Left-Extremist Endeavours

January in Berlin) made a decision to revise the party platform
applicable since 1993 120) , no decision was made on whether the
platform should be modified in part or be completely revised 121) .
The essence of this debate was described by Dieter KLEIN
(member of the PDS executive committee) as follows:
"But the real problem ... is the question as to how an anticapitalist,
democratic-socialist minority party - outside
parliament, as a parliamentary opposition, and even as a
party in government - can in a constructive way help to shape
a society which, after all, has a basic structure that quite
obviously is determined by big banking houses and industrial
concerns and thus is rejected by this Party."
("DISPUT", no. 1/1999, "PDS-Pressedienst", no. 3/4/1999, p.
35)
Leading functionaries denied any justification for the fear of "socialdemocratization",
which was repeatedly expressed within the
Party 122) , and confirmed the Party’s role as an "opposition within
society". Thus, Party Chairman Lothar BISKY remarked:
"We have always, as an opposition within society, intervened
also in current issues within a social and political system
which we did not want in that form. ... For achievement of its
political aims, the PDS is prepared and in a position to make
use of the entire set of political instruments available in a
democracy. So the most important requirement in this regard
and at this time is for the definition of the political aims, for the
preservation of the political identity of our Party. ... We
continue to derive ... our political identity from the combination
of social opposition and the claim to acting as a policyshaping
force."
("PDS-Pressedienst", no. 22 of 4 June 1999)
The perception of the politics of the PDS as being in political opposition
to the system is illustrated by a letter to the editor sent
by a spokesman of a PDS working party in Mecklenburg-Western
Pomerania to the daily "Neues Deutschland" of 28 May:
"Given our extreme impotence to bring about a positive
change in conditions now and here, aren’t we compelled to
embark primarily on action in the field of political symbolism?
This, of course, in the hope that more favourable social
constellations will develop, for the humanization of today’s
capitalist conditions of life. But also - and this should be
explicitly underlined - in the sense of a form of opposition to
the system which does not flinch from crossing the line to the
readiness, some day, to overcome this smart and, at the
same time, cruel system of exploitation!"
At the "Europe Party Conference" (2 nd meeting of the 6 th Party
Convention on 6/7 March in Suhl), the delegates - about 400 -
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