Dear comrades,

what is meant by unleashed capitalism can be read last but not least in the most recent poverty report by the federal government: a society, where many may not live even from hard labour, where privatised profit-hunters rob communities and consumers of their last pennies, where money is apparently short for pensions, while banks and other financial sharks invest thousands of billions into morbid financial pyramids, whose scraps then again need to be swept aside by the taxpayers.

Resistance is bitterly required, and the Left contributed a lot to make objections be heard already in the first year of its existence.

All this has not yet triggered a left shift of the neoliberal parties, but at least a hectic competition in left winking in which especially the SPD excels now.

Yet, outrageous wage dumping won't be finished by a public display of indignation. If you do not want any starving wages, you must also say: Hartz IV must end!, you must say: Away with privatisations instead of sale-offs - like now of the railroads, you must say: Away with the whole Agenda 2010, because that is the policy of the employers' association and company executives, and indeed if you make policy in favor of the upper 10,000 you should not be surprised if the voters run away from you, because then you also deserve only to be elected by the upper 10,0000.

It is obvious that such a party is not acceptable to us to be a coalition partner at the federal level. We should not let ourselves be told by anyone anymore that it is only by being in the government that we can take on "responsibility" and change the country. The Left proves that a consistent opposition policy can be much more responsible and can eventually also accomplish much more than being bound within a government, where you lose your own face all too easily, precisely if the possible partners look like they do.

The tragedy of the Italian left – that a couple of years was precisely what we are today, namely a beacon of hope –, this tragedy after less than three years of participating in the government, has to be taken seriously by us. And in Rome, you can watch with horror who the possible winners of such a development might be.

History does not repeat itself, but that the fascist brown womb today in all of Europe is as fruitful as it hasn't been for a long time, has reasons, and also and mainly to resist that, we need a strong Left.

And we need it so that the passive rejection of neoliberal policies which in the meantime is being shared by majorities, finally is turned into an active resistance which is shared by about the same numbers. This is much more important than all Red-Red plays of colour.

There are many topics on which there is not even any need any longer to convince the people of our positions. What we need to convince them about for the most part is our commitment to stand strong on these positions, that THE LEFT is not and will never be one of those parties that promise heaven while in opposition but trade everything in the moment they get close even to a glimpse of alleged power.

After all, people have experienced all too frequently that this is the pattern by which parties act, and it is precisely a left party which is forgiven this the least.

We will not be defeated by anti-communist campaigns or by snifflers from the Office for the Protection of the Constitution.
We can only be weakened by ourselves if we allow our left profile to become unclear and blurred, be it by all too eager confessions to German state reason and the dissociation from anti-imperialist positions, be it, because a 50 billion investment programme apparently exceeds the imagination also of some comrades within our party, or be it, because trade unions in a regional government perceive us after all not as a partner, but as an enemy.

The great acceptance that we already have now, has been won for being a credible opposition against neoliberalism and capitalism, as the party that fights for change today and has perspectives to offer also for tomorrow, because it has the guts to ask questions about the system. I am convinced that if we continue on that path, then the political establishment will be rightfully afraid of us.