: “Erst kommt das Fressen …”
In comments I was asked to write about yesterday’s elections in Germany. But I find it difficult to describe my country from its inside. There are already good reviews available and Conor Gallagher at Naked Capitalism has done a great job with this one which I highly recommend to read:
Germany Holds an Election in an Alternate Reality – Naked Capitalism, Feb 24 2025
In the alternate reality of German politics the U.S. is a friend. It did not blow up the Nord Stream pipeline and it did nothing to provoke the proxy war with Russia. In the alternate reality the Weakness in the German Manufacturing Sector has not been caused by it.
In the alternate reality it is all about ‘values’.
The legendary writer Billmon had named his blog Whiskey Bar. It was a reference to the Alabama Song by Berthold Brecht. When Billmon closed the comments at his site I opened this blog as an alternative. I named it Moon of Alabama in reference to the chorus of that song.
The German election has brought another Brecht opera to my mind.
Living in their alternate reality the ruling parties in Germany have forgotten that “Fressen” (Engl.: guzzling, seizure, scoring) comes before “Moral” (Engl.: ethics, morale, values).
The voters have honored that by looking and voting for ‘alternatives’:
Berhold Brecht, Dreigroschenoper, NR. 15. ZWEITES DREIGROSCHEN-FINALE.
MAC – Ihr Herrn, die ihr uns lehrt, wie man brav leben
Und Sünd’ und Missetat vermeiden kann,
Zuerst müßt ihr uns was zu fressen geben,
Dann könnt ihr reden: Damit fängt es an.
Ihr, die ihr euren Wanst und uns’re Bravheit liebt,
Das eine wisset ein für allemal:
Wie ihr es immer dreht und wie ihr’s immer schiebt,
Erst kommt das Fressen, dann kommt die Moral.
Erst muß es möglich sein auch armen Leuten,
Vom großen Brotlaib sich ihr Teil zu schneiden.
HINTER DER SZENE – Denn wovon lebt der Mensch?
Berhold Brecht, Three-Penny Opera, 15th ACT, II FINALE
M. – You gentlemen preach to us that honesty is the best policy.
Stay clear of sin and crookedness, you say.
First tell us how to fill our stomachs,
then you can talk, that’s how to begin.
You who have a great time getting fat while we stay honest,
learn a lesson, once and for all;
no matter how you twist and turn, no matter what you’re shooting at,
first come the eats and then the moralizing.
First the people who have nothing
must get a slice of your loaf of bread.
CROWD — On what does a person live?
I have voted for the BSW, the new party of the ‘conservative socialist’ Sarah Wagenknecht. In my view it is the only party which has understood Brecht’s warning to the rulers: Pragmatism, here: bread through peace with Russia and migration limits, must come first; before all appeals to abstract ‘values’, ethics and morale.
The still very young BSW party has received 4.97% of all votes. 13,500 votes less than needed to take the 5% hurdle and seats in the parliament. That is unfortunate but there are reasons for it:
[T]he BSW was caught off guard by the snap election. The party lacked local infrastructure and was short on cash for the campaign. It was forced to hurriedly register regional branches in order to participate in the national election.
I am optimistic that the party will continue to grow as it is currently the only real alternative in German politics.
As for other parties: The Alternative für Deutschland, AfD, was the clear winner in these elections. It was often described as ‘hard-right’ and even compared to fascism. That has created a kind of Streisand effect and allowed for its growth. But its program and ideas remind one of the conservative Christian Democrats during the 1980s. It is avidly pro-capitalist and pro-American but, inconsistently, also pro-Russian. That has helped it win in eastern Germany.
The center-left Social Democrats were the biggest losers in these election. It is the first time since 1887(!) that it is not the number one or number two party in Germany but had to take the third place. But it is still highly likely that it will govern again as the junior partner of the Christian Democrats.
Proportional voting in Germany (no ‘first past the post’) pretty much guarantees that all German governments are based on coalitions. The need to compromise prevents radical outcomes. It leads to policies of muddling through issues rather than resolving them.
That’s not a good outlook for Germany but we will have to, again, live with it.
On a positive note: 100% of the 50 million votes, all on paper ballots, were counted within 8 hours. There was no strife.
In fact, the pro-Soviet Ukrainians who nonored Lenin voted for the preservation of the USSR in 1990. And during the Anti-Maidan, the pro-Russian crowds gathered in Leinin squares unde Lenin statues. Which is exactly what the Ukro-Nazis sought to eradicate, a symbol of Russo-Ukrainian unity.
In the end, after reading Ho Chi Minh’s description of how he joined the movement, I’d rather trust the great Vietnamese patriot and revolutionary than a raving ignoramus in the internet.
Posted by: Constantine | Feb 23 2025 14:55 utc | 396
Hi there Constantine, fellow raving ignoramus on the internet. Wait, you thought you weren’t one of us? Anyway, I knew you’re anti-DEI with your rant about Hitler wearing a pride flag armband, but I wasn’t certain what your position on migration was until I saw your latest post, which was enough for me to conclude that you’re a garden variety right-winger using socialist language to deceive others.
As for your temerity to suggest that opposition to the neoliberal immigration policies is somehow “right-wing”, well, this is one more validation why all you people are neoliberal right-wingers with socialist pretensions, hiding your reactionary views behind a fraudulent pseudo-progressive veneer, no different than the rest of the establishment swine.
