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| Germany's ex-communists give blessing to capitalism
CHEMNITZ, Germany, Oct 26 (AFP) - Germany's former communist party, locked in a prolonged identity crisis, signed off a new platform Sunday officially breaking with its anti-capitalist past. The Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS), successor to the political force that led communist East Germany for four decades, approved the new program by an overwhelming majority of 77.8 percent at a party congress in the eastern city of Chemnitz, formerly known as Karl Marx City. BizVantage – Beyond the news - a realtime Net clipping service: for business, investment or technology. "This is an important step back into politics," said PDS chief Lothar Bisky. "I am now confident that we can be successful again next year." The PDS, which suffered a major setback in the September 2002 general election going from 36 seats in the lower house of parliament to two, said in its new manifesto that the corporate profit motive is an "important condition for innovation and the ability to perform economically". The traditionally pacifist PDS also backed UN peacekeeping missions and acknowledged mistakes made by its communist predecessor, the party that built the Berlin Wall. Bisky said the PDS would nevertheless remain a socialist and anti-war party and would fight to reclaim lost ground in elections next year in the eastern states of Thuringia, Saxony and Brandenburg. Once a mighty champion of east German concerns, the PDS has suffered from weak leadership and virtually non-existent support in the west of the country and has now virtually disappeared from the national political stage. dlc/sjw Germany-politics C O P Y R I G H T R E M I N D E RThis article is Copyright 2003 by Agence France-Presse. All articles in the clari.* news hierarchy are Copyrighted and licensed to ClariNet Communications Corp. for distribution. Except for articles in the biz.clarinet newsgroups, only paid subscribers may access these articles. Any unauthorized access, reproduction or transmission is strictly prohibited. We offer a reward to the person who first provides us with information that helps stop those who distribute or receive our news feeds without authorization. Please send reports to reward@clari.net. [Use info@clari.net for sales or other inquiries.] Details on the use of ClariNet material and other info can be found in the user documentation section of our web page.
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