Poster by Volksbühne (People´s Theater) at Rosa Luxemburg Square, Berlin
Today is the 99th memorial day of Germany`s most famous Rosa.
What Rosa Parks is to African Americans, Rosa Luxemburg is to the German radical left.
A prominent figure of the German revolution 1918-19, her ideas live on to inspire revolutionaries all over the world.
Especially Kurdish women of the Rojava revolution see her as a shining example of a female revolutionary, her work and ideas being as relevant today as a hundred years ago.
On January 15 in 1919, Rosa was murdered in Berlin by paramilitary Freikorps troops, World War I veterans sent by the Social Democratic government to destroy the left-wing revolution, her body thrown into Landwehrkanal, a canal in Berlin.
Memorial at the site where Rosa was thrown into the canal
While the Social Democratic Party had already succumbed to nationalist pressure in 1914 and voted for the issue of war bonds to finance Germany´s participation in World War I, leading Rosa to contemplate suicide over this “triumph of revisionism“, it were those orders by Friedrich Ebert, leader of the Social Democrats, first chancellor of the Weimar Republic and ironically a former student of Rosa Luxemburg, sending troops against the revolutionary German workers, that earned the SPD that infamous label - “Workers´ Traitors“.
Even in the Federal Republic of Germany, whenever there were demonstrations against austerity measures under a Social Democratic government, people would chant “Wer hat uns verraten? Sozialdemokraten!“ -“Who betrayed us?Social Democrats!“
The revolutionary consciousness does not forget.
If you understand German (maybe the Dutch passengers of the ecotrain?), here´s a nice song about Social Democrats.
And it was this historical rift, between a Social Democratic government and the radical left who wanted a real, a social revolution in Germany while the Social Democrats opted for classical oppression methods already employed by the German emperor before, that would not allow them to join forces against the rising Nazi party later on, ultimately leading to the fall of the Weimar republic and the subsequent arrest and also sometimes death of many Social Democrats.
Germany has a long tradition of being afraid of real change, real revolution, always opting for the safety of the known over the insecurity of the unknown, even if the known is an oppressive system.
I live close to Kiel, the city where in November 1918 the German revolution started with the Kiel mutiny. The sailors of the German High Sea Fleet had been ordered to perform “one last, honourable stand“ against the British Royal Navy, though peace negotiations had already started, but the sailors had enough of the war and took to the streets, were joined by revolutionary workers and the rest is history.
Revolutionary sailors in Kiel, the sign saying "Hurrah to freedom"
2018 is the big memorial year in Kiel, “100 Years Kiel Mutiny“.
The very same politicians who would not hesitate to send police against any kind of revolutionary activity will celebrate the memory of those sailors and workers whose uprising led to the end of World War I and the abdication of the German emperor. Oh, the hypocrisy!
A Kurdish "Rosa“ gets arrested with her Öcalan flag by German police.
The same hypocrisy could also be witnessed last Saturday, January 13, during the annual demonstration in honour of Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht, who was murdered together with Rosa, in Berlin.
German riot police attacked the demonstration, because some of the participating Kurdish comrades were waving flags with the picture of Kurdish revolutionary (terrorist, according to the governments of Turkey and Germany) Abdullah Öcalan, imprisoned leader of the Kurdish PKK.
In Germany it is forbidden by law to show pictures of Öcalan, flags of the PKK and even the YPG and YPJ of Rojava, because they are seen as affilliated with the PKK.
Stencil of Rosa on a portion of the Berlin Wall reading "I am a terrorist"
While nothing is done against the presence of Turkish agents trying to assassinate Kurdish activists on German soil, like they did in Paris in 2013, Kurds are hurt and arrested because of some flags.
I think this clearly shows the attitude of the German State regarding the Kurdish revolution in Rojava.
Sakine Cansız, Kurdistan´s Rosa Luxemburg, co-founder of the PKK, murdered on January 9, 2013 in Paris by Turkish agents.
Also the Democratic Kurdish Society Center (DKSC) in Hamburg was raided by German police in the early hours of January 13.
While the Turkish military is getting into position along the Turkish-Syrian border for a possible large scale attack on Rojava, some Turkish units have been operating in Syria already for a while now anyway, the German State is stepping up its oppression of the Kurdish movement in Germany.
Once again it looks like the old Kurdish saying holds true:
“The Kurds have no friends but the mountains.“