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Interview with Stefan Liebich from the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung (RLS) in New York City

The interview took place on July 25th, 2024.

Stefan is the Executive Director of the New York office for USA, Canada and the United Nations, of the Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung. Amanda Gläser-Bligh is the current VP of Communications for the German Fulbright Alumni Association.

Amanda: Welcome, Stefan! Tell us a bit about yourself.

Stefan: I am now 51 years old. I grew up in East Germany, in the GDR. I was a full time politician, a lawmaker my whole life. I was elected to the Berlin state parliament in 1995 when I was quite young. And then I was proud to win my district for the Bundestag in 2009. My district was Pankow, Prenzlauer Berg and Weissensee, like the heart of Berlin.

So yeah, I was proud to win the district three times, being a member of a left party, which is a big thing. Winning a district is different from being elected through our proportional system into a parliament because you don’t have to only convince your own people, you have to convince the majority. I did this and I’m still proud of it. I was in the Bundestag, in the Committee of Foreign Affairs for twelve years and also vice chairman of the U.S. Germany Friendship group.

And this, not only this, but this was one of the reasons I applied for the work I am doing now. So now I am the executive director of the RLS here in New York. And our office is responsible for the United States, a bit of Canada. And we are working in and with the UN. We collaborate with the other political foundations, which are all based in Washington, D.C. But we are the only foundation doing all our work from New York, which is on the one hand nice, because I love the city. My family lives here. My wife is American. She’s been living in Brooklyn since forever. But it’s also a bit challenging, because if you talk about U.S. politics, as we say in German, die Musik spielt in Washington. So I’m very often on the train, going back and forth.

So we opened our office here in New York City, a little bit more than ten years ago in 2012. I was actually there when the office opened. We are still in the same beautiful building at 275 Madison Avenue. It’s lovely, with a nice view over Manhattan. And we do a little bit of Canada. We are friends with Quebec Solidaire, which is a left party in Quebec.

Amanda: I’m French Canadian, not that I’m part of that party, but that’s my heritage.

Stefan: We have some connections to the left wing of the NDP, the Social Democrats there, and support some left organizations. But mostly we are translating left German politics to the U.S. And also, progressive politics from the U.S. to Germany. Because in my years in the German Bundestag, I learned that the German political mainstream was only looking at the center of U.S. politics, such as moderate Republicans, which we don’t find anymore, and centrist Democrats. And obviously, after Donald Trump was elected the first time, they realized this is not a smart way to do it because they didn’t know anyone from Trump’s people.

But I always tell them, you have to do the same on the other side. There are so many Germans, and you may know this, who still think that Bernie Sanders and AOC are just a fringe sector. I was like, no, there are influential people in U.S. politics that you have to talk to. And that’s also my mission, to tell the Germans there is a left side of U.S. politics you really should care about.

And then we are supporting some labor union work, childcare, reproductive rights, such things. But most of our work is actually in the United Nations. There is a ‘Summit of the Future’ coming. We are doing a lot of nice things here that I really like. We are a team of eight people.

Amanda: My first question about the movement in U.S. politics right now. Things are changing very rapidly in the past week and a half. The news media here (in the U.S.) is very positive towards Kamala, which surprised me. Up until last week, she was a bit of a lame duck, who suddenly had this wave of support after Biden stepped down. How would you explain this to Germans?

Stefan: From my point of view and trying to translate these developments to Germans, I say, in general, you have very fixed groups of people who are in their camps. You have people who will vote Democrat no matter what and also the same for Republicans. And when the assassination attempt against Donald Trump happened, the picture of him raising his fist and the flag was shown everywhere, and there were a lot of German headlines that said, “Now, everything is decided, and it’s over.” And I was like, why would a person, because of this picture, change their opinion? Of course, for the Democrats, it became harder to attack Donald Trump. That’s right. Of course we have a group of Independents. But I was telling the Germans, stay calm, don’t give up yet, of course this makes things harder, but of course nothing is decided by this one picture.

