10,000 in Berlin say: German troops out of Afghanistan

Some 10,000 people marched on Sept. 15 through downtown Berlin to the Brandenburg Gate, where they demanded that German Parliament members vote against extending the deployment of the country’s troops and military aircraft to Afghanistan.

Berlin, Sept. 15. Sign means ‘Germany ut of Afghanistan, USA out of Germany.’ Poto: Gabi Senft

The U.S. Congress is debating the conditions for funding the U.S. occupation of Iraq. At this same time, the German Parliament is scheduled to debate renewing that country’s military role in Afghanistan.

The German peace movement chose Sept. 15 as the day to hold a national protest. In the U.S., anti-war forces have been protesting in Washington since Sept. 12, in actions that will culminate in the Sept. 29 Troops Out Now Coalition (TONC) march.

The newly formed Left Party, which holds a small block of seats in the German Parliament, was among those participating in the Berlin march and rally. Their contingent held banners demanding “No foreign intervention by the German Federal Armed Forces [Bundeswehr]” and demanding “Bundeswehr out of Afghanistan.”

Attac-Germany, the German Communist Party (DKP), various pacifist and religious groups and anti-imperialist groups all supported the demonstration. There was sizable participation by people of Turkish, Kurdish and Middle Eastern origin, according to an article in the Sept. 16 edition of Junge Welt, a daily newspaper.

While the German government, led by the Social Democrats under Chancellor Gerhardt Schroeder, dissented from the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2002-2003, Berlin still allowed the U.S. to use all the many Pentagon military bases in Germany to support the war and occupation. Under the chancellorship of Christian Democrat Angela Merkel, Germany now cooperates even more closely with U.S. foreign policy, playing a leading role in the NATO intervention in Afghanistan.

The German ruling class considers the military intervention the price Germany must pay to be a

charter member of the imperialist powers that dominate the world.

Of course it is the German working-class youth who pay that price, along with the Afghan people.

One interesting sign at the protest had two slogans: a German military helmet with the slogan, “Germany out of Afghanistan,” and a U.S. Army helmet with the slogan, “U.S. out of Germany.” There are still many military bases and 80,000 U.S. troops in Germany, 62 years after World War II.

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