Left-Extremist Endeavours

Efforts to come to terms
with the Communist doctrine
of fascism
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members of the BdA to attend their meetings as
contemporary witnesses because they are important with
regard to the Buchenwald #) vow of ’Never again war - never
again fascism’."
(Heinrich FINK, BdA Chairman, in: "Neues Deutschland" of 29
March 1999)
A high-ranking BdA functionary strove for a self-critical analysis
of the orthodox-Communist doctrine of fascism (cf. sub-section
1.4 above) and, above all, condemned its openly Stalinist orientation
which had been the prevailing doctrine from the 1920s until
1956. In particular, he said, the "fatal blurring of the qualitative
differences between bourgeois-democratic, liberal and socialdemocratic
trends and policy concepts, on the one hand, and
fascist and racist barbarism, on the other, must never be allowed
again 147) .
These remarks were not meant, however, to imply any convergence
towards the antitotalitarian concept of democracy as em-
bodied in the Basic Law, which is directed against right-wing and
left-wing dictatorships alike:
"It is an ahistorical approach, by pointing out subsequent
undesirable developments, to characterize the anti-fascism of
the KPD, SED or DKP, from the beginning, as questionable
and as merely based on power politics. ... The main approach
aimed at delegitimizing the GDR and its anti-fascist traditions
and at denouncing them for reasons going beyond the
required critical analysis is the so-called comparison of
dictatorships, which on the basis of the concept of
totalitarianism has been carried on for years, incessantly and
unremittingly and with only minor variations."
(Ludwig ELM, in "antifa", October 1999, p. 18)
BdA membership also includes "Antifa Groups" which describe
themselves as autonomous or resemble associations of autonomous
anti-fascists; the youth group "R.O.T.K.Ä.P.C.H.E.N. #) im
und beim BdA" was particularly active. BdA functionaries qualified
the events and meetings of these "Antifa groups" as an "important
anti-fascist activity", and in this context once more spoke
out in favour of the interpretation of violence-inclined anti-fascists.
Together with left-extremist groupings, the BdA took part in numerous
events, demonstrations, public appeals and anti-fascist
action alliances. For instance, jointly with the VVN-BdA, it organized
the "IV th Antifa Youth Meeting" in Berlin on 9 January, in
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