And I was always a person trying to defend Joe Biden, because I think politically, his agenda is quite good. I followed the whole debate about the Build Back Better and it turned into the Inflation Reduction Act, the infrastructure plan, and there are big things that he really wanted to do, and some of them, he could push through the Congress. So that is big. And if you look at the economic data, it’s good. Unemployment is low, inflation is low. But I see that for some people that don’t have much money, the prices are too high. I see this. If inflation is not as high anymore, it only means that the prices are not rising much faster. So they still don’t have enough money.

But I really think that he did a lot. Of course, there is criticism, I would – from a left standpoint – criticize him about U.S. support for the war in Gaza, as well as for when he started to compete with Donald Trump on the right, so when it came to migration, he was not much better. So, I’m quite happy that the Republicans, for quite weird reasons, stopped the border plan, because it was a bad plan. I don’t like that he was not active enough when it came to the fight for the right of having an abortion. He did some things, but you could see that it was, as a man, as a Catholic, was not coming. But in general, I defended him. I always believed that he does not have dementia, that he’s stuttering, because he did it his whole life. But after the debate, as my wife Hilary wrote in an article, “You couldn’t unsee it”.

And at this point, it was clear that the Democratic party needed someone else. And actually, Kamala Harris wouldn’t have been my first choice, but it’s not for me to decide. I remember the whole euphoria when she was nominated as Vice President, and I got it – the first woman of South Asian descent – that was great. But she couldn’t deliver on so many things. Some people said that Biden didn’t give her enough space, and then others claimed that she wasn’t a good leader. If you look at the people who have left her office, you hear voices from the past that she wasn’t a good leader and she wasn’t a good campaigner. But then I was actually surprised, to be honest, that there is a momentum that I never would have expected.

We have a 12 year old, my wife’s daughter, living with us, and what’s happening on Tiktok, it’s crazy. The people love her, this whole Charlie XCX thing, and this coconut tree meme, that’s really crazy. I know that it’s not politics, but it’s important. We have a person who can connect to the youth. It’s important. Biden wouldn’t do it. It’s too much of a generational gap. I am hopeful. But either way, people are still in their camps, but this feeling of optimism is so important.

I don’t have to be neutral here, as I’m part of a left organization, I’m really having a lot of fun right now seeing that the media are like two-thirds talking about Kamala and the Democrats. I watched the news yesterday and there was just a 15 minute segment at the end out of one hour about the secret service director’s interrogation. For the Trump camp, it must be horrible. Their whole strategy is falling apart.

Amanda: Let’s switch gears. What kinds of scholarships do the Rosa Luxemburg groups provide for people? How do you select young people who are in pursuit of higher education, which is a noble pursuit?

Stefan: So, the system of political foundations, they all have a budget from the German government to help young people during their education. Some get a monthly stipend to go to University. Some get support for tuition, some get support when they arrive, some get funded for the time to write their thesis. This supports people doing Master’s thesis, PhDs. What we do differently than other organizations, is we try to look at those who really need it. I want to describe it like, when I’m working here in the U.S. and I meet Germans, those are mostly West Germans, and those are mostly Germans coming from a good family background.

I would say that most of these people are already convinced that we should have a good relationship with the U.S. There is a lack of people from not so rich backgrounds and especially East Germans. I think this is something that we, as the RLS, are doing and we all should do more.

As you know, there are a lot of U.S. Americans who never went abroad, or they don’t want to. If we are going in such a direction, then I’m afraid that with a second Trump administration that all these programs would be at risk. The general question of having youth and student exchange programs is: are the countries interested that young people should travel abroad and learn more about other countries? I’m not sure about this, if the Trump administration comes back.

Regarding Germany, our party still has a strong base in East Germany. Not so much in election results, unfortunately anymore, but if you look at memberships, the Left party is the second strongest party after the CDU. So, we are well connected there and if we are asking for applications on our channels, then we will get more applications from this area and from other backgrounds.

