Then police rushed in with everything they had, and that´s a lot
From the revolutionary standpoint the 1st of May 2015 in Hamburg was a political victory. It is everyday life for the struggling proletariat to confront with the bourgeoisie, its state and institutions as well as with revisionism. If it suffers temporary defeats because its forces are weaker then the enemies that just shows the necessity of the development of its forces. That the demonstration at Feldstraße was crushed does not mean that the struggle was not successful.On the contrary. The resume from 2014 “We fought together. Very different Types of people. Neighbours together with Punks, Communists together with Anarchists, workers together with students, all together against their oppressors“, the statement “The world of blatant poverty rises against the world of monstrous wealth … They have got a better world in their heads and fierce hatred in their hearts” was proven correct and the demand “Do not let the bloodsuckers have their save heaven” (from the Call of the League against imperialist Agression) was fulfilled.
First of all we have to take a look on the political situation in Hamburg before the 1st of may 2015. It differs from 2014. It was less tense. The struggle of the refugees of Lampedusa in Hamburg (Die Welt: “Demonstranten bringen Polizei ans Limit” 03-11-2013) developed strongly before 1st of may 2014 and affected almost the whole town. The protests against “danger zones” around the turn of the year (Zeit: “Mehrere hundert Menschen bei Gefahrengebiet-Demo”, 07-01-2014), the Flora-demonstration on 21st of December (NDR: “Hunderte Verletzte bei Rote-Flora-Demo” 23-12-2013; n-tv: “Was alles nicht gesagt wird” 23-12-2013) and the demonstration on walpurgis from the Rise Up! – alliance are further struggles that took place prior and around 1st of may 2014 and were lacking in 2015.
The revolutionary 1st of May faced the desire for revenge of the ruling class because of the huge victory won in 2014 (SoL: Bericht zum 1. Mai 2014 in Hamburg; BILD: “Demo wird zur Straßen-Schlacht”, 03-05-2014; Hamburger Abendblatt: “Polizei überrascht von Gewaltbereitschaft bei Mai-Krawallen”, 02-05-2014; etc.). It was impossible for the enemy do allow such a success once again. Therefore the enemy send everything to the field against revolutionary 1st of may and its organizers.
One thing everyone in Hamburg knows about is that there was a parallel activity organized at the same date. For sure a lot of friends and comrades will have questions about that issue but because the class enemy trying to take advantage from that we won´t argue on that question.
For these and many other reasons the necessityoccurred to mobilize more powerful. It is important that a lot of work was done by the people. In almost every district of the town posters were hung up e.g. inAltona, Barmbek, Bergedorf, Billstedt, Dulsberg, Eidelstedt, Eimsbüttel, Harburg, Horn, Lurup, Mümmelmannsberg, Neuwiedenthal, Ottensen, St. Pauli, Steilshoop, Sternschanze, Veddel, Wandsbek and Wilhelmsburg. One of the slogans of the mobilization “Long live international solidarity!” could be heard during the clashes the whole night and this shows the success. Additionally grafities and sprays were made. Beside two officialmobiclips from the League against imperialist Aggression (Revolutionärer 1. Mai 2015 Hamburg, Devrimici 1 Mayis 2015 Hamburg) there were a lot of others made by others from which we want to emphasize “1.Mai 2015 in Hamburg – Frauen kämpft und wehrt euch!“ because it is the first time that a womensgroup made a call for the revolutionary 1st of may in Hamburg as far as we know.
The struggling day of the international proletariat start in Hamburg with the participation of the BGIA as the internationalist block on the unions demonstration, as every year. With round about one thousand participants it was the biggest part of the demonstration, as last years. DifferentTurkish organisations like ADGH, ADHK, ATIK, the popular front, Partizan, YDG and Yeni Kadin, organisations from Iran, Latin America, Palestine and German revolutionaries and anti-imperialists from Hamburg and other parts of the FRG participated. The block was what it have to be: “The vivid expression of the deepest merger with them … struggling in stormcentres of world revolution: the revolutionary parties and organisations from Africa, Asia and Latin America” (Call of the League against imperialist Agression). At the end of the demonstration the Rise Up! – block with some hundred participants circumnavigated the police lines and made a spontaneous demonstration which was supported by members of the internationalist block.
At 6 pm started the revolutionary 1st of may at Feldstraße, as last years. First we want to quote the report of the Hamburg branch of the antinationalist “Groups against Nation and Capital”: “We distributed between one and two thousand leaflets at the starting point of the revolutionary 1st of May demonstration at metro station Feldstraße. We have had some discussions at our bookstall and sold lots of our books and brochures e.g. our criticism on real socialism and Maoism.
The degree of discipline and organisation of the SoL and their allies regarding the mobilization and the incredible cruel police violence was very impressive. Despite the rival demonstration they mobilized more than two thousand people (who quickly dispersed after police attacked). They also withstand outnumbered an extremely violent police. That was spectacular. That demonstrates how efficient even a small group can be if it is based on the principle of cadres and not being just a bunch of thugs.” Others report about 1,500 participants. The numbers launched by the police through bourgeois media of 750 not surprisingly underestimates the case.
The plan of the reaction regarding revolutionary 1st of may demonstration was to crush it by all means. Right at the beginning they attacked “with everything they had and that´s a lot” (NDR, Hamburg-Journal 01-05-2015). The combating participants of the demonstration were bludgeoned, beaten with batons, attacked with pepper spray, mounted police, four water cannons and two armoured vehicles. Despite that demonstrators resisted with the red flag waving at the front line the whole time. They were supported by foreign forces from other parts of the FRG, specially from North Rhine-Westphalia, which played an important role regarding the combative character of the demonstration. We want to highlight the anarchist block with some hundred militants participating, which value for the revolutionary 1st of May cannot be overestimated. It dissolved itself without any selfishness to support the first rows of the demonstrations against the attacking police.
Besides the massive attacks most demonstrators showed no fickleness and bourgeois media wrote: “dramatic scenes of violence“, “extremely aggressive behaviour”, “again and again … riots in St.Pauli, Sternscha nze and Altona” (Hamburger Abendblatt: “CDU fordert “ganze Härte des Rechtsstaats””, 04-05-2015), “sad tradition“, “rioters unglued”, “pelted with fireworks, stones and bottles and attacked with flagpoles and traffic signs” (BILD: “Bittere Bilanz der Mai-Krawalle”, 04-05-2015), “massive attacks on police forces”, “hail of stones and bottles“, “riot and mounted police pushed aside the upsetcrowd but not without resistance“, “on Feldstraße … riots took place“, (Die Welt: “In Hamburg folgen Krawalle auf Krawalle”, 04-05-2015), “Ruckus orgy“, “relatively massive riots”, “riots same intensive as last year” (allegedly with less than a quarter of participants!), “garbage containers were set on fire“, “excessive violence“(NDR: “Krawalle und Verletzte bei Demos in Hamburg”, 03-05-2015). It was like it is said in the call for the 1st of May: “Our way is not reconciliation and peace with the old. Our way is rebellion against anything reactionary. It must not be differently. It could not be differently. We want the struggle against the imperialist bourgeoisie, its state, its parties and its institutions. That´s the base we are marching on on 1st of may, also in 2015.” It revealedin this struggle that the problems and hiccups, the differences and contradictions could be overcome with bravery and determination in the struggle against the state and its armed institutions. Those who fought in the face of the heavily armed superiority of state terror we pay our respect. We condemn the brute force of the enemy against the masses sharply. To illustrate how hard this violence was we cite the report of “Actionmedics Hamburg”: “…one of the said police horses balked and pushed said patient with its back from the metal holder, after a repeated balking of the horse it stepped with one hoof on the face of the patient … the patient took medium-heavy to heavy injuries…” They report on Twitter of eight heavily injured people until 8 pm at Feldstraße.
