DEM VOLKE DIENEN

After a long time, thousands of people took to the streets again in France last Saturday, 12^th of September. The state of emergency and police repression, including bans on assembly, did not stop people from taking their anger and demands to the streets and drawing attention to the fact that the state of emergency and economic crisis is hitting people on low incomes in particular and that access to state aid has become even more difficult. The defense of democratic rights was also an item on the demonstrators' agenda.

In memory of Erol Volkan Ildem (Nûbar) and Fadime Çakıl (Rosa), the TIKKO fighters who had fallen on September 9 in the People's War in Turkey, proletarian revolutionaries hung banners in central locations in Zurich, Switzerland.

We hereby report on some recent developments in the political situation and class struggle in the various Nordic Countries.

Massive riots have developed past week in Colombia after 43-year-old unarmed lawyer Javier Ordoñez was brutally arrested (using a taser on him) and afterwards tortured to death by the police, having received nine scull fractures. Since his murder, the country is in turmoil. At least 53 Police stations have been attacked so far, some of them completely burned. Meanwhile, at least 66 further people were shot at by the police, with 13 of them being killed by them.

After the raids by the police in Hamburg and other parts of Germany against 24 persons who are said to be members of the group “Roter Aufbau” (in English “Red Construction”) it is necessary to explain more about the current political situation and the orientation in it. Before we go on with the political situation some information about what happened: On 31^st of August the police raided 28 objects Hamburg and adjacent federal states, armed with machine guns and confiscated mainly electronic devices like laptops and mobile phones. The accusation against the alleged members of “Roter Aufbau” is following the §129 (founding of a criminal organisation), which in its sub-paragraphs also contain the founding of a terrorist organisation (§129a) and the support of a foreign terrorist group (§129b). Which one of those is used exactly is not known for sure until now. Either way the allegations are very tough. Now regarding the overall political situation: First of all it is necessary to keep in mind that the main contradiction in Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) is the one between proletariat and bourgeoisie. This contradiction has a sharp expression in the struggle between the revolutionary movement and the political police, which is the domestic secret service (Verfassungsschutz). The political police is part of the backbone of the bourgeois state additionally to the various armed formations of the state.

After the Greek parliament reveals their plans for building a fence around camp Moria a fire breaks out on 8th and 9th of September. Greek parliament views the refugees as the guilty ones, NGOs disagree and denounce the healthcare, living and security situation in camp. Especially during the Covid19 pandemic the situation for the refugees is a catastrophe.

Five years ago, the editorial staff of the French satirical magazine "Charlie Hebdo" was attacked by so-called "Islamists" in which twelve people died. On the 1^st of September, the trial against the perpetrators began. At that time there was a big campaign of solidarity with the newspaper and the journalists, the slogan "Je suis Charlie" may still have been remembered by some readers. In the name of the bourgeois freedom of press and art, the religious feelings of millions upon millions were trampled underfoot and their justified anger was met with imperialist chauvinism. The fact that this rage was abused by reactionary forces with an attack is not in question.

In the face of the economic crisis of imperialism, Turkey, too, is experiencing the sharpest drop in economic performance since the beginning of its own data collection (1998): GDP fell by a whole 11 percent from the first to the second quarter of 2020. Since the beginning of the year, the value of the lira has also fallen continuously, reaching a record low of less than one-seventh of a US dollar in August.