Truly, the neoliberal progs are the worst vermin of the political spectrum. Fascists with American characteristics.
Posted by: Constantine | Feb 24 2025 23:54 utc | 120
Let’s hear what Lenin has to say on the subject of migration.
V. I. Lenin – Capitalism and Workers’ Immigration
https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1913/oct/29.htm
Capitalism has given rise to a special form of migration of nations. The rapidly developing industrial countries, introducing machinery on a large scale and ousting the backward countries from the world market, raise wages at home above the average rate and thus attract workers from the backward countries.
America heads the list of countries which import workers.
The growth of immigration is enormous and continues to increase. During the five years 1905–09 the average number of immigrants entering America (the United States alone is referred to) was over a million a year. (AUH note: for context, US population grew from 76 million to 1900 to 92 million in 1910, as per Wikipedia)
It is interesting to note the change in the place of origin of those emigrating to America, Up to 1880 the so-called old immigration prevailed, that is, immigration from the old civilised countries, such as Great Britain, Germany and partly from Sweden. Even up to 1890, Great Britain and Germany provided more than half the total immigrants.
From 1880 onwards, there was an incredibly rapid in crease in what is called the new immigration from Eastern and Southern Europe, from Austria, Italy and Russia.
Germany, which is more or less keeping pace with the United States, is changing from a country which released workers into one that attracts them from foreign countries. The number of immigrants from Germany to America in the ten years 1881–90 was 1,453,000; but in the nine years 1901–09 it dropped to 310,000. The number of foreign workers in Germany, however, was 695,000 in 1910–11 and 729,000 in 1911–12.
The more backward the country the larger is the number of “unskilled” agricultural labourers it supplies. The advanced nations seize, as it were, the best paid occupations for themselves and leave the, semi-barbarian countries the worst paid occupations. Europe in general (“other countries”) provided Germany with 157,000 workers, of whom more than eight-tenths (135,000 out of 157,000) were industrial workers. Backward Austria provided only six-tenths (162,000 out of 263,0O0) of the industrial workers. The most backward country of all, Russia, provided only one-tenth of the industrial workers (34,000 out of 308,000).
Thus, Russia is punished everywhere and in everything for her backwardness. But compared with the rest of the population, it is the workers of Russia who are more than any others bursting out of this state of backwardness and barbarism, more than any others combating these “delightful” features of their native land, and more closely than any others uniting with the workers of all countries into a single international force for emancipation.
The bourgeoisie incites the workers of one nation against those of another in the endeavour to keep them disunited. Class-conscious workers, realising that the break-down of all the national barriers by capitalism is inevitable and progressive, are trying to help to enlighten and organise their fellow-workers from the backward countries.
Three years later, in 1916, Lenin returned to the question of worker migration in Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism.
https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1916/imp-hsc/ch08.htm
One of the special features of imperialism connected with the facts I am describing, is the decline in emigration from imperialist countries and the increase in immigration into these countries from the more backward countries where lower wages are paid. As Hobson observes, emigration from Great Britain has been declining since 1884. In that year the number of emigrants was 242,000, while in 1900, the number was 169,000. Emigration from Germany reached the highest point between 1881 and 1890, with a total of 1,453,000 emigrants. In the course of the following two decades, it fell to 544,000 and to 341,000. On the other hand, there was an increase in the number of workers entering Germany from Austria, Italy, Russia and other countries. According to the 1907 census, there were 1,342,294 foreigners in Germany, of whom 440,800 were industrial workers and 257,329 agricultural workers.[10] In France, the workers employed in the mining industry are, “in great part,” foreigners: Poles, Italians and Spaniards.[11] In the United States, immigrants from Eastern and Southern Europe are engaged in the most poorly paid jobs, while American workers provide the highest percentage of overseers or of the better-paid workers.[12] Imperialism has the tendency to create privileged sections also among the workers, and to detach them from the broad masses of the proletariat.
Lenin, as it turns out, “adopt the tropes of the psaeudo-progressive neoliberals”, as the eminent MoA thinker Constantine would put it. Lenin had no love for privileged workers who could not build solidarity with the less fortunate workers – the migrant workers.
Lenin’s comment on 20th century Germany dovetails nicely with Hudson’s comment on 21st century Germany:
https://michael-hudson.com/2025/01/the-road-to-chaos-a-global-balance-of-payments-war/
So, unlike the movies, this will not end with the United States rushing in to save gullible Germany. Instead, Germany and Europe as a whole will become sacrificial offerings in our desperate but futile effort to save the US Empire. While Germany may not immediately end up with an emigrating and shrinking population like Ukraine, its industrial destruction is well under way.
Lenin unfortunately did not live long enough to see Germany regress from being a destination for immigrants to a source of emigrants. I do hope Hudson’s prediction will bear out. Germans will feel what it’s like to be driven from their homeland due to economic warfare. Perhaps (I’m not holding my breath) Germans, Europeans, and maybe even the West as whole, might learn some empathy.
My dear “raving ignoramus on the internet”, Constantine, who puts so much stock in the words of great socialists who came before you, I guess it’s time for you to cancel Lenin and Hudson. Oh wait, my very insincere apologies, “cancel culture” is such a “feminized” (as your compatriot would put it) phenomenon. Let’s go with something you won’t find repulsive: excommunication.
Posted by: All Under Heaven | Feb 26 2025 1:58 utc | 206
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