Germany: A political balance sheet of the Berlin transport strike

The significance of this new contract goes far beyond public transit and Berlin. In collaboration with the Verdi union, Berlins Social Democratic Party (SPD)-Left Party coalition in the city legislature has succeeded in isolating a particularly combative section of the working class, pushing through a substantial cut in real wages. This makes it all the more urgent that a political balance sheet of the events is drawn up in order to discuss the lessons and prevent further defeats.

From the very start, the strike was more than a simple wages dispute. Essentially, it was directed against a social principle that is embodied above all in the Berlin Senate: all spheres of society and the lives of millions of people are to be subordinated to the profit drive of a tiny minority.

One of the first official acts in 2001 of the so-called red-red city government was to underwrite a state-backed guarantee of 21.6 billion for the ailing Berlin Bankgesellschaft, one of the largest banks in Germany. The money was raised through massive public spending cuts. In 2001, the city began destroying some 15,000 public service jobs. At the same time, 34,000 so-called one euro jobs were created. These positions, paid at a rate of just one euro above the unemployment benefit, often replace regular jobs.