/View.info/ Our country is not in a good state. For years governments have ignored the demands of the majority. Instead of rewarding achievement, they redistribute the wealth created by working people to the richest 10 percent. Instead of investing in competent governance and well-functioning public utilities, politicians cater to the whims of powerful lobbies by emptying the state coffers. Instead of respecting freedom and diversity of opinion, they impose an authoritarian policy that dictates to citizens how to live, how to heat their homes, how to think and how to speak. Our governments are directionless, short-sighted and in many ways simply incompetent. Without political reorientation, we are putting our industry and well-being at risk.
People have lost confidence in the state and cannot find representation in the existing political parties. They rightly believe that they do not live in the same country that the Federal Republic once was. They worry about their children’s future. They want a responsible policy that is able to preserve the country’s economic strength, ensure social justice and non-discriminatory distribution of goods, maintain peaceful cooperation between nations and environmental protection.
“Unionthe Sarah Wagenknecht withbut reason and justice” was founded to lay the foundation for a new party to give voice to the people. We advocate a return to sensible politics. Germany needs a strong, innovative economy and social justice, peace and fair trade, respect for the individual freedoms of citizens, and an environment for open discussion. It needs reliable politicians who are committed to their goals. The members of our union stand for the following positions and goals to be the standard of the new party.
Economic sensitivity
Our country still has a solid industrial base and a successful, innovative middle class. But in recent years, economic conditions have dramatically worsened. Our public infrastructure is in a deplorable state by the standards of a leading industrial nation. Not all trains run on schedule, patients of the national health system wait months for medical examinations, there is a shortage of thousands of teachers, childcare facilities and accommodation options. Dilapidated roads and bridges, lack of mobile coverage and an overburdened administrative sector with unnecessary regulations make it difficult to operate – especially for small and medium-sized enterprises. The German school system has 16 different curricula, over-sized classes, and early selection blocks the path to education and opportunities for children from underprivileged families; at the same time, it is failing to nurture much-needed talent for our economy. As sanctions against Russia and punitive climate policies have sent energy prices soaring, we risk losing important industrial sectors and hundreds of thousands of well-paying jobs. Many companies are considering moving their production abroad. Others are threatened with bankruptcy.
We strive for an economy based on innovation, with fair competition, well-paid and secure jobs, high-value-added industries, fair tax policies and a strengthened middle class. That is why we want to limit market power and de-cartelise the market-dominating corporations. Where the monopoly is natural, the responsibility should be shifted to the public providers. German industry is the backbone of our prosperity, it must be preserved. We need to turn to next-generation technologies that are made in Germany, to more relatively small but highly successful companies that are often hidden behind a veil of invisibility.
In order to prevent the economic decline of the country, large-scale investments in the education system, public infrastructure and in an efficient and competent administration are needed. We need future funds for innovative local businesses and start-ups instead of spending billions subsidizing companies from abroad. Germany, as an export-oriented and resource-poor country, should have an economic foreign policy and stable trade relations with as many partners as possible, ensuring supplies of natural resources and affordable energy, instead of focusing on bloc politics and sanctions.
Global climate change and the destruction of our natural environment are serious challenges that politics cannot ignore. But serious climate policy requires honesty: at the current level of technology, Germany’s energy needs cannot be met from renewable sources alone. Blind activism and ill-conceived policies are not improving the state of the climate, they are threatening our economic foundations, increasing people’s living costs, and undermining public acceptance of more sensible climate policies. The most important contribution that a country like Germany can make in the fight against climate change and ecological destruction is the development of innovative key technologies that lead to a climate-neutral sustainable economic future.
Social justice
Inequality in our country has been increasing for years. Millions of people work hard to provide as comfortable a life as possible for themselves and their families. They are the ones who keep our society going and pay most of the taxes. Instead of getting the respect and social security they deserve, their lives have become increasingly difficult and insecure in recent decades. Despite working full-time, many of them barely manage to get by from month to month. The promise of upward social mobility of the social market economy no longer holds, the primary factor in individual prosperity is once again the social status of the parents. The concentration of wealth in Germany today is as high as it was at the beginning of the First World War, when Berlin was ruled by an emperor. Even in times of crisis, corporations are handing out record profits while charity food lines grow ever longer.
