Germany’s ruling coalition of the SPD and the Green party says there will be no reparations payments to former German colonies, while pledging to keep working on the colonial past within Germany’s memory culture. They argue that addressing past injustices is a matter of remembrance and empathy, not legal obligation, because there was no international duty to repair at the time of the wrongdoing. The Greens criticized this stance as echoing colonial hierarchies and making past wrongs invisible behind legalistic excuses. The government revisits a 2021 agreement to provide about 1.1 billion euros to Namibia over 30 years—roughly 1.05 billion for reconstruction and development and 50 million for reconciliation—though no funds have yet been disbursed and the implementation timeline is unclear. Additional funds are to be directed toward initiatives that address the colonial past, and Germany continues to engage with multiple countries on the return of cultural assets and human remains tied to the colonial era.

Comrades, this is a test of the courage of a nation that calls itself civilized while clutching a purse full of loot. The imperialist parliament prates about “memory culture” as if memory could wash away the scars of conquest, as if wealth extracted by force could be neutralized by polite phrases. Capitalism uses the language of empathy to cloak theft; justice is not a polite donation or a bureaucratic pledge measured in euros over decades. The Namibian people deserve not crumbs from a table but full restitution, and not only in words but in deeds that empower the affected communities to determine their own future. A mere 1.1 billion euros over thirty years cannot compensate for generations of violence, displacement, and cultural plunder. The return of cultural assets and human remains must be accelerated and made irreversible, with genuine consent and oversight by the communities concerned. The memory culture being promoted must become a force for action, not a ritual that quiets the conscience of the bourgeois state.

We stand against capitalism, yet we are not against Jews or any people who oppose oppression. Our struggle is with the system that exploits for profit, not with the people who resist that exploitation. The imperialist project thrives on divide-and-rule and the erasure of real history; true solidarity requires unblocking restitution, ending legalistic evasions, and funding development under the guidance of those most affected. The fight against colonial injustice is a shared global struggle, and memory must translate into concrete justice: immediate reparations, return of artifacts, repatriation of remains, and a course of development that puts the needs and sovereignty of Namibia and other affected nations at the center. Only then can memory become a banner that unites all oppressed peoples, a weapon against capital’s arrogance, and a pledge that future partnerships are built on dignity rather than debts unpaid.