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Munich: 8000 demonstrate against security conference

"Peace through dialogue” was the motto for this year’s Munich security conference. As in previous years, the warmongers and profiteers of the most important imperialist states met in the luxury Bayerischer Hof hotel to discuss their current and future plans for exploitation and war and to negotiate their differences between themselves.

At this year’s conference, the main themes were the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan and the threatened military attack against Iran, the expansion of NATO to the east and the new round of rearmament. This “informal meeting” under the leadership of the former Helmut Kohl adviser and current boss of Boeing-Germany, Horst Telschick, has a decade-long tradition. Only rarely do so many illustrious security experts and representatives of the armaments industry meet up with the planning staffs of NATO and the German army and prominent political leaders such as Vladimir Putin, Angela Merkel, the US Defence Secretary, Gates, or the EU’s chief foreign affairs spokesman, Solana.

The first main issue to emerge was the conflict between Russia and NATO as Putin attacked NATO expansion and the global plans of the USA. Although they criticised his “inappropriate tone", even the bourgeois journalists had to concede that his criticism was essentially justified even if motivated by Russia’s own ambitions.

The second theme was, and remains, the threatened attack on Iran. Chancellor Merkel’s verbal attack on the country made clear what is to be understood by “dialogue” – that those who do not go along with the terms laid down by “the international community", that is to say the leading capitalist powers, must be forced to accept them. Her contribution also underlined the intention of the German delegation to use the meeting to give Germany and the EU a more central role in global affairs. Despite the sharpness of Putin’s attack, Gates showed himself to be in conciliatory mood and stressed the many points of agreement rather than the current differences, an indication that US imperialism, in the face of the impending disaster in Iraq, needs to smooth relations on other fronts with “partners” such as Russia, at least verbally.

Merkel expressed the ambition of the EU to become a serious imperialist rival by threatening to take responsibility for dealing with a long list of capitalism’s needs as a global system; climate change, the war on terror, securing “access to resources” – a “responsibility” which is soon to be demonstrated to the people of Afghanistan by means of Tornado fighter jets.

The Munich summit, therefore, also played a role in the programme of the German government, currently the EU president and chair of the G8, to clear the way to the formation of a European imperialism under German (and French) leadership.

Repression and action

On February 10, 8000 people demonstrated against this meeting of warmongers and profiteers under the slogan “stop war and military terror". Hundreds more took part in actions in advance of the main demonstration. Munich police, special commandos and a huge number of civilian police also had a demonstration; to show what measures the German state and the Bavarian federal authorities were prepared to use against justified protest. Even before the demonstration, the homes of antiwar activists were searched and posters and leaflets calling for action against the G8 summit in the summer were seized. Such intimidatory tactics are already familiar from previous years’ security conferences. This year, buses from Berlin, Stuttgart and other cities were delayed for hours on Friday and Saturday before the demonstration, individuals were arrested on the flimsiest of excuses and body searched and every item of luggage was meticulously searched.

On the way to the demonstration, protesters were stopped and questioned by one “security check” after another. Banner poles were destroyed because they were “too long", leaflets and newspapers were confiscated because, apparently, they infringed some part of Bavarian press law. Throughout the demonstration itself, there were repeated police provocations, aimed especially at the very big and militant internationalist block which was “guided” by a double cordon of police throughout the afternoon. After the demonstration dispersed, dozens more were arrested, including the crews from the loudspeaker vans.

All in all, a pretty accurate portrait of the character of any bourgeois democracy whose real character is revealed internationally by imperialist wars and at home by mass unemployment, low wages and increasing poverty. And even this pseudo-democracy is apparently too much for the warmongers and profiteers such as Teltschick who, shortly before the security conference, complained that, unfortunately, “in a democracy everybody has to be allowed to speak". But the repression in Munich must also be understood as a preparation for dealing with the protests at the G8 summit in Heiligendamm in June. This makes it all the more important that in the coming days and weeks there is an effective national campaign for the release of all those arrested and an end to all legal actions against them.

Despite the repression, a success

The protest action against the warmongers was a success not only in the face of the repression before and during the demonstrations but, with up to 8000 taking part, because it was bigger than the organisers had expected. Many passersby showed their solidarity and in particular the rejection of the massive and provocative police presence.

On the demonstration itself, the internationalist block, in which Arbeitermacht and the youth organisation Revolution, together with the “Anti-G8 Alliance for a Revolutionary Perspective", took part in a very loud and militant profile. It was also the biggest block and attracted a large number of youth. Many of the chants were directed not only against the warmongers in the hotel, the occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan and against the German government but also against capitalism in general. Throughout the afternoon, the internationally recognised slogan “One Solution – Revolution!” was to be heard.

The internationalist block was also the part of the demonstration most frequently attacked by the police and from which the civil police made systematic attempts to seize individual protesters. As a result of the well disciplined organisation of the block, and because individuals remained linked together like a chain to prevent such raids, many of these provocations were successfully rebuffed. What was also important in Munich was that other participants and other blocks from the Peace and Antiwar movement showed their solidarity and opposed the police aggression.

The security conference in Munich did not only show clearly the imperialists’ intentions and the methods they are prepared to use against us. The counterdemonstration also showed that we can defend ourselves. It also showed that the protests against the G8 summit in Heiligendamm can become a rallying point for the struggle against them.

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