This article was originally published in early June 2026, in issue #3 of International Marxism, the international political journal of International Socialist Alternative. Click here to subscribe or to buy a copy of the full issue.
Seventy thousand new young members have joined Die Linke since the end of 2024 and reactivated the party. It went from 3% in opinion polls to 8.5% in the general election in March 2025, and stands now at 11%. The party leads the polls among young people aged 14-29 nationally, with 25%, with the extreme-right AfD coming second at 20%. The youth see the party as the only force on the political field fighting against the surge of the extreme right, social injustice, and militarization. Many have also been shocked by the genocide in Gaza, and want the party to fight back.
But while the membership composition has changed, the leadership hasn’t adapted its course. Party leaders Ines Schwerdtner, Jan van Aken, and Heidi Reichinnek can give combative speeches against billionaires, for the redistribution of wealth, for women’s rights, and against the extreme right and fascists. But their oppositional stance becomes blurred on issues relating to the capitalist state, international politics, and the military.
The question of war is, and has always been, decisive for the left. Not taking a clear stand against one’s “own” imperialism, or trying to avoid the issue because it is “too controversial” or would alienate potential liberal partners like the Greens or the Social Democrats (SPD), will eventually lead any left organization to accept the militarist agenda of their own country’s ruling class. This is especially true at this historic conjuncture, where conflicts between imperialist powers escalate quickly, and attacks on working-class conditions are inextricably linked to the arms race and the fallout of ongoing wars like those in Ukraine, Palestine, Lebanon, or Iran.
For SAV (ISA in Germany), which operates as a current within Die Linke, the party’s task in this new era of naked imperialism is to warn against rearmament and preparations for war, and to make the case to the working class and youth that the wars waged by those in power can only be stopped through resistance from below.
“Turning Point”
When Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, the then-chancellor Scholz (SPD) announced a “turning point,” arguing that Germany and the EU had to rearm to support Ukraine and prepare for war with Russia, including in the Baltic states. Since then Germans have gotten their daily dose of anti-Russia propaganda, which includes ominous warnings about “getting ready for 2030” and that “2025 may be the last summer of peace.” The government has also paved the way to invest 1-3 trillion euros into the army, new weaponry, and infrastructure for military use over the next 5-10 years.
All conservative and liberal parties are fierce supporters of this militarist buildup, with the Greens being the most eager warmongers. The extreme-right AfD, in contrast, poses as being “pro-peace” and argues for good relations with Russia, which has broadened their base even further.
AfD’s support is mainly based on outright racism mixed with frustration about the decline of the German economy. The heightened inter-imperialist tensions and trade wars squeezed Germany’s economic model, which had been based on making deals with all camps. This was alongside a long-term decline of innovation, because the German capitalists got arrogant, thinking Germany would remain technically advanced forever. But China now builds more and better cars, along with batteries and solar panels. Germany was also hit especially hard by losing the supply of cheap Russian gas. This led to price increases for both consumers and companies, and to a new dependence on U.S. liquified natural gas (LNG).
As the number of volunteers for the German army is not high enough to hit the target for the number of personnel (260,000 active soldiers plus reserves) a new law was introduced in December 2025 to begin introducing conscription. This includes a compulsory questionnaire for all 18-year-old males from 2026 onward, an inspection by army doctors of all young males beginning in 2027, and a draft of young males into the army if the number of volunteers stays too low. This resulted in three school strikes, each with between 45,000-55,000 participants, in December 2025, March 2026, and May 2026.
Ukraine Debate
The outbreak of the Ukraine war also provoked debate in Die Linke. On one extreme pole were the supporters of a “social patriotic” position, mistaking the NATO-driven struggle of the Ukraine army for a classical national liberation struggle. On the other there were pro-Putin “campists” from a Stalinist tradition. Though these positions were marginal in the debate, they demonstrate the degree to which the war disoriented sections of the party.
