One of the guests at the third Asia-Pacific International Solidarity Conference, held in Sydney at Easter, was Helmuth Markov, who is a member of the European Parliament from the German Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS). This is an abridged version of a presentation Markov gave to the conference on March 27.
A question was raised earlier at the conference, as to whether the Berlin Wall was pushed down or pulled down. I will give a very clear answer: it was pulled down, pulled down by the population inside a socialist country, not from the outside.
I was born in a socialist country, in the German Democratic Republic, I was raised in this socialist country and I lost my country. I lost a socialist society and I lost my own country.
In the GDR, we had all the social rights we could ever have: workplace rights, the right to free education, the right to free health-care, the right to get a flat, the right to put your children into kindergarten. All these social rights we had, but mostly we did not have individual rights. I think that in today's capitalist societies, formally, you have individual rights, but not social rights. And you can't use individual rights if you don't have the social basis.
And also, you can't compare Vietnam or China with Poland or the Czech Republic or East Germany, because, maybe with the exception of Yugoslavia, our socialist societies were a result of the Second World War. Our socialism was not built from a revolution, as in Vietnam, or now in Venezuela. And therefore socialism was built up against the will of a lot of people in these countries. Not all Germans in East Germany became socialist overnight: a lot of them were fascists.
I believe it was right to try to build a socialist society out of the Second World War. The question, in my opinion, was how long do we have to push from the top? How long before the development of, and demand for, this society came from the people, from the bottom up? But for this to develop, you must have open participation, you must have a very democratic system.
I'm a socialist. I'm a communist. But, nevertheless, I am saying that inside the GDR we had a lot of undemocratic leaders. We had the principle of democratic centralism, which I support. It means that there is a proposal from the top, which must be debated, the population gives its opinion, there is open debate, then you get some decisions, which are enforced. But the undemocratic leaders understanding of the principle of democratic centralism was that proposals came from the top, and everyone else had to say yes, then they were implemented. Sorry, but I think a democratic system is a little bit different.
And today, we are fighting for the participation of people, whether it is in the budget debate or whatever. But we didn't have it in the socialist society.
To achieve socialism, you have to fight every day so that people will support it. You can't just say "now we have socialism", and leave it at that. But this was not well done in the GDR.
Sure, there were some special issues. Before the Second World War, Germany was one country, then we were two countries, and there was a lot of families spread between. But while the older generation had the right to go to the west to visit, those under the age of 65 could not go. You must give people the possibility of seeing both systems. Because of my work, I travelled around the world, and for me it was extremely clear. I did know we had a lot of problems, but I had to defend the socialist country because we did not have the social problems I saw elsewhere. Each person in the GDR could get a flat, and could get work.
But if you have not had the chance to compare, you can see on TV societies where people can automatically buy many things. And inside of the GDR it wasn't much to wait 15 years for a car, 20 years for a reasonable flat. And the good social rights become things not worth fighting for, and you want to buy more things, and you feel you cannot debate within this society. It is a matter of time until such a society will collapse.
And the GDR did collapse before the Soviet Union collapsed. This was not because of a push from the West: the first demonstrations on the streets, in July and August 1989, were calling for a more democratic German Democratic Republic. People stood up and said "We would like to get another GDR" not "We would like to be a part of the Federal Republic of Germany". But unfortunately we — I was a member of the party at this time — did not react in time. And therefore, the wall was pulled down.
I have a big advantage because I have experienced 40 years of socialism, and now nearly 15 years of capitalism. And I think that we have a very, very good chance of making socialism work, when the ideas come from the bottom.
We have some sort of elections, absolutely free elections, twice a year in Germany, and the PDS gets between 5% and 6%. Now either our ideas are not that good, or we do not have the situation where we can explain what we understand now about socialism. This has nothing to do with whether we have problems with media coverage. In the east, we get 30-35% of the vote, because people have had the experiences and they can compare. And that's why, I think, we have each day, to work out our ideas, and to debate with society. I think this will take a long time.
I am so happy about what is happening in Venezuela. I was in Venezuela three weeks ago, and I got the feeling that the population really wants socialism. People went to the streets with the constitution in their hands — with the constitution! I have never seen — anywhere in the world — a demonstration with the constitution in their hands. The government has installed — together with the Cubans — medical care in most of the regions. They have done a real lot, and the people are feeling "Yes, that's what we want"
While things are more difficult in Germany, where people are more satisfied, today's situation is a special one, I think. Because, in my opinion, the capitalist system has overstepped its influence on the people. People understand that we need a public sector. They understand that water cannot be a matter of the market. They understand that, when we do not have social rights there will be problems all over the world, and that laws must be for all people within a society.
And that's why, personally, and for my party, and I think for most of the left in Europe, we feel that we are on the right track. The strength of resistance in Latin America is impacting on the European left. We think when it starts in Latin America, we will have a chance in Europe, a chance all over the world. But social change will not come automatically, only by fighting each day to try to explain that the socialist system is a better one. We have to fight for a peaceful world; we have to fight for the environmental development of our world; and then, maybe, our left ideas will win all over the world.
From Green Left Weekly, April 13, 2005.
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