A-Infos (en) France, UCL AL #346 - Agricultural mobilizations in Germany: The seed of austerity grows a field of protest (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

Here we translate a text published by the German anarchist organization 
Die Plattform. She denounces the austerity carried out by the 
government, austerity which is currently affecting the German peasantry 
among whom anger is brewing. ---- Save, save, save: this agenda of the 
Ampel government[1]does not only date from the end of last year. With 
the budget decision of the Federal Constitutional Court last November, 
the rigor with which this project is being pursued has increased 
drastically. Heating homes will cost more and the sanctions regime, 
which already harasses Bürgergeld[2]beneficiaries every month, will be 
further tightened. It was also clear that the minimum wage would only be 
increased by a few cents. At the same time, spending on the German army 
is not affected. Billions therefore continue to be invested in the 
rearmament of imperialism which wants to assert itself at a time when 
the contradictions between the imperialist blocs are intensifying.

The victims of this austerity agenda are above all us, the employees. We 
must accept more and more deteriorations in our standard of living and 
be pushed to accept miserable jobs. To make us swallow this, the 
government declared for weeks that it did not want to touch social 
spending. Let's be realistic: it's only a matter of time before other 
parts of the welfare state are dismantled to make us more 
internationally competitive as a class, and thus to the German capital 
that exploits our work.

Austerity even in the fields
But the government's austerity agenda is not only directed against 
workers. The removal of two subsidies in agriculture - the reimbursement 
of agricultural diesel and the exemption from vehicle tax - hits farmers 
hard. While large farms can still face a few thousand euros missing, 
small farms are sometimes seriously threatened. However, the daily lives 
of small farmers and their employees have already been marked for 
decades by overwork and precarious living and working conditions.

Recovery of the right and the extreme right
Contrary to what the government claims, removing subsidies does not 
contribute anything to climate protection. It masks the real motive of 
the austerity agenda, widens the gap between environmental activists, 
small farms and agricultural workers and thus plays into the hands of 
the government. The elimination of subsidies therefore does not reduce 
emissions, but increases the economic burden on the most precarious 
farmers. The result is increased precariousness which can lead to the 
possibility of large waves of layoffs.

An ecological transformation of the economy is urgently needed. But it 
will only really be possible in a society that orients production and 
distribution according to needs and ecological compatibility rather than 
profit maximization. Ecological transformation must be carried out from 
below; in a democratic way, at the grassroots level, by modest farmers 
who collectivize farms and federate at the regional level with other 
farms, branches and municipalities.

We have no illusions. This perspective is not shared by most of those 
affected. They are currently mobilizing at local, regional and national 
level to defend their direct economic interests against the removal of 
subsidies. As these measures are directed against all farmers, the 
mobilizations include both owners of small and large farms.

At the same time, non-farmer forces are showing solidarity with the 
protests. In addition to the right-wing bourgeois sectors, from the 
CDU[3]to the Freie Wähler[4], there are openly reactionary political 
forces, from the AfD[5]to the neo-Nazi forces, which are going on the 
offensive in order to exploit the anger of farmers against the Ampel 
government for their own political gain. And in part of the peasantry, 
they can rely on existing reactionary attitudes.

It is particularly perfidious for far-right forces to superficially link 
economic grievances to hatred of migrants, who themselves represent a 
considerable portion of the agricultural industry's workforce. . If the 
reactionary movements manage to find their way into the protest, it is 
also because they have been addressing the agricultural world for a long 
time and are able to coordinate in a short time.

Join the movement, counter the reactionaries
The fact that the progressive forces are relatively weak is also due to 
the fact that the radical left in the FRG has largely disinvested from 
the agricultural sector in recent decades. But the most promising way to 
change this is to stand in solidarity with the protest, to actively join 
it, to strengthen progressive positions and drive out reactionaries. 
Because the protest against the elimination of subsidies is legitimate 
and deserves to be supported. We are, however, aware that the peasantry 
is not a homogeneous mass. Our solidarity goes above all to small farms 
whose existence is threatened and of course to the employees of the 
sectors concerned.

We welcome the fact that agricultural workers, through their sectoral 
union initiative[6], are calling for support for the upcoming protests 
and are already doing so in places. Let us be present as members and 
supporters of the FAU, environmental activists or simply as solidarity 
workers. Let's disseminate our anti-capitalist and ecological 
perspective and reject reactionary recoveries as well as bourgeois 
positions!

Die Plattform, January 12, 2024

To validate

[1]Political coalition between the SPD (social democrats), the FDP 
(liberal democrats) and Die Grünen (greens).

[2]"Citizen's allowance", equivalent to basic unemployment benefit.

[3]Christian Democratic Union.

[4]Right-wing liberal party.

[5]Alternative für Deutschland, far-right nationalist party.

[6]The Green Jobs Initiative of the Free Workers' Union (FAU).

https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Mobilisations-agricoles-en-Allemagne-La-graine-de-l-austerite-fait-pousser-un
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