Richard D. Wolff

Dear Richard, I listened to your Economic Update: Higher Ed Class Struggles of Sept. 26. You mentioned the success of the Left Party (Die Linke) in Berlin. Unfortunately in the rest of Germany the results of this party in the elections are decreasing. Instead a new right wing party (AFD - Alternative fuer Deutschland) is getting votes north of 10 %. The reason for this are the refugees that are coming to Germany. Many people of the middle class and such that are in precarious jobs are scared about this. The capitalists use the immigrants to put pressure on the working to keep the wages down. The AFD even wants to abolish the minimum wages and to cut taxes for the rich and the companies. But this has no negative effect on their success in elections. The left party has the problem that in the opinion of most germans they are the successors of the SED (Socialist Party of the former GDR). After 1990 the other parties in Germany were able to demonize socialism as something bad by pointing on the GDR, that collapsed in 1989. Germans think that socialists want to controll everything and everybody. This kind of brainwash was really successfull. Even the SPD (Socialdemocratic Party) cancelled the word socialism in their party program. You are currently not able to get a 30 % vote for a politic that is advantageous for 80 % of the people in Germany.. We have to do a lot of work here in our country to convince the people that it is crazy that 1 % has as much money as the lower 50 %. The OECD stated that the chances for kids of industry workers in Germany to enter a college are the worst in all of Europe. Let us try to change this. Bill