On July 2, just over a thousand people took to the streets. Berlin to protest the rearmament german army and against what you think rearmament of European society. The slogan of the show was “We don’t pay for your wars” It was assembled by the Zivile Zeitenwede (“Civil Transition” in German) collective, an alliance of hundreds of left-wing organizations, trade unionists, communists, and Christians outside the parliament.
The main criticism of the march was that the Parliament approved the decision. Germany an extraordinary injection of 100,000 billion euros for defense spending. Backed by the tripartite government of Social Democratic Chancellor Olaf Scholz, the resolution received majority support from both chambers and includes a constitutional reform. In the Bundestag (regional assembly), four states abstained: Berlin, Bremen, Mecklenburg-West Pomerania and Thuringia. The Die Linke party is in the governments of these four states, the far left of the German parliamentary arc.
on the go pacifist But last July 2, the absence of Die Linke leaders was striking. This, in addition to the participation of poor citizens in the march, reflects an image of crisis in the country. german pacifismreference for many civic movements in the rest of the world during The Cold WarBerlin was the main battle front in the event of the outbreak of a Third World War. NATO and the Warsaw Pact.
mass movement
In the early 1980s, in cold war-torn Germany, pacifism was a mass movement. He succeeded in bringing more than 250,000 people on October 1, 1981, and more than 300,000 on June 10, 1982, to the streets of Bonn, the capital of the then Federal Republic, between parties, generations, and people of different social classes.
After the deployment of nuclear missiles United States of America on german soilThe peace movement called for a week of civic actions in West Germany in October 1983 that mobilized more than three million people. Despite the repressions of the authoritarian regime, pacifism also gained strength among the opposition and Christian movements in socialist East Germany.
All these figures show the mobilization capacity of the German peace movement at a time when civil society is very aware of the consequences of a German peace movement. nuclear war in Europe and the world. The pacifist and anti-nuclear movement, although unsuccessful in its attempt to block the deployment of nuclear warheads in Germany, has managed to get its positions taken over by parties with parliamentary representation, such as the Social Democrats. SPDliberals PDF Y greens.
militaristic turn
Russian invasion Ukraine and the current version 2.0 of the Cold War has changed the political landscape in Germany. The Greens, a party with pacifist roots, are unapologetically accompanying the militaristic return of Social Democratic Chancellor Scholz. German Foreign Minister, green annalena baerbocksometimes even offers a more aggressive counter speech. Russia of the Putin They have more partners in the tripartite government in Berlin than the Social Democrats and Liberals.
Extraordinary budget of 100,000 million euros for the Bundeswehr – the largest investment in arms in Germany. II. World War– even forced the constitution to reform to include an exception to the curfew. Public debt Anchored in the Magna Carta of the Federal Republic. The German Government wants to buy planes, helicopters, ships, tanks, weapons and ammunition to face a possible threat with this millionaire package. war The main threat is Russia, as it was made clear at the last NATO summit in Madrid.
More than a thousand demonstrators marching in central Berlin on July 2 see the event differently. “The largest military investment in German history after the Second World War, arms race”, warns Christina Hoffman, general secretary of the Catholic peace movement Pax Christi. Given the current mobilization capacity of the antimilitarist movement and the balance of power in the Bundestag, this is a minority position in Germany for the time being.