Ines Schwerdtner, Co-Bundesvorsitzende der Linke, aims to establish the party as “the party of the class.” She stated in an interview with the “Welt” that “The Left represents the working class and fights for the material interests of all those who have to work for their own wages.” Schwerdtner believes that the party should no longer use “tarned concepts” but should instead talk about class and democratic socialism. The Linke is not just a collection of different small interests and the party needs to emphasize this more, according to Schwerdtner. “We need to develop a class consciousness that has already made us strong in the election campaign: In our society, there is an above and below, there are the rich and the broad population. This is the office worker, the industrial worker, the pensioner and the unemployed.”
The Linke will hold its federal party congress in Chemnitz on May 9th and 10th, where a new orientation will be discussed in a main proposal by Schwerdtner and her co-chief Jan van Aken. The congress will also address how to deal with the many new members. The party’s membership has doubled in the past year to over 120,000.
According to Schwerdtner, new members should be trained. “We don’t call it party school; that’s not the appropriate term” she said, referring to the SED schools. “However, the large majority of new members need to be taught the basics: ABC of Marxism, organization of a district association, how to conduct election campaigns.” The party has mainly attracted young women and they are a completely new party. “However, we appeal to old concepts and old tools, a bit of old school with modern methods.”
Schwerdtner wants to focus on workers to fight against the AfD. She criticized the AfD for benefiting from a “false association of migration and security policy.” In the election campaign, she told people in Lichtenberg and Hohenschönhausen, where the AfD is strong, “Beatrix von Storch and the AfD do not care about your problems; they make politics against your interests. The Left should pay much more attention to the material problems of people, such as high rents, poor working conditions and low wages.” Schwerdtner said that working people need to regain their dignity and respect.
To remove the “foundation” of the AfD, one needs to take away people’s fear of the future, according to the Linke leader. “A robust social state is the best weapon against right-wing extremist agitators.” After the new classification of the AfD as a “confirmed extremist threat” by the Federal Agency for the Protection of the Constitution, Schwerdtner said, “Now, even the last CDU politician should realize that the AfD is not a normal party with which one can vote together.” There needs to be a ban on the AfD.