Hambourg -Report on the Demonstration against the OSZE Summit
On 8th and 9th ofDecember the meeting of the foreign ministers of the “Organisation for Securityand Cooperation in Europe“ (OSCE) took place in Hamburg. Therefore the repressionapparatus of the FRG mobilised forces never seen before in this city.Over 13,000 cops, 22 water canons, 18 tanks, 35 boats, severalthousand vehicles, K-9 units, mounted police, 10 helicopters and 700 policespecial forces occupied the “Exihibiton Halls” as the venue and the surroundingcity district Sternschanze, St. Pauli and the whole city centre militarily andbullied residents and visitors. On thisoccasion the League Against Imperialist Aggression called for a demonstrationwith the slogan “Againstthe warmongers of OSCE and G20! Long live the resistance of the peoples!”,which could be read also on the banner at the front. Few days after thepublishing of the date of the demonstration the propaganda machine of theruling class gained momentum and began to denounce the demonstration and theLeague. The Hamburglocal tabloid “Mopo” dedicated various articles to them which read amongstother things: “Hamburgcan brace itself for riots! When on the 8th of December the two-day meeting of the OSCE foreignministers takes place in the Hamburg Exhibition Halls, the radical “LeagueAgainst Imperialist Aggression” wants to protest at the edge of the securityzone at 6 p.m. - and for sure not only peacefully. […] According to the localdomestic secret service the League is an association “of groups,organisations, parties and individuals from various countries” which considerviolence as “a legitimate mean for the enforcement of their political goals”.Their common base was “the anti-imperialist and internationalist struggle.””1 “Die Welt”2 wentfurther and put the demonstration in context of support of alleged “terrorism”:“Theanti-imperialist League is relevant known […] The League meets at theInternational Centre in Brigittenstraße 5, also known as B5. “The groupslocated there sympathise with terrorist and communist organisations from India,Peru and also the Kurdish autonomous regions””3. The “HamburgerAbendblatt”4 principallydid the same, but additionally attacked the applicant of the demonstrationdirectly: “Accordingto Abendblatt-Information the demonstration is announced by a long timeaffiliated of RAF-sympathisers” and added informations about his alleged residence.5 The localpress also did not miss an opportunity to praise the military equipment andstrength of the police. Bythat they tried to create a frightening climate and undermine the moral of therevolutionary and progressive movement in Hamburg and tried to intimidate it. Besides thishate campaign before the demonstration and without a nationwide mobilisation atleast 2,000 people gathered in the evening of 8th ofDecember at subway station Feldstraße to protest against the visit of thewarmongers and genocidaires and the attended occupation of the city. The policebegan to try to intimidate the protesters even before the demonstrationstarted. With a parade ofmounted police and police vehicles next to the protesters they tried to createa climate of intimidation. When the demonstration intended to start itwas stopped by rushing police units. Allegedly a permission to start was notgiven. After the demonstration showed that those kind of attempts ofintimidation would not work that day and showed its combatitive mood, thedemonstration could continue its route. Confronted with a huge police force, surrounded by apolice cordon and a helicopter in non-stop action the demonstration marchedalongside the edge of the security zone. The “Comittee for basic rightsand democracy” describes the situation as follows: “Also it needsto be reported about the totallyoversized police platoon in context of a comparatively small demonstration ofup to 2,000 demonstrators. New water canons, various special forces –BFE (arrest unit), USK (support unit)6,BeSi (evidence unit) – and an enormous army of highly equipped police officersaccompanied the demonstration. The impression of a police-state-like demonstration of power comes intomind.”7 This estimation is confirmed by the reports of the bourgeoismedia. They report that “at short notice two additionalplatoons of riot police were deployed very closely on both sides of the protestmarch […]. Every participant had his own personal officer aside, in a manner ofspeaking.”8 This shows on one hand that thecops miscalculated regarding the mobilisation of the League and on the otherhand it did not lower the determination of the protesters. DifferentMigrant and German revolutionary organisations, a great number of revolutionaryand Migrant youth and some residents participated at the demonstration. Thewarmongering of the OSCE-states and the seen increasing militarisation of therepression agencies were denounced in speeches. Additionally the assault and the following kidnapping ofthe Turkish revolutionary Musa Aşoğlu by reaction was condemned and hisimmediate release was demanded. Despite thepresent attempts of intimidation before and during the demonstration it was clearly shown that thejustified struggle of the peoples of the world against imperialism has itsrepercussion in the imperialist countries as well and has support in the bellyof the beast. The demonstration marked that despite themassive hate campaign by the bourgeois press the combatitive people in Hamburgdo not want and do not accept the division in “good and evil protesters”. It became obvious that the consequentlyanti-imperialist forces are not isolated.
