Political repression alive and well in Germany

Sixty-five years after the Second World War, political repression is alive and well in the new united Germany.

Of course, that conclusion is basically redundant to anyone with a Marxist analysis of the state, but it is still worth tracking the changing nature of that repression.

I don’t know, for example, if it as blatant in Germany today as it was in the 60s and 70s, when some of my friends had their mail regularly opened before it reached their mail box, or who lived with the constant companionship of secret service vans on their street, but recent event suggest that this is certainly the direction it is heading.

In some ways, you really have to admire the German method. Not for us the sly, secretive repressed reports (well, I’m sure they do exist – I just haven’t seen them yet). The main German secret police agency – the Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz (“Office for the Protection of the Constitution”) – releases its yearly report into “activity that endangers the Constitution” to the public eye.While the reports are largely concerned with “muslim terrorism” and the activities of the bonehead far-right, it also has an entire chapter dedicated to "linksextremismus" (leftist extremism).

The most recent reports are available for download (in German) here:2006, 2007, 2008

Germany: Protesters stop neo-Nazi march

On February 13, a neo-Nazi march through the German city of Dresden was prevented when more than 15,000 locals braved freezing temperatures to oppose them.

The fascists intended to march through the centre of Dresden to mark the 65-year anniversary of the allied firebombing of the city in 1945.

In recent years, this has become a regular event. Last year, 6000 neo-Nazis accompanied by 5000 police paraded through the city — the largest fascist march in Europe in recent history.

This year, however, about 5000 neo-Nazis were vastly outnumbered by a broad alliance of trade unions, political parties and civil society groups who formed a 12,000-strong human chain around the city centre, making Dresden, in the words of Mayor Helma Orosz, "a bastion against intolerance and stupidity".

Thousands of left-wing protesters blockaded the fascists at Neustadt railway station, stopping the march. The victory was marred, however, when police attacked the anti-fascist protesters with tear gas.

The lead-up to this year's march was full of controversy. 

The Dresden Council failed in a legal bid to prevent the march. In January, secret police raided the offices of the protest organising group Dresden Nazifrei ("Nazi-free Dresden") and the left-wing party Die Linke — confiscating leaflets, posters and computers. The Dresden Nazifrei website was closed down.

The Lower Saxony state government is also preparing laws to ban protests that are deemed "inflammatory". While supposedly aimed at preventing future Nazi parades, the wording of the new laws is broad enough to include left-wing and even union protests in its scope.

Similar laws passed by the right-wing government in Bavaria are currently facing a legal challenge.

First published in Green Left Weekly, 20 February, 2010.

Vale - Alistair Hulett

Alistair Hulett – arguably one of the more impressive socialist folk musicians of our time – died on Thursday evening, January 28, 2010 (approximately 5:30am on Friday morning, 29 January 2010, Sydney time), in Ward 26a of Southern General Hospital, Glasgow.
  
Alistair had been critically ill and in hospital since the New Year, but it was largely kept quiet from friends and fans alike as he waited for a liver transplant for what was mistakenly diagnosed to be liver failure.  

It eventually became clear he was actually suffering from an aggressive metastic cancer that had already spread to his lungs and stomach. Unfortunately for Alistair, and all of us, he didn’t make it, dying only days after the cancer was discovered.

From Tortuga to Somalia - Piracy and Anti-Imperialism

There is a delicious irony in the recent news - reported by Aporrea.org - that the Somali "pirates" have offered to donate a significant proportion of their booty to the victims of the Haiti earthquake. Claiming to have connections all over the world, the Somalis promise to deliver the money undetected by Western "enemy" governments.

But why have they made this offer? The first connection that springs to mind is, perhaps, the piracy itself.

While the Somali youth based out of Eyl and other small towns in coastal Somalia are the modern face of seafaring piracy, Haiti is the traditional stomping ground of the swaggering buccaneers of legend (if we ignore, of course, the tame pets of the major capitalist powers such as Sir Francis Drake).

Political police raid German anti-Nazis

On January 19, German political police raided the Berlin and Dresden offices of several anti-Nazi groups, including the Dresden Nazi-Free Alliance, "No Pasaran", "Red Stuff", and the left-wing party Die Linke.
Thousands of posters, stickers and leaflets for an anti-Nazi protest on February 13 were confiscated, and a number of computers were seized.

The raids provoked immediate protest from the Die Linke, the Greens, the Social Democratic Party, the anti-globalisation group ATTAC and several trade unions.

The protest – organised by the Dresden Nazi-Free Alliance, a broad alliance of over 230 organisations and 800 high profile individuals – plans a peaceful blockade to prevent a fascist parade on February 13, the 65th anniversary of the WWII Allied fire-bombing of Dresden.

