Dear friends and comrades,

We,  the „aufstehen“ (stand pp) movement – activist association, wish you every success for your European conference against war and social war. For an immediate ceasefire. Neither Putin nor NATO are an alternative for us! Our movement is extra-parliamentary. It was born in 2018 with the decisive support of Sahra Wagenknecht and Oskar Lafontaine. Today, we still feel close to them and support their political views.

This cruel war in Ukraine has been going on for over a year. Russia has attacked Ukraine and must be clearly named and blamed as the aggressor. If we want to help bring the war to an end as quickly as possible through negotiation, we must also talk about the West’s responsibility, the background and the wider geopolitical context. The refusal to recognise Russia’s security interests exacerbated the situation that led to the outbreak of war.

The imperialist ambitions of the united West are obvious. The ruling bureaucracy in Russia and the new capitalists who emerged during and after the implosion of the Soviet Union, however, represent neither the interests of the Russian working class nor those of the Russian people. Even the defence of the nationalised sector of industry and the extraction of raw materials only serves to continue lining their pockets at the expense of the people. That’s why we say no to Putin and no to NATO.

This war is currently fully escalating. It is now a slaughter for Ukrainian and Russian soldiers, who are dying en masse. While Ukraine is failing in its offensive and needlessly sending its soldiers to their deaths, just as thousands of young Russian men are dying every day, the NATO alliance is fuelling the war more and more. In response to NATO’s escalation to bring Russia to its knees, Russia has deployed tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus and is considering using tactical nuclear weapons. We are heading for a high-risk situation.

Instead of negotiating and agreeing on an immediate ceasefire, NATO is betting on the continuation and escalation of a senseless war. The peace efforts of Brazil, China, Indonesia and most recently of the African countries have been brutally rejected by Ukrainian President Zelensky and NATO. The fact that the war could degenerate into a nuclear war that would destroy humanity leaves Western strategists completely cold. To defeat Russia militarily, they are risking the survival of humanity.

The governments in Paris and Berlin are acting as loyal vassals of the United States. With their warmongering policy, they are endangering the very existence of our countries and of Europe as a whole. This warlike madness must be brought to an immediate halt, in the form of an immediate and unconditional ceasefire and the opening of peace negotiations that take account of the security interests of Ukraine and Russia. The opportunist leaderships of social democracy and certain parties claiming to be on the left in Europe reject this formula and are thus perpetuating the daily deaths of civilians and soldiers.

The crisis of capitalism that is already looming is aggravated by the war, thus justifying the general attack on the achievements of the working class in Europe, achievements won through decades of struggle. Throughout Europe, the war is worsening the living conditions of the working class and ordinary people. Social services are giving way to war spending. The health system is being dismantled, pensioners are becoming poorer, the education of the working classes is deteriorating and inflation, also due to the unleashing of the war, is eating away at wages. The real wages of Europe’s working classes are plummeting. The population is bearing the brunt of inflation and high food and energy prices. The unions are hardly in a position to halt the fall in real wages. At the same time, the State’s coffers are emptying, and it is in the social sphere that savings are being made. There is only enough money to spend on armaments, while education, health and pensions are being cut to the bone. We cannot defend social achievements without linking this issue to that of war. There is no social state in wartime.

That’s why we also need to put an end to the economic war against Russia. It is damaging European industry and therefore the working class in Europe. In their allegiance to the United States, the EU, Germany and France have imposed sanctions that are costing the citizens of these countries dearly. We are already witnessing a wave of deindustrialisation and destruction of industrial capacity. The economic war is also primarily benefiting the United States. US President Biden is pursuing a radical „America first“ policy and is luring European industry to the United States, where energy is cheaper.

We need a vast movement throughout Europe that says: heating, bread and peace are inseparable. If we want affordable bread and heating, we have to end the war. That’s why we need to apply pressure from below. In terms of militancy and commitment, we need to follow the example of the French workers who scared Macron. The whole of Europe needs a French-style situation.

But to stop the madness of war, we also need diplomacy, negotiations for a ceasefire leading to peace negotiations leading to a new European security architecture including Russia. We must use street pressure to force governments to negotiate. But for that, we also need trade unions that say no to war and social war in our countries. We need many concrete actions of resistance, like the dockers in Italy who refused to load arms shipments.

Beyond the prospect of peace, we need to fight for a social and peaceful Europe. But that is not possible with this EU. This EU is neoliberal and imperialist. That’s why we need a different conception of European unity, one in which it is the people who decide, not the capitalists and their monopolies. This EU prepares and leads all the offensives against the working classes in our countries. It is doing so on the basis of the Lisbon and Maastricht treaties. This is why we say that these treaties must be done away with.

The struggle of the French working class and ordinary people in recent weeks against Macron’s pension reform, which has set millions of people in motion, is a source of inspiration for the whole of Europe, for us in Germany too.

The federal government is currently under pressure from the right, in the absence of an effective left-wing opposition. The majority of those who turn to the right against government policy do so in protest, not because they support the right-wing agenda. The right-wing agenda is neoliberal and reactionary.

On the 26th of February 2023, we organised a major anti-war demonstration in Berlin under the slogan „Uprising for Peace“. The response was overwhelming. In a very short space of time, we managed to mobilise 50,000 people. The „Manifesto for Peace“, initiated by Sahra Wagenknecht and Alice Schwarzer and signed to date by more than 850,000 people, has given a voice and a media presence to the large section of the population, so far ignored by the media, which is in favour of more diplomacy and opposed to arms deliveries. The manifesto reflects a broad alliance that extends as far as the bourgeoisie. The heart of the „Manifesto for Peace“ is: „Stop the war! – Diplomacy and negotiations!“ It opposes the delivery of ever more and ever heavier weapons.

The German mainstream media and certain leaders of the SPD, the Greens and the FDP have lashed out violently against the peace rally. But the peace movement must go one step further, it must also reach out to the trade unions and make it clear that the social question and the question of peace are inseparable.

In Germany, we had a major strike in the public sector and, through the bourgeois media, the strikers were told that they were already earning too much anyway and that their demands to compensate for inflation were disproportionate. The workers, the working classes of our country, were told that, given the costs of the war, their wage demands to maintain purchasing power could not be met. The strikers have nevertheless achieved significant successes, although they have not been able to fully compensate for the loss of real wages. Other social conflicts, for example in the railways, are in the pipeline.

Let’s fight throughout Europe against war and social war in every country.

For an immediate ceasefire, for the defence of social gains.

We invite you to a peace conference in Berlin.