Anti-Imperialist Cell Communique - June 5, 1994

Statement Concerning The Attack On The CDU Office In Dusseldorf

On the night of June 4/5, 1994, one week before the elections for the European parliament, we deposited four explosive devices behind the building complex at Kaiserswertherstrasse 93 in Dusseldorf. This building houses, among others, the offices of the CDU [christian democratic party- trans.] in Dusseldorf as well as the CDU regional office for the ’Bergischesland’ region (Solingen, Wuppertal, etc.). We chose this site because of the minimal risk to uninvolved persons. By means of this action, we want to start an open discussion concerning the CDU and the politics represented by this party.

Whether in Palestine or Kurdistan or Turkey, the German state, led by the CDU, is at war. Germany, as an important imperialist state, is on the side of the ruling powers in those areas. The struggle being carried out by militant comrades, who are not willing to accept the status quo, is a struggle for freedom and socialism.

"From now on, our stance against the PKK will be even tougher. The PKK should know that they cannot move freely anywhere now." (Kanther, CDU, interior minister, March 20, 1994)

This statement from Kanther increased the resolve of two Kurds living in Mannheim, Nilgun Yildirim and Bedriye Tas, as they themselves stated, who burned themselves to death in protest against the German state on March 21 (Newroz). In the statement they left behind, Nilgun and Bedriye make mention of German weapons sales to the ruling Demirel/Ciller [Turkish government leaders - trans.] clique. There has been a lot of debate recently concerning these weapons shipments, but the facts speak for themselves : Under the terms of three material aid agreements (1990-1994), 100 Leopard-1s, 300 BRT-60s, 30 Phantoms, 131 artillery systems, and 187 MTW M-113s have been delivered. Between 1985-1991, the German state donated 256,000 Kalaschnikovs, 5,000 MGs, 100,000 tank shells, and 445 million rounds of ammunition. On April 7, the government enacted a temporary halt of arms shipments to Turkey, but this ban was lifted again on May 4. And this ban did not prevent the Dornier corporation from shipping 212 Stinger missiles on April 15. To make the military dimension by which the imperialist states arm their vassal allies perfectly clear, in 1993, the USA gave Turkey 932 tanks and Germany shipped an additional 85. In other words, in the space of one year, Turkey was given enough tanks to equal the total number presently possessed by Great Britain. At present, 500,000 soldiers and 50,000 militias (so-called village guards) are stationed in 13 provinces (the state of emergency region) to carry out a war against the Kurdish liberation struggle. The war against militants there and the repression here are closely linked : On November 26, 1993, Kanther (CDU) "banned" the PKK and other Kurdish organizations ; at the end of March alone, 547 Kurds were arrested in Germany ; while chancellor Kohl (CDU) described the Kurdish Autobahn blockades as an "unbearable misuse of guest rights", deportation orders were signed and carried out step by step. The raid by a police commando, including GSG-9 agents, in Saarbrucken last week is a clear sign of the course which is presently being followed. On March 7, after a trial lasting more than 4 years in the court bunker in Dusseldorf, a verdict was handed down : Both Kurds, Ali Aktas and Hasan Hayri Guller, were given life sentences. On April 12, a trial began in Munich against 13 Kurds who occupied the Turkish consulate on June 24, 1993. By means of this action, the Kurds had hoped to force Kohl (CDU) to publicly declare an end to weapons shipments to Turkey. The Kurdish militants have acted according to their conviction that "resistance is life - berxwedan jiyane".

"Turkey is the only existing model of a democratic, free-market, Muslim state." (Lamers, CDU, parliamentary foreigner affairs spokesman)

Germany is also a party in the war against the Turkish communist resistance that has been waged since 1982. Already in 1983, Devrimci Sol was banned, and militants and activists that have sought political asylum in Germany have often been deported. In order to avoid being handed over to the fascist military junta (that seized power in a putsch on September 12, 1980), Cemal Altun, one of the founders of ’Ankara Liseli Devrimci Genclik’, threw himself out of a window in a Berlin courthouse on August 30, 1983, and died later from his injuries.

