[Peace] Fwd: Reports on Protests Against Bush in Berlin

[manni at snafu.de]

Forwarded Message:
> To: portside at yahoogroups.com
> From: "portsidemod" <portsidemod at yahoo.com>
> Subject: Reports on Protests Against Bush in Berlin
> Date: Wed, 22 May 2002 19:10:32 -0000
> -----
> Reports on Protests Against Bush in Berlin
> 
> 1.  By Victor Grossman, Berlin
> 2.  By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
> 
> ===
> 
> THE DAY BEFORE THE BUSH VISIT TO BERLIN: GIANT PARADE
> 
> Submitted to Portside
> 
> By Victor Grossman, Berlin
> 
> Almost regretfully the media reported that there was
> almost no violence at the giant peace demonstration on
> Tuesday in Berlin. All week long they had been building
> up panicky fears about terrible stone-throwers who were
> going to tear Berlin apart on the day before George W.
> Bush visited Berlin. So, for lack of stone-throwers,
> they divided attention between the march and meeting of
> about 100,000 determined people and the only tiny
> fracas which occurred, unknown to nearly all
> participants, when a few angry youngsters shouted
> Hypocrites at leaders of the Green party, a member of
> the national government which supports all military
> measures abroad, and one young fellow allegedly poured
> soda pop over a top Green politician. This less than
> marginal event stole half the reporting about the
> biggest peace demonstration in decades, organized by
> the "Axis for Peace" grouping of several dozen
> organizations under the mottoes: "We don't want your
> war, Mr. President" and "We don't want any wars at
> all!".
> 
> At this writing there is still suspense at whether the
> second day of demonstrations, the day of Bush's arrival
> in Berlin, will be just as peaceful. It will if the
> organizers guide the events as well as they did
> Tuesday. The stress of nearly every speaker and singer
> at the huge stage on Alexanderplatz - East Berlin's
> central square - was on non-violence. The Lutheran
> dignitary who spoke first repeated the feeling of
> sympathy and condolence for the victims of September
> 11th attack, but made clear that violence was never the
> proper answer. Like Jean Ziegler, the Swiss professor
> and UN official, who emphasized that the demonstration
> was against those - he called them murderers -
> responsible for thousands of children who die in
> poverty every day, the greedy, war-eager leaders of the
> "American Imperium," who were not to be confused with
> the American people. This and other speeches gave the
> lie to the accusation of "anti-Americanism" thrown at
> the demonstration and the peace movement. Greetings
> were sent to the peace movement of the USA, and Dave
> Rubich sang hard-hitting songs against the wealthy
> warriors - that he had also sung in Washington on April
> 20th.
> 
> Another important aspect of the giant gathering, which
> was filled with groups from all over Germany, perhaps
> 90 percent of them young people, was the rejection not
> only of the war in Afghanistan and the impending war on
> Iraq and perhaps Somalia, but the calls for peace in
> the Near East -peace based on withdrawal of Israel from
> occupation of Gaza and the West Bank and a Palestinian
> state with equal rights and with its capital shared
> with Israel in Jerusalem. This was symbolized by a
> progressive Israeli peace leader and, following him, a
> Palestinian professor, both of whom agreed on these
> goals and demanded that the USA end its one-sided
> position, which has caused so much bloodshed.
> 
> Despite the earnest themes it was a joyous day with
> wonderful weather, Tens of thousands gathered on the
> famous old Unten der Linden boulevard not far from the
> Brandenburg Gate, coming by bus from as far as
> Frankfurt, Hamburg and Munich or simply by bike from
> their local place of work, and got busy preparing their
> posters and banners. Some went to the adjacent Bebel
> Square, where the Nazis burned books by Jews,
> Communists and other "undesirables" nearly seventy
> years ago, and listened to speeches by the Party of
> Democratic Socialism, the only party in the Bundestag
> which opposes sending German soldiers to fight in
> foreign wars. Although the three members of the Berlin
> city government abstained from participating - under
> strong pressure from their Social Democratic coalition
> partners - the other PDS party leaders took part. There
> was a big PDS block in the parade next to other big
> blocks of a variety of leftist parties, of Turkish,
> Kurdish and other immigrant groups, of students, union
> members, church participants, dissident Greens and
> young Social Democrats. One block, not the biggest but
> with two of the biggest banners, was made up of members
> of organizations fighting for the freedom of Mumia Abu-
> Jamal . One banner said: "Bush executed 152 in Texas.
> No more! Free Mumia Abu-Jamal!"
