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EAST GERMANY Youth unrest SHARP CLASHES occurred for three nights running in East Berlin over the Whitsuntide holiday [the weekend of June 7] between East German police and up to 3,000 youth. The spark was a rock concert held in the western part of the city, in front of the Reichstag building, right up against the Berlin wall. The following facts are
Clearly this was by no means a gathering of particularly political youth. Those arrested by the People's Police reportedly had no "relevant records." The makeup of the demonstration was a cross-section of East German youth, according to various reports from Western corrspondents and the conclusions of discussions in East Berlin reported by TAZ [an independent left dai-
The origin of the "protests" was the simple wish of East German youth to listen to the rock concern undisturbed and near the wall. The politicization of these nightly assemblies was primarily the result of the attacks of club-wielding People's Police on the young people, and of the many arrests that were made.
But these gatherings were very quickly transformed into political protests. The course and content of the protests indicates that a basis had already built up for the political attitude that came to be expressed and the readiness to protest. Obviously this was part of a long process of ferment and an increased self-awareness among East German youth.
The content of the political protests (''The wall has to go," "We want Gorbachev") and frequent singing of the "relevant" verses of the Internationale ("....the Internationale fights for human rights....") made it impossible to defame these protests as "rightist." Rather, we must support the demands of the East German youth and defend them against the rep ression of the East German bureaucracy.
There is also another reason why the politicians of The Turn [to austerity] here and the cold-warriors have no grounds for identifying with these protests. While they are shedding crocodile tears about the "stoneage structures of actually existing socialism," they have been sending their civilwar police into more brutal attacks against peaceful protesters in West Berlin/ Kreuzberg, Wakersdorf and Mutlangen than those in which the People's Police engaged in this time. It hardly befits them to complain about a lack of democratic rights in East Germany on this occasion, when they banned demonstrations during Reagan's visit.
The events in East Berlin point up once again the contradictions that mark the bureaucratic regimes in East Europe today. They are shown not only in the fact that the youth took a partly positive and partly ironic attitude toward Gorbachev and his policy of "restructuring" [Perestroika].
The Soviet Foreign Ministry made a statement on these events that must have sounded like a provocation in the ears of the Honnecker gang. "Often one is even envious, seeing how high-spirited and joyful young people are in the stadiums and also on the streets. " The shouts of the protesting East German youth of "We want Gorbachev" did "not at all upset" the Soviet Foreign Ministry. In fact, there was even "cause for rejoicing."
The spokesperson of the Soviet Foreign Ministry concluded by saying, "The leadership and people of East German fully support the policy of perestroika." The actual events show that over Whitsuntide, the demonstrating youth in East Berlin spoke out for a restructuring of their society, oriented first of all toward satisfying their own justified interests and elementary po-
The East German bureaucracy responded to this desire for a perestroika in its accustomed way — with clubs, arrests and taking names. *
(From an article by Winfried Wolf, in the June 18 issue of Sozialistische ZeiWEST GERMANY Solidarity groups meet MANY HUNDREDS of activists in committees working in solidarity with the under-developed countries met in West Germany on the last weekend in May. The following report is from the June 4 issue of Sozialistische Zeitung, the paper of the United Socialist Party of Germany, in which the German Fourth Internationalists partici-
On May-28-32, the eleventh state-wide
AROUND THE WORLD congress of the Entwicklungspolitischen Aktionsgruppen [Development Action Groups] took place. The fact of the numbers that attended the plenary session - up to 700 people — illustrates the importance of this gathering of activists, groups and organizations that have devoted themselves to international solidarity, but by no means failed to speak out on other political questions. (For example, the congress called for a boycott of the West German
On Friday and Saturday, the work was centered in forums and workshops. On Thursday, there was a plenary session at which Winfried Wolf spoke on "Poverty and debt, indebted poverty — the debt crisis and our tasks." This talk prepared the way for an intense discussion. At the plenary session on Sunday, the focus was on the perspectives of the solidarity movement. The speaker was Alexander Schubert. There was a lively debate.
Sunday concluded with the adoption of a resolution, The Declaration of Fulda, which stressed the unity of those assembled on the following points:
• To call for a broad alliance for the abolition of the debts of all third world
• To this end, to build common actions to coincide with the 1988 meeting of the IMF. The twelfth congress was scheduled to be held before that date, in the first half of 1988. * USA Court acquits white vigilante THE MILITANT, a US weekly, published the following editorial in its June 26 issue:
Responding to the acquittal of Bernhard Goetz in the attempted murder of four Black teenagers, a neighbor of two of the victims angrily declared, "If that was a
Erratum
Apologies to our readers for some errors which appeared in the article "The snowballing financial crisis" by Ernest Mandel in /V 123:
Pg. 13, 1st col, 2nd para, 2nd sentence should read: "This brings the total world dabs np to around 27500000-3.000.000
Pg. 13, 3rd col, penultimate para, 2nd sentence should read: "The US now has a trade deficit in manufacturing products with these countries, and the major part of these imports are not coming from branches of American trusts established abroad."