"Deportations to Turkey are something that happen hundreds of times each year in Germany. It’s a normal part of our laws dealing with foreigners." (Kanther, CDU, in parliament)

The BND [German intelligence agency - trans.] and the Turkish secret police (MIT) work in close cooperation, thus making the immediate arrest of deported persons at Turkish airports possible. And the MIT can even make "arrests" in Germany : For example, 4 Devrimci Sol militants were kidnapped in Germany and taken to Ankara in 1986. Torture in Turkish prisons has been well documented. And this torture continues in the courtroom : 7 Devrimci Sol prisoners were beaten up in a courtroom in Istanbul because a May 1st banner was unfurled ; another 5 Devrimci Sol prisoners were beaten with clubs in the courtroom in Kayseri. The Turkish security forces, armed and trained by Germans, have shot and killed several Devrimci Sol militants during arrest operations over the past few years. We particularly want to make mention of the raid on a house on March 6, 1993, during which Bedri Yagan and Gurcan Ozgur, who made important contributions to the further development of communist resistance in Turkey, were killed.

Corporations like HDW, Thyssen, MTU, Krupp, MAN, Krauss Maffei, Heckler & Koch, Rohde-Schwarz, Dornier, and others make profits from arms sales to Turkey. In the political arena, it is the duty of the CDU to press forward with the interests of these corporations. On May 30, the federal government wrote a letter to the business group BDI, insuring them that restrictions on arms sales to countries outside of NATO would soon be eased. For a corporation like Daimler, who commented on the sale of Unimogs to the Sudan (where two million refugees are continually threatened with death through famine) with the words "the deal went through perfectly", the common interests of major German corporations and the CDU politicians are solidified through personal contacts and consultations. For example, von Wartenberg (BDI executive) and Schoser (DIHT executive) are part of Kohl’s election team. Stihl, Necker, and Murmann make no secret of the fact that they hope that the government’s present course is further pushed through during the next legislative period.

The centralized command structure of the CDU and of economics in Germany makes it easier for party and corporation politics to be coordinated. The power-centre of the CDU is Kohl and his team of advisors, the so-called breakfast club (Ackermann, Bohl, Pfeiffer, Ludewig). The power-centre of the German economy is the 13-man executive board of the Deutsche Bank, to which more than 100 supervisory boards of the most important corporations are linked. The majors banks are well served by the politics of the CDU/CSU/FDP government. With profits of more than 2.2 billion DM, the Bank has more than enough reason to feel pleased (which is why the 50 million DM debt which Mr. Schneider had to write off is just "peanuts", as he himself stated at a press conference).

Of course the major corporations, who are the backbone of Germany, don’t just support one party, but rather they finance the politics of all the major parties, CDU/CSU/FDP/SPD, who are actually little different from one another. For example, the biggest single contributors in 1992 (ca. 500,000 DM for each party) were : for the CDU it was the Daimler corporation, for the CSU [the Bavarian CDU - trans.] it was Bavarian metal industry, for the FDP [liberal party - trans.] it was the North Rhein-Westphalia metal industry, and for the SPD [social democratic party - trans.] it was also Daimler. But no matter how hard Scharping [SPD leader - trans.] tries to lure the wealthy to his side, the commanders of the economic sector share the neutral position of Kinkel [FDP leader - trans.] : "When the SPD just presents itself as the CDU with a red veneer, why shouldn’t we just stick with the original ?"

"As someone who was raised in the country, I can say that what you plant in the spring will be harvested in October." (Kohl, CDU, in the garden of the Germany embassy to the Vatican, May 3, 1994)

Kohl bases his optimism [for the October 16/94 general election - trans.], with good reason, on the prognosis that the German economy will have expanded by 1.5% in 1994. In particular, foreign demands have led to increased profits. When, for example, the Bayer corporation reports "increasing profits, 2,000 jobs phased out", the one enhances the other. Daimler stocks are now being traded on the Singapore market, the Dresdner Bank wants to open up branches in Mexico and Poland, etc. In other words, the international expansion of banks and corporations is continuing nicely. After having expanded into the ex-DDR (where 85