Conference: What kind of Left do we want?

Panel Discussion »Perspectives on left-wing Economic and Social Policy«


11/25/2018, 12.00–13.30
Livestream available
Simultaneous translation in German, English, French

Throughout Europe the traditional Left is having to concede a bitter loss of significance. As those responsible for neoliberal reforms such as »Agenda 2010« and its equivalents, social democratic parties have squandered their credibility as representatives of the workers and the unemployed who are instead turning to populist right-wing movements everywhere. At the same time, new left-wing movements are being established that strive to legitimise themselves as mouthpieces of the forgotten−often with the kind of populist nationalist recipes that are barely any different from those of the Right. How can a contemporary Left redefine itself in such a scenario? How can it become effective again? On the initiative of Didier Eribon, and in the context of the premiere of »Italian Night« − a play about the splitting of the Left against the backdrop of a street-conquering rightwing groups−key stakeholders from Germany and Europe will exchange ideas about the configuration of the Left. In three panel discussions focusing on the pressing topics of today they will search for − as Eribon put it in »Returning to Reims« − »theories and views that open up new perspectives and show the Left a path to a future in which it once again lives up to its name«.

12.00 pm–1.30 pm
Panel Discussion »Perspectives on left-wing Economic and Social Policy«
With: Sergio Coronado (EELV, La France Insoumise), Heiner Flassbeck (Economist), Katja Kipping (Chairwoman of DIE LINKE),
Moderation: Caterina Lobenstein (Journalist)

2.30 pm–4.00 pm
Panel Discussion »Solidarity in a time of Closed Borders: for a new Immigration and Asylum Policy«
With: Berenice Böhlo (Republican Lawyers’ Association), Naika Foroutan (Director German Center for Integration and Migration Research), Klaus Vogel (Captain, Founder of SOS MEDITERRANEE)
Moderation: Vanessa Vu (Journalist)

4.30 pm–6.30 pm
Discussion Forum »What kind of Left do we want?«
With: Didier Eribon (Philosopher and Sociologist), Kevin Kühnert (Chairman of the Young Socialists in the SPD), Klaus Lederer (Senator for Culture and Europe, Berlin, DIE LINKE), Danièle Obono (Member of the French National Assembly, La France Insoumise), Srećko Horvat (Philosopher, DiEM25)
Moderation: Tania Martini (Journalist and Sociologist)

 

Simultaneous translation: Lilian-Astrid Geese,Claire Lochet, Alexander Schmitt, Sebastian Weitemeier

Supported by Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung.