Wherever President George Bush went in Europe this June, whether he was meeting with G8 leaders, Pope Benedict, presidents or opposition leaders of NATO allies, or rightist officials in the former socialist countries, he provided an excellent reason for the people to come out in the streets, often in massive numbers.
The largest protests were at the G8 summit in Heiligendamm June 2-7, near Rostock on the north coast of eastern Germany. Leaving Vladimir Putin's Russia aside for the moment — Russia is an undesired but necessary invitee — the G8 are really the G7: the seven countries with the strongest economies. They call themselves the seven most industrialised countries, but they are really the seven most powerful imperialist countries, with the US by far the most powerful. The other members are Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan.
When the G7 meets, it is to decide the best methods for intensifying the pillage of the rest of the world, especially of what has been called the Third World or the South, and the exploitation of the world's workers.
Some 80,000 people from all over Europe gathered near Rostock, some staying for days as with earlier anti-globalisation demonstrations, to protest G8 and Bush's visit. The German state mobilised 16,000 cops to keep these protesters from disrupting the meeting of the criminals.
The next largest protest was in Rome, where at least 40,000 people gathered on June 9 to protest Bush's visit. The protesters targeted Bush, but also the Italian government led by Prime Minister Romano Prodi. This "centre-left" regime has pulled Italian troops from Iraq, but has sent others to Afghanistan and Lebanon in an attempt to remain welcome in the imperialist club. Despite Prodi's submission, Bush paid him the insult of holding an unprecedented private meeting with opposition leader Silvio Berlusconi, the rightist former premier and media magnate.
Bush also visited the right-wing government in the Czech Republic and the far-right regime in Poland to reinforce their decision to accept the US bases as part of Washington's "missile shield". These weapon systems threaten Russia and could become targets for counterattack.
Thus in Prague, at least 2000 people protested Bush's visit. Another few hundred protested outside the US embassy, organised by the Communist Youth Movement (KSM), which the "democratic" Czech government has outlawed.
"We are here to protest against the building of a US radar base in the Czech Republic, against the policies of the American government on this issue, against the position of the Czech cabinet on the base", one of the organisers, KSM chairperson Milan Krajca, told China's Xinhua news service on June 7.
In Poland, where the far-right regime depends completely on US support, hundreds gathered in Jurata, near Gdansk, where Bush was meeting with President Lech Kaczynski to discuss how to set up the missile bases despite the adamant opposition of the Polish population.
Only in Albania, with a far-right regime even weaker and more beholden to US imperialism than those in Poland and the Czech Republic, were there no public protests against Bush.
[Abridged from Workers World. Visit http://www.workers.org.]