Bush in Germany: unloved and unwelcome

To welcome U.S. President George W. Bush to Mainz on Feb. 23, the German government shut the city down.

Mainz, Germany, Feb. 23.

Some 10,000 cops patrolled the streets. Sewer covers were locked in place. Stores and shops closed down.

The Opel car works declared a forced holiday. Roads in and out of the city were blocked and everyone was told to stay home.

It all cost 100 million Euros in lost business and lots of travel time, plus whatever it took to put an army of police on the streets.

John Catalinotto speaking in Germany.

Also, Bush and his team canceled a "town meeting" when they learned they would get some hostile questions.

Despite these measures, 15,000 to 20,000 people came from all over Germany and even from other parts of Europe to tell Bush he was "not welcome here."

Defying the repression, some Mainz residents put up anti-Bush posters in their apartment or shop windows. Even with police all over, the crowd managed to hiss Laura Bush's museum visit and their whistles once reached the president himself.

Many on the march called the U.S. president a war criminal, and said that he should end the occupation of Iraq, sign the Kyoto Treaty on the environment and stop violating human rights all over the world. Among them were some of the U.S. citizens living in Europe and others on hand by chance or invitation.

The peace movement in Germany had been relatively quiet on Iraq during the past year. No German troops are in Iraq. They are, however, in Afghanistan and in the former Yugoslavia in more quiet occupations. But there is no constant irritation from facing the Iraqi resistance. The regime of Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder had publicly separated itself from the Bush administration's policies.

The diplomatic reconciliation between German and U.S. imperialism mobilized the movement, along with parts of the population that had been active against the invasion of Iraq.

A great many high-school students took part in the protest. Many had cut their political teeth trying to stop the war before it started, and refuse to forgive Bush for making the world a more dangerous place.

Corporate and government media coverage before the Feb. 23 protest painted an ambivalent picture of the U.S. president. While none showed him as a war criminal, they did cover his history as a poor student and business failure rescued by his powerful father, which must have left a sour taste in many peoples' mouths. Afterward, some of the press criticized Schroeder for being a little too conciliatory.

One of the speakers at the ending rally, European Parliament member and anti-militarist Tobias Pflueger, criticized the Schroeder government and the European Union for building up its own military force as an oppressive arm directed against the Third World.

A speaker from the International Action Center in the United States thanked the German movement for the protest against Bush. He also explained how the Iraqi resistance has created a situation where U.S. youths and soldiers are no longer volunteering for the military in sufficient numbers for the Pentagon to carry out the aggressive policy planned at the time of the seizure of Baghdad in 2003.

He pointed out to U.S. soldiers in the area that if they participate in actions like the assault on Falluja, the world considers them war criminals. But if they "find a way to throw sand into the gears of the U.S. war machine," he said, "the world will consider them heroes."