In the struggles of the last years, we have primarily achieved discursive successes. Left-wing forces have managed to increase the support for progressive positions in many areas of society. This enabled us to win individual concessions, such as the abolition of §219a (§219a of the German criminal code forbade to advertise abortions. This also included informing on abortions as a medical service by doctors), i.e. the abolition of the ban on advertising abortion. At the same time, material successes were rare, real counter power was barely developed. Instead of creating small ruptures, buzzwords from our struggles are symbolically taken up and appropriated by the supposedly green modernization project. The global rise of the right shows how willingly these concessions are nullified to stabilize the ruling class. All the more reason to develop the ability to defend our successes against attack.
In this sense, from a radical minority position, we want to combine short-term capacity for action with the long-term organization of counter power that does not remain symbolic nor pleading. Shifts in discourse remain a relevant part of our practice. Yet they must be measured by their potential for small ruptures and real change. We need to systematically expand the organizing and disrupting elements of counter power, if we want to advance a left-wing hegemony project. Only then can we enforce changes. In the past, our approaches often remained unconnected. Areas of tension emerged time and again: between winning majorities and fighting as a radical minority, between being anchored in society and the necessity for escalation, between rebellion and transformation. In the future, we must therefore improve in putting our different strategic approaches into a productive relationship with each other.
To determine this relationship, we need productive debates, within and outside of our organization. In the following sections, we therefore update our strategic and tactical compass. We did that for the first time in our “Zwischenstandspapier” in 2014 (Our interim paper “IL on the move”). Some of our approaches are still valid, others have been added or gained more relevance in our organization. The result is not a finished program, but a mixture of evaluations, new agreements, challenges and the collective seeking for answers to open questions.