Speeches
Speech on the occasion of a jubilee celebration in the Church of St. John in Magdeburg.
Ladies and gentlemen, dear colleagues,
The ver.di district executive committee of Saxony-Anhalt North has invited you today to say thank you.
To thank you for the many years of loyalty to the trade union movement that each of you has shown over the past decades. But this loyalty, dear colleagues, is also inseparably linked to something else - an understanding of the power of solidarity and a strong social conscience. Neither of these can be taken for granted and are automatically present in all people.
But for you, dear colleagues, both were obviously present in your lives and given a high priority. And this despite the fact that it was certainly not always easy to remain true to your attitude.
Due to the special "post-war history" of East Germany, the trade union movement developed quite differently in the two parts of Germany. While the DGB and its individual trade unions established themselves in what was then still a reasonably social market economy, the FDGB was integrated into the GDR system.
After the fall of communism, the FDGB collapsed alongside the SED regime and the trade unions of the West also emerged in East Germany. Company collapses, unemployment, a new labor law for everyone and a multitude of labor disputes rained down on the people in the new federal states. Basically, everything was new, some of it good but some of it terrible.
The collapse of the Soviet Union and the associated elimination of systemic competition led to the worldwide resurrection of capitalism in its predatory guise under the umbrella term of "globalization". For years, we here in the East were and still are a low-wage area in Germany.
From the very beginning, the trade unions have been the only ones to successfully pursue the equalization process in countless negotiations, disputes and industrial disputes over the last 13 years, with your help, i.e. with the help of their base. However, we have not quite made it yet.
One of the reasons for this is that all countries in Europe - to a greater or lesser extent - are suffering from unemployment, public poverty and an increasing inability to act politically.
- Hundreds of billions of euros circulate unhindered around the globe every day.
- Unhindered, highly paid and exclusively power- and money-hungry board members of international corporations and banks sink millions of euros every day as part of their global monopoly game of buying, selling and merging.
- Unhindered, billions of euros are gambled away every day in foreign exchange trading - pure betting and gambling.
It is always the employee who pays the price for this behavior. Either with their jobs, with social cuts or, because companies no longer pay taxes, with increased levies.
More and more often, the capital side is shirking its social responsibility. Their actions are determined exclusively by capital interests. They use the infrastructure of the community - indeed, they exploit it, but do not want to participate in its financing.
Politicians - including in our country - have increasingly embarked on the neoliberal path and are pursuing massive social cuts and a massive redistribution of wealth from the bottom to the top. All parties are coming up with proposals on how to squeeze the sick, families, the disabled, the unemployed, welfare recipients and pensioners even more and ask them to pay.
Every week a different pig is driven through the village and another one is added. The only lobby left for employees at the moment is their trade union.
Of course, we can't suddenly change the anti-social aspects of the system.
We cannot suddenly stop the change in values, the decline in values. But we can take up the fight together and stand up to the mainstream.
To ultimately win this battle, we need everyone:
- the youth
- women
- the unemployed
- the workers
- the employed
- civil servants and
- pensioners
We need the solidarity of all and we need the social conscience of all. Everyone can contribute in their own way and help to make our vision of a humane society a reality.
You, dear colleagues, have accompanied our common path to this humane society for decades and have contributed to it. We would like to thank you today and pay tribute to you.
We are sure that you will continue to be loyal to your union, which is now called ver.di and is at least your third union in your lives.
We are glad to have you with us and to be able to draw on your experience. Your experiences are valuable and must be passed on to young people so that the social idea is not displaced by social coldness - so that the virtue of solidarity does not become a victim of egoism and excessive individualism.
Today's ceremony is an outward sign of our gratitude and respect for you, our jubilarians.
I wish you a pleasant and harmonious afternoon.