Kingsnorth verdict a 'tipping point' in climate struggle

On September 10 a British jury acquitted six Greenpeace protesters who were on trial for trying to shut down a coal-fired power station on the grounds that they were trying to stop global warming.

Last year, the protesters climbed the chimneystack of the Kingsnorth power station, in Kent, to paint "Gordon, bin it" (as in, "bin coal") on the side, but were arrested before they could complete the task. They were charged with causing criminal damage equivalent to around $80,000 – the costs cleaning the 200 metre stack.


However, in a majority verdict, the jury in Maidstone Crown Court found that the protesters had a "lawful excuse" for their acts, because they were trying to protect property that would be damaged by climate change, including parts of Kent at risk from sea level rise, parts of Greenland, the Pacific island of Tuvalu, coastal areas of Bangladesh and the city of New Orleans.

Germany: Left makes big gains in poll

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, from the centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU), was returned to power in the September 27 federal elections. But the vote was marked by a record low voter turnout and a significantly increased vote for the far-left party, Die Linke ("The Left"). 

The election was a clear success for the CDU. Merkel's preferred coalition partners - the free-market fundamentalist Free Democratic Party (FDP) - increased its support by 4.8 points to an all-time high of 14.6%. 

This was enough to form a CDU-FDP government.

The FDP will replace the centre-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) as coalition partners in the government of Europe's largest economy.

The SPD's support collapsed by more 6 million votes. It dropped a huge 11.2% to only 23% – the SPD's worst result since World War II. An SPD leader said on election night: "We have been bombed back into the Weimar Republic."

However, although the result has been widely labelled a shift to the right, the actual outcome doesn't bear this out. The total vote for the centre-right parties rose by only 3.4%, while the vote for the far-right neo-Nazi NPD dropped to just over 1%. 

The vote for Die Linke was 11.9% - a 3.2% increase on the 2005 result by the joint electoral ticket of two left-wing groups that was the forerunner to Die Linke. Formed in 2007, Die Linke is Germany's newest party and stands for pro-people, anti-corporate policies. 

Die Linke is also the only party that opposed the occupation of Afghanistan and has committed to withdrawing all German troops.

Ecuador: Indigenous, government clash over mining

On September 30, violent clashes between indigenous protestors and police in Ecuador left at least one protester dead, and nine protesters and 40 police injured, the October 1 Latin American Herald Tribune said.
The protests are the first big test for Ecuador's left-wing President Rafael Correa, first elected in 2006 on the platform of a "citizen's revolution" promising to build a "21st century socialism" in the small Andean country.

The protests were called by the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE) — the umbrella confederation representing Ecuador's indigenous population. About 35% of Ecuador's population is indigenous.

On the same day, Ecuador's main teachers union, the UNE, and students also protested against proposed educational reforms.

CONAIE and many environmental organisations are opposed to a new mining law they believe will cause environmental destruction and may result in water privatisation.

They also believe the law violates Ecuador's new constitution, which, among many other progressive additions, guarantees access to water and grants specific rights to the environment.

German Left Party makes election gains

Before the recent elections in the German states of Thuringia, Saarland and Saxony it seemed likely that Christian Democrat (CDU) German Chancellor Angela Merkel would return to power comfortably this year, probably in coalition with the free-market fundamentalists of the Free Democratic Party (FDP).

On August 30, however, German voters went to the polls in the three states and for local elections in North Rhine Westphalia. The result — an unmistakable swing to the left — has blown prospects for the September 27 German federal elections wide open. Both big parties — the centre-right CDU and the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) — received heavy blows.

In national opinion polls, the SPD (a junior partner in a federal "grand coalition" government with the CDU) has slumped to a historic low of 22%. On August 30, its vote continued to decline. The SPD polled only 10.4% in Saxony, and 18.5% in Thuringia.

However, the biggest loser was the ruling CDU. Its vote dropped by more than 13 points in both Thuringia and Saarland — the worst results since 1949. It will probably lose government in both states.

Ecuador's Correa launches new term, promises change

On August 3, Ecuador celebrated a milestone when left-wing President Rafael Correa was sworn in for a second term — the first president to serve a second term since democracy was restored 30 years ago. 

The same week, Ecuador celebrated 200 years since it first declared independence from Spain - the first such declaration in Latin America - and Correa assumed the rotating presidency of the new Union of South American Nations, whose capital is in Quito.

Correa - a left-wing economist and former finance minister - was elected in 2006, promising to overhaul Ecuadorian society through a socialist "citizens' revolution" that would reduce poverty and strengthen democratic institutions.

Once elected, he initiated a popular re-write of the constitution, securing re-election in April this year on the platform of building "21st century socialism", despite media opposition and the impact of the financial crisis on Ecuador's weak economy.