The Left in Europe - Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung

choice of membership in a local or issue-specific section and the fact that
expulsions involve a time-consuming procedure. 11
Policy statement
Luxemburg
The policy statement of “The Left” was passed on 29 March 1999 with
slight modifications. The leadership of the Communist Party was involved
in drafting it. With regard to the national and European elections of June
1999 it also served as an election programme.
The core thesis of the programme is in best Marxist tradition the contradiction
between capital and labour. The focus is on a critique of the economy
and the role of the state. Seven of the fourteen chapters deal with economic
issues: redistribution of wealth, right to work, securing of jobs, democracy
at the workplace, public services, social security and welfare policy.
The following basic ideas are expressed:
‣ Expansion of social security systems by raising taxes for the rich;
‣ Ensuring work for all by gradual shortening of the working week to
30 hours;
‣ Boosting purchasing power by a state investment programme;
‣ Reform of labour law, more control rights for staff representation
bodies and trade unions, and introduction of a uniform statute for
blue- and white-collar workers;
‣ Retention of the link between social security and work;
‣ Payment of unemployment insurance by the employer (on the prin
ciple that the party that causes damage must bear the cost);
‣ Expansion of the public sector and public services, mainly in the
fields of housing, health, transport and education.
With its demand for an “abandonment of the niche policy in the tax and
finance fields as pursued for decades” and its rejection of the “policy of
social partnership and ’social peace’ as a political strategy” The Left op-
11 Déi Lénk – La Gauche (1999): Statute. Adopted at the founding congress of 30 January 1999 in Luxembourg,
amended at the national Congress of 28 May 2000 in Tetingen.
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