LUXEMBURG & LIEBKNECHT
100,000 in Berlin honor memory of communist heroes
By John
Catalinotto
Berlin
Some 100,000 people walked to the memorial in
Friedrichsfelde Cemetery here in Berlin Jan. 15 to pay respects
to two martyred communist leaders, Rosa Luxemburg and Karl
Liebknecht.
The two were murdered by the German Free Korps on Jan. 15,
1919, just days after the communist party they founded took
responsibility for the Berlin workers' abortive attempt to
seize power earlier that January.
The two revolutionaries are famous and beloved for their
courageous opposition to Germany's role in World War I. At a
time when the majority of the Social Democratic Party
leadership was betraying their promises to fight against their
country's role in that murderous war, Liebknecht was the only
member of the party in the German Bundestag (Parliament) to
vote against war credits.
Luxemburg was the only woman at the time who was a top
ideological leader of a major party, and had influence in the
struggles within the worldwide communist movement.
The Luxemburg-Liebknecht demonstration takes place each
year, gathering pro-revolutionary forces from all over Germany
into Berlin. In times when the socialist German Democratic
Republic existed, the government supported and encouraged the
demonstration.
Now, when there is one imperialist-ruled Germany, the
demonstration is a measure of the mood of the left and the
potential for struggle.
Really, two demonstrations take place.
One consists of marches of a coalition of left,
revolutionary working-class and anarchist forces that march
from further downtown to the memorial. In past years the police
have provoked clashes with this part of the demonstration,
though these clashes were limited to a few arrests this
year.
About 10,000 people took part in this march, with a larger
and more visible participation this time from Turkish and
Kurdish revolutionary organizations. These groups, who also
were calling attention to the many Turkish and Kurdish
political prisoners the Turkish military killed last month,
carried banners honoring the two German revolutionaries.
The other is a gathering of 90,000 people, most of them from
the former GDR, who lay red carnations on the memorial site for
Luxemburg and Liebknecht, or perhaps on the graves and markers
of other socialist and communist heroes buried in the cemetery.
These people were called out by the Party for Democratic
Socialism, the only pro-socialist party in the German
Bundestag.
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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