2023 Annual Report

A great many of us long for peace. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine brought war back to Europe. In the Middle East, Hamas’s inhumane terrorist attack on Israel sparked a bloody military campaign by the Israeli army in Gaza that has already claimed the lives of tens of thousands of civilians. The Heidelberg Institute for International Conflict Research registered 21 wars and 174 violent crises in 2023. Not all of them are receiving the attention they deserve. At the same time, the German government’s foreign policy has taken a military turn; the Bundeswehr is to be made “fit for war”.
The Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung opposes this logic of violence. In 2023, we continued to stand in solidarity with people affected by war and to further our work on peace policy. The left needs new answers to the question of how a sustainable peace can be achieved. The conditions are not favourable. The Russian war of aggression has revealed how fragile the European peace actually is. Our job on the ground in Russia is difficult. As a result of the closure of our office by the authorities in Moscow, it has become harder to reach representatives from civil society, the left, and trade unions. Nonetheless, we have managed to bring out numerous publi cations on the ongoing situation. With regard to Palestine and Israel, in recent years we have made strenuous attempts through critical and solidarity-based work to make a small difference in a context of violence and counter-violence. The present destructive war, with all its catastrophic and unbearable consequences for the people in Gaza, does not benefit anyone in the region. The RLS has been active for many years in the Middle East. Our offices in Ramallah and Tel Aviv support political actors and members of civil society who are committed to an amicable and peaceful resolution to the conflict, one that would give both peoples the right to freedom, justice, and a life in dignity. Contrary to the policy of the current German government, we see the need to make this country “ready for peace”. Under this heading, our annual report provides a brief overview of approaches to civil prevention and the management of conflict that we worked up and discussed over the past year. Together with national and international movements and civil society organizations that focus on peace and development, we have been publishing analyses, studies, and other materials on the subject, and organized live and digital events. The response to our work shows that it is striking a chord with many people. Our dossier Gegen die Logik der Gewalt (Against the Logic of Violence) was our most visited online dossier in 2023. Our new podcast dis:arm — Friedensgespräche der Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung (The Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung Peace Talks) had almost 3,000 subscribers and about 30,000 downloads within just a few months.
One of war’s effects is to exacerbate multiple crises. The traffic-light coalition government has not risen to this challenge. Urgently needed investments for the future are not being made. Meanwhile, the social divide is widening. Those who had little money to begin with are being hardest hit by rising living costs. Not even climate protection projects have escaped the government’s austerity policy. All the more reason to expand the work of analysis and political education that we do, focusing on key topics like social infrastructures, social rights, the struggle for justice, and social-ecological transformation. As regards housing and rent, together with Netzwerk Steuergerechtigkeit (Tax Justice Network) we brought out new research findings on the different types of real estate capitalist and their business models in six German cities — Hamburg, Munich, Frankfurt am Main, Düsseldorf, Leipzig, and Erfurt. For the first time, one of our studies focused on the ownership structure and business practices in residential care for the elderly in Bremen. The debate on socialization and redistribution has regained momentum, supported by our organization’s information and educational materials. The importance of the RLS as a contact point and platform for trade union members also became clear during the three-day trade union conference which took place in May in Bochum; there were more than 1,500 participants, including many young trade union members. The broader social questions were just as much a focus of discussion as the current cycle of wage disputes and strikes. New networks were built. Any ecological restructuring of society will have to come to grips with questions of social justice. In this context, the RLS provides a space for debate between a wide range of left-wing actors. After our studies in 2022 focused primarily on mobility and the socially just restructuring of industry, in 2023 attention was turned to climate-friendly housing and the heating transition at the local level. Of course, we also provided critical analysis of the UN Climate Change Conference in the United Arab Emirates. As former chair of the European Left, I am particularly alarmed about the difficult situation that the left is facing in Germany and Europe. Many states are undergoing a pronounced shift to the right, which the left-wing socialist forces in Europe can only counter by working together. The fight against the right and for a “society of the many” is one of the Rosa-LuxemburgStiftung’s central concerns. At the conference Europa den Räten! (Europe to the Councils!), we endeavoured to think the tradition of antifascism alongside the latent democratic potentials of the European project. On 8 November, international guests and activists from social movements and political parties gathered at the Volksbühne in Berlin to discuss the rise of the new right and its international networks, as well as the scope for antifascist resistance, solidarity-based economics, and a democratization of the European Union. Historical anniversaries also play an important role in the historical-political work at the RLS. On the fiftieth anniversary of the fascist military coup in Chile we organized several events in Berlin and other German states. On September 27, the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung and the Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung held a joint event entitled Tief ins Gedächtnis gegraben (Deeply Etched in Memory), featuring Michelle Bachelet, who spoke about her eventful political life, the coup that took place 50 years ago, and her experience of exile in the GDR.

Dear readers,
Die Linke is in a difficult situation. The breakaway by Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht and the subsequent formation of a new party represent a deep rupture in the evolution of Die Linke and tremendously weakens the broader left. In a time of multiple crises, the left is proving unable to take up and address the demands of large sections of the population and develop new conceptual approaches. The loss of our parliamentary group status in the Bundestag, the poor election results, the lack of support from the public — all these factors also have an impact on the work of the RLS. Our financial conditions are deteriorating. The foundation will become smaller. But we want to continue to be politically effective as a left-wing organization. As the Executive Board, we will do everything in our power to maintain the Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung as an important platform for social dialogue and left-wing political education. Now more than ever, it is necessary to struggle for political alternatives that aim to build a democratic, socially just, and peaceful society.

Heinz Bierbaum, Chair of the Executive Board

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