From: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu (Rich Winkel)
Newsgroups: misc.activism.progressive
Subject: Building anti-racism in Germany
Date: 11 Oct 92 08:15:22 GMT
Followup-To: alt.activism.d
Organization: PACH
Originator: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu

/** wri.news: 503.0 **/
** Topic: Building anti-racism in Germany **
** Written  4:36 pm  Sep 30, 1992 by gn:peacenews in cdp:wri.news **
THE HARD WORK OF BUILDING AN ANTI-RACIST ALTERNATIVE IN GERMANY

AUTHOR = ROBIN KENDON

Since the middle of August a new wave of right-wing violence against
refugees and other immigrants in Germany has been making -- and
fading from -- the headlines. In Rostock a refugee reception centre
was besieged for a week by rioting youths urged on by local
residents until finally the refugees were moved by the authorities
and the building set on fire by the rioters while the police were
taking a break.

Since then dozens of similar attacks have taken place in many
eastern German towns. Most recently Wismar has been the scene of a
siege over several nights. Foreigners all over Germany live
increasingly in fear of what could happen.

There are clear signs that the riots are in part organised and
manipulated by Neo-Nazis from western Germany; in any case they
contain a very ugly racist element. As 3 October -- the public
holiday marking the re-unification of Germany -- approaches fears of
major, organised attacks are growing.

In Rostock the police and regional government were criticised for
their inadequate response to the attackers -- and a comparison with
the often harsh police treatment of left-wing demonstrations makes
this inadequate response even more obvious.

Politicians of the major parties condemned the violence but sought
to explain it away as the product of frustrated youth. In his first
speech after the attacks in Rostock, chancellor Helmut Kohl called
for Germany to be presented as "foreigner-friendly", but didn't
bother to mention the refugees -- the victims of the violence.

At the same time the Social Democrats have dropped their opposition
to a change in the constitutionally-anchored right of asylum for the
politically persecuted, so that Article 16(II)2 -- which was
included in the German Basic Law out of responsibility for the many
refugees who fled from the Nazis in the '30s -- seems likely to be
fully undermined.

Popular opinion has been fuelled by constant reporting of alleged
"misuse" of the right to claim asylum, by media campaigns
particularly against the Romanies ("Gypsies"), and by the claim that
"the boat is full" and that the local authorities cannot accommodate
any more refugees. The demand for quick answers to these problems
has been growing.

Germany currently faces considerable social problems. Unemployment
is rising, not only in the east, and Kohl's coalition government,
which was re-elected on the issue of reunification, is struggling to
finance the economic recovery without stinging its own voters with
tax increases.

At the same time asylum seekers are entering Germany at record
levels. In 1991 around 350,000 asylum applications were made: in
1992 the number could be as high as 500,000. Most refugees currently
come from Turkey, Romania and the Balkans. Last autumn a law was
rushed through which speeds up the deportation of rejected asylum
applicants. Clearly, receiving such large numbers presents even
Europe's wealthiest country with difficulties which cannot be
lightly dismissed.

But that is no excuse for turning refugees fleeing from persecution
or war into the scapegoat for the social ills of a country -- and
into the victims of a violence which has no place in any country,
but especially not in one which considers itself democratic and
civilised!

The combination of the social problems and a general rightwards
drift politically; of frustrated east Germans "freed" from the tight
restrictions of the GDR; of Neo-Nazis seeking to resurrect their
dreams of greater Germany; of the fact that neither west nor east
Germany has come to terms with its Nazi history, so that racist
slogans fall on fertile ground; and  of a tendency towards authorit-
arianism which has already produced some very repressive laws
designed to stifle protest against the state: all these are factors
which play a role in Germany today.

At the same there is undoubtedly concern in many sections of German
society at the rising violence, and thus a potential which could be
tapped if the right approach can be found.

To do this there is a great need to separate the different issues --
unemployment, a housing shortage, immigration and asylum, racism --
so that they can be discussed and dealt with appropriately.
Identifying the _real_ problems which people face can hinder the
search for a scapegoat.

Initiatives are starting up aimed at giving support for victims of
racist violence, and support work for refugees has increased
considerably in the last year. This work is very much on the
defensive and, given the trend towards further restrictions, often
reduced to direct social support for those refugees who are here.
The chance of positive political change in this area is effectively
zero.

There is a certain potential in the development of nonviolent
trainings aimed at giving people the tools to overcome their fear in
potentially dangerous situations, thus enabling them to act to
prevent violence from taking place, for example on public transport.
This would also have the aim of developing people's analysis of the
cause of the violence and raising consciousness generally about
structural violence in society, enabling people also to act
politically on the issue. So far this is an idea which has not been
put into practice.

For a number of years now anti-racism trainings have been carried
out by the Initiative of Black Germans and others (as part of the
World Council of Churches' Programme to Combat Racism): these are to
be increased and extended. A major problem is a lack of awareness of
what prejudice and racism really are, so that a sense of the
wrongness of racist acts is often lacking.

Opinions in radical circles differ as to what to do in the face of
the rise of the Neo-Nazis and the increase in overt racism, and what
is likely to come out of this whole issue. Citizens' groups,
charities, trades unions and the like have been working since the
racist attacks in Hoyerswerda a year ago to counter both the rise in
racism and the undermining of the asylum laws. So far progress has
been limited to individual projects or local successes.

Militant left anti-fascist groups, often influenced by hard-line
communists, have a tendency to meet the right-wing violence with
more of the same, and are thus easily dismissed or marginalised.

The cross-over between groups is often limited. It has so far not
proved possible to build up the kind of broad-based alliance which
is necessary to demonstrate that there really is opposition to the
racist politics of both government and extremists on a scale large
enough to influence the direction of public opinion and government
policy.

While the situation in Germany is influenced considerably by the
country's history of Nazism and by its powerful economic position
and its geographical position in central Europe, and what is now
happening here is an absolute scandal -- Germany only reflects what
is happening all over western Europe and the North.

The struggle to maintain economic power and wealth will inevitably
lead to more racism and more restrictions on refugees and others
entering the rich countries. While the effects in the South of the
North-South divide (such as poverty and starvation) are only visible
to Northerners on their television screens, the strains of this
conflict are going to be increasingly visible on Northern streets.
And there are no quick answers.

*******************************************************************
* Reprinted from Peace News 2359 (October 1992).                  *
* Please credit if reprinting.                                    *
* Peace News and War Resisters' International,                    *
* 55 Dawes Street, London SE17 1EL                                *
* (tel +44 71 703 7189; fax 708 2545; email peacenews@gn.apc.org) *
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