Re: Syndicate: morning repor

[David Hudson <dwh@berlin.snafu.de>]

pticica wrote:

>about reports: i heard something was reported on RTL (second-hand info)
>about left-wing demonstrations in berlin yesterday. do anyone knows
>anything about it?!

Yes, I'm not sure which program I was watching at the time, but there were
demonstrations yesterday here in Berlin. The reporter described the crowd
as a mix of Serbs and Autonome. It was hard to tell from the camera angles
how many were taking part in the demonstration, though. Could have been 50
or 150...

Also yesterday, a few Serbs (less than 10) stood, I believe, on
Alexanderplatz with signs protesting the bombings. They were taunted and
yelled down, and gave up after a single hour.

I have to add to Andreas and Inke's comments from Berlin that I find the
uniformity of German support for the NATO air raids absolutely astonishing.
By that, I mean, not the support itself: "Reunified" Germany is essentially
an extension of the Federal Republic, or West Germany, which, of course,
was avidly pro-NATO for forty years before "reunification." What I mean is,
the sheer lack of discussion, the acceptance without even a blink of an eye
of the first German out-n-out military action since World War II.

In the Bundestag yesterday, an unscheduled "debate" broke out on the
situation, and a mere seven Social Democrats opposed the bombing. Gregor
Gysi of the PDS (i.e., the Democratic Socialists, the party which carries
the hefty historical baggage of being the very party that rose from the
ashes of the Socialist Unity Party (SED), that is, the one and only party
that ran East Germany up to the fall of the Berlin Wall) gave an
impassioned and moving speech opposing German participation, but was more
or less ignored. Nice soundbites, Gregor, let's move on, seemed to have
been the prevailing mood.

Otherwise, nix. Even the Greens, with a few exceptions, are echoing
Chancellor Schroeder's remarks today: "We have no choice," etc.

So that's what's going on -- or rather, *not* going on -- here in Berlin.





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