German rulers play double game on racism
GERMANY to lay the cornerstone for a new mass street movement in the territories of the former German Democratic Republic (East Germany). At the same time they have won a new social base. In the West their supporters were mainly lower middle class types but in the East the fascists have made inroads among school stu-
MORE than half a million people marched throughout
Germany in protests against racist violence in the days around November 9, 1992, the anniversary of the antisemitic "Kristallnacht" pogrom perpetrated by the Nazis in
1938. These protests exposed both the potential and the problems of anti-fascist politics.
DAVID MÜLLER
- November 11, 1992.
Y far the largest demonstra-
B tion was that in Berlin on
November 8. This was impressive not only because of the number that took part - 300,000
— but in terms of the range of organizations that called for it. This latter fact deserves closer scrutiny.
The alliance for the mass demonstration extended from the CDU (Christian
Democrats - dominant in the country's rightwing government) to the PDS (Party of Democratic Socialism, a descendant of the former ruling party of East Germany). The only mainstream party to stand aside was the CDU's Bavarian sister party, the CSU, which is to the right of the CDU and is more and more inclined
The initiative for the demo came from the CDU - surprising, given that this party has been whipping up a storm against refugees since 1986. There are a number of reasons for the (limited) change of line by the bourgeois camp. Head of the list was the concern repeatedly expressed by the speakers at the rally about "Germany's image in the world".
German investments and investments in
Germany must not be put in jeopardy by a bad reputation.
A second important reason is the mood among the voters, whether from the conservative or social democratic camp. The majority of them are in favour of expelling refugees and are often racist. On the other hand they do not want a ter rorist fascist movement. This means that the government cannot only rely on the division and repression fuelled by racism. They also need to make an integrationist appeal to "our democracy".
The Nazi pressure group
A further motive for the CDU's initiative was the new role played by the fascists in today's Germany. So long as small groups of Nazis could be used as a sort of "pressure group" for bourgeois aims - in particular that of changing the paragraph in the German constitution guaranteeing the right to asylum (see box on p. 4) - many bourgeois politicians were happy to explain the "understanding that people have for these young people" when they attacked refugees.
Now, however, through actions against beggars, prostitutes (notably in Dresden) and refugees, the fascists have been able dents and workers.
The fascist groups have profited from the government's anti-asylum propaganda and made a decisive contribution to the racist climate of recent months. The ruling class and its big parties have little interest in seeing a fascist movement that breaks out of its minor role. This could mean a massive loss of votes for the conservative parties as well as a reaction from the left.
It is thus little wonder that the demonstration's slogan - article one of the constitution ("the value of a human being is sacrosanct") — was somewhat vague.
Making a good impression
The ambiguities in the attitude of the ruling circles were abundantly clear in the speech by the German president Weiszäcker who denounced violence "both from left and right". No word about the roots of the violence or the responsibility of his own party. The demonstration was not to condemn his own policies but to make a good impression on the outside world.
Weiszäcker's speech was also the occasion for a sensation as several hundred "autonomists" (a semi-anarchist current which goes in for squatting and has won a certain measure of support for its anti-fascist activities) started shouting "hypocrite" and throwing rotten eggs and
Understandable as such feelings are, this attack on the president was a big political mistake, giving the media the opportunity to paint a picture of "wreckers from right and left who threaten
Worse however was the fact that the big success of the demonstration was totally overshadowed.Getting 300,000 out to march against racism is already impressive but on top of the sheer numbers is the fact that most of the banners
YOU ARE HERE and signs called for keeping the right to asylum. Thus the left had succeeded in turning what the bourgeoisie intended as a big parade of its own virtues into a demo against bourgeois policies. This achievement was also among the victims of the eggs and tomatoes.
It meant that, even if the bourgeois politicians could not hail the demonstration as their own success, they could
"the rabbles raise a hue and cry about 3
"the rabble" (as German Chancellor Hel-
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Delambre
The German Social Democrats and asylum