A German View of the German
Greens
A review by David
Orton
The German Greens: A Social and
Political Profile
by Werner Hülsberg. New
York: Verso, 1988.
This is a book which should be
read by Canadian greens for it is the best book in English available on
the greens in West Germany. Whether we like it or
not, in every country
where there is a green movement,
the West German greens are a basis for comparison.
Like many others in Canada, this
reviewer returns
again and again to the question of why the West
German greens help shape the political agenda in their
country, while here at home Canadian greens remain
on the periphery of political life. Reading Hülsberg’s
book gives
some understanding of how the green movement in his country evolved. It
is not easy reading,
but one should persevere because
there is much to learn.
There is also much to criticize
in this book. The criticism is of particular interest as the Left in
Canada
and the United States starts the process of trying
to understand
and determine its relationship to the
emerging green movement. Despite the battle hymn of
the B.C. Green Party, “We are
neither left nor right;
we are in front,” Hülsberg convincingly
gives the evidence that the German greens are a left-wing
party
AND left of the German social democrats. The German Greens is also a good
counter to the book by
Capra and
Spretnak, Green Politics,
which ‘analyzed’ the German greens from an American, middle-class,
anti-communist
perspective, thus helping to set the stage for an American green
movement/party from which
the Left could be excluded.
Greens from the Grassroots
Hülsberg points out that the
German greens, as a political organization, arose out of a grassroots
green
movement based in ecology, but with ties to
anti-militarist/anti-nuclear and feminist struggles, and the
alternative movements. The defense and protection of
the environment was linked
by the greens to the
deterioration in the quality of life of the
individual. The German green movement, unlike in
Canada,
first had local political representation. This book
clearly shows that the green movement was successful
in
breaking through a social and political consensus based on
anti-communism/pro-Americanism, a
belief in continuous
capitalist economic development, trust in NATO, and a depoliticized
population.
This legacy was bequeathed
by the Allied Powers following W.W.II.
Terms like “realist” and
“fundamentalist” have entered our green vocabulary in North America.
Hülsberg
defines these terms when he outlines what he sees as
four
basic tendencies contending within the German
greens.
On the right of the party are the
eco-libertarians, who advocate a radical politics without reference to
class and
declare war on the
“dictatorial jacobinism of the socialists.” On the left are the
eco-socialists who insist on the
relationship between social and ecological
questions, and on the need to resist and defeat the bourgeois state. In
the middle are the political realists, who argue for
compromise with the SPD (German social democrats) and
feasible “policies of reform,” to one side; and the
fundamentalists on the other, closer in temper to the eco-
socialists but divided from them over the issue of
relations with the labour movement.
Hülsberg is an
eco-socialist, so for him “the eco-socialists are the really dynamic
wing of the Greens.” For
Hülsberg, the centrality of green politics is
not ecology, and he is arrogant and contemptuous towards groups
drawing from an ecologically-based world view. As a
rather traditional leftist (Trotskyist), he brings a left/right
dichotomy into the analysis of the German green
movement, which is often not appropriate. Concern for wildlife,
nature in itself, or non-human species, comes
through in The German Greens
as part of a general right-wing
orientation. It seems that Hülsberg does not
write as a green, but as a left-wing person now in the green
movement. A footnote (p.232) in the book notes that
the Trotskyist political group he is associated with, as late
as 1985, was “hostile
to the Greens and called for critical support for the SPD.”
Also, when groups on the
German left are commented upon who are designated as
“Stalinist” by Hülsberg, there is no pretense at
objectivity.
The explanation of proportional
representation in West Germany is welcome. Appendix 2 outlines the
federal
electoral system, where each voter has two votes and
“the total number of seats allocated to each party is a
reflection of its overall percentage vote.” German
voters have one vote for an individual constituency candidate
and a second vote for a party list. Of particular
interest for Canadians is that Hülsberg shows that the electoral
success of the greens is influenced by a significant
number of social democrats giving their second vote to the
greens. The required 5% of the vote needed to enter
the federal parliament was exceeded by greens for the first
time in 1983. The German greens have never yet won a
first-past-the-post race at the federal constituency level.
Yet one needs to remember - with all the talk of
electoral success - that the greens are a movement, not just a
political party. Here in Canada, it has become
obvious that some people tried to “copy” the West German
model by establishing parliamentary federal and
provincial political parties, yet these withered on the vine
because a grassroots, green oppositional movement
was not first built.
Gaps, but on the
Leading Edge
The West German greens seem a
human-centered movement and political party. A deep ecology or
biocentric perspective is absent. Reading The German Greens, it also becomes
clear that there is, as
yet no “green” economic model. On what basis a green
society would organize its economic activity is a
crucial question for greens everywhere. What the
German greens have succeeded in doing is, however,
impressive. They have developed democratic movement
and party structures. Also, they have inspired
green women the world over because of the leading
roles played by green women. Whatever the conflicts
within the movement and in the German federal and
state green parties, the West German greens remain
on the leading edge. Werner Hülsberg’s
book helps us to understand why.
Reviewed in April 1989, The New Catalyst, Lillooet, B.C.
To obtain any of the Green
Web
publications,
write to us at:
Green Web, R.R. #3, Saltsprings, Nova Scotia, Canada,
BOK 1PO
E-mail us at: greenweb@ca.inter.net
Back
to
The Green Web
A Taste of Green
Web Writings
and Left Biocentrism
Book
Reviews
http://home.ca.inter.net/~greenweb/German_Greens.html
Last updated: September 23,
2007