International Viewpoint - online socialist magazine

Brandenburg elections - a black eye?

Manuel Kellner — 2024-09-25T08:20:36Z

The 2024 cycle of German regional elections finished with the elections to the Brandenburg Landtag on 21 September. As was the case on 1 September in Saxony and Thuringia, the far-right AfD (Alternative for Germany) party achieved historic results and can feel a winner. Co-president Alice Weidel can be jubilant: ‘The East is blue' (the AfD's colour scheme).

- IV596-September 2024 / Germany

Germany: A new polarisation is needed

Manuel Kellner — 2024-09-12T05:27:36Z

The results of the regional elections in the German states of Saxony and Thuringia on 1 September 2024 indicate a rise in support for the far right which is as overwhelming as in many other countries. What a terrible feeling it is to have to hope that in both Länder a government led by the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) can somehow be assembled to confront the far right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD)!

- IV596-September 2024 / Germany

Loss of legitimacy for established politics, heavy defeat for Die Linke

Manuel Kellner — 2021-09-30T09:07:01Z

“It is time to debate in Die Linke and in the left in general how, in the medium term, we can build a stronger political left, more rooted in the workplaces, in the neighbourhoods, in schools, active and inspiring in the social movements, the bearer of concrete mobilization and action projects that fit into a perspective of radical social change.”

- IV560 - September 2021 / Germany

The work of Ernest Mandel, a significant legacy for revolutionary combat in the 21st century

Manuel Kellner — 2020-07-20T07:45:14Z

Ernest Mandel (1923-1995), who died a quarter of a century ago, has left us a significant theoretical legacy. It is unavoidable for anyone who wishes to make a balance sheet of the 20th century and contribute to the elaboration of revolutionary perspectives for the 21st century.

- Ernest Mandel Archive / Marxism, Fourth International, Ernest Mandel

Petty bourgeois deviations?

Manuel Kellner — 2019-07-22T07:19:00Z

This contribution has been published in the July-August issue of Sozialistische Zeitung (SoZ) which is published since 1986 in Cologne.*

- IV534 - July 2019 / Marxism

Practical internationalism: solidarity in Germany with the Algerian anti-colonial liberation struggle

Hans Peiffer, Manuel Kellner — 2018-11-06T07:44:11Z

Hans Peiffer, born in 1934, has since 1955 been active in the German section of the Fourth International (today the Internationale Sozialistische Organisation, ISO). He was interviewed by Manuel Kellner.

- IV526 - November 2018 / France, Germany, Fourth International, Algeria

The Wagenknecht project, a new movement?

Manuel Kellner — 2018-09-15T06:13:41Z

As spokesperson for the Die Linke party in the Bundestag (with Dietmar Bartsch), Sahra Wagenknecht comes from the anti-capitalist left of the party and has long been its most popular representative. With her husband Oskar Lafontaine – both with high media profiles – she has been involved for some time an informal group called “Team Sahra”, which you can join on the internet and which argues for the creation of a new political movement in the image of France Insoumise (FI), led by Jean-Luc Mélenchon. They have announced that this movement will be launched in September 2018, not in competition with Die Linke, but to put pressure on the other parties in the sense of a more social policy.

- IV524 - September 2018 / France, Germany

Elections in Germany: Breakthrough of the extreme right; Spectacular losses of CDU / CSU and SPD

Manuel Kellner — 2017-09-25T15:33:10Z

On September 24, 2017, the spectacular losses of the Christian-conservative CDU / CSU parties and the Social Democratic SPD forming up to now the governing grand coalition under Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU), and the dramatic success of the AfD with a nationalist, racist, ultra-conservative and far-right profile, are the marking points of the results of the recent elections to the Bundestag. Indeed, the CDU / CSU with 33% of the votes loses 8.5 percentage points measured to 2013 and the SPD loses 5.2 arriving at 20.5% - it is the expression of an apparently irresistible erosion of the Social Democratic electorate since the implementation of anti-social counter-reforms of the SPD / Green government's 2010 agenda under SPD Chancellor Gerhard Schröder.

- IV512 - September 2017 / Germany

The creation of the International Socialist Organization (ISO) – a step forward to overcome the fragmentation of the left

Manuel Kellner — 2017-02-23T13:13:20Z

It is often said that Trotskyists love to split. The RSB (RevolutionÃ¤r Sozialistische Bund – Revolutionary Socialist League) and the isl (internationale sozialistische linke – international socialist left) have proved that this is not always true by unifying to form the ISO. Die Freiheitsliebe spoke with Manuel Kellner, from the editorial board of the monthly Sozialistische Zeitung – SoZ. This interview was published on December 6, 2016 by Die Freiheitsliebe, a “portal for critical journalism” in Germany.

- IV505 - February 2017 PDF / Germany, Fourth International, New parties of the left

A victory of the far right – the results of the elections in Mecklenburg-West Pomerania

Manuel Kellner — 2016-09-18T06:40:43Z

Mecklenburg- West Pomerania is a Land (region) in the north-east of Germany, situated on the territory of the ex-GDR. There are only 1.33 million voters. Nevertheless, the result of the regional elections on September 4 in this Land is shaking up the political debate in Germany, up to federal level. It was a spectacular victory for the AfD (Alternative for Germany, similar to the National Front in France or UKIP in Britain). All the other parties lost votes to it, especially the SPD (social-democrats) the CDU (Christian democrats) and even more Die Linke (The Left).

- IV500 - September 2016 / Germany, Far Right