Socialist Alternative (german: Sozialistische Alternative, SAV) is a German
Trotskyist
Trotskyism is the political ideology and branch of Marxism developed by Ukrainian-Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky and some other members of the Left Opposition and Fourth International. Trotsky self-identified as an orthodox Marxist, a rev ...
organization and the German section of
International Socialist Alternative
International Socialist Alternative is an international association of Trotskyist political parties.
The group was founded in 1974 as the Committee for a Workers' International, by supporters of Militant from 12 countries. In August 2019, a f ...
.
The SAV identifies itself as a "revolutionary, socialist organization in the tradition of
Marx
Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...
Lenin
Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. ( 1870 – 21 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin,. was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as the first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 19 ...
,
Trotsky
Lev Davidovich Bronstein. ( – 21 August 1940), better known as Leon Trotsky; uk, link= no, Лев Давидович Троцький; also transliterated ''Lyev'', ''Trotski'', ''Trotskij'', ''Trockij'' and ''Trotzky''. (), was a Russian M ...
,
Luxemburg
Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small land ...
and Liebknecht", and it "stands for resistance, solidarity and socialism".
History
The SAV originated in 1973 as a grouping around the monthly newspaper ''VORAN'' ("ahead"). The Voran Group entered the
Social Democratic Party
The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology.
Active parties
Fo ...
(SPD) and its youth wing,
Jusos
Working Group of Young Socialists in the SPD (german: Arbeitsgemeinschaft der Jungsozialistinnen und Jungsozialisten in der SPD, Jusos) is a volunteer youth organization of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD).
As of 2021, there are over ...
, to promote a revolutionary
Marxist
Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...
platform."30 Jahre VORAN und SAV" Like many leftist groups, the VORAN Group hoped that the economic slowdown of the 1970s would draw workers (especially Social Democrats) to the far left. The group was the German section of the
Committee for a Workers' International
The Committee for a Workers' International (CWI) was an international association of Trotskyist political parties. Today, two groups claim to be the continuation of the CWI.
History Founding
The origins of the CWI can be traced to a group of ...
(CWI), which was led by
Ted Grant
Edward Grant (born Isaac Blank; 9 July 1913 – 20 July 2006) was a South African Trotskyist who spent most of his adult life in Britain. He was a founding member of the group Militant and later Socialist Appeal.
Early life
Grant's father had s ...
and the British
Militant tendency
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, logo =
, colorcode =
, leader = collective leadership(''Militant'' editorial board)
, leader1_name = Ted Grant
, leader1_title = Political Secretary
, leader2_name = Pet ...
.
During the early 1980s membership of VORAN grew from fifty to 250 members, according to official sources. The group campaigned against German rearmament,
NATO
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...
activities and nuclear power plants. The group remained ambivalent about the emergent
Green Party
A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as social justice, environmentalism and nonviolence.
Greens believe that these issues are inherently related to one another as a foundation f ...
, which it regarded as a "
middle-class
The middle class refers to a class of people in the middle of a social hierarchy, often defined by occupation, income, education, or social status. The term has historically been associated with modernity, capitalism and political debate. Comm ...
movement." The group also organized a national campaign in support of the British miners' strike, and attempted to radicalize German industrial workers and their unions.
Following
German reunification
German reunification (german: link=no, Deutsche Wiedervereinigung) was the process of re-establishing Germany as a united and fully sovereign state, which took place between 2 May 1989 and 15 March 1991. The day of 3 October 1990 when the Ge ...
in 1990, the VORAN Group took part in the Antifa movement, which was growing in response to the reemergence of
far-right
Far-right politics, also referred to as the extreme right or right-wing extremism, are political beliefs and actions further to the right of the left–right political spectrum than the standard political right, particularly in terms of being ...
and
Neonazi
Neo-Nazism comprises the post–World War II militant, social, and political movements that seek to revive and reinstate Nazi ideology. Neo-Nazis employ their ideology to promote hatred and racial supremacy (often white supremacy), attack ...
groups. In October 1992, VORAN and other CWI affiliates formed
Youth against Racism in Europe
Youth against Racism in Europe (YRE) is an anti-racist organisation founded by the Committee for a Workers' International (the international network of the Militant tendency) it campaigns among young people in 16 countries in Europe. YRE was launc ...
(in German "Jugend gegen Rassismus in Europa", JRE).
After long-going debate in the organization, VORAN split from the SPD in 1994, claiming that the party had become too middle-class and bureaucratic. Some members chose to leave VORAN and remain in the SPD. In May 1994 the group was reorganized as Socialist Alternative. In May 2002 the SAV changed its publication's name from VORAN to ''Solidarität - Sozialistische Zeitung'' ("Solidarity: Socialist Newspaper"). It helped to organize the campaign ''Jugend gegen Krieg'' ("Youth Against War") following the start of the
Iraq War
{{Infobox military conflict
, conflict = Iraq War {{Nobold, {{lang, ar, حرب العراق (Arabic) {{Nobold, {{lang, ku, شەڕی عێراق (Kurdish languages, Kurdish)
, partof = the Iraq conflict (2003–present), I ...
.
SAV members became involved in the Labour and Social Justice Electoral List (WASG), following the latter group's split from the SPD in 2005. SAV activists stood as WASG in a number of elections. SAV member Lucy Redler led the WASG list in the 2006 Berlin state election. The WASG participation in this election was controversial, since it competed with the allied Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS).
In 2007 the WASG and the PDS merged to form the Left Party. Many of the SAV's West German members joined the Left Party along with the western-based WASG. In September 2008 the group instructed its Berlin and East German branches to join the Left Party, as well. When Redler applied for membership in the party, it sparked controversy as party leadership member
Klaus Ernst
Klaus Ernst (born 1 November 1954 in Munich) is a left-wing German politician and was a leading member of the Labour and Social Justice Party and now The Left. The certified political economist has served as a member of The Left in the Bundest ...
objected to her membership and that of several other prominent SAV members since they were vocal critics of the WASG-PDS merger, and she had run in the 2006 Berlin elections against the PDS. The issue of Redler's membership even appeared in the pages of major newspapers, such as ''
Der Spiegel
''Der Spiegel'' (, lit. ''"The Mirror"'') is a German weekly news magazine published in Hamburg. With a weekly circulation of 695,100 copies, it was the largest such publication in Europe in 2011. It was founded in 1947 by John Seymour Chaloner ...
'', ''
Die Welt
''Die Welt'' ("The World") is a German national daily newspaper, published as a broadsheet by Axel Springer SE.
''Die Welt'' is the flagship newspaper of the Axel Springer publishing group. Its leading competitors are the ''Frankfurter Allg ...
'' and the ''
Berliner Morgenpost
''Berliner Morgenpost'' is a German newspaper, based and mainly read in Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous c ...
Bundestag
The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet") is the German federal parliament. It is the only federal representative body that is directly elected by the German people. It is comparable to the United States House of Representatives or the House of Commons ...
for the Left Party, joined Socialist Alternative.
After the CWI split in 2019, SAV held a party congress in which two-thirds of the membership voted to support the CWI Majority. However, most of the SAV's leadership was in the minority and left to form a new group called Sozialistische Organisation Solidarität (Sol) which joined the " Refounded CWI".
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...