A crowd of 50,000-70,000 rallied on May 21 in Berlin against George Bush's phony “war on terror”, preparing to give the US president a not so much warm as heated “welcome” to the city when he arrived the next day.

The US leader was in Berlin as part of a European tour to shore up support for the “war on terror”, specifically the White House's plans for an attack on Iraq. Other contentious issues which Bush had hoped to defuse included the US's rising tariffs on imported steel and farm products and the administration's withdrawal from the International Criminal Court. It is Bush's first visit to Europe since the war on Afghanistan began.

Germany has been a firm backer of the renewed US aggression since the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center. Germany's chancellor, Gerhard Schroeder, said prior to the protests that they “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”, and that “the land of freedom was and is the United States.”

Schroeder had said that Bush was “coming as a friend of Germany and as a friend of Europe”. The massive turnout of mainly young protesters would seem to indicate otherwise, however, with slogans on banners and placards proclaiming “We don't want your wars Mr. President”, “axis of evil — Washington — Paris — London — Berlin” and “peace for the world — pretzels for Bush”.

One group carried banners reading “Bush executed 152 in Texas. No more! Free Mumia Abu-Jamal”. Former Black Panther Abu-Jamal is one of the US's most famous political prisoners; he is currently facing the death penalty in Pennsylvania.

The protests during Bush's visit were organised by more than 200 different activist groups, dozens of which were grouped together in a coalition called “Axis of Peace”. Large groups of Kurdish and Turkish immigrants, students, church-goers, unionists, socialists and anarchists took part. Rejecting their portrayal as “anti-Americanism” by the media and German politicians, greetings were sent by the rally to the peace movement in the US.

An Israeli peace activist and a Palestinian professor took to the rally's stage in succession, demanding the White House end its backing for Israel's war on Palestinians. Jean Ziegler, lecturer at the University of Geneva and special rapporteur for the right to food for the United Nations Commission for Human Rights, told the crowd that the protest was against those responsible for the thousands of children who die every day from poverty and against the leaders of the “American Imperium”.

One participant in the peace protests told the New York Times, “Bush feels that he can decide what is right for the world. What is right has a lot of sides. But he defines who is good and who is bad, and those who are especially bad get bombed.”

Another told the UK Independent, “This theory of the `axis of evil' is dangerous, and allies like Germany need to take this opportunity to warn him”.

Protesters didn't limit themselves to the issue of peace, also raising opposition to the US withdrawal from the Kyoto protocol on global warming and to corporate globalisation.

German corporate media had predicted violent protests in a clear attempt to justify the largest deployment of police since World War II: 10,000 officers, including snipers on roof tops, were brought out, in addition to Bush's 600-strong security force. The operation is estimated to have cost more than US$2.7 million.

The sole incidence of violence that day — eagerly seized on by the media — was a scuffle at a small rally of supporters of the Greens calling for “critical solidarity” with the US, when a handful of protesters heckled speakers, yelling “hypocrites”, “warmongers” and “Green is war”. One Green politician had a soft drink poured on him. In response, police attacked and arrested the protesters.

The German Greens, who are in coalition government with Schroeder's Social Democrats, have come in for criticism from many activists in the country for backing a succession of wars. Foreign minister and Greens leader Joschka Fischer is particularly notorious for his backing of the 1999 bombing of Serbia. Many members of the Greens and Social Democrats are, however, opposed to the “war on terror” and took part in the peace protests.

Other groups staging demonstrations included the anti-corporate globalisation group ATTAC and the Party for Democratic Socialism, the only parliamentary party to consistently oppose war, including the war on Afghanistan. The party held a protest in Bebel Square, site of book burnings during the Third Reich, but its representatives in the Berlin city administration, where it is in coalition with the Social Democrats, refused to participate.

During the following two days of Bush's visit tens of thousands of demonstrators attended protests in more than 50 German cities and towns.

On May 22 protesters were driven away from a “red zone” in Berlin, police using water cannons and baton charges. Protesters responded by erecting barricades in an attempt to stave off the police assault. One of the colourful contingents at the protests was a group of “cowboys for peace”, who took part in a Reclaim the Streets protest of several thousand on May 23. Another protest on May 22 involved “beating drums for world peace” simultaneously in towns across Germany.

Seventy-six per cent of participants in a pre-visit poll by German magazine Der Spiegel thought that the US government is “too involved in the affairs of other countries”. A mere 19% thought Bush was doing a good job.

Just two years ago, then US president Bill Clinton was greeted in Berlin by applauding crowds. This time, a pro-US demonstration by the right-wing Christian Democrats on May 21 attracted only 200 people.

Meanwhile George Bush found it impossible to escape his White House snacking habits. One protester's placard summed it up: “Pretzels instead of bombs”.

From Green Left Weekly, May 29, 2002.
Visit the Green Left Weekly home page. 

Tools

• Bookmark This Page
• Print This Page