A-Infos (en) Germany, Die Platform: Together against the traffic light government's impoverishment policy: solidarity with the farmers' protests! (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

Save, save, save: This has been the agenda of the traffic light 
government since the end of last year. With the budget ruling of the 
Federal Constitutional Court last November, the severity with which this 
project is being pursued has once again increased dramatically. Heating 
our apartments is becoming more expensive because the energy price brake 
is expiring earlier than initially planned; The sanctions regime, which 
already harasses those receiving civil benefit every month, will be 
further tightened. It was already clear that the 49 euro ticket would 
soon have to be called the more than 49 euro ticket and that the minimum 
wage would only be increased by a few cents. At the same time, spending 
on the Bundeswehr will not be affected. Billions upon billions continue 
to flow into the armament of German imperialism, which wants to assert 
itself in times of increasing contradictions between the imperialist blocs.

Those who suffer most from this austerity agenda are, above all, us wage 
earners. We are supposed to accept more and more deteriorations in our 
living standards and are forced to accept more and more lousy jobs with 
more and more harassment. So that we can swallow this, the government 
has declared for weeks that it does not want to affect social spending. 
Let's be realistic: It is only a matter of time before further parts of 
the welfare state are dismantled in order to make us as a class and thus 
the German capital that exploits our labor more internationally competitive.

But the government's austerity agenda is not only aimed at wage earners. 
The removal of two subsidies in agriculture - the agricultural diesel 
refund and the vehicle tax exemption - is hitting farmers hard. Exactly 
how hard depends primarily on the size of the farm. While large farms 
can still make up for a few missing thousands of euros, small farms 
where farmers work alone or with a few employees are sometimes in acute 
danger of their existence. The everyday life of bosses of small 
agricultural businesses and their wage workers has been characterized 
for decades (to varying degrees) by existential fears, overwork and 
precarious living and working conditions.

Contrary to what the government claims, the removal of subsidies is in 
no way a contribution to climate protection. This portrayal obscures the 
view of the austerity agenda as the true motive, drives a wedge between 
environmental activists, small farmers and agricultural wage earners and 
thus plays directly into the hands of the government. There are simply 
no alternatives for most of the expenses that no longer need to be 
offset. Removing the subsidies will not reduce emissions, but will 
increase the economic burden on small farmers. The result is the further 
precarization of small farmers and, as a result, the precarization and 
the possibility of large waves of layoffs among their wage workers.

An ecological restructuring of the (agricultural) economy is urgently 
needed. But it will only really be possible in a society that bases 
production and distribution on needs and ecological compatibility rather 
than on profit maximization. The ecological transformation must be 
carried out from below; grassroots democracy through the small farmers 
and workers who collectivize the companies and federate regionally with 
other companies, sectors and municipalities.

We are under no illusions: this perspective is not shared by most of the 
farmers now affected. They are currently mobilizing locally, regionally 
and nationally to defend their direct economic interests - against the 
removal of subsidies. Because these measures are directed against all 
farmers, the mobilizations include owners of both smaller and larger 
farms. At the same time, non-farming forces are also showing solidarity 
with the protests. In addition to right-wing bourgeois sectors from the 
CDU to the Free Voters, it is particularly openly reactionary political 
forces from the AfD to neo-Nazi forces that are going on the offensive 
to exploit the farmers' anger at the traffic light government for their 
own political advantage. In parts of the farming community they can 
build on existing reactionary attitudes. What is particularly perfidious 
is the superficial linking of the economic demands with the incitement 
by extreme right-wing forces against migrants, who themselves make up a 
considerable part of the (seasonal) wage workers in the agricultural 
industry. The fact that reactionary actors can make their way into the 
protest movement comparatively successfully is also due to their 
long-standing ingratiation with farmers and their ability to coordinate 
within a short period of time.

The fact that progressive forces are comparatively weak is also due to 
the fact that the radical left in the Federal Republic of Germany has 
largely withdrawn from the entire field of agriculture in recent years 
and decades. But the most promising way to change this is to show 
solidarity with the farmers' protest, to actively join it and to 
strengthen progressive positions and push out reactionary ones. Because 
the protest against the removal of subsidies is legitimate and worth 
supporting. However, it is clear to us that the farmers are not a 
uniform mass. Our solidarity goes above all to small farmers who are in 
danger of losing their livelihoods and, of course, always to wage 
workers in the affected sectors. Now and throughout the year as these 
workers fight for better conditions.

We very much welcome the fact that the agricultural workers are calling, 
in the form of their industry union initiative, the Green Trades 
Initiative of the Free Workers' Union (FAU), to support the coming 
protests and are already doing so in some places. Such actions will take 
place in many regions of Germany until January 15th. Let us be present 
there as members and supporters of the FAU, environmental activists or 
simply as solidarity workers, spread our anti-capitalist and ecological 
perspective and push back reactionary appropriation as well as bourgeois 
positions! Be sure to keep up to date with the Green Trades Initiative 
about current developments and disseminate their analyzes and positioning.

Support the farmers' protests!
For a common fight against the government's impoverishment policy!

https://www.dieplattform.org/2024/01/12/zusammen-gegen-die-verarmungspolitik-der-ampel-regierung-solidaritaet-mit-den-baeuerinnenprotesten/#more-2820
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