The Communist Organization for the Fourth International (COFI) has ended its political relations with Anton Holberg, formerly a member of our fraternal German affiliate, KOVI-BRD.
In December 2004 we informed him that positions he had taken in discussions with the COFI Center were incompatible with membership in COFI. He resigned from the organization because he stated that he was pessimistic about revolutionary leadership in the coming period in Germany. We immediately accepted his resignation, but because of the far more fundamental differences that had arisen during the discussions, notably:
1. His agreement with racist statements made this past summer by the American TV celebrity Bill Cosby, who notoriously asserted that Black working-class Americans bear responsibility for the conditions of oppression they now live under.
2. His claim that the Roma (“gypsy”) people who have immigrated to Germany from Eastern Europe are parasites on the German working class and were likewise responsible for the racist treatment they now face.
During his membership in COFI, Holberg made lasting contributions to COFI’s understanding of the international class struggle. We particularly value his past polemical attacks on anti-communist political demoralization in the German far-left milieu, including its expression in the form of “anti-national” and “anti-German” ideology. His exposure of the anti-working-class nature of this pro-imperialist and pro-Zionist political trend remains useful to the development of a revolutionary working-class leadership in Germany. His own capitulation into chauvinism is a symptom of the demoralization he once fought. We therefore regard it as a negation of his best political work.
As a result of this political break, e-mail for KOVI-BRD should be addressed to “kovi_brd@yahoo.de”.