Speeches
Speech at the Monday demonstrations
in Schönebeck and Eisleben
(The spoken word prevails)
Dear fellow citizens,
Anyone who has been closely following the publications in the press, on television and on the radio in this country for months must inevitably come to the conclusion that we live in one of the poorest countries in the world and that the majority of people living here are doing everything they can to keep it that way.
You can read that hundreds of thousands of layabouts are resting in the so-called social hammock of welfare and unemployment benefits, thereby robbing the community.
We hear that schools, public swimming pools, libraries and other public facilities are rotting away or being closed due to lack of money.
We also hear new reports every day about bankruptcies, job losses on an unbelievable scale and jobs being relocated abroad.
And of course we hear about the staggering unemployment figures. People in this country are systematically being told that our country is in a bad way and that we have to make huge cuts to make things better again.
The blame for this supposed state of affairs naturally lies with the unemployed who are too lazy and immobile, the sick and disabled who are far too expensive, the new federal states who cost far too much and of course the usual suspects, i.e. the trade unions who are driving the country to ruin with their high wage demands and their outrageous adherence to workers' rights.
All this and more can be seen and heard every day on television and radio. All this and more can be read every day in the Bild newspaper, the Volksstimme, the Süddeutsche Zeitung, the Mitteldeutsche Zeitung, weekly in Der Spiegel, Focus or Stern. The selection can be extended at will.
Dear fellow citizens,
but is this the truth, the truth about our country? I say no, it is not. It is not the truth.
The truth is that we live in one of the richest countries in the world.
The truth is that we will once again be EXPORT WORLD CHAMPION, as in previous years.
The truth is that private households in Germany have financial assets of over 3.6 trillion euros. (A trillion is a number with 12 zeros or 1000 billion)
The truth is that half a percent of the adult population owns 900 billion euros in financial assets alone.
The truth is that about 20% of the population owns over 80% of all financial assets.
The truth is that these figures do not even include real estate, luxury cars, luxury yachts and luxury villas.
This is not a secret, but can easily be seen from the publications of the Federal Statistical Office.
This means that these facts are also known to employers' representatives and politicians.
Nevertheless, the unbearable greed of the rich and their officials prevails.
Nevertheless, the politicians have taken the side of the haves and are pursuing a policy with which the poorest of the poor are to be deprived of the rest of their possessions through what they call reforms.
What kind of policy is this, according to which the vast majority of the people must first be worse off before things can get better?
Dear fellow citizens,
I say that the only problem we have in the Federal Republic of Germany is a distribution problem.
This needs to be solved and not exacerbated. Do you really think we are so limited that you believe we don't notice this cold expropriation?
No, we have noticed their dishonest intentions and that is why we are standing here. That is why tens of thousands of people have been protesting every Monday for weeks against the injustice and dishonesty of this policy.
HARZ 4 is only a synonym for the labor market policy, the health policy, the pension policy, the tax policy and the rest of the so-called reform policy of the federal government as far as it is directed against the population.
Nobody would protest against sensible, necessary and, above all, comprehensible and fair changes. We are also aware that this indecent policy is not limited to the federal government and the parties that support it.
In fact, everything we are protesting against here and in many other cities in Germany does not go nearly far enough for the opposition parties.
As an example, I would mention Mr. Westerwelle and Mr. März, who are virtually overflowing with demands for the destruction of workers' rights, the destruction of social systems and the further expropriation of large sections of the population.
I think Guido Westerwelle would do himself and the people a great favor if he would devote more time to his life partner and disappear with him and the Guidomobile on a permanent vacation to warmer climes.
Friedrich März's only excuse is that he comes from the Sauerland and that the mountains and deep valleys there don't allow for much vision.
I think that if he had to live permanently unemployed here in the East under Harz 4 conditions, it would sharpen his vision immensely. He is hereby cordially invited. Hardly anyone would miss them and many others in politics.