The official position of the party calls for stopping the war and doesn’t support arms deliveries to Ukraine. But the party has no clear anti-imperialist position, neither in analysis nor in program. It takes a pacifist position, appealing to international law and negotiations which have completely failed to halt the war. And there are cracks in the party line: Die Linke is taking part in federal state governments in Bremen and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Their ministers in these states voted in the Bundesrat (the body of the federal states which approves or rejects decisions by the parliament) in favor of supporting Ukraine militarily, following the line of their SPD-led coalition governments.
Party leader Jan van Aken argues against arms deliveries, but is a strong supporter of sanctions—especially against the so-called “shadow fleet” of anonymous Russian tankers in the Baltic Sea. He supports “police action” to stop the tankers and seize them, which would be an act of outright escalation playing into the hands of those pushing the military buildup in the Baltic. For van Aken and other party leaders, militarism seems to be a question of clever negotiations, not of class content.
The German Battle Over Gaza
While the left internationally took a clear stand against the Israeli onslaught on Gaza, this issue is a political battlefield for the German left. Fanatical pro-Zionist currents exist in the broader left and within Die Linke itself. They turn reality on its head, arguing for the defense of Israel against “terrorists” in the shadow of the offensive by the Israeli state against the Palestinian masses. While these positions are marginalized, they align with a broader middle ground in the party which bows to the pressure of German imperialism.
All bourgeois parties see “solidarity with Israel” as a defining question, smearing any criticism of the Israeli state as antisemitic. Journalists and cultural workers who spoke out “too loud” against the genocide lost their jobs. Germany is the second biggest arms supplier to Israel, and there is close cooperation on intelligence and security. When the protests against the genocide started, police were unleashed on participants, with many arrested and injured. Police brutality is still a weekly feature at protests in Berlin. There is strict police surveillance on demonstrations, and slogans like “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” are illegal.
The Die Linke leadership are not hardened, ideological supporters of the Israeli state, but they try to balance between new party members, who are enraged about the genocide, and their imagined bourgeois coalitions partners. They operate on the premise that if Die Linke wants to cooperate or govern with parties like the Greens or the Social Democrats, it cannot speak out against the Israeli state, or must at least dilute its criticisms. This leads to zig-zagging from the parliamentary group and the party chairs on the issue of Gaza.
For over a year, the leadership looked the other way and ignored what was going on in Gaza. They only took action after it was obvious that public opinion had shifted dramatically—73% of respondents in a poll said that genocide was taking place in Gaza. Under pressure from the membership, Die Linke became the main force building for the biggest-ever Palestine solidarity demonstration in Germany. One hundred thousand people came out in Berlin on September 27, and Die Linke mobilized around 15,000 of its members in a bloc at this demo. You could feel the relief among many members that the party positioned itself on the correct side of this struggle.
But after this important step forward, the leadership zig-zagged again. They pushed out members who were outspokenly pro-Palestine, and released statements on many occasions echoing the national imperialist narrative on Palestine. This limits the growth of the party by alienating important activists, with some members playing a less active role or even leaving the party.
Iran: Silence and Confusion
The Iran-Lebanon war followed the same pattern. Co-chairman Jan van Aken initially expressed joy about the death of Iran’s theocratic dictator Ali Khamenei, ignoring the reality that the left is also high on Trump’s list to crack down on. An initial letter sent to all members mainly emphasized opposition to the regime in Iran and the protection of Iranian refugees in Germany; it mentioned the ruthless U.S./Israeli bombardment only in passing. This was later corrected by a press release condemning the U.S. war.
But it took Trump’s genocidal threats to annihilate Iranian civilization for Die Linke to come out prominently with the demand to close the U.S. base in Ramstein and to condemn the complicity of the German government, trailing behind Spain’s social democratic government. Unfortunately, at the time of writing, you still have to scroll very far down on the Die Linke website homepage to even find any mention of the war.
Confronting War and Militarism Head-On
Another source of mistakes is the idea that the question of war in general is “too complicated,” and Die Linke should focus on basic social demands and struggles around things like housing and prices. Co-chairwoman Ines Schwerdtner (who founded the German Jacobin magazine) seems to embody such a position. But the “don’t mention the war” idea also exists among a broader layer of activists, even among some new and energetic members. To focus party activities on the issues which affect broader layers of the working class is generally correct, but separating the issue of war and armament from social demands is a dangerous mistake—especially when militarism is at the heart of capitalism’s new austerity agenda. In general, hyper-focusing on a predetermined issue hits limits when it gets in the way of the party responding to new political developments.
