[Peace] Fwd: Bush in Berlin - Continued

[manni at snafu.de]

Forwarded Message:
> To: portside at yahoogroups.com
> From: portsideMod at netscape.net
> Subject: Bush in Berlin - Continued
> Date: Sat, 25 May 2002 19:36:38 -0400
> -----
> BUSH IN BERLIN, Continued
> 
> By Victor Grossman, Berlin
> 
> The 23rd was the big day, the climax of the George W. Bush visit to 
Berlin, his speech to the
Bundestag and other dignitaries - but no one else. The whole government 
region, extended
to the luxurious Adlon Hotel where the Bushes spent the night, had been 
swept clean of
cars, pedestrians, and probably any stray dogs or cats. Manhole covers 
were sealed down,
the adjacent Comic Opera cancelled performances, tourist boats were 
unable to pass along
their Spree River routes, gliders, zeppelins, kites and all but police 
helicopters were
banned from the skies. The Brandenburg Gate area, usually jammed with 
tourists, looked
like a scene from Waiting for Godot. And all Berlin waited - for George W. 
Bush. 
> 
> Most newspapers did their best to make it a happy welcome: the whole 
front page of one
tabloid said "Good morning, Mr. President" and others printed the US flag 
to be placed in
shop windows - to counteract that other side, those few who did not 
welcome George W. -one
of the tabloids called them "the idiots". 
> 
> On the eve of the visit more than a hundred thousand such "idiots" from 
all over Germany
gathered to march from Unter den Linden to Alexanderplatz, the central 
square of east
Berlin. Somehow the New York Times man couldn't count above 20,000 
and managed to mix up
the "two demonstrations," as he called them, "run by the former 
Communist party and the
Greens".
> 
> In truth, the Greens' demonstration consisted entirely of about ten party 
leaders trying
to rationalize their support for Bush policies as coalition partners in the 
government. A
few less disciplined participants in the big march defied the rules by 
shouting
"hypocrites" at them, and one young hothead got close enough to pour 
soda water onto the
head of Green chairperson Claudia Roth. So after ten minutes the Green 
demonstration
disbanded. Leaving the field to the "other" hundred thousand . Yes, the 
Party of
Democratic Socialism (PDS) did take part in the big one, but did not "run 
it" any more
than the people from 240 other organizations planning and leading the 
event: Christian
groups, leaders of the two biggest industrial unions in the world, a wide 
assortment of
leftwing, environmental, anti-globalization and even young Green or Social 
Democratic
groups, who defied all warnings of their elders. Somehow all of this 
varied crowd,
including those who spoke, was overlooked by most of the media). 
> 
> The next day, when Bush arrived, the parade was not quite so huge, 
since thousands had
departed for cities all across Germany to demonstrate in their home 
towns. At 6 PM - after
speeches and some very political, very loud music - a group of high 
school oil can
drummers began their rhythmical call across the downtown area - and 
across Germany, since
others were "drumming for peace" in over fifty cities. Then they paraded as 
on the day
earlier to the central square (nicknamed "Alex" in Berlin) for more 
speeches and more
music. The motto of both demonstrations was "We don't want your war, 
Mr. President!" and
"We don't want any wars!"
> 
> For several weeks the media pundits had been vociferously worrying 
about the violence
which was certain to occur. They looked sad when they said it, but looked 
even sadder when
they didn't get it, since nearly all of the hundred thousand were against, 
not for
violence. But on Wednesday evening, shortly after the Bush family, Powell, 
Rice and the
others had landedarrived, some violence did finally begin. It is impossible 
to say who
started it - there are always small groups of youngsters who love to throw 
bottles or
small, throwable sidewalk plaster stones at "bulls" - at least some of 
whom are
undoubtedly agents provocateurs - but the police certainly provoked the 
crowd, first of
all by there universal presence alone. There were so many cops and 
police wagons (also
from all over Germany) the downtown area looked like a city under siege; 
all wore shin and
chest armor worthy of an ice hockey player. Some reports told of how the 
last few hundred
of the young demonstrators - relaxing after the long hot day, were lying 
peacefully on the
lawns of the Lustgarten, listening or dancing to music from the stage, 
when a company of
cops swarmed in, told them 9 PM had been the deadline, and to move on 
in a hurry. Some
didn't, the attacks started, bottles and stones flew, so did clubs, water 
cannon and tear
gas - and some of the angriest youngsters broke a few bank and shop 
windows. The hoped-for
action had occurred, though it involved at most a tiny fraction of the 
hundred thousand,
and the tabloids had their stories. The Bush entourage heard none of it, 
they were being
wined and dined in an exclusive restaurant far distant from any of the 
angry citizenry, or
any citizenry at all. 
> 
> Then came Thursday, the meeting with Chancellor Schroeder and the 
long-heralded Bush words
to the Bundestag. The speech was about average on the George W. Bush 
scale but elicited
enthusiastic applause from the two government parties and three 
opposition parties,
applause after nearly every second sentence, a method borrowed 
perhaps from the US
Congress, though there have been many other precedents. Only one 
group sat on their hands
and almost never applauded: the cameras rarely showed this leftwing 
corner, but I did see
them applauding when Bush called - in words at least - for a sovereign 
Palestinian State.
But the 37 PDS delegates, the "bad boys" of the German Bundestag, who 
have dared to oppose
sending soldiers to Bosnia, Kossovo and Afghanistan and are just as 
stubborn on economic
and other issues, were even more impudent, or at least a few of them 
were. At one point
during the speech there seemed to be an angry hubbub somewhere in 
the big hall. Bush
ignored it and continued with his frighterning platitudes- with no comment 
from the TV
speakers. Only later did we learn that three PDS delegates did not only 
refrain from most
of the applause but waved a big sign saying "NO WAR, MR. PRESIDENT!" 
And one young
delegate, Carsten Hübner, known for his constant struggle to get criticism 
of the US death
penalty and for freedom for Mumia Abu-Jamal, refused to take part in the 
Bundestag meeting
altogether. He objected to the "Bush government policy of massive 
militarization of
international relations", preventing international agreements and 
promoting a "conflict of
cultures". He added, "My protest is no more anti-American than that of 
nearly all
demonstrators these past days. But it is directed against a policy which 
evokes worldwide
fear and bitterness, but also democratic resistance. My objection to 
aggressive
neo-liberalism is just as great as that against Islamic terror and other 
forms of
anti-human despotism. "Ich bin ein Amerikaner" exactly because I sharply 
criticize this
president and his policies, just like American intellectuals, human rights 
activists and
the peace movement there. And they are not alone. Even a majority of the 
voters chose
another candidate."
> 
> Some of the politicians from the two government partes dared to voice 
mild criticism of
Bush policies on the Kyoto Agreement, the World Court and even on war 
against Iraq, and
even Bush chose his words on these subjects very carefully. The 
demonstrations in germany,
and perhaps elsewhere, despite the media blindness, are not going 
altogether uinnoticed.
But a lot more continuing pressure is surely necessary. The group "Axis 
foir Peace"which
organized the big rallies, and which was marked by a gradual if sometime 
difficult search
for mutual agreement by nearly all the groups, plans to meet again in a 
week to keep the
ball rolling. 
> 
> PS At the rally on the second day a message of greetings from Mumia 
Abu-Jamal was read to
the huge, mostly young audience. There was total silence until it was 
completed, and then
a giant ovation. This was an American whom they could identify with. 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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