The Socialist Equality Party (Partei für Soziale Gleichheit—PSG), German section of the International Committee of the Fourth International, is standing candidates in the September 18 Berlin state elections. The aim of the PSG’s election campaign is to provide “an alternative to the established party apparatuses and their increasingly identical policies,” the PSG declared in its election manifesto.

For the past ten years the German capital has been governed by a coalition of the Social Democratic Party and Left Party. This administration has overseen the mass destruction of jobs, pushed through welfare cuts, and in general tailored its policies to the interests of the corporations and banks. Now the Green Party is seeking to come to power on the ruins left by the SPD and Left Party in order to pursue even more ruthless austerity measures.

The PSG declares its unwavering opposition to all of these parties. It puts forward a socialist program on the basis of which working people can intervene in political life as a truly independent force. The party’s election manifesto declares: “It is not enough to seek reforms and beg for alms. It is necessary to prepare a social revolution, centred on the expropriation of the major corporations and banks. This is the only way to lay the basis for democratic control over all major economic decisions.”

The PSG is standing five candidates:

• Ulrich Rippert (60) is the chairman of the PSG and has been active in the Trotskyist movement for nearly 40 years. He is a member of the international editorial board of the World Socialist Web Site. Rippert has two daughters.

• Christoph Vandreier (30) works as a psychologist in the Berlin city program that provides support to drug addicts. He has been active for many years in the PSG and is a member of the party’s executive.

• Susan Salamah (53) is an administrative worker in Berlin and a member of the executive of the PSG. She has two daughters and is a regular contributor to the World Web Site.

• Fabian Reymann (31) works as an IT consultant and is a member of the executive of the PSG. He has a son and is a regular contributor to the World Socialist Web Site.

• Endrik Bastian (47) is a nurse in Berlin and has been active in the PSG for nearly twenty years. He has three children.

The PSG is currently collecting the signatures required under German electoral laws to stand candidates. The manifesto below was drawn up to facilitate the collection of these signatures. A more extensive manifesto will be issued at a later date. As part of its campaign, the party is preparing a wide range of political meetings and activities. We ask all readers of the World Socialist Web Site to support the election campaign and consider joining the PSG.

More information is available on the web site of the PSG.