Berlin: ‘Revolutionary May 1st Protest’ to Take Place in Spite of Corona

In Berlin, the radical left is preparing its ‘Revolutionary May 1st Protest’. Yet again, the city has to rely on its Police Department. Each year, the German capital’s cops are the ones who prevent violence from erupting at this event. They will have to do so again soon.

Berlin, April 7th, 2021 (The Berlin Spectator) — Germany’s capital has two kinds of Labor Day rallies. The German Federation of Trade Unions (DGB) and other organizations usually stage the traditional May 1st March during which it usually calls for an increase of wages, a reduction of weekly working hours, an improvement of work place conditions or effective policies against the housing crisis. These protests became a tradition many decades ago. In West Germany, workers rallied for their rights, while the East German regime made its people stage support rallies for itself.

Stones and Bottles

‘Revolutionary May 1st Protest’ is the title of the other kind of annual Labor Day event. This one is hard to deal with, because it is being staged by the radical left. Many participants of these rallies provoke the police every time, by becoming violent and by chanting slogans such as “Berlin hates the police!” and this kind of nonsense. At these protests, officers are being attacked with stones and bottles all the time. So-called autonomists who hide under hoods usually want to take the city apart. So, the police have to protect themselves and the city during these ‘Revolutionary Protests’.

“We are supposed to lose our jobs and isolate ourselves from each other, but pay our rent”, it says on a website which claims to be the official voice for the ‘Revolutionary May 1st Protest’. “We are supposed to die, so that they cannot be made responsible”. By “they”, they mean the “ruling class” the members of which lived in “villas in Grunewald and huge lofts in the Mitte district”. For too long, “our workforce has been exploited, our voices have been ignored and our communities murdered”, the revolutionary text reads.

Communication and Overkill

For many years now, the police have run a two-track strategy at those dangerous protests organized by radicals. On the one hand, they try to communicate with the organizers, and usually fail. On the other hand, they follow an overkill approach, meaning they send thousands of officers in full riot gear who will shield the protesters. That way, they do not get much opportunity to set Berlin on fire. In Corona times, the protesters will also be told to adhere to the pandemic rules. If they do not, the protest might be ended. But this sounds easier than it is, especially when preventing violence is the main goal.

Note: The Berlin Spectator uses the words ‘extremists’ or ‘radicals’ for persons, groups or parties that fight democracy, its institutions or values, on both the far-right and the far-left.

In spite of all efforts to keep things under control, some attacks against police officers or the destruction of some vehicles and windows cannot be prevented in most cases. But, since 1987, when Kreuzberg was literally being taken apart by those extremist left-wingers, things have improved considerably. Back then, the ‘revolution’ against freedom and “the system” opposed a census in West Germany because “George Orwell is everywhere”.

Bats and Tear Gas

On May 1st, 1987, police in West Berlin increased tensions before the protests commenced, by raiding the offices of the umbrella organization of opponents of the census in Berlin’s Kreuzberg borough. The annual ‘MyFest’ was peaceful at first, until radicals joined it. In the afternoon, stones were thrown at a police car, while another one was overturned. Some radicals blocked a street using construction trailers. Police reacted by ending the street fest using bats and tear gas. This move lead to an additional escalation.

At Oranienstrasse, members of left-wing groups set up barricades of burning cars. Fire fighters who came to extinguish the flames were attacked. One of their vehicles was set on fire as well. A supermarket was looted and an ‘S-Bahn’ train station badly damaged. Once most participants of the rampage were either too drunk to move or tired, or both, police forces ended this night of brutality. What happened in Kreuzberg in 1987 is not supposed to repeat itself. Since then, the police have learned, but the radicals have not. If it wasn’t for the police, the whole thing would explode again and again each year.

Rhetorical Question

In 2019, countless police officers kept the hundreds of mummed ‘Revolutionary Protest’ participants from engaging in violence. Many protesters, those who threw bottles and other items, were arrested. Once the ‘revolution’ was over, the Police Department said the event had been “largely peaceful”. In 2020, when Corona had already hit, the police had to improvise to prevent large gatherings from happening. They chose a separation strategy. Those who wanted to gather for the ‘Revolutionary May 1st Protest’ were kept apart. Many small groups of protesters in the Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg district were facing police officers in superior numbers. It worked.

This time, in 2021, the ‘Alliance Revolutionary May 1st Berlin’ announced, the protest would commence at Hermannplatz in Neukölln at 6:00 p.m. on May 1st. “Since we have realized what our situation is, how is anyone going to stop us?” it says on the radicals’ website. In a democracy like this one, nobody will stop their protest, as long as they do not become violent, and as long as they follow the Corona rules. But answering rhetorical questions was never a good idea.

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