I was just at some meetings at the German consulate and I think there were three East Germans out of fifty people. This is understandable, because the U.S. was present in West Germany through the army, so there were all these contacts. But I know that they are trying. They do have a consulate in Leipzig. But still, the challenges are higher in East Germany because in our schools when I grew up, the U.S. was always the enemy. So, it’s harder to convince people. They have more negative stereotypes about Americans in East Germany. However, if you are interested in good relationships, this should be an invitation to do more where we have to do more, and not go the easy way, where it’s nice, but this doesn’t win anyone over. People are already convinced there.

Amanda: We’ve done a few events in Eastern Germany. The idea is that we do more in this region.

Stefan: Rostock could be an idea. It’s not only a beautiful city – it’s by the Baltic Sea. Their mayor, Eva Maria Kröger from the Left party was just elected last year. She was just here in New York, and the Embassy tries to establish a network of city contacts. Their strategy is to prepare for a Trump administration, they say they want to have weatherproof relations. So, we are not only dependent on a national level, we also want to establish contacts between the states and the cities. Eric Adams, the mayor of New York City, was there, inviting a group of mayors from Germany, and I was so happy that Eva was among them. We have to go where it’s more complicated.

Amanda: Thank you, Stefan, for the interview!

Read more from our FRANKly magazine!

by Sterling De Sutter Summerville

While I cannot recall what year of school I was in the first time I learned of the Milgram experiments, I do remember that study leaving a lasting effect on how I saw the world. In short, the Milgram Experiment was a series of social psychology experiments that were conducted by Yale University psychologist Stanley Milgram in the 1960s. Dr. Milram intended to measure the willingness of study participants to obey an authority figure who instructed them to perform acts conflicting with their personal conscience. I won’t summarize the entire experiment but essentially it tested the limits of obedience to authority by instructing participants to administer what they believed were increasingly painful electric shocks to another person. In the end, the results revealed a surprising willingness of regular people to follow authorities orders even when they would go to cause others harm. I encourage anyone with a passive interest in psychology to check it out. I raise this subject because in a way, these were tests of integrity. Tests to see what people would do when those who will be impacted by our actions, don’t see that it is us who are the catalyst for their fortune. Now this was just one illustrated example, but there are tests of integrity and honor in front of each of us every day; and perhaps none more socially apparent than how we exercise our power to influence social order. At crossroads like these, we all have to make a choice that is not exactly binary, but beckons that we either show support for our fellow country residents and international citizens – or move towards denying them decency.

Globally, more voters than ever in history will head to the polls as at least 64 countries (plus the European Union) – representing a combined population of about 49% of the people in the world – are meant to hold national elections. This matter of fact means that nearly half of the world’s population will be set for governing under leaders who will be confirmed or reconfirmed this year. That is an immense amount of power for anyone who is of voting age and holds the right in one of those countries. We could have a long discussion another day about voting laws, who and why votes are cast in the ways that they are, but rather today, I want to spend some time focusing on the importance of participation.

In my opinion, one major marker of intelligence is the ability for one to learn from mistakes. Regardless of the subject, if we can do that, if we can be brave enough to imagine a new way, we have a chance to achieve a greater potential. That realizable potential is a beautiful fruit that hinges on the stem of a simple idea. Just one idea that the things that make us rich as a culture and society are born of generosity and compassion. We know what is at stake. There is no shortage of adverse impacts that can come with a lack of social inclusion and distributed power, but the only way we can be sure power is shared in equitable fair ways is to acknowledge our history of when it was not, and honor those who were wronged by ensuring that the similar tyrannical ideas that lead to destruction are vehemently rejected.

For all who are reading this article and also have the opportunity to vote in an election, my appeal to you is singular. Plainly, please DO NOT GIVE IN to comfort or apathy. The electoral maps you look at may invite you to get complacent…the distance from the current global atrocities may request disassociation, but I promise you, someone cares. The decisions we make at junctures like these have consequences, and our choices have wide-reaching impacts whether we see them or not. Someone is depending on you. Someone out there has their fate hanging in the balance and your vote, your presence, your advocacy is all that stands between their body autonomy, their life and erasure. Every vote matters.

In the context of the United States, as NPR’s Domenico Montanaro has put it, “in 2020 just 44,000 votes in Georgia, Arizona and Wisconsin separated Biden and Trump from a tie in the Electoral College”. There are high school football stadiums in this country that fit more than 44,000 people. The Washington Post reported that in the 2016 election thanks to just under 80,000 combined votes in three key states, the person who won, did so. These are relatively small numbers for an action that has such a huge impact.

Sometimes it may feel difficult to stay motivated. I can attest for certain that when I think it is a foregone conclusion that a person or party will win, it makes my resolve soften. That said, I am here today asking both me and you that if you or someone you know is low on motivation, to shift the narrative. If you are not motivated by the current risks, let past history or future promise be your guide. If you are not in the know about who are the best candidates, let the challenge of educating yourself lead the way. If you think you have nothing to lose with the thought of authoritarian rule as a possibility, de-center yourself and prove your strength to do what is hard so that others may have it easier. Whatever motivates you to action, let this moment in time feel your presence. The sacrifices of your ancestors who did not always have the agency or control to contribute a vote matters, YOU matter, and as a way to affirm that and honor the process that it took for you to engage in a vote, let your values direct your pen.

To go further, for a moment, I want you to picture yourself, a fair bit older, a bit greyer or balder, with a few more creases near your eyes, and tell me what withered you. I actually want you to put yourself in the shoes of that version of yourself and from that perspective, take a look backward. Answer these questions: Are you proud of the safety and security of people outside of your hometown and home country? Are there places that you can’t go because of restrictions and oppression? Was there more you wanted to do? If you think the answers to those latter questions are likely to be yes, I am pleading with the you of today to change the world to eliminate that future yes. I want this current you to stand tall at this decision making point, fully aware and empowered. While perhaps tired and frustrated, this version of you is who is here to save the day and to fight for human rights. You today can ensure that the you of the future is able to look back with pride. You can earn your stripes by doing the thing that is aligned with your values. Your hopes for peace in the world may mean that you speak truth to power. It may mean that even though others laughed at you or made fun of your bleeding heart, that you did the thing that protected the vulnerable and shunned hate. You may have to sacrifice something good for something great and put the less protected peoples’ rights above your own.

You have the power to weave the fabric of reciprocity. You with your voice and your gall, you with your social media and your passion, you from right where you are! You can be the reason we bind our potential to our neighbors and break free of the limitations narrow-mindedness tries to put on us. One person may not be able to predict every ripple effect that will come with a vote, but we can try to influence change and do the right things to move in the right direction. We have to get creative in our asks and the way we position and demand change. We must honor selflessness and demonstrate to evil that we will not be silent.

The default of nature is diversity. Equity is ensuring everyone has what they need to thrive. Our life’s harmony and inclination is inclusion. People and nature have existed together for millions of years, we can and have done so with respect for those to come in the future. For you to be you, and for you to want others to feel good and comfortable being them on their own terms; and then making sure that nothing blocks either of those things means you are a DEI advocate and defender. It may not make your skin crawl the way it does mine to see the attacks on democracy and nature as we know it, but I need you to push back and put up your guards for me, and I will put mine up for the next vulnerable person or environment. The people speak. The earth is speaking. Every part of the ecosystem works together like fascia in the human body. Now is the time to listen and fight harder than ever; showing up with a stance to preserve not only your rights but those of your neighbors, friends, community and planet.

Comfort can sometimes be the enemy of growth, so I dare you, venture into confidence. Question systems and when in doubt, do something that might require you to give up a little power and advantage so that others whom it has been withheld from might have it. If you’re connected, call in your favors. If you are an artist, use your art. If you are a musician, use your music … whatever platforms you have, make them bridges and with compassion empower people to make change. Meet folks where they are and stay humble in remembering that at one point you did not know everything you know now.

Never forget that you matter and when in doubt, do as I do when I want to reject the self-care and self-compassion I am advised to take on by my therapist. She asks me to always remember that to care for others means that at critical high stress and nerve-racking times like these, where the roads are forked and the choices daunting … we must take care of ourselves as well. She says to show up for myself in the way that I would tell my best friend or loved one to if they were in my position. So just as you would tell them to eat or sleep or not to be so hard on themselves, you do the same. Perseverance and sustainable existence can be resistance, so fight on. For you, for me, and for the world as we want it!

Author Info:

Sterling De Sutter Summerville, a seasoned executive leader with an extensive background leading teams in Africa, Asia, and Europe carries a distinguishment as a Fulbright Scholar, and currently serves as the Founding Director and Lead Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Strategist at De Sutter Summerville Consulting (DSSC). As the head of this premier Strategy Consulting firm, Sterling excels in assisting individuals and brands in formulating and articulating positions on culturally sensitive topics. Prior to establishing DSSC, Sterling dedicated over a decade to the education, technology, and nonprofit sectors, often aligning his efforts with organizations committed to Human Rights advocacy. Amongst others, Sterling’s work credits include time spent at both Google and Snap Inc. (parent company of Snapchat). He has been featured in the LA Times, earned his Master’s in Education from the University of Cincinnati and holds a Bachelor’s degree from Valparaiso University. Beyond his formal consulting endeavors, Sterling actively contributes to the professional learning landscape. Noteworthy achievements include the creation of a LinkedIn Learning Course titled ‘Creating Safe Spaces for Tough Conversations,’ which has garnered participation from over 40,000 learners.

Read more from our FRANKly magazine!

Welcome, 2024 FRANKly!

The FRANKly is our yearly association publication, where our members and other Fulbrighters write articles on a particular theme.

This year’s theme is: Navigating Crossroads.  We have a selections of articles, such as, “The Power of Choice and the Fear of Indecision!”, “Conquering Crossroads”, “Wir schaffen das – Persevering Towards Equity in Hamburg’s Diverse Classrooms” and “Plastic Fantastic”.

We hope that this year’s edition is insightful for you and that you’ll enjoy either our digital copy, or a printed version, which should arrive to all members in their mailboxes soon.

The 35th Edition of the FRANKly magazine.

The FRANKly is the annual journal of the German Fulbright Alumni Association. In addition to reporting on the regional, national, and international activities of our association, the publication serves as a platform for current Fulbrighters and alumni to share their fascinating experiences, witty opinions, unique perspectives, and thoughtful insights.

The 2023 Call for Articles is here and we are thrilled to announce this year’s theme:

Building a Brighter Future

We don’t know what exactly the future holds. But it is obvious that the path we are on is not headed to the promising future most of us would like to envision. The good news is that while “future” itself is inevitable, what version of the future will emerge is not: we all have a part to play in shaping the world of tomorrow and to ensure it is the best possible future for everyone.

The FRANKly 2023 welcomes contributions that explore visions of the future we can see ourselves living in and the building blocks needed to make it happen. What new approaches are necessary in order to tackle challenges such as climate change and sustainability, geopolitical imbalances, poverty, education, diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility as well as the potential of the digital world while not forgetting about the place of culture and the arts in our societies. At the same time, our future isn’t just the big picture, but also our personal, more immediate future. Questions regarding financial security, healthcare, career possibilities as well the role of family, friends, and communities are at the forefront for a lot of us.

So. What can we do? How can we build a more resilient world in which everyone can feel a sense of belonging? What is the role of the transatlantic world and how can Fulbrighters, as one example, use their potential to have an impact? What can we do to build a brighter future?

Articles that exhibit a connection with the Fulbright Program, the German Fulbright Alumni Association (F.A.e.V.), or the network of Fulbright Alumni Associations across the globe are always encouraged, as are articles with creative approaches of how our main theme resonates with you personally. When submitting your article, please provide 2-3 sentences about yourself in third person and a headshot. Authors are encouraged to submit images (3-6 images total) that support their article. Every photograph must include the photographer’s name and a caption. Articles may range in length from 3,000 – 12,000 characters (including spaces) and should be written in American English.

The deadline for submissions is September 15, 2023. Please send all questions, ideas, and contributions to Jana Frey via email at editor.frankly@fulbright-alumni.de.

Greetings,
Jana Frey