Luxemburg Liebknecht March Ban

[Johannes Schneider]

Chris Burford wrote:
> Allegedly on security grounds, this years Luxemburg Liebknecht march in
> Berlin has been banned.
>
> Traditionally held on the second Sunday in January, the PDS has now called
> for another attempt to be made this Saturday, which happens to be the
exact
> anniversay, January 15, of the day in 1919 when Rosa Luxemburg and Karl
> Liebknecht were murdered.
>
> It was a traditional march in the GDR, and after the fall of the wall many
> other leftists supported it.
Actually the Luxemburg-Liebkneckt march is the event (beside May Day) for
the German left. In the last years there have been more than 100.000 persons
been present.
The whole case with an alleged suicide attack on the march looks like an
attempt by German secret services to start a row inside the PDS.
Unfortunately such an attempt seems to be successfull, at leats up to now:
mainly due to the unfortunate (to put it mildly) action by the PDS
leadership.
The PDS leadership did not only accept the ban, but actively supported it.
So leading PDS members were blocking the entrance to the
Luxemburg/Liebknecht monument in Berlin and acting like police deputies.
A number of PDS MPs have protested against the central leadership and there
is widespred discontent inside the PDS with the way the leadership acted.
The sharp discussions inside the PDS can only be understood on the
background of attempts by the leadership to move the PDS in the direction of
an outspoken social-democratic postion. Gysi has presented 12 theses for a
'modern socialism'
http://www2.pds-online.de/bt/themen/9908/99081801.htm
in english:
http://www.pds-online.de/international/dokumente/englisch/9908/12theses.htm
, that were seen as a step in this direction.
In recent years the right-wing inside the PDS wanted to cancel the
Luxemburg/Liebknecht march, but protests from inside the PDS prevented it.
Thats another reason why the march is an important symbol for the left
inside (and outside) the PDS. Since politics is as much about symbols as it
is about contents the present cooperation between the PDS leadership and the
state 'securities' forces is seen as an precedent of driving the left out of
the party.
For more information on the march, you can check out (unfortunately all in
Geraman):
http://www.pds-online.de/partei/aktuell/ll-demo/index.htm
or the junge welt:
www.jungewelt.de
Johannes