Dear fellow citizens,
Some time ago I heard that the Prime Minister of Saxony, Mr. Milbradt, could imagine speaking at a Monday demonstration.
It could hardly be more perfidious. First you explicitly agree to the Harz laws in the Bundesrat and then you want nothing to do with them for reasons of maintaining power. The same applies to Minister Presidents Böhmer and Platzeck.
They act like French pickpockets who first steal your wallet and then help you look for it.
Dear fellow citizens,
The economic situation in our country is clearly characterized by the aforementioned distributional imbalance.
Due to their financial situation or fear of the future, broad sections of the population are no longer able to consume enough to stimulate the domestic market sufficiently to create jobs.
Despite wage increases, incomes and pensions have been stagnating for years. For many, they are even falling. While the managers of banks and large companies are enjoying fantastic salary increases.
These are justified by the managers' high level of responsibility for the companies and they are happy to be celebrated as the country's elite. However, this parasitic so-called elite is completely incapable of living if they have to live and work without their money under the conditions of most people here.
I would love to see Mr. Harz on the assembly line at VW for a few weeks. I am utterly convinced that he couldn't screw a Golf together for the life of him.
I would love to see Mr. Kopper if he had to support himself and his family for a year on the income of an unemployed person.
We owe the added value, the wealth of our country more to the diligence of employees and the inventiveness of engineers, as well as a strong middle class and not to neoliberal self-appointed elites or fun-loving non-taxpayers. They play MONOPOLY with other people's business assets or savings.
In doing so, they buy and sell other companies or banks, always with the aim of settling the bill by destroying jobs.
Unfortunately, unlike the real playing field, some playing fields and event cards are missing on the playing field of these gentlemen.
For example, prison and the event card: go to prison, go straight there, without parole and don't land any million-dollar settlements or royalties.
How about a labor market reform that criminalizes the destruction of jobs?
My suggestion:
For every 10 jobs destroyed, one year's imprisonment without probation and the damage caused is paid from the private assets of the perpetrators. The penalty is doubled for repeat offenders. For every new job created, the sentence is reduced by one month.
I am convinced that unemployment would be reduced enormously in a short space of time.
The Monday demonstrations are being watched with concern by the government, the opposition, big business, managers and the media.
Officially, there is grumbling about the groups that like to attach themselves to the justified protests on this occasion, but basically they are afraid of an ever-widening mass protest that could ultimately cost them their sinecures.
But it could also force them to abandon their anti-grassroots policies and finally come to their senses.
However, it makes no sense in a protest situation to only say what you don't want, you also have to say what you do want
We want tax justice to be restored in this country so that the rich pay a fair share of the tax revenue.
This means reintroducing the wealth tax
This means reforming the inheritance and gift tax for large estates.
This means no further reduction in the top tax rate.
This means reducing tax concessions and stepping up the fight against tax evasion.
This means reorganizing trade taxes to improve the financial resources of cities and municipalities so that they can better perform their tasks.
We want the state to make more public investments so that the economy picks up and new jobs are created.
For these investments, we need more tax revenue that can be generated from a fair tax reform.
We want everyone to have reasonable and appropriate living conditions, whether in the east, the north, the south or the west.
We don't want you to be able to tell whether someone is rich or poor by the state of their teeth.
We want everyone who has fallen on hard times to be supported in a humane way and to be helped to stand on their own two feet again.
We want all children in our country to receive the best possible education, regardless of their parents' income. This also includes access to colleges and universities.
We want sufficient nursery and kindergarten places at affordable fees for all children.
I believe that these demands can all be financed with the help of sensible redistribution and that this is the better way. I therefore call on all politicians at federal and state level to come to their senses and finally adopt a fairer policy for the benefit of the people and abandon the neoliberal aberration.
As long as they do not do this, the peaceful demonstrations must continue and I therefore call on all fellow citizens to take part in the demonstrations with immediate effect.
This also applies to those who live in the north, south or west.
Because this is the only way we will be heard, the only way social peace can be restored.
Thank you for your attention.
