German Trade Unionist Guests at Stand Up TO Racism Trade Union Conference 2024

German trade unionist Olaf Klenke  from the Gewerkschaft Nahrung-Genuss-Gaststätten, the NGG food trade union in Germany was a guest speaker at this year’s Stand Up To Racism Trade Union Conference in London on Sunday 11 February.

Focusing on building anti racism in the workplace the one day conference was addressed by a number of trade union General Secretaries and other leading trade unionists form across England, Scotland and Wales.

A good deal of the work took place in a series of workshops, where activists from trade unions across the country were able to relate and discuss their local experience and look at ways of building the antiracist and antifascist movement.

This comes at a time when the forces of the far right are growing across Europe. Fascist Meloni is already Prime Minister in Italy and the challenge by Le Pen for the French presidency looks a strong one.

In the UK despite the disintegration of the main right wing and fascist parties and movements such as the BNP and The EDL in the face of determined organisation and opposition by anti racists, the rhetoric against refugees and asylum seekers from mainstream politicians means that there is still a serious threat.

The attacks on refugees from the British government is unceasing. Their ‘Stop The Boats’ slogan referring to migrants crossing the English Channel in small boats, alongside their determination to offshore refugees to Rwanda at times seem to be the Tory governments only policies. Their government is in serious trouble, drifting directionless with only racism to rally their followers. The Israeli attacks on Gaza also mean that Islamophobia is being ramped up with Muslims once agin being singled out as terrorists.

It had seemed until a few weeks ago that the situation was similar in Germany but the massive mobilisations against the AfD have shown that there is the potential for things to shift very rapidly.

Olaf, who is an eastern regional organiser for his union, reported to the conference his experience of the huge marches against the AfD. They had been relatively spontaneous, he said with various organisations in big, but also smaller, cities and towns calling  protests and getting a huge response. Significantly the response has been good in east Germany. This is especially important  because of the high number of AFD voters in the east. In fact it is probable that the relative size of mobilisations in the east are greater than in the west. 

Olaf said that it at first took courage for ordinary people in the east to go to the street to oppose the AFD but once it happened people began to lose their sense of isolation and realise that others opposed them too. In some places in the east the AfD have been getting 20-30% of the vote, activists are hoping that this push back will eat into that figure. Although the AfD have been getting good percentages these are often on low turnouts.

Olaf explained that one of the reasons that the right have been doing well is the sense of resentment in the east, the massive restructuring of industry after reunification took a heavy toll on jobs there. There was also a failure by the unions to seriously confront the problem of lower wages in the east compared to the west. This feeds a sense of despair. 

According to Olaf this combines with a racist discourse from mainstream politicians. In 2010 Thilo Sarrazin a former banker and member of the Social Democratic Party published Germany Abolishes Itself: How We're Putting Our Country in Jeopardy . Sarrazin argued for restricting Muslim immigration to Germany on the grounds that Muslims who had immigrated to Germany from Turkey and other Muslim countries had failed to assimilate into German society, lived culturally separate lives in densely Muslim neighbourhoods, and that two thirds of Germany's Muslim immigrants were on welfare. The book shot to the top of the best sellers list.

The AfD have only right wing social policies, they oppose the minimum wage for instance, but they are making headway on a nationalistic basis. In the past the AfD has had a small actual membership but it has been growing lately, it is therefore important to oppose them visibly in the street, to that end there will be a big protest outside their party conference in Essen this year..

Important as the demonstrations are they have not finished off the right, it is important that German trade unions mount a challenge to the social problems people face but also a political challenge to racism.