The Declaration of Principles of BAK Shalom*

The establishment of a working group against anti-Semitism, anti-Zionism, anti-Americanism and regressive anti-capitalism within Linksjugend ['solid] has been overdue for some time. The German left has never seen these issues as central part of their social criticism.
Developments of recent years – especially after the Islamist attacks in New York City and Washington DC on 9/11 – has shown the importance to deal with these issues. Unfortunately, the political left has never been immune against regressive thinking.

Across German society, there is an alarmingly high percentage of anti-Semitic attitudes in all political wings and in middle of society. The ideology of anti-Semitism is based on capitalist structured society. It provides ideological explanation with simple answers. The complex and abstract capitalist relations are personified and identified with Jews, which are responsible for the upheavals of modern society.

During recent political and economic discussions the personification became apparent in campaigns against so-called “locusts”. This was the expression for the left and trade unions to rant against financial capital. This argumentation ignores the totality of capitalist socialization and tears up the relation between production and circulation sphere.

Today anti-Semitism doesn’t become manifest in classical forms. The mass homicide of European Jews has led to a shift of anti-Semitic sentiments. The new form of “secondary antisemitism” appears in anti-Zionism.

Israel is acting as the “Jew among the nations” (Léon Poliakov). Thus, in a Europe-wide survey in 2003, 59% respondents referred Israel as biggest threat to world peace.

We don’t need to emphasise that it is not our purpose calling any criticism of Israel anti-Semitic. This accusation ignores the fact that criticism of Israel is pretty much popular in German society and has never been taboo, either in GDR nor in West Germany. Nevertheless, the demand of a right to criticise Israel is often staged as breaking of a taboo. Very often, this criticism has anti-Semitic attitudes like cases of German politicians like Möllemann and Hohmann has shown.

Israel as the nation to live for all Jews is the consequence of Auschwitz and other extermination camps. A Jewish nation as the fortress against anti-Semitism became necessary due to the transformation of modern society into barbarism like Nazi Germany has shown. For this reason we stand in solidarity with Israel, which includes solidarity with defence measures of any kind.

The German left won’t solve the Middle East conflict. On that account we don’t develop and discuss any concrete proposals for peace in the Middle East.

The long-term goal is acceptable peace to both sides. However, we do not blame Israel for standstill in peace process. There is no chance for progress as long as the Palestinian government is formed by organisations with anti-Semitic ideology and the claim to eliminate Israel. Hamas has an anti-Semitic charter calling for destructive hate of Jews. Such organisations are no positive reference to progressive positions in the political left.

Therefore, we strongly condemn recent attempts by some MPs and officials of the party Die Linke to invite Hamas as partner in dialogue. The ignoring of Hamas’ reactionary ideology and that of other organisations like Hezbollah has to be criticised.
We also condemn the silence of a huge part of the left regarding the threat to Israel by the regime in Iran. The Iranian president Ahmadinedshad is an anti-Semite who wants to destroy Israel. With his support conferences have been conducted with Holocaust deniers in Tehran. Gays and lesbians are subject to the terrorism of the Islamic police and are hanged or stoned for their way of life.

Especially for the sake of the people in the Middle East, we argue for fundamental change in the conditions in these societies. There is no alternative to democratisation and liberalisation. The task of the left is to support emancipatory movements such as the women’s and student’s movement in Arab and Islamic countries.

Unfortunately, the left often defends reactionary regimes instead of criticizing them. Behind this attitude is an outdated anti-imperialism, which is characterized by manichaean thinking. An uncompromising rejection of anti-imperialism is prerequisite for the new constitution of emancipatory social criticism.

The core of this anti-imperialist attitude is the hatred against the United States of America. The US is regarded as the source of all evil, which is dominated by Jews. This picture is open anti-Semitism.

Historically, anti-Americanism has been typical of conservatives, particularly those on the extreme right in Germany. The political left had either a positive picture of America (like the revolutionaries of 1848) or at least an ambivalent position. This changed in the 20th century at the beginning of the Cold War, which ended with the collapse of the Soviet Union. Today the majority of America’s enemies are no national liberation movements pursuing progressive goals anymore. Instead they are anti-modern, misogynistic and anti-Semitic movements, such as movements of political Islam.

Thus it is why German Nazis cheered the attacks on 9/11 in the US. No one is surprised by their solidarity with Palestinians and their hatred against Israel. It is no surprise that we see Palestinian keffiyehs more often on Nazi demonstrations than on anti-fascist demonstrations. Also the Nazi campaign against liberal capitalism, financial capital and globalization is part of the same ideology.

We have to realize that not every kind of criticism of bourgeois society is progressive. Ultra nationalist and racist positions have to be rejected consistently. All steps towards co-operation between forces of reaction and the left need to be combated.

An emancipatory position is not the apology of bourgeois society, nor the conceptional negation. Mindful of the inherent dialectic, it is about the preservation of the achievements of civil society such as individual liberties, which are necessarily the basis for progress.

The purpose of BAK Shalom is the fundamental discussion about progressive social criticism and the unsparing criticism of anti-Semitism, anti-Zionism, anti-Americanism and regressive anti-capitalism within the party Die Linke.

* BAK Shalom: Shalom is the Hebrew term for peace, BAK (Bundesarbeitskreis) is the German abbreviation for federal work group.