On Saturday, February 17, thousands of people marched in downtown Munich protesting the 60th annual Munich Security Conference (MSC) held in the Hotel Bayerischer Hof from February 16 to 18.
Activists from communist and leftist groups, including the German Communist Party (DKP), Die Linke, Socialist German Workers Youth (SDAJ), Marxist-Leninist Party of Germany (MLPD), and other anti-imperialist organizations joined the protest raising banners that read “Warmongers unwanted.” They condemned the MSC 2024 as a gathering of “NATO warlords under the leadership of the United States,” under the guise of debating international security policy.
Peace and anti-imperialist groups also helped organize the 22nd International Munich Peace Conference held in the city from February 16 to 18. During the conference, anti-war activists discussed alternatives to militarism and capitalism, and paths to peace. They also sharply condemned the role of imperialist countries in enabling Israel’s ongoing genocidal war against Gaza. Activists, academics, and politicians from across Europe, including Irish MEP Clare Daly and Yanis Varoufakis, joined the conference.
JungeWelt has reported that in the protest, a large number of people marched with the Palestinian flag, and the Palestine solidarity groups wore blue medical lab coats, with blood-stained bundles in their arms representing babies killed in the ongoing Israeli bombing. Activists also unfurled a large banner containing the names of Palestinians killed by the Israeli army in Gaza.
Ronja Fröhlich from the Socialist German Workers Youth (SDAJ) told Unsere Zeit that while the Munich Security Conference advocates “strengthening the rules-based international order,” in reality, they are not talking about peace negotiations, but about the political and military struggle of the NATO countries under the leadership of the United States against their decline or the rise of their “systemic” competitors, including China and Russia.
“At the same time, German imperialism is using the security conference as a stage to present itself as a strong partner of the USA in the struggle on NATO’s eastern flank and to market and further promote its militarization in the media” added Fröhlich.
The Munich Security Conference is an annual event on international security policy that has been held since 1963. To counter this pro-imperialist event, various peace groups and anti-war organizations have been organizing the Munich International Peace Conference since 2003. This year, the SPD-Greens-led Munich City Council decided to withdraw its support given to the conduct of the peace conference. Die Linke in Munich protested the city council’s decision to stop funding the peace conference.
