Statement of FAU's Annual Congress about Constrictions of the Right to Demonstrate during European Wide Anti-Capitalist Days of Action

Participants of the base union Freie Arbeiterinnen und Arbeiter-Union (FAU-IAA) annual congress reject the authoritarian restrictions by the government and the police during the European wide day of action M31 and the Blockupy action days from May 16 to May 19, 2012 in Frankfurt/M. We do not only condemn the clearing of the Occupy camp in front of the European Central Bank (ECB) by the police but also the principal prohibition of the kick-off meeting and all planned concerts, blockades, discussions, pickets and demonstrations during these four Blockupy days. Neither do we accept the 1430 detentions which took place alltogether during the protests in this metropolis.

Concerning these events, we point out the massive police violence and mass detentions on the occasion of the anti-capitalist day of action on March 31, 2012 in Frankfurt/M. More than 200 demonstrators have been kettled for more than nine hours.

We resolutely reject the stirring media coverage in Germany's mass media before the Blockupy days. Police information was adopted uncritically, which resulted in a repressive public climate.

We welcome the resoluteness and circumspection of 25,000 Blockupy demonstrators on May 19, 2012, despite the permanent police provocation. This reassures us for more anti-capitalist resistance in Germany. The following points are not the only relevant arguments for that:

The global capitalist crisis will get worse and its' negative effects will be noticed in Germany more and more. This is why protest and resistances against European crisis policy needs to become more resolute and noticeable in Germany. More and more, the ruling elites choose visible authoritarian methods for their crisis management while they pass its costs on the backs of the working and underprivileged classes. In Spain, members of trade unions, who took part in the general strike
from March 29, 2012, get criminalized and members of the Indignados movement are persecuted for being members of a criminal organisation. In Italy, the government mobilized its army to defend public institutions. In Greece, democratic, unionist and workers' rights, which have been gained in long hard struggles, are being cut extremely fast. The abolishment of democratic rights in Frankfurt/M during the Occupy days needs to be seen in this context.

Our struggle can only be successful if we overcome national borders and resist the European wide attack on our rights by a transnationally coordinated resistance. Therefore we will fight on the streets and in the companies for a better life. We can only reach free and equal conditions if we organise our lives by ourselves.

In this sense we refer to the anti-capitalist weeks in Spain from May 29 to June 15, 2012 and to the general elections in Greece, which take place in an extremely unstable social situation on June 17, 2012. Whatever this election will bring - take part in solidarity actions and watch out for announcements.

Further more we should beginn to discuss the possibility of an European general strike.

May 25 to 28, Roßdorf (Hessen),

Annual congress of the Freie Arbeiterinnen- und Arbeiter-Union (FAU-IAA)