English: summary of Mayday events in Germany

English: summary of Mayday events in Germany

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A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C E
 http://www.ainfos.ca/
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Nazi marches were allowed in 6 cities today: Berlin, Frankfurt, Essen, Augsburg, Mannheim, and Dresden. These marches were only allowed after courts of justice had been involved, some of them were only decided upon this morning.
TV news shows mentioned that all Nazi marches included some 3,000 participants.

Frankfurt:
Several thousand antifa protesters blocked the city centre and several main crossroads. Police reacted brutally against them while protecting approx. 800 fascists who plan a march to the central bank. A Nazi is reported to have almost run over 2 antifas at noon, who managed to escape. Later on during the afternoon, there are clashes between Antifas and Nazis, and when the Nazis leave, an underground train full of Nazis is attacked.

Mannheim:
A march organized by National Democratic Party NPD is stopped after a few hundred metres. Antifa protesters are surrounded by police who afterwards let them go. During their short march, Antifas throw horseshit at the fascists.

Essen:
500 Antifas tried to stop the march of 120 Nazis and were throwing eggs at them. One of the main Nazi speakers is Friedhelm Busse, head of now banned Free Workers Party FAP. When Busse says: "Once Germany is free, we won't need any more Auschwitzs", police advance and arrest him temporalily. Antifa protesters get rounded up by police several times. At one point in time, info about the rounding up is passed on the the official trade union march, but apparently people there - unionists, the organisation of Young Social Democrats, Green Party, and Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS - follow-up for former socialist party of GDR) apperently were not very interested in coming to the their aid.
When the Nazi march was finished, some of them decided to leave for Essen main station which turned out to be a bad choice as the Black Bloc was waiting there. They attack the Nazis' train but are in turn attacked by
police with dogs. However, some Nazis do get beaten up.

Augsburg:
1,500 antifa protesters opposed a Nazi march.

Dresden:
About 700 Nazis marched with the slogan of "work of Germans first". Several attempts to block the march were unsuccessful. There were about 300 persons protesting against the Nazis, an alliance of various left organisations and 'normal' citizens who accompany the Nazi march and try to disturb it with a lot of noise.

Berlin:
Traditionally, Berlin sees a Revolutionary Mayday march every year. Apparently, this march split up some years ago, with antifascist to undogmatic groups and persons doing one march and the authoritarian left organizing their own event. This year, also a Nazi march was organized.

Berlin Senator of the Interior Werthebach (Christian Democrats) tried to ban the Nazi march and the antifa/undogmatic march scheduled for 6 pm. The latter was banned by a court of justice - the first time in the Federal Republic that a Mayday march has been banned! There was NO attempt to ban the authoritarian Mayday march which took place unhindered this noon.
Apparently, one of the reasons given for the ban were discussions within the 'scene' to organize a creative event this year and use less violence. Berlin authorities have 9,000 police officers out on the streets starting Friday afternoon to enforce the ban of the march as there were announcements to march all the same. This is the most massive police force Berlin has ever seen.

The Nazi march was allowed by a court of justice. Senator Werthebach in a TV interview deplored this. It has to be noted that Werthebach did not seem to make use of all legal steps possible against the Nazi march which
certainly reflects his true intentions. The Nazis were not allowed to march in the city centre.

Today, 900 Nazis showed up for the march which was heavily protected by police. A paper reported on Friday that a small group of persons having survived concentration camps were planning to confront the Nazis at their
meeting point, but there were no reports on this today. Counter protesters gathered (figures reported vary between 300 mentioned on mainstream media and 700 by Indymedia-Germany) and TV news reports said that there were arrests made on both sides but did not mention any exact figures.

During the afternoon, several thousand person gathered in the Berlin quarter of Kreuzberg, the place of the Revolutionary Mayday march and events. A group blocked a crossroads by sitting down, the blockade being
attacked by police soon afterwards. Police also attacked a street party at Mariannenplatz in this neighbourhood in which families with children participated. There are different reports whether police attacked with or without any prior warning. An Indymedia report mentions police attacked a children's merry-go-round with a watercannon truck. Mainstream media do not mention this but instead treat this incident as if police reacted against violent-prone left protesters. TV late news reports 150 arrests.

Later on, Indymedia reports say that almost all streets in the Kreuzberg neighbourhood have been blocked by police. Police are said to make random arrests of groups of people. There are also undercover police going through the streets beating people up at random.

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addition to a-infos report: Eyewitnesses at indymedia definitely state that the police attacked the peaceful festival at Mariannenplatz without any warning. An audio file also reproduces the police order to the protesters: they were asked to leave Oranienstrasse in the direction of Mariannenplatz, and police then chased them directly to the festival and then the water cannons fired without warning (I saw it with my own eyes, too).