Germany: Free Palestine! Hands off Alyona and Leonard!

For almost a year, millions around the world have taken to the streets in order to fight against the Israeli genocide in Gaza. The imperialists and warmongers have been fighting against this mobilisation from the very first minute. In Europe and the USA, demonstrations in solidarity with Palestine have been prohibited, activists have been persecuted by police or suspended from their jobs, pro-Palestinian speakers have been banned from stating their opinion publicly, and the movement has been deprived from using necessary meeting rooms. Our comrades are also affected by this repression.

[First published on 20 September in Der Kommunist]

In Munich, our comrades Alyona and Leonard must attend court on 29 October 2024. The Munich prosecutor's department has charged them with 'rewarding and condoning crimes’ (Belohnung und Billigung von Straftaten; §140 StGB). The penalty for this charge ranges from a fine to a prison sentence of three years. They have both been charged because they held up a banner saying “Freedom for Palestine – intifada until victory” at a demonstration on 11 November 2023. With this banner they formed the end point of our bloc at the demonstration, at the head of which was another banner: “Against occupation and war: For socialist revolution across the green line”.

In Würzburg, the prosecutor’s department is investigating our comrade Adrian on the same charges. A court case may also be opened against him. In Bremen, the public order office (‘Ordnungsamt’) is investigating comrades for helping to organise a protest encampment at the university. They could be fined up to 1,000 euros.

In Germany and around the world, members of the Revolutionary Communist International are defending the right of the Palestinian people to resist the brutal oppression by the Israeli regime and to fight for their liberation.

The Palestinians cannot trust hypocritical bourgeois institutions such as the United Nations and the International Court of Justice. All ‘appeals’ by the ‘international community’ to the Israeli regime to end the occupation are fig leaves for Western imperialism, which at the same time is arming Israel to the teeth and covering its back.

The first intifada, to which we explicitly refer, shows the only way out for the Palestinian people, because it was a mass uprising (i.e. revolutionary class struggle) against occupation and war. The Palestinians can only rely on their own strength and the solidarity of the working class in the Middle East and worldwide.

The ruling classes of the world are trembling in fear at this international show of solidarity and therefore slander the legitimate resistance against the genocide in Gaza. They equate the intifada with terrorism and the Hamas attack on 7 October. They accuse anyone who expresses solidarity of having supported or tolerated the Hamas attack. In our statement of 20 October, we stated with regard to Hamas: “We do not share its ideology, nor do we condone the methods it uses.”

The hypocrisy of the Western imperialists is so obvious. While they shed crocodile tears over the dead and the hostages, they arm the Israeli state and finance its indiscriminate bombing and murder in Gaza. These self-proclaimed defenders of human rights are responsible for at least 40,000 deaths in Gaza.

All demagoguery against the Palestinians and their defenders follows a primitive logic: “Anyone who is against the genocide of the Palestinians is in favour of the extermination of Jews.” All establishment parties and the right-wing AfD agree on this. They are unconditionally in favour of Israel and incite unrestrained hatred against Muslims and migrants in Germany.

Political trials, such as the one against our comrades, are currently taking place nationwide in order to intimidate the entire movement. This attack on freedom of expression together with the racist demagogy and the calls for austerity measures are preparing a general attack on the entire working class.

The ruling class stomps on the weak in order to divide the working class so that it does not oppose further wage cuts and worsening working conditions.

Today, Alyona and Leonard are to be punished for exercising their right to free expression with sentences of up to three years in prison. Tomorrow, those who organise collective resistance in the workplace against offensives by the bosses will be beaten with truncheons and taken to court.

We stand against this hypocrisy. The division of the working class only strengthens the exploiters. We stand for the international solidarity of the working class and build on the basis that alone is able to end all capitalist barbarism! We demand:

• Withdrawal of all accusations against Alyona and Leonard!
• End the criminalisation of solidarity with the oppressed Palestinian people!
• Down with racism and division by the ruling class!
• Class war against all attacks on workers rights, wages and democratic rights!
• For a socialist revolution in the Middle East and everywhere!

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