> 
> Even the cops, though wearing bulky bullet-proof vests
> and big shin-guards, and present by the thousand,
> remained largely in the background, or at least
> peaceful. The only negative elements were provided by
> the media, which after eagerly predicting violence all
> week was left, at least after the first day, with
> nothing but a pint of spilled soda pop to get irate
> about, but parlayed that while ignoring the speeches
> into angry denunciations which, in some talk shows,
> turned into the bloodthirstiest calls for war in Iraq -
> or anywhere else. Meanwhile the organizers of the
> march, which ended with performances by two popular
> singers, called on the crowds to take part in the
> program on Wednesday, which will climax at 6 p.m. with
> "beating drums for world peace" - with people beating
> on drums or any other available objects in fifty, sixty
> or more cities in all Germany as well as on Unter den
> Linden in the capital of Berlin - possibly unheard by
> the carefully sequestered president in his ritzy Hotel
> Adlon quarters - but impossible to be completely
> ignored.
> 
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
> 
> ===
> 
> Bush's Upcoming Visit Draws Protests in Berlin
> 
> May 21, 2002 
> 
> Bush's Upcoming Visit Draws Protests in Berlin
> 
> By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
> 
> Filed at 2:30 p.m. ET BERLIN (AP) -- With a visit by
> President Bush a day away, the government mobilized an
> army of police as tens of thousands of anti-war
> demonstrators marched peacefully through Berlin on
> Tuesday to protest any widening of the U.S.- led war on
> terrorism. The German government has urged protesters
> to remain peaceful but has a force of 10,000 police in
> the capital in case of violence during a series of
> protests scheduled around Bush's 19-hour visit
> beginning Wednesday evening. The heavy police presence
> and water cannons were in place as the mass of
> demonstrators marched along the central Unter den
> Linden boulevard to a rally in Alexanderplatz, the main
> square in the east of the capital. Protesters carried
> placards reading ``Pretzels instead of bombs,'' ``War
> is terror -- stop the global Bush fire.'' Police said
> ``tens of thousands'' took part, while organizers
> claimed a turnout of more than 100,000. ``In everyone's
> interest, things must go peacefully, because otherwise
> a totally different message from the intended one will
> be sent,'' Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer told German
> radio. ``It wouldn't be a message about the issues, but
> ugly anti-American pictures that would cross the
> Atlantic, and I think that can be in nobody's
> interest,'' said Fischer, a former left-wing militant
> and anti- Vietnam War protester who fought with police
> decades ago. The minister stressed Tuesday that ``the
> land of freedom was and is the United States.'' An
> umbrella group for dozens of pacifist and anti-
> globalization organizations calling itself the Axis of
> Peace -- a play on Bush's description of Iraq, Iran and
> North Korea as an axis of evil -- organized Tuesday's
> demonstration, pledging nonviolence. The protest ``is
> not against Bush or his visit, but his war policy,''
> said protester Christa Peter. ``This theory of the
> `axis of evil' is dangerous, and allies like Germany
> need to take this opportunity to warn him.'' A group of
> lawmakers from Fischer's own Greens party, which has
> pacifist roots and has had to make difficult decisions
> in government to send German troops abroad, gathered
> before the main demonstration on Unter den Linden to
> call for ``critical solidarity'' with Washington. But
> they were interrupted by about 15 people who stormed
> the podium, shouting ``Green is War.'' The government,
> meanwhile, sought to deflect concern that protests
> during Bush's visit would contrast with quieter
> receptions given to Russian President Vladimir Putin
> and Chinese President Jiang Zemin, saying the right to
> demonstrate peacefully was anchored in the German
> constitution. While urging caution on any extension of
> U.S. military action to countries such as Iraq, Fischer
> and Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder have positioned
> Germany as a close ally of the United States in its
> drive to root out groups accused of supporting
> international terrorism. The Axis for Peace, however,
> argued in a pre-protest statement that ``the right to
> self-defense that the U.S. government claimed after
> Sept. 11 has long turned into a pretext for waging
> war.'' The statement pointed to concerns over a
> possible U.S.-led attack on Iraq and opposition to U.S.
> decisions to opt out of international agreements such
> as the Kyoto Protocol on climate change. About 100
> people attended a pro-Bush rally organized by the
> opposition Christian Democrats at the former Checkpoint
> Charlie border crossing, which was guarded by American
> soldiers during the decades when Berlin was divided.
> Large areas of downtown Berlin will be off-limits to
> the public during Bush's visit, his first to the German
> capital, which ends Thursday afternoon with a speech to
> parliament focusing on the strength of U.S.-European
> relations.
> 
> 
> 
> 
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