Some impressions of 1st of May 2020 in the FRG

This years Mayday celebrations in the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) was marked by the current crisis of the imperialist system and what in fact is a State of Emergency declared by the State with the pretext of “Fighting the Corona Virus”, on the one hand, and the struggle of the progressive forces and the masses against these on the other.

Therefore the Maoists in the FRG, strongly inspired by the basic guidelines of the international Joint Declaration of the Marxist-Leninist-Maoist Parties and Organizations ( https://demvolkedienen.org/index.php/en/t-dokumente-en/3923-cast-away-the-illusions-and-launch-into-fight ), applied differentiated tactics, such as participation in the organization of marches and rallies denouncing the State of Emergency and how the German imperialist State is putting its own Constitution out of effect, in particular by negating the rights of Assembly and Demonstration, as well as organizing manifestations in proletarian neighborhoods and participating in all forms of struggle of the masses. Also comrades hoisted the red banner with the hammer and sickle in several cities (also friends who are not Maoists did similar actions https://komaufbau.org/bericht-vom-revolutionaeren-1-mai-2020/ ).

These actions was carried out in a context where the yellow Unions had canceled all their marches (replacing them with a bad joke: “online protest”!) and the initiatives and protest was mainly carried out by what is called the “non-parliamentarian left”. Very few marches was carried out and the ones in Leipzig, Magdeburg, Munich and Stuttgart therefore are positive examples that merits mention. Also it was a good thing that the “evening marches” and activities, even with strong limitations, could be carried out in Berlin and Hamburg. Many smaller rallies was carried out all over the country. But still it must be noted that many still are in a sort of Shock and do not know how to move ahead.

What must be perfectly clear for everyone is that the current state of affairs, the deepest crisis of the imperialist system since World War 2 with all its consequences, is not a bad dream that will go away when the sanitary crisis is over. This is reality, this is the concrete reality of class struggle, and the task is to get rid of any illusion and launch us into it – as is stated in the international Declaration.

The conditions to rapidly advance the revolutionary movement are excellent and the communist must firmly take up their responsibility and stand at the forefront of the struggle of the masses, developing forms of organizations proper to changing forms of struggle. Every idea that “things will go back to normal”, is wrong. The revolutionary situation in uneven development are rapidly advancing, and that is a good thing. The activities of this Mayday must therefore been seen as only a part of the humble beginning of the great struggles to come.

Below follows short reports from actions in different cities where Maoists was active on the First of May – please note that we have included only a few pictures from every city, more extensive graphic impressions most certainly will be published by comrades soon.



Berlin



Flags were hung up during morning hours in the proletarian quarter Marzahn.



An unannounced rally was held in Hohenschönhausen.



Bremen

Among others, flags were hung from a high-rise building in Tenever.

In Bremen there was a demonstration by an alliance formed at short notice, which was registered on the route that the DGB had previously cancelled. Fifty demonstrators had been allowed by the restrictions imposed by the public order office, and twice that number actually came. The public order office and the police had already harassed the demonstration in advance with various restrictions and degraded it to an empty phrase of alleged freedom of assembly. The conditions included: limitation to 50 participants, 2 meters distance from each other, division of the demonstration into five blocks with 10 participants each, who should keep a distance of at least three meters from each other, prohibition of distribution of leaflets and similar. To name just a few, and of course under the threat of "immediate coercion", the conditions were not to be taken. Nevertheless the demonstration started with about 100 participants, who showed what they thought about the declared state of emergency and the conditions of the public order office.

However, the cops went too far after a part of the route, because not only the number of participants was far above the permitted maximum, but also otherwise the demonstrators did not care much about the compliance with the conditions, so leaflets were distributed and newspapers were sold in the demonstration. The cops therefore stopped the demonstration and again demanded that the conditions be met, especially with regard to the number of participants. This fact was loudly denounced by the demonstrators and then a second spontaneous demonstration was announced without further ado for those who were "too much", which ran with some distance to the first demo.

The cops used the fragmentation of the demo for further harassment of the participants of both demos. Arbitrarily the second demonstration was blocked shortly before the end by some motorcycle cops and was not allowed to go any further and was only left via a detour to the final rally site, where another attempt was made to prevent the second demo from joining the final rally. Also on the way to the final rally the rear part of the demonstration was stopped by the cops just before the cathedral square. The action of the cops was loudly denounced over a megaphone, there were some arguments with the police and finally the blockade of the cops was circulated. The Bremen cops and the rest of the executive clearly demonstrated this 1st of May what freedom of assembly is worth to them and how the allegedly so liberal Bremen legal regulation is enforced in practice.

For the revolutionaries in Bremen, the militant enforcement of the demonstration against the arbitrariness of the pigs and against the state of emergency was a great success and it is important to continue to stand firmly together and not be divided by sophistry.

After the 1st May demonstration there was also a short-term anti-fascist mobilization in Bremen, because it had become known that some fascists from Lower Saxony had made their way to Bremen. As a precautionary measure, the cops had also occupied the whole area around the central station, in fear of the anti-fascist protests. However, the fascists did not even get to Bremen and could not hold a meeting.

In the late afternoon a rally with the slogan "May 1st - Fighting Together" took place on the occasion of May 1st, which was announced at short notice by the Alliance, which had organized an alternative demonstration to the DGB last year. Also here some Maoists participated and distributed leaflets.



Essen

During the morning hours flags were hung up.



The Mayday manifestation in Essen, called for by an Alliance of various revolutionary Organizations, was given a new location on the latest possible chance by the High Court of Administration of the Federal State Northrhine-Westfalia, that banned it from the city center arguing the manifestation would draw to much attention. Despite the relocation more then the 50 people allowed to participate in the manifestation were present, especially so, as the manifestation finally took place in the neighborhood of Katernberg – a district of the deepest and broadest masses, in which the revolutionary organizations develop work for some time. This showed when in the end of the demonstration the police started to harass friends of the Initiative Justice for Adel, for their role in denouncing the murder of Adel B. at the hands of the police.

In the evening, mobilized for short-term, a number of people came together at the place where Adel was murdered. There, a minute of silence and two speeches were dedicated to him and together with neighbors, friends and the family of Adel the international was sung.

Frankfurt am Main



During the morning hours flags were hung up.



Freiburg



During the morning hours flags were hung up.

In the city of Freiburg revolutionary organizations called to visit the Seepark-Garden in the morning, where banners were hoisted and leaflets and propaganda materials distributed. At 13:00 the Internationale could be heard throughout the park. At the same time, it was mobilized to participate in the manifestation at 14:00 in the city center at the Square of the Old Synagogue, where a detachment of revolutionaries participated alongside a broad platform of various organizations. Noteworthy is the participation of a number of sympathizers of the labor struggles at the logistics company Arriva / Rela, that mobilized with a banner in German and Romanian (a significant part of the workforce are from Romania) to fight for the enforcement of the minimum wage in the company.

Hamburg



During the morning hours flags were hung up.

Despite massive restrictions on freedom of opinion and assembly, about 150 people gathered in Hamburg. The restrictive conditions included a limitation to 25 participants and a stationary rally on the footpath. Nevertheless, many people came to the "Alliance 1st of May 2020 Hamburg" event. Workers, labourers and intellectuals, men and also a relatively high proportion of women, young and old, communists, unionists and anarchists, people from the Balkans, Asia, Africa and Latin America, old acquaintances and many new faces - they all stood together against the draconian restrictions of the state of emergency.

The reaction quickly brought up 2 to 3 times as many cops as demonstrators, plus several water cannons, thus preventing the march. Nevertheless the road was taken. The hypocrisy of the ruling class was denounced and condemned in militant speeches. Our anthem, the International, was sung together. An uplifting moment that was met with much applause.

After a short time the cops declared the event dissolved and began to intimidate people. But the manifestation was maintained until they decided themselves to end the meeting.

We want to express our joy and pride that the strong antifascist mobilization (there were dozens of actions of different character in the whole city) and the state's fear of the masses led to the fact that on May 1st no Nazi demonstration could take place in Hamburg. Therefore we want to greet all anti-fascists, who were on the streets that day, especially warmly.

In the course of the evening there were mass fights, barricades were erected and cops were attacked. The cops also harrased journalists to prevent reporting.

It was proved to be true: 1st of May cannot be forbidden!

Heidelberg



During the morning hours flags were hung up.

Karlsruhe



During the morning hours flags were hung up.

Weimar



During the morning hours flags were hung up.



We also publish pictures of the activities of the turkish comrades of Partizan in the FRG here:

Wuppertal:

Nürnberg:

Ulm:

Stuttgart: