Linke on foreign affairs and defence

The Left wants Hamburg to reject rearmament packages in the Bundesrat and oppose intermediate-range missiles in Germany. It favors diplomacy, disarmament, and international understanding, arguing that military spending ties up money needed for housing, health, and education.

The Left is against more weapons for the military. Hamburg should vote against them in the Bundesrat. The Bundesrat represents the German states. The Left also wants no new missiles in Germany. Hamburg should take in soldiers who refuse to fight.

Hamburg should oppose arms packages in the Bundesrat and reject the stationing of intermediate-range missiles. The city should take in deserters and issue them replacement passports. Sister-city partnerships should be deepened and youth exchanges expanded. The platform notes that peace and international understanding were written into the constitution as a lesson from fascism and two world wars, and it sees opposing armament as part of defending democracy.

The Left wants to end arms exports and backs a citizens' initiative to ban weapons shipments through the Port of Hamburg. The arms industry should be converted to civilian, social, and ecological production.

The Left wants no weapons shipments through the Port of Hamburg. It supports a citizens' initiative for this. Arms companies should make other things in the future. This is called conversion.

The party is taking part in the citizens' initiative against arms handling in the port, together with trade unions, church groups, peace initiatives, and migrant organizations. The initiative aims to oblige the Senate to prevent imports and exports of military goods through the port. To convert arms manufacturers, the Left wants a conversion commissioner and a dedicated fund.

The Left wants to end appearances and advertising by the Bundeswehr (German armed forces) at educational institutions and in public spaces. It criticizes the military for recruiting young people, including minors, and says it wants an open society rather than a uniformed one.

The German army advertises at schools and public festivals to win young people. The Left does not want this. Soldiers should no longer visit schools. There should be no army advertising in the city either.

Soldiers and military advertising should disappear from daycare centers, schools, universities, out-of-school learning sites, and employment offices. The party rejects public swearing-in ceremonies and a Veterans Day and wants no warships at the port's anniversary festival. Streets and squares named after militarists should be renamed after peace activists. On the recruitment of minors, the platform points to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.