On Sunday, January 14, Sunday, thousands of people marched in Berlin as part of the annual Luxemburg-Liebknecht demonstration to mark the 105th anniversary of the martyrdom of the German communist leaders Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht.
Activists from various communist and anti-imperialist groups including the German Communist Party (DKP), Die Linke, Socialist German Workers Youth (SDAJ), Marxist-Leninist Party of Germany (MLPD), Communist Aufbau, trade unions, student and youth groups, anti-fascist groups, and community organizations, along with pro-Palestine and pro-Kurdish groups, took part in the demo.
Delegations of progressive parties from other parts of Europe also participated. The demonstrators paid tribute to Luxemburg and Liebknecht and expressed solidarity with the people of Palestine.
Meanwhile, the security forces attacked pro-Palestinian demonstrators, injuring many, and arrested 16 demonstrators including musicians of the Turkish band Grup Yorum, who are currently on a hunger strike in solidarity with their comrades imprisoned in Germany. Progressive sections within and outside the country condemned the police attack on the demonstrators.
The “Traffic Light” coalition German government headed by chancellor Olaf Scholz has effectively criminalized solidarity with Palestine while extending “unconditional support for Israel.” The government has given a free hand to the police to curb pro-Palestine demonstrations in the country.
The German state’s support of Israel’s genocidal war on Palestine and its complicity in escalating the war in Ukraine has been vociferously criticized by leftists and working-class sections within and outside the country. While Germany continues to fund imperialist wars, farmers and workers from many sectors are currently protesting cuts in subsidies and a fall in their real wages.
Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht, the founders of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD), were murdered on January 15, 1919 by paramilitary forces called the Freikorps at the instigation of the Social Democratic Party (SPD)-led government which was trying to curb the Spartacist Uprising.
The Spartacist Uprising of January 1919 was a communist uprising against the post-WWI transition government and sought to set up a workers’ republic. The uprising started as a general strike on January 5 and quickly became an armed conflict between the workers led by the KPD and far-right paramilitary groups working on the orders of the SPD-led government.
Earlier on January 13, Saturday, the socialist newspaper Junge Welt organized the 29th International Rosa Luxemburg Conference at Berlin’s Tempodrom, which was attended by more than 3,500 people. Solidarity with Palestine and resistance to the rise of the far-right were the major topics discussed at the conference.
