Where Now for European Social Democracy? - Policy Network

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SIGMAR GABRIEL 25The task of the SPD remains:strengthening people and opening pathsToday, what is the meaning of freedom, justice and solidarity ina modern society considering the dramatic change in the economy,social structure and demographic developments? 140 years ago,when members of craft guilds and workers organised, freedom andjustice were existential values in a society that prevented theirimplementation to a great extent. Solidarity was then a merit that wasfirst and foremost practiced daily by the labour movement throughself-organisation, because Imperial Germany did not want to grantsolidarity to the workers. In the last 140 years, social democrats havelaboriously struggled, at times bitterly, for a high degree of freedom,justice and solidarity. However, no one will deny that today theGerman social state is arranged fundamentally differently than theclass-based society of 1863. This is precisely because of socialdemocracy, which has throughout the years achieved significantchanges and improvements for people and their co-existence.In our modern society there are also barriers for the personalopportunities of the individual as well as for societal developments:educational opportunities continue to be strongly linked to socialinheritance; children are a poverty risk for families; bringing upchildren can be incompatible with having a job; increasing massunemployment; the recurrent failure to integrate foreigners andre-settlers; and, the decreasing ability of our cities to create socialintegration, to list just some of the problems. It is precisely thetraditional voter groups of the SPD who increasingly feel that we areno longer sufficiently aware of these barriers and the everydayconcerns. Young families that can only afford children or holidays, thetechnician or engineer who at the age of 50 can no longer findemployment, the craftsman who must spend 10 per cent of his netincome on nursery school spaces for his two children or the pensionerwho has not moved in 30 years, but in the meantime no longer feels athome, 70 per cent of those living in his part of town now being foreigners.Thus there are enough tasks for a party that has devoted itself tothe principle capability of emancipating the individual and society.
26WHERE NOW FOR EUROPEAN SOCIAL DEMOCRACY?In addition it is a good social democratic tradition to not only carefor national – or today European – tasks, but at the same time alsoincrease awareness for people living together at the internationallevel. Starvation, environmental catastrophes or violent conflicts arebound inseparably to the environmental and social conditions ofdeveloped industrial nations and are a worldwide challenge for socialdemocratic policy.The new tasks for the SPDThere are, however, great differences between the empowering contentof social democratic policy of 20 or 30 years ago and that of today. Oneimportant difference lies in the historic success of social democracy initself. This success has not only led to the disbanding of the classicsocial democratic environment, but also the opinion formers, electedofficials and functionaries of the SPD are now further removed fromthe conflict-laden daily experiences of traditional SPD voters.In the past, social democratic municipal council members wereinformed of conflicts through their involvement in sports clubs, inschool parents’ councils or in workers’ councils. Today, in many citiesthey perhaps attend the respective annual general meeting but live ina sphere that is otherwise disconnected. The consequence of this is notonly a lack of mutual commitments, but also in part the denial ofexisting conflicts that do not suit particular political positions. Thisis most noticeable time and again in the fear-laden inner-partydiscussions over the real, existing conflicts between Germans andforeigners.Therefore, the SPD must urgently change the social structure of itsmembers, functionaries and elected officials. This requires not justrejuvenation. Most importantly, it must also be extended to theeveryday experiences in occupational and social life. In former timesthere was a lack of women in the SPD, and now in addition there is alsoa lack of skilled workers, craftsmen, technicians, nurses, policemen,workers’ councils and the self-employed. In essence, the purpose isto bring together as many different experiences and viewpoints aspossible to confront one another in the SPD. Only in this way can
Page 2 and 3: Where Now forEuropeanSocial Democra
Page 4 and 5: Published in 2004 by Policy Network
Page 6 and 7: AcknowledgementsThis collection of
Page 8 and 9: Notes on the ContributorsTony Blair
Page 10: PrefaceTONY BLAIRI welcome this pub
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Freedom in Security:A Social Democr
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BRIGITTE ZYPRIES 87that these recom
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BRIGITTE ZYPRIES 91dispute regardin
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