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London Fixed Gear and Single-Speed is a community of fixed gear and single-speed cyclists.
@Oliver Schick
A lot of what's happening right now is such a reminder of how the splits in the left occurred that weakened it so much. Jeremy Corbyn, of course, lived through all of this and will be acutely aware of the history. Old battles are being re-fought, such as that over unilateral disarmament. This affected the German left very much, too. It's interesting to remember that the German Greens had their origin in the Peace Movement, which effectively renounced the German SPD when Helmut Schmidt, then the Federal Chancellor, supported the development of a response to the Soviet Union's deployment of SS-20 missiles in Eastern Europe. This led to the NATO Double-Track Decision. In the political turmoil that followed, Schmidt, ironically, was deserted by the FDP, his coalition partner, ushering in 16 disastrous years under Helmut Kohl.
Since the annexation of East Germany, the German left has additionally been split another way, with the remnants of the former ruling party of the GDR first becoming the PDS and later fusing with Oscar Lafontaine's Die Linke. Although, strictly speaking, the Greens are not purely a left-wing party, having distinctly bourgeois elements, especially in Baden-Württemberg, where they are in government, between them these three parties (SPD, Linke, and the Greens) currently have more seats in the German Bundestag than the German Conservatives.
It's often said that many people in this country who are Green Party members joined it because of disaffection with Labour. Now Corbyn may be setting out to heal the rifts of forty years ago. :)
#jc
#thesecondcoming