On the occasion of an event and a public discussion about the new book by Sahra Wagenknecht "Fragen an die Autorin" in Dortmund on August 30, 1998, the following questions by Harmut Dicke were presented to the author. They still deal with the previous book "Antisozialistische Strategien..." (Anti-socialist strategies...) for which the author is well-known. The author of the following remarks was not present in Dortmund on this day and had them delivered in written form. Originally they also were meant for being read there.

As they are of general interest, as we think, they now are published in the internet.
U.M.
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The book "Antisozialistische Strategien im Zeitalter der Systemauseinandersetzungen" (Anti-socialist strategies in the era of contending systems) by Sahra Wagenknecht is a remarkable work as it is the attempt to describe the destruction of socialism from the part of the strategy of US-imperialism, of Gaullism, West Germany and other imperialists, and as it on principle opposes the tendency of self-denial, of giving-up oneself as shown by many former socialists. In doing so it opposes as well the trend to carry, by these currents, also into the masses today’s tendency of decay and of giving in to the imperialists’ intentions. In this regard we want to emphasize the positive character of the work. In spite of this, we have some decisive disagreements and questions.

For example, the author writes in the beginning: "The exact knowledge of the anti-socialist strategies of the imperialist bloc is in this respect the necessary (but not sufficient) condition for any scientific answer to the question where the causes of the doom of the first socialist world system are to be found.", stressing at the same time that she does not yet in this work analyze the inner factors of socialism. Can one, however, analyze the anti-socialist strategies without going into the inner factors of the Soviet Union and the German Democratic Republic, but also of China? I do not think so. The inner development of socialism resp. its transformation into revisionism, and the Western imperialists’ strategies, and the further development of the productive forces on the whole globe during the said period form a dialectic relation which has to be investigated as a relation. Without analyzing the inner factors of the SU, the growing again of bourgeois phenomena and the growing again of a bourgeoisie the SU’s development after 1956 and in particular after 1961 cannot be understood. The analysis of the opportunistic policy needs also an analysis of the material foundations within the socialist society itself.

It remains completely without explanation, too, why the author does not endeavour to analyze the most fundamental and important conflict between the CP of the SU and the CP of China during the sixties, with, e.g., such important documents as the polemics of June, 14, 1963 or the commentary about Chrushchov’s phoney communism, belonging to it. The author does in no way go into the causes of the conflict.

We think that this is indispensable for the discussion. It should be stressed again, however, that the analysis of the encirclement strategy against the socialist states, of the playing them off against each other, of the furthering of revisionism form an important component, to the further analysis of which we should like to contribute ourselves and have been developing ideas of our own.

There are more essential points which could be extensively clarified, e.g. in a discussion.

Today when imperialism is getting into a comprehensive crisis deeper and deeper every day, socialism must be propagated with the utmost determination.

Hartmut Dicke
Group Neue Einheit
August, 30, 1998