Berlin: protest against WTO and war

This saturday afternoon in Berlin was fairly sunny and not as cold as the previous days. Several thousand people gathered at Hermannplatz, in the South West of the city, to walk towards the Eastern part of Berlin. The police stood in front of some banks and parked a water cannon nearby, but did not intervene. A huge banner saying "Capitalism Kills!" was hung up alongside the demonstration route in Berlin-Kreuzberg. Among the speakers were various representatives of the peace movement and Sabour Zamani from the Afghan communication and cultural centre in Berlin as well as Farooq Sulehria from the Pakistani Labour Party speaking about the large non-fundamentalist anti-war movement in his country.
Eberhard Schultz, a lawyer, spoke about the catastrophic anti-terrorism bills that the Minister of the Interior Otto Schily wants to enforce. They are a "war declaration against the new peace movement and the opponents of globalised capitalism", according to Schultz. Aboard an independent truck with a samba band, refugees from Nigeria and Colombia shared their experiences of oppression and protested against exploitation by companies like Shell and imperialist programmes like Plan Colombia. "Enough is enough!" Theophilus from Nigeria declared, it is time to fight this system.

photos from the demonstration in Berlin (felS):  http://de.indymedia.org/2001/11/10487.html

There were protests in other cities in Germany, for example in Freiburg and Frankfurt:  http://www.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=86867&group=webcast