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Just over a week ago, we already reported that the German imperialists want to allocate significantly more money to the defence budget in the future. According to what has been decided in the coalition agreement of the traffic light government, the so-called 2 per cent target of NATO is to be fulfilled, which states that 2 per cent of the gross domestic product is to be invested in the armed forces. That would be at least 73 billion euros a year, while last year's budget was still 46 billion. With the situation in Ukraine, where Russian imperialism launched a bloody war of aggression on 24 February, the situation has changed again. Even if the German imperialists did not wish for this war at this moment, they are now trying to get the maximum profit out of it. Above all, this war offers an opportunity to justify the increase in military expenditure and thus to meet the 2 per cent target.

Early this morning, Russian imperialism attacked Ukraine. Putin deployed Russian forces on Ukrainian territory. Russia announced that it had destroyed the military infrastructure of the Ukrainian air force. The attack is happening from several sides, including from the Crimean peninsula and the territory of Belarus. Ukrainian President Selenskyj has declared a state of war.

At the Munich Security Conference last weekend, Federal Defence Minister Christine Lambrecht (SPD) declared her intention to increase the FRG's military expenditure. Thus she said: "We will continuously increase this defence expenditure as well."

In the middle of last week, French imperialism announced that it was withdrawing its troops from the West African country of Mali. With France's withdrawal, the deployment of the German Bundeswehr, which is officially deployed in Mali with 1100 soldiers, is also in question. Even before France's decision to withdraw its troops, the German mission in Mali was increasingly on the line, because what has become clear is that this war cannot be won. The pretext of wanting to ensure stability in the region turned out to be more and more clearly a lie. With the two military coups in 2020 and 2021 at the latest, it has once again become clear that Mali is not a country in which the bourgeoisie succeeds in creating something like stability. In recent years, resistance, that is, what is usually called terror in the bourgeois media, has multiplied. Over the years, attacks on reactionary forces increased and doubled several times. In 2019, the average was two attacks per day perpetrated on imperialist forces.

 

On 19 February 2022, as in many other cities of the FRG, a demonstration took place in Bremen-Huckelriede in commemoration of the assassination in Hanau, where 9 people were murdered by a fascist, which was now the second anniversary. The 1000 participants of the demonstration, which went through the Neustadt district to the city centre, had a militant attitude, denouncing the involvement and role of the state in racist murders like the one in Hanau. The "Rote Kollektiv Bremen" also participated with a banner reading "Hanau was not an isolated case! Fight fascism - smash FRG!" and leaflets under the same slogan.

The Freiburg city administration has approved the development plan for the Metzergrün in Freiburg's Stühlinger neighborhood.

The Metzgergrün is one of the few places in Freiburg where one can still live relatively cheaply. While the average rent per square meter in Freiburg currently costs €15, there are still apartments in the Metzgergrün where tenants pay only €6 per square meter.

The apartments are relatively small, but in a nice location and all have their own garden. So here you can live quite nicely despite a small wallet, which is quite a unique characteristic in Freiburg. Anyone who wants to live so close to the city center and would also like to have some nature on their doorstep usually has to earn a good income. Affordable housing can otherwise be found mainly in neighborhoods like Haslach, Weingarten and Landwasser, which are all pretty far from the city center. The apartments there are also often in a miserable condition.

Freiburger Stadtbau has been planning for some time now to tear down the old houses and build 550 new apartments in place of the 250 old ones. Of these, 50% are supposed to be social housing, although 122 of them will not be built on the currently developed site.

Only 150 social housing units will be built there, the rent of which, according to the current planning, should already be higher than it currently is. So, in this case, the construction of "social housing" means an increase in rent. In addition, the remaining 230 apartments that will be built on the site will be private and owner-occupied apartments. There will be gardens only for those who can afford it. The existing residents will have to give up their green spaces.

The development plan is also designed in such a way that part of the social housing will be built directly next to a railroad track, so to speak, to serve as noise protection for the more expensive homes.

Stadtbau promises not to raise the rent for the first five years, but what happens after that is unclear. It can be assumed that affordable rent will be over by then at the latest. Social housing in such projects has repeatedly turned out to be a farce, whether in Rieselfeld or Dietenbach.

So now the city administration has approved the plan. Many complaints and criticisms had been received, but no points that could call the procedure into question, Stadtbau says.

The fact that hardly anyone in Metzgegrün agrees with the demolition is shown, among other things, by the many signs and banners that residents have put up, as well as their long fight with demonstrations and legal means against the development.

The decision of Stadtbau is made over their heads and does not correspond to the interests of the residents, no matter how socially it is passed out.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)