Pg 14, footnote 4 should read: "...now a 1
work has appeared on the need for the
US's 're industrialization'."
Pg 15, 3rd col, 2nd para should read:
"But re-absorbing the trade deficit without a trade war simply through the fall in 1 dollar exchange rates and reflation in
West Germany..." * July 13, 1987 • International Viewpoint
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Black man shooting four white kids, would he be walking?"
Her point was well taken. The verdict by a New York jury will encourage new acts of racist vigilantism and embolden triggerhappy cops.
Goetz was cleared of attempted murder and manslaughter charges even though he admitted he had deliberately shot the youths in a subway in December 1984.
The jury found him guilty of only a single charge: illegal possession of the .38-caliber revolver he carried in a quick-draw holster.
Illegal possession calls for a sentence of one to seven years, but the judge is not required to impose it. On the basis of the record so far, he is not likely to do so.
One of those commending the verdict was Curtis Sliwa, head of the Guardian
Angels, a vigilante gang that supplements police "law and order" efforts. Throughout the trial, they provided Goetz with
"bodyguards." With the verdict, Sliwa said,
"This jury has sent a message to all decent people that it's okay to fight back."
From the outset, the capitalist media and politicians joined in justifying Goetz's action in the name of self-defence against
"crime." This included [New York] Mayor
Edward Koch, who declared at the time,
"The frustration and anger are so obvious....The rights of society have been impinged upon, and what they're saying is they're fed up. I'm fed up too."
Ever since the shootings, there has been a concerted drive to put the victims on trial. The Black youths were depicted as
"animals." Charges against two of them for totally unrelated offences were spotlighted, as though that somehow justified
Goetz shooting them.
This poisonous smokescreen was necessary because the case against Goetz was clear-cut.
There were 10 other passengers in the subway car at the time of the shooting. None said they saw the youths threaten Goetz or anyone else. One passenger, Christopher Boucher, described how Goetz.
had stood over the already wounded
Darrel Cabey and fired the added shot that severed his spinal cord.
Boucher's testimony confirmed what Goetz had told police in a videotaped statement - that he had fired at the seated youth, saying
"You seem to be all right, here's another."
Goetz had also told the cops.
"When I saw this one fellow, when
I saw the gleam in his eye and the smile on his face...I decided I was going to kill them."
This evidence was brushed aside by the jury. "The public may wonder why we reached this verdict,"
one juror said. "They may wonder why we didn't believe Goetz when
2 he said he did it, himself." Why didn't they believe his admission?
"We felt that he may have gotten
International Viewpoint • July 13, 1987
"The jury basically discounted the whole videotaped statement," another juror added.
Acting Justice Stephen Crane did his best to make sure Goetz was acquitted. Last year, Crane threw out the attempted murder and assault charges, but was reversed on this by a state appeals court.
During the trial Crane permitted the defence to goad one of the victims, James Ramseur, with totally irrelevant questions designed to discredit him. When Ramseur finally balked, Crane gave him six months and a fine for contempt of court.
Crane's charge to the jury was weighted toward Goetz, and in response to requests for points of clarification to the jury, it became more so. The entire conduct of the case gave testimony to how deeply racism is woven into the fabric of this society. And it points to why supporters of Black equality are becoming increasingly determined to push the racists back.
That determination was registered in the outcry against the lynch murder last December by a racist gang in New York's Howard Beach — an outcry sufficient to force a reluctant governor to appoint a special prosecutor and obtain murder indictments in the case. (See IV 117, 6 April, 1987.) And it was expressed last January when 30,000 people marched in Forsyth County, Georgia, against the violence of the Ku Klux Klan. That was followed this June by significant demonstrations against the KKK in several towns in North Carolina.
Those indicted in the Howard Beach lynch assault, including the admitted ringleaders, are now awaiting trial. The outcome of the Goetz case makes it especially important that strong public pressure to be organized to ensure that the killers are put behind bars. * DENMARK Palestine solidarity SUPPORT FOR Palestinian unions fighting against the terrible conditions for labor under Israeli occupation is now getting a push in the Danish trade-union movement.
A series of trade-union organizations have taken the initiative to organize a conference [on June 25] to strengthen ties between the Danish and Palestinian trade-union movements.
The organizers hope to set up a trade-union secretariat that can prepare visits of delegations to the occupied West Bank and start up a trade-union newsletter. The idea is also to start a collection of funds for the volunteer work that Palestinian doctors and health workers do in the occupied areas.
Among the participants is the chair of the Norwegian unskilled workers' union, Harald Overass. He will talk about the good relations that the Norwegian labor movement has had for many years with the Palestinian equivalent of our National Labor Organization (LO) and its extensive help to the trade unions in the occupied areas. Mogens Elmer, MD, and the project leader from the People's Church Aid, Ole Braue, will explain the volunteer health care in the occupied areas. Also participating in the conference will be Abu Georges from the Palestinian Trade Union Federation. *
[From an article by Åge Skovrind, in the June 18 issue of Klassekampen, paper of the Danish section of the Fourth International.]
PLANTU