Germany: Half a million march in day of protests
5 April 2004

"The trade unions are back", a bourgeois daily paper commented on the mass demonstrations against social cuts on 3 April. Between 250,000 and 400,000 marched through Berlin, 150,000 in Stuttgart and 100,000 in Cologne. Berlin was completely jammed with traffic. Many of the 1,700 coaches coming from the north of Germany to the capital arrived far too late, so that only about 10,000 could make it to the final rally.

This show of strength was the German unions contribution to the European day of action called by the European Trade Union Confederation and the Assembly of the Social Movements at the European Social Forum in Paris last November.

But it was not much of a European-wide day of action. Only in the Italian capital, Rome did the same number of people demonstrate &Mac246; about half a million. In France, the focus was on local demonstrations and pickets on the 2 April which were held in 65 cities and towns with 100,000 taking part. Only a few tens of thousands turned up to the main demonstration in Paris. Nation-wide demonstrations were also held in Brussels (Belgium), Ljubljana (Slovenia) and Bratislava (Slovakia). There had been hardly any strike action on 2 April.

However, in Italy and more so in Germany, it was a great success that more than half a million had been mobilised. In both countries, the focus of the mobilisation had obviously been on "national" issues, i.e. major strategic attacks announced by the governments and the bosses - the pension cuts in Italy and the extension of working hours (up to 42 hours in the public sector) and wage cuts in Germany (up to 20 per cent in the case of Siemens).

The demos in Rome, Berlin, Stuttgart and Cologne show what would have been possible it the trade union movements and the anti-capitalist movement of all countries would have backed the mobilisation without reservations.

The demonstrations in Germany had a quite different flavour to the 100,000 strong demo against Schröder&Mac226;s „agenda 2010‰ on 1 November 2003. It was not only larger, but also more a demo of the core trade union members. Whilst the demonstration on 1 November was mobilised for and dominated by anti-capitalists, local alliances against the cuts, trade union leftists (including some local left leaders), militant work place activists and the youth - it was hundreds of thousands of blue and white collar trade unionists who took to the streets.

Whilst the 1 November was a militant demonstration dominated by radical slogans for a general strike, mass direct action, denunciations not only of the bosses and the government, but also of the capitalist system, the demo on 3 April marked a different stage in the development of the workers and social movements.

The November action was a demonstration of the vanguard against the will of the trade union leaders - it was a demonstration of the 100,000 who could and should be the core of a new mass workers&Mac226; party in Germany taking on Schröder&Mac226;s agenda, the bosses attacks and the capitalist system as a whole.

Last weekend was a much larger mobilisation dominated of the trade unionised workers. It was a demonstration of reformist workers infuriated by the bosses&Mac226; attacks and the betrayals of "their" SPD. This was reflected in the speeches of their leaders, of DGB leader Sommer, of public sector unions leaders Bsirkse or of IG Metall chairman Peters.

It was them and the mass trade unions which led and politically dominated the actions. However, it was not an uncritical or easy going relationship. In Berlin where Sommer was the main speaker, many workers remember his go-stop policy of the last year. They remember that the DGB had announced lots of "fightbacks" which ended up in summer breaks. They remember that the trade union leaderships themselves had been involved in "developing" the "reforms" of social insurance etc. They remember that IG Metall has struck a terrible deal in this year&Mac226;s wage round whose real effects on working hours become more obvious now. They remember that public sector union ver.di has agreed to wage cuts in exchange for „saving‰ jobs many times instead fighting cuts with industrial action.

But the demo also made clear that the German trade unions are still a force which can rally millions (if the will of the leaders is there). Despite their justified suspicions about the union leaders the organised workers also rally behind their unions because they are the most important means for the working class to defend itself against the ongoing strategic attack now.

In the run up to the demonstration Stoiber announced that the Bavarian state will introduce the 42-hour week. Many regional governments followed suit. In response public and service sector union leader Bsirke threatened strike action "Germany has not seen in its entire history".

Yes - we need a nation-wide public sector strike to repell these attacks and we need to generalise such action throughout the economy. Such a strike needs to be combined with strike action in the large multinationals like Siemens or Daimler who threaten to sack tens of thousands or force them to work longer hours for less pay.

Given the record of the reformist trade union leaders, it is clear that they need to be forced to take action. Despite all their rhetoric against the government and the bosses, they did not give any clear course of action to be taken in the weeks ahead.

For that the forces who organised the November demonstration need to organise themselves at workplace and local level as well as coordinate themselves nationally. But it has to be said that the trade union left and the social alliances that gather in the action conferences as well as the social forums were hardly visible at the demonstrations.

They missed the opportunity to address hundreds of thousands. Why? Because the left and more radical forces are all to often mere talking shops to have a dialogue with the bureaucracy, or just sterile "spaces" which don't take action on the streets, the workplaces or unemployed centres.

Therefore the key to the present situation is not only to press the union leaders for action and initiate ones ourselves - it is also to cohere the rank and file into a national rank and file movement, which is organised independently of the bureaucracy and builds roots in the workplaces and unions as the most determined force to repeal the actions.

The same applies for the alliances against cuts and the social forums. They need to build roots in the localities and organise the youth, the workers, the unemployed, the immigrants for actions in solidarity with strikes, in defence of social services.

Only by doing so will they be able to build a political force which can present a real alternative to a mass vanguard which numbers hundreds of thousands. Only by doing so will they be able to not only organise the struggle but also be become a centre for the creation of a new workers&Mac226; party - a party which will not replicate the bureaucratism and reformism of the SPD or the PDS, but which will come a means to struggle against capitalism and for working class power.


Now read: Germany: 100,00 march after SPD backs Shroeder's attacks