If the party stubbornly clings to this approach in this period of heightened imperialism and militarism, events will sweep it aside. It is important to ideologically prepare Die Linke members and voters. The party cannot escape rearmament, wars, or the right-wing “culture wars.” Avoiding issues that are seen as too “political” to focus on purely economic or social demands, even if they’re dressed up in class rhetoric, is a dead end.
If the left has no answers to the existential questions facing the working class today, reactionary forces will provide their own. Die Linke needs a program and a strategy against militarism, and it desperately needs an analysis of this epoch of capitalism. One resolution passed by the 2025 party convention states that the Merz government is pursuing “rearmament for rearmament’s sake.” But it is pursuing rearmament because it wants to prepare German imperialism—on its own or together with the EU—to enforce its economic interests through military might. The seriousness of the drive toward wars abroad and in Europe has to be understood.
There is a dangerous illusion that the EU can be a “civilized,” “democratic” alternative to the authoritarian regimes in Russia, the U.S., and China. Parts of Die Linke are in favor of a European army independent of the United States. Jan van Aken calls for the creation of a German army that is strong in defense but unable to attack, which is a fantasy. SAV and others on the left wing of the party fight for an understanding that all capitalist camps are reactionary and militarist, whether they are autocratic or “democratic,” stemming from the very nature of this system. Die Linke must on this basis take a stance against all imperialist camps, based on the principle that working people should not kill one another in the interests of the rich, but must overthrow the system that gives rise to wars.
The Way Forward
The party must campaign against social cuts (attacks on health and pensions have already been announced, and more will follow), against price hikes, and combine this with the struggle against militarism. It is not enough to limit this to calls opposing arms deliveries or for negotiations. The current phase of imperialism will lead to the emergence of more wars. To challenge this, imperialist war and militarism must be challenged at their root—the capitalist system. The only way to end this once and for all is through the working class overthrowing this very system by socialist revolution.
Italian workers have shown the way with their general strikes against the genocide in Gaza in autumn and winter 2025. Arms deliveries and production should be blocked by workers’ action. The movement must hit the capitalist war machine by attacking their profits through strike action. Unfortunately, the union leadership in Germany today accepts the rotten logic of the bosses, “defending jobs” through arms production. But there are other voices. The shop stewards of Ford motor company in Cologne issued a call: “We won’t give our children for your wars,” arguing against conversion to arms production in their factory, even though the factory is threatened by closure. A group of auto workers at Volkswagen issued a similar call. These are embryonic but very important signs.
However, at this stage, Die Linke is mainly a bystander when it comes to militarism. The school strikes against conscription in many cities have been organized mainly by small left groups outside Die Linke. The lack of national initiatives against the war in Iran and the retreat from Gaza solidarity have already begun to drive members out of the party, and will continue to do so. SAV members in Die Linke help to build caucuses against militarism and argue for the party to take up these issues. The party needs to get back into action and return to the approach that led to the national Palestine demo in September 2025. We have no illusions that we will convince the leadership, or even the majority of longer-standing party members, but we aim to energize the new, young members and help them to develop an anti-imperialist, revolutionary socialist strategy.
The local party in the city of Kassel is organizing an anti-militarism conference in the beginning of June which has a national appeal, bringing together activists inside and outside Die Linke to organize and build up pressure in the party for a clear anti-imperialist strategy. SAV members are part of the organizing team, and other members of ISA will speak at this event.
There is no middle ground: if the party does not take a clear stand against imperialism and militarism, it becomes complicit with the German imperialist state, its deceitful narratives, and its arms buildup. It does not help to say that one is always in favor of peaceful solutions and a Bundeswehr (German army) that should serve only for defense. Such a military does not exist under capitalism. This illusion led to the SPD’s stance in August 1914 supporting Germany’s entrance into WWI. The cheering for the “fatherland” back then is today called defending “democracy” or “Western values.”
