There has been some anti-fascist mobilisation in the face of the rise of the AfD, but a yawning gap where the labour movement a response to working-class needs should be, argues Robert Dale

More than one million Germans have demonstrated against the far right over the past fortnight. Rallies have been held in all the major cities and hundreds of smaller towns.

The event that triggered the wave of protests was rather obscure. At the very end of January, the opposition Christian Democrats introduced a motion and a piece of minor legislation on migration in the lame-duck parliament. It was clear that they would require the votes of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) if they were to pass. And that has been an absolute taboo for the mainstream parties. In the end, both votes were lost. But a political storm ensued.

Huge demonstrations were held on the first two weekends of February, with more to come. They have mostly been organised by groups linked to the Greens and Social Democrats (for whom they also served as mobilisation for the 23 February elections). In terms of political statements, they are against the AfD, against the Christian Democrats, in favour of immigration and the right to asylum.

The bulk of the participants come from that political milieu too, plus the Left Party. Urban, middle class, professional, white collar. Many home-made placards. Little visible trade-union presence. Some unions signed the calls, and a few union leaders spoke, but no sign of serious mobilisation. Organised anti-fascist groups attended but were swamped by the numbers.

So far so good. This is clearly an important and welcome development. But there are a number of ‘buts’.

First of all, the parties most associated with the protests – the Greens and Social Democrats – have themselves pursued anti-migrant policies in government, at the national and EU levels. Their rhetoric has often been no better. Green leader Robert Habeck said in January of Syrian war refugees: ‘If they aren’t in work they’ll have to leave.’ Chancellor Olaf Scholz of the SPD wants ‘deportations on a grand scale’. And wherever the Left Party has joined state governments, deportations have continued as before.

Secondly, the protests have completely ignored the big issues that underlie the rise of the AfD: huge German involvement in the war in Ukraine, a massive increase in military spending, the price of energy, the cost of living altogether, failing public services, crumbling infrastructure (also the Covid aftermath). Not just ignored. The parties involved and many of their supporters are enthusiastic about the war-spending binge. The Greens rabidly so. And they welcome high energy prices ‘for the climate’. Yet, five million people can’t afford to heat their homes properly this winter.

Questions of strategy 

For all their weaknesses, the protests do offer an opportunity to build the anti-fascist movement. A current that understands the need physically to confront fascist mobilisations does exist. In January, it mobilised 10,000 to disrupt the AfD’s pre-election conference. However, it is less clear about the need to couple this with action to address the underlying political and social grievances.

The specific form in which the AfD has developed poses challenging questions. It undoubtedly has a fascist core and connections, and politically informed Greens and Social Democrats are happy to call it ‘Nazi’ (as are some Christian Democrats and the entire Left Party). But the label is not necessarily recognised by the broader public.

And that poses a real question. How to characterise the party? Far right with a fascist core? How to fight it, when it largely avoids holding marches? Nearly half of its voters in last year’s European election said they were voting AfD because they were dissatisfied with all the other parties. In the east it gained 44% of the manual workers’ vote (followed by the Christian Democrats). Disrupting AfD election stands is all well and good, but if the movement is to chisel those voters away, it will have to learn to speak with them.

And that is a general conundrum. Too much of what calls itself ‘the left’ in Germany is comfortable, self-satisfied and completely unable to relate to workers and ordinary people in general. It is ignorant or contemptuous of material needs.

That all may sound a little confusing. It is confusing. As across the West, the political situation in Germany is dynamic. All the parties are disliked, the least unpopular wins the election. The neoliberal monolith is fragmenting, with polarisation on multiple axes: opponents and supporters of war on both sides of the migration debate, a brave but tiny Palestine solidarity movement viciously harassed by all the mainstream parties (and despised by many of the recent demonstrators), a gaping hole – politically – where the labour movement should be.

Robert Dale lives in the Berlin region, where he has been active in socialist politics since the 1980s.