The Sozialistische Gleichheitspartei (Socialist Equality Party, SGP) has put up a total of 6,000 posters and several larger placards for the Berlin state election on lampposts across Berlin in recent days. The SGP is therefore now visible throughout the German capital as the only party counteracting the hated war policy and social devastation that is being promoted at the federal and state levels.

“We deliberately aimed our poster campaign at making the Socialist Equality Party known as an anti-war party among broad sections of the population,” explained Christoph Vandreier, the lead candidate and chairman of the SGP. “On February 12, Berlin residents will have the opportunity to say no to war and no to attacks on social spending by voting for the SGP. That’s the point our placards are making.”

A central theme on the posters is the fight against the return of German militarism and the war in Ukraine, which the NATO powers are constantly escalating, threatening to trigger a nuclear world war. “Two World Wars are enough! Stop the warmongers!” declares one of the posters, underscoring the historical issues that are once again coming to the fore. “Vote for the SGP! Vote against the parties of war!”

Another poster bears the slogan “Stop the War” in Russian, Ukrainian, Turkish, Arabic and English. It underlines the fact that a nuclear world war can only be prevented by an international movement of the working class. “The SGP, together with its sister parties in the International Committee of the Fourth International, is building a worldwide socialist movement against war and its cause, capitalism,” the SGP declared in a statement.

The poster with the slogan “100 billion for health and education instead of rearmament” refers to the special fund approved by the federal parliament for the German armed forces (Bundeswehr), which is the largest rearmament program since Hitler. At the same time, kindergartens, schools and hospitals are being devastated by budget cuts and workers’ wages are being decimated by horrendous inflation. A poster that declares “Expropriate: landlord sharks, energy companies, war profiteers,” presents this policy in connection with the socialist perspective of the expropriation of the big banks and corporations and placing them under democratic control.

Finally, a sixth poster campaigns for the central election rally being held by the SGP on February 4 at Potsdamer Platz with the slogans “Stop the rearmament! Stop the war in Ukraine!”

The posters are part of an intensive election campaign led by members and supporters of the SGP across the city and online. The campaign includes regular anti-war rallies in different neighbourhoods, information tables where thousands of discussions are being held across the city, and daily reports, statements and videos on the World Socialist Web Site.