Article by Frank Brunner in "junge welt", 21 April 2008

The good news first: privatisation is not an unchangeable law of nature. Against the forced transfer of public property into the hands of purely profit-oriented private investors, more and more concerned citizens are standing up. And with success! How that can work was discussed by members of citizens' initiatives, trade union representatives and scientists with politicians of the Left Party at the conference “Recommunalisation and privatisation“ that took place on Saturday in the Leipzig Town Hall.


Asbjorn Wahl from Norway. “In the beginning of the 90s, privatisations were quite popular in Norway“, thus the union leader. The social democratic party had privatised state enterprises and transformed the health sector into a market-oriented system, Wahl reported to the more than 100 participants of the conference. The Norwegian trade unions had succeeded, however, to get out of the defensive. Together with other organisations, they founded the “Campaign for the Welfare State“ and developed the project “model community“. Instead of privatisation and dismissals, they were putting their stakes on the professional experiences of the employees. In Trondheim, the third-largest city of Norway, several privatised enterprises could be recommunalised and at the same time social services be increased. “As a result of our alliance policy, perception in Norway has changed“, thus Wahl face to jW.


Approximately 2000 kilometres further South, in Freiburg in Baden-Württemburg, similar experiences were made. There head mayor Dieter Salomon (The Greens) wanted to sell municipal flats to a financial investor. “We organised citizens' asssemblies, made newspaper announcments and organised demonstrations“, reported Günter Rausch, member of the initiative “Living as a human right“. In November 2006, over 70 percent of the Freiburgians voted against privatisation. The most recent example for successful struggles against the privatisation trend is Leipzig where a clear majority of citizens also pronounced itself against the sale of the city works. At a federation-wide networking meeting on 3rd May in Leipzig, further activities against the privatisation of local property are supposed to be discussed.


On the economic and social aspects of privatisation concepts, there was a presentation by Sahra Wagenknecht, deputy for The Left in the European Parliament. The apparently higher efficiency relied on lower wages for the employees as well as higher prices for rent, electricity and water that the citizens need to pay, thus the women politician. What consequences it has if state firms orient themselves exclusively by yields and capital markets instead of the needs of the community was explained by Tim Engartner, political scientist at the University of Cologne, on the example of the railroad privatisation under discussion at this moment.


Apartments, city works or transport enterprises. The gradual sell-out of cities and communities is by no means stopped. What to do? “The Left must become the party that stands consequently against privatisation and for recommunalisation“, demanded Sahra Wagenknecht who last week-end was entered into the game as candidate for vicechair(wo)manship of the party by the current “Socialist Left“ within the party. That this view was not shared by everyone in her party needed to be admitted by Jürgen Klute, member of the federal executive. In Dresden, the city council fraction of the Left had approved of the sale of 48,000 apartments. “Maybe we need to select our candidates more carefully“, declared Dieter Pellmann, Saxon regional parliament deputy, in answering the question how things like that were to be prevented in the future. Gabriele Engelhardt, who is member of the federal executive of the party THE LEFT in Saxony, does not consider this to be sufficient: “It is not enough to have a left majority in parliament, you also need to cooperate actively on an extraparliamentary level with social movements and trade unions“, thus Engelhardt to jW. In Trondheim, Freiburg and Leipzig this approach apparently worked.