Die Wahl 2006, die Linke und der jähe Bedarf an Gespenstern…

Inhalt Eine Wahl ohne Wahl – Grundmerkmale der Wahlauseinandersetzung 2006 Warum die Linke 2006 scheinbar alles nur falsch machen kann Wozu eigentlich noch wählen? Die Delegitimierung der Politik und ihre Ursachen Worum geht es eigentlich? Der »Lagerwahlkampf« und das Argument der »verlorenen Stimme« Der Mensch als Kostenfaktor: Die Erosion des Politikfelds Sozialpolitik Getrennt marschieren, vereint schlagen? PDS und WASG und das wahltechnische Problem Dem Nein eine Stimme: Handlungsoptionen für die Linke Vom Schatten zum Gespenst »Die Gesellschaft findet sich plötzlich in einen Zustand momentaner Barbarei zurückversetzt ... die Industrie, der Handel scheinen vernichtet, und warum? Weil sie zu viel Zivilisation, zu viel Lebensmittel, zu viel Industrie, zu viel Handel besitzt ... Wodurch überwindet die Bourgeoisie die Krisen? Einerseits durch die erzwungene Vernichtung einer Masse von Produktivkräften; andererseits durch die Eroberung neuer Märkte und die gründlichere Ausbeutung alter Märkte. Wodurch also? Dadurch, dass sie allseitigere und gewaltigere Krisen vorbereitet und die Mittel, den Krisen vorzubeugen, vermindert.« Dieser Befund, aus dem Kommunistischen Manifest von 1848, liest sich wie eine unmittelbare Zustandsbeschreibung der gesellschaftlichen Verhältnisse im heutigen fortgeschrittenen Neoliberalismus. Das Manifest muss auch zur regelmäßigen Lektüre der Hartz-Kommission gehört haben; am Ende des angeblichen Jahrhundert-Reformwerks werden die im Manifest beschriebenen Verhältnisse des totalen Arbeitsmarkts stehen: »Die Arbeiter, die sich stückweis verkaufen müssen, sind eine Ware wie jeder andere Handelsartikel und daher gleichmäßig allen Wechselfällen der Konkurrenz, allen Schwankungen des Marktes ausgesetzt ... In demselben Maße, in dem die Widerwärtigkeit der Arbeit wächst, nimmt daher der Lohn ab.« Was fehlt, ist das Gespenst

Insertion of T4-lysozyme (T4L) can be a useful tool for studying olfactory-related GPCRs.

The detergents used to solubilize GPCRs can make crystal growth the rate-limiting step in determining their structure. The Kobilka laboratory showed that insertion of T4-lysozyme (T4L) in the 3rd intracellular loop is a promising strategy towards increasing the solvent-exposed receptor area, and hence the number of possible lattice-forming contacts. The potential to use T4L with the olfactory-related receptors hOR17-4 and hVN1R1 was thus tested. The structure and function of native and T4L-variants were compared. Both receptors localized to the cell membrane, and could initiate ligand-activated signaling. Purified receptors not only had the predicted alpha-helical structures, but also bound their ligands canthoxal (MW = 178.23) and myrtenal (MW = 150.22). Interestingly, the T4L variants had higher percentages of soluble monomers compared to protein aggregates, effectively increasing the protein yield that could be used for structural and function studies. They also bound their ligands for longer times, suggesting higher receptor stability. Our results indicate that a T4L insertion may be a general method for obtaining GPCRs suitable for structural studies

Die Linke today: fears and desires

Just seven years after its birth, Germany’s new party of the radical left, Die Linke (Left Party), has experienced a severe crisis. Having lost support even in the face of the financial and eurozone crises, and without any clear strategy for the next electoral campaign, it was evident long before the party’s important convention in Göttingen in June 2012 that the enthusiastic dynamic that greeted the party’s foundational years from 2005 to 2009 had worn out. Its standing in national polls since the autumn of 2010 fell by half, from 12 to 6 per cent, while by 2012 the maverick Pirate Party emerged to suck up protest votes. In the eastern states of the former GDR (German Democratic Republic), Die Linke’s electoral ground proved more stable, even though it lost its representation in the state of Berlin’s governing coalition. On the western side, the electoral blows were harder, as Die Linke lost all its parliamentary seats in two states, including in the country’s largest, North Rhine-Westphalia – where the rise of the new party had begun just seven years earlier. As the media played on unfortunate statements by its leaders in political debates and internal party quarrels, a complete electoral meltdown in the 2013 federal election seemed quite likely. Is there anything to learn from the experience of the German Left Party? First, bringing a new political actor into existence needs a window of opportunity. There must be a chance to reach within a short time a critical mass of cadre and public support. Second, the new political instrument has to include a broad spectrum of different left experiences and approaches. The political times are changing and we do not know which aspects of left politics will be needed two years from now. There is no sense in narrowing down options, and the time for single-focus vanguard parties has passed. Third, while the party needs to serve a function beyond just the electoral one, it cannot just function as a home for leftists: it needs to find a necessary function beyond this that people much more broadly can see the party as especially useful for, one that connects with the specific national traditions and contexts of its political system. Fourth, the party needs to be a space for mass dialogue and debate. The very complicated antagonisms and misunderstandings between different political traditions and experiences have their origin in the differentiation and experiences of the working classes today. Listening to each other will pay off, and exploiting prejudices for internal power politics will not. Fifth, the party must be able to explain at any time why its electoral successes do really serve the greater goal of political change, against reservations that by taking votes away from parties of the centre-left they help conservative or reactionary governments get elected. And relatedly, we must face the question of whether criticism of the parties of the centre-left demobilizes more voters than we mobilize for the left. Such questions about the over-all positive contribution the party is making to the relations of power between left and right in general are ones that every attempt to establish a strong socialist party will have to face in any country. As Brecht once put it, it is not enough to drive your own car; you need to have all the other cars around you in mind if you want to avoid accidents