Fire and Flammes for the Repression

Solidarity with Axel, Florian and Oliver

On September 25th the trial against three activists from the radical left began in the Berlin court. They are on trial for supposedly attempting an arson attack on Army vehicles on the grounds of MAN, a traditional weapons manufacturer. They are also charged with supposed membership of the clandestine Communist Militant Group (mg). The MG, which has been in existence since 2001, has claimed more than 20 arson attacks on installations of the state and capital and has also engaged in a militancy debate producing theoretical texts. The three Berliners are thereby charged with attempted serious arson, as well as membership of a “criminal organization” under paragraph §129.

With the day of action on december 13th 2008, which is planned in different cities, we want to express our solidarity with the accused und protest against state repression.

Away with § 129, 129a and b

The paragraphs 129, 129a and b of “criminal or terrorist organizations” are continuously used against the radical left. The paragraphs are special laws, which allow criminalization by simple membership and carry a sentence of up to ten years. Through these paragraphs state organs have been able to use massive surveillance measures such as surveillance of telephones, mobiles and e-mails, use of movement trackers, cameras focusing on the homes of the accused and much more.

This widespread surveillance was and is used in numerous cases, some dropped and some still running, against activists of the radical left, for example against Antifascists from Bad Oldesloe who were charged with “membership of a criminal organization”, charges that were later dropped.

In Stuttgart-Stammheim five leftists from Turkey are currently charged with alleged membership of the DHKP/C (Revolutionary Peoples Liberation Front). This is the first big trial against a leftist organization in which the new paragraph §129b (“Membership of a foreign terrorist organization”), made in 2001, is being used. This trial against the immigrant leftists will certainly not be the last, with further 129 investigations running, for example against ten people of ATIF (Federation of Workers from Turkey), who are charged with alleged membership of the TKP/ML (Turkish Communist Party/Marxist-Leninist). Also against the kurdish movement exist a lot of repression. The PKK (Kurdish Worker Party) is persecuted since 15 years as “criminal organization”. In the context of the oppression against the kurdish Left are the prohibition of the tv-station Roj-TV and the newspaper Özgür Politika in Germany.

Against the State and Capital

As radical leftists we are against the capitalist order of society, so it is obvious that the state with its instruments of repression such as the police and courts will try to obstruct and if possible destroy this resistance. The state‘s monopoly of force is there to secure the ruling status quo. Besides the concrete obstruction of political work through confiscation of computers and other materials in house raids, as well as intimidation through observation and trials, public defamation of radical leftist politics is a consequence of criminalization. Revolutionary politics and organization are slandered as terrorism, so as to make solidarity more difficult and to create splits within the movement.

Along with the growing social contradictions, the extent of surveillance and repression has grown as well. In the past few years there have been numerous new laws and more are planned, through which democratic rights are reduced and the surveillance state extended. The new data saving law, the hollowing out of assembly rights, new digital bugging laws and tracking laws are a few of the plans in that area.

For Solidarity and Revolution

A society without exploitation and oppression, a society in which production is determined by needs and not profit is the goal of our political struggle. A society whose means of production are available to the people, who can collectively decide what to produce and not simply to a small minority as is the case today. But the ruling class will not voluntarily give up their power and their property, but will by all means attempt to defend their rule. We must therefore be conscious that our structures will continue to be targets of state repression and we must try to defend ourselves against surveillance.

We, as radical leftists, are fighting against a system that continues to produce crisis after crisis and within their capitalist logic they can not find any real ways out of their crisis besides through war and destruction. The current global economic crisis shows what catastrophic consequences an economic system, based solely on profit, produces. The character of the state as ruling instrument of the capital can be seen through the fact that the costs of the crisis are carried by people dependent on wages.

Our struggle is therefore not only aimed against the attacks of the repression, but also for the perspective of a classless society based on solidarity. Solidarity with political prisoners and everybody effected by the repression play an important role in the struggle, for only together and on an international basis can we effectively oppose the blows by the repression.

Solidarity with Axel, Florian and Oliver

Away with § 129, 129a and b!

Freedom for all political prisoners!

Smash Capitalism – Construct Solidarity!

supporters: Bündnis für die Einstellung des § 129a-Verfahrens, Antifaschistische Linke Berlin [ALB], Antifaschistische Revolutionäre Aktion Berlin [ARAB], Revolutionäre Perspektive Berlin [RPB], Rote Hilfe e.V. Ortsgruppe Berlin

contact: solidaritaet_aufbauen@web.de