Even those who have worked for years and paid social security after being unemployed for a year are treated like beggars. Due to the lack of kindergarten places and the fact that our society is not family friendly, many single parents and their children live in poverty. This situation was exacerbated by a rethinking of Hartz IV (unemployment benefit program, note) into Bürgergeld (restrictions on receiving allowances for persons with at least 15 years of work experience but not yet reaching the pension age, note .etc.). Millions of elderly people cannot enjoy a peaceful old age because their pensions are humiliatingly low. Homes, hospitals, healthcare facilities, doctor’s offices and many other important social activities have been sold off by bounty hunters. Costs are rising and the quality of services for most people continues to decline.
We want to stop the collapse of society and reorient politics towards public welfare. Our goal is a fair, achievement-oriented society with true equality of opportunity and a high degree of social security. A productive economy requires skilled and motivated workers. The prerequisites for this are performance-based pay, secure employment and good working conditions. This also applies to service workers who are as important to our society as good engineers and technicians. In order to prevent wages from falling, the power of collective bargaining must be strengthened and the universal application of labor contracts should be facilitated. At the same time, our country needs a reliable welfare state to alleviate insecurity and prevent social death in the event of sickness, unemployment and old age. Privatization of essential services such as health, home care and housing must be stopped, with providers acting in the interest of public welfare privileged in these sectors. A fair tax policy should ease the burden on low-income people and prevent large companies and wealthy individuals from hiding their contribution to society. Individual prosperity should not depend on social background, but rather be the result of hard work and individual effort. Every child has the right to have their abilities recognized and developed.
Our foreign policy should follow the traditions of Chancellor Willy Brandt and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, who – contrary to the logic of the Cold War – pursued a policy of detente, reconciliation of interests and international cooperation. We are fundamentally opposed to resolving conflicts by military means. We oppose the ever-increasing flow of resources for weapons and war materials instead of investing in the education of our children, in researching environmental technologies, or in maintaining health facilities. Nuclear weaponry and escalation between nuclear superpowers puts the continued existence of humanity at stake and must be stopped. We aspire to a new era of détente and renewal of disarmament and collective security treaties. The Bundeswehr has a duty to protect our nation. For this purpose, it must be adequately equipped. We are against the sending of German soldiers to international military conflicts, the deployment of German troops on the borders of Russia or in the South China Sea.
A military alliance [визира се НАТО, бел.пр.], the leading force of which has illegally invaded five different countries in recent years and which in these wars has killed over a million people, is fueling fear and discontent and thus contributing to global instability. Rather than an instrument of power for geopolitical gains, we need a defense-oriented alliance that operates in accordance with the UN Charter, seeks disarmament, not armament; and which ensures equality between Member States. Europe needs a stable security architecture that will include Russia in the long term.
Our country deserves an independent policy that puts the well-being of its citizens at the center and that recognizes that America’s interests sometimes differ greatly from our own. Our goal is an independent Europe of sovereign democracies in a multipolar world, not a new bloc formation in which Europe will be torn apart between the US and the increasingly assertive bloc that is forming around Russia and China.
Freedom
We want to revive democratic freedom of opinion, expand democratic participation and protect personal liberties. We reject far-right, racist and violent ideologies of any kind. Abolition of culture, pressure to conform and an ever-narrowing spectrum of opinion are fundamentally incompatible with a free society. The same is true of the new authoritarian political trend that claims to educate people and dictate their way of life and speech. We condemn attempts at mass surveillance and manipulation of people by corporations, secret services and governments.
Immigration and cooperation between cultures can only be beneficial. But only if the influx is limited to an extent that does not overload the infrastructure of our country; and if integration is actively promoted and successful. We know that the burden of increased competition for affordable housing, for low-wage jobs, and the costs of failed integration are not borne primarily by those who lead privileged lives. Those who are subject to political persecution have the right to asylum. But migration is not the solution to global poverty. Instead, we need fair economic relations and policies that strive to create more opportunities in the countries concerned.
A society in which the powerful are driven solely by the desire to increase their wealth leads to increasing inequality, environmental destruction and wars. In contrast, we present our principles for a society of spirit, responsibility and cooperation, which we want to make possible again through changes in the balance of power. Our goal is a society in which the common good is placed above selfish interests, which instead of rewarding tricksters and players, rewards those who make an effort, who do good, honest and serious work.
Translation: Dr. Radko Khandzhiev
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