Not Really Good Times for the German Left...

Hard to say what's hurting the German Left more: the election loss in North-Rhine Westphalia or the revelation that Salvador Allende, the beloved icon of the international marxist movement, was racist and anti-Semitic.

Allende's dissertation as well as his agenda as a Chilean health minister from 1939 to 1942 present a, let's say, unexpected proximity to the politics of the Nazis, according to research by the historian Victor Farias. Kosmopolit concludes:

"So he was a right-wing Jew-hater as well as a left-wing tyrant.
Say to yourself, "There is no contradiction..." Repeat as necessary."

What's next? Che Guevara working for the CIA? SPD chairman Franz Muentefering on the payroll of American capitalist locusts? Former SPD chairman Oskar Lafontaine running on a communist ticket in Germany's national election in fall 2005?

Oops... Lafontaine actually is running on a communist ticket.

Life gets more miserable for the German Left by the hour...

Another day has gone
I'm still all alone
How could this be
You're not here with me
You never said goodbye
Someone tell me why
Did you have to go
And leave my world so cold
(Author)

Comments

[Phil]

Well thank god that Chile was lucky enough to get Pinochet (sarcasm intended)

As for Lafontaine. This is the greatest chance for Germans to finally shut him up, namely by ignoring him and not voting for him.

[James]

Apparantly, Schröder's going to "win this" on his stunning personality, good looks, charm and dark thick hair : "We would do well to lead a very personalized contest which is focused on the two leading figures," he told weekly newspaper Die Zeit, two days after shocking the nation with a call for early elections.

@Phil

At least Pinochet had the insight to allow liberalisation of the economy which stabilsed the country and returned it to a democracy. Let's not forget other countries experience with the likes of Communist influence in South America like Columbia: 100,000s of dead and a country which still is not stabilised. (no sarcasam).

[Neoplot]

Former SPD chairman Oskar Lafontaine running on a communist ticket in Germany's national election in fall 2005?

Seems so

Politically, the next few months will be the most interesting since 1989.

[Sandy P]

--Well thank god that Chile was lucky enough to get Pinochet (sarcasm intended)---

Chile isn't the basket case others are.

[fuchur]

I loved this joke by a comedian Urban Priol, commenting on Oskar Lafontaine´s story how his little son always cried when daddy had to leave for work: "Well, Oskar- he wasn´t the only one crying when you went to work!"

[poguemahone]

Phil - if the choice was between Allende and Pinochet would you say the Chileans were unlucky

Can you explain the ways Allende's government would have been better

Or do you assume it would have been a paradise on earth as long as the anti-American gov't was in power

[Phil]

Any form of dictatorship is bad, no matter if pro-market and pro-American or left-wing. That was the intention of my first statement.

@poguemahone
"Or do you assume it would have been a paradise on earth as long as the anti-American gov't was in power"

No I don't and I have never claimed that Allende's government would have been better. We don't know and to justify the Pinochet-years by saying 'it might have been worse under Allende' is a rather weak argument.

Anyway, I guess I was off topic with my initial post. Allende's anti-semitic and racist views are of course despicable and I hope some on the left take notice.

[Axel Bavaria]

@ Phil:

Allende's rule was ended by the Chilean military upon request of the democratically elected parliament. The parliament had had enough of Allende, the economy of the nation lay in shambles, the people were about to revolt.

Pinochet set Chile back on track, stabilised it economically and politically, and re-established democracy afterwards.

He was a dictator in the classical Roman sense of the word ... a man who takes over the state during a severe crisis to guide it back to secure waters.

It's ironic that the very state he forged is now about to try him for his alleged crimes ...

[Phil]

@ Axel Bavaria,

a roman dictator was only allowed to stay in power for half a year and was not allowed to take up any public for several years after. Pinochet stayed in power for decades. I'm sorry but you are giving him too much credit.

[Jonas]

This can only get better every day.
Here´s my Photoshopped commentary.
http://getaccess.to/wp/?p=149

[poguemahone]

Phil - I think the Pinochet gov't must be viewed in the context of the alternative

Its all well and good for people to list the faults of Pinochet - I am sure he had many though I am no expert on the topic - but to do so with some idea that he derailed the imminent democracy of Chile is simply wrong

I am not saying you take this position - but this has become the reality of the left

There must be a mathematical formula that expresses how long it takes for Pinochet to be brought up whenever one is discussing the USA with a European

I have found it generally takes 3.5 minutes ;)

[Markus]

What happened to the rest of the (in)famous troica? Where is Bin Baden?

[Schulz]

Maybe the Pinochet fans could try to answer this simple question:
How many Chilean Jews were killed by Allende's government and how many under Pinochet's rule?

Certainly they were all evil 'communists' (like Lafontaine, LMAO) and got what they deserved...

[RicardoVerde]

@randlose
Ahhh! Think how well they would have done without the pension plan!?

[Peter]

Just a oT question:

Why have you moved the "Medienkritik Online" link?

Aren't you partners any more? Where is David?

Greets

Peter

Note from David: I'm well and alive and I keep blogging here. To be honest, I don't know what happened to the "Medienkritik Online" link. Have to check it... It's still our partner blog.

[Peter]

good to hear.

[Mike]

Lafontaine isnt running on a communist ticket
a communist party wouldnt be allowed by the constitution
the second mistake - he isnt running at all yet as one
could find out when reading the article in the link

Note from David: Lafontaine announced his willingness to a candidacy, as mentioned in the article I linked to. Check the SPIEGEL article's headline. Don't know what you are talking about.
Also, Lafontaine wants to run on a ticket that includes the PDS. I call the PDS communist - for good reasons. There is nothing in the German constitution that specifically doesn't "allow" a communist party. Check paragraph 21 of the "Grundgesetz". If a communist party accepts the basic principles of the "Grundgesetz" and doesn't support the idea of "dictatorship of the proletariat" there is no reason why this party couldn't participate in elections.

[Sandy P]

Ladies and Gentlemen, may I introduce you to:

The Allende Myth

http://val.dorta.com/archives/000343.html

It's longish and a posting from 2003.

[poguemahone]

Great link Sandy - how about the Che info that may make some folks throw out thier T-shirts :)

[Sandy P]

Che info is somewhere on Babalu Blog which focuses on Cuba and El Barbudo.

Here's some pics of the socialist paradise:

http://www.worldisround.com/articles/161733/index.html

-------------

Via EU Referendum:

The Market Center Blog says, quoting the left-wing New Republic:

“According to a Boston Consulting Group survey, one in five U.S. companies currently in Germany is planning to relocate at least some operations. Thus,thanks to Schröder and the SPD, Germany is not only an economically dicey investment but a politically dicey one as well.”

That's going to hurt, as moving out our army is going to hurt, but you guys will be free of our oppression. Rejoice!

[Ray D.]

@ Peter,

The link to MKO is back. I somehow deleted it on accident while putting in a link to No Pasaran.

[Jabba the Tutt]

When Allende became President, he received 36.3% of the vote in a three way race. The other candidates accepted his victory, while Allende took this vote as a mandate to turn Chile into Cuba II. Castro spent weeks in Chile, his intelligence service was helping Allende sent up the means of total oppression. Allende ran the economy into the ground. Allende made Pinochet possible by his irresponsible actions and megalomania.

Pinochet was left a country in a mess, with internal and external subversion. Was he too rough? Yes. Did innocent people get hurt? Yes. Here's Pinochet's saving grace, he's one of the few (only?) dictator to put himself up to an honest vote, lose, then step down. He left his country in better condition than he found it. How many politicians can say that? Can Gerhard Schroeder say that?

Why is Pinochet such a target? One, he overthrew a wacko commie/socialist, two, he was successful, three, he left he country a vibrant democracy. The international left cannot stand this. If he killed, murdered, imprisoned, tortured, brutalized far more people, ran his economy into the ground, remained President for Life, but called himself a Socialist, Pinochet would be an International Left Hero. Think Castro or Mugabe. They have no problem with them.

To me, the entire uproar over Pinochet, is simply a result of the out of control, over the top, unfair, biased propaganda of the world's leftists. In other words, more leftwing lies. It's just too bad, we can't just ignore them, like we can't ignore the anti-Semites of the world.

[Sandy P]

--Maybe the Pinochet fans could try to answer this simple question:
How many Chilean Jews were killed by Allende's government and how many under Pinochet's rule?--

Ohh, Schutlzie, you don't want to go there.

The way the world is going now, not enough to the world.

[Joe]

Phil,

Well thank god that Chile was lucky enough to get Pinochet ..... What?

As compared to getting Hilter?

If those are the choices, then I would say not only was Chile lucky so was most of South and Central America.

[Jan]

To all the pro-Pinochet commentators: Are you really the same people who praise freedom and democracy every minute George W. Bush talks about it? Are you really saying that one of the most brutal dictatorships of Latin America was somehow justified because of political errors of the - freely elected - Allende government?

This is really telling. Thank you for your openness. Good bye to your credibility.

[Bernd]

Allende:

In comparison to the work of Victor Farias, trying to denonce Salvador Allende as a racist, "Newsweek"'s Quran article was a peace of excellent journalism.
If you check the facts (mostly available only in spanish, unfortunately) the most compromising antisemitic quotes contributed to Allende by Victor Farias are indeed phrases bye other contemporary scientists of the late 19th and early 20th century, quoted by Allende in his thesis, while Allende himself was quite critical about what Farias claims to be Allende's views. Farias' book is a fraud right from the beginning - he claims Allende's thesis was hidden over the years while he, Farias, discovered it. Nonsense! It was always available for the public in the University in Santiago. The Fundación Presidente Allende in Spain will now publish the entire work so that the public can check the facts itself.

As to Farias' second main claim that Allende refused to extradite the Nazi Walter Rauff as requested by Simon Wiesenthal and granted Rauff political asylum. As everybody can read in Wiesenthal's memories, Allende simply did not have the power to overthrow a decision of Chile's Supreme Court in 1963 (7 years before Allende came to power!). Any decision against the Supreme Court's final judgement would have been a clear violation to chilean law - something Allende's enemies were just waiting for. Rauff was never granted asylum in Chile, he just lived there legally after his case was closed. Allende - as recalled by Wiesenthal - was looking for ways to extradite him anyway sometime later. That was just not possible because meanwhile there was the coup d'etat, Allende was dead, and Pinochet hat some working post to offer for Rauff.

[Phil]

I know this thread is now far back in time and nobody will probably read this. But out of fairness: this is an article that heavily criticises Farias. I don't know which side is right but the article seems quite convincing to me. Maybe Medienkritik has quoted some seriously flawed historical research. Time to update and put the record straight?

http://www.taz.de/pt/2005/06/01/a0154.nf/text

[Prada]

Le texte intégral de la thèse universitaire de Salvador Allende "Hygiène mentale et délinquance" (1933) est accessible dans le site de CLARIN-Chile (www.elclarin.cl, section "hemeroteca"), ainsi que le télégramme de protestation que le jeune Député socialiste Allende avait adressé au Chancelier Hitler en novembre 1938, deux semaines après le massacre des juifs durant la Kristallnacht.
Les documents originaux publiés on line dans CLARIN-Chili montrent combien sont fausses toutes et chacune des nouvelles forfaitures mises en circulation récemment à propos d'Allende.
Par exemple, dans sa thèse universitaire de 1933 (page 115) on voit Allende rejeter les rapprochements entre certains types de crimes et certaines races établis par le célèbre criminologiste italien Lombroso dans "Le crime, ses causes et remèdes" (1899).
En 1939, en sa qualité de Ministre de la Santé du Front Populaire, Allende avait rejeté la rédaction que lui avait été proposée par une Commission de médecins indépendants de son Ministère concernant la stérilisation des aliénés. Il n'a jamais existé un "projet de loi d'Allende" sur ce sujet, contrairement à ce que prétend la campagne diffamatoire en cours (qui, bien entendu, n'a jamais trouvé un pareil "projet de loi" portant la signature du Ministre Allende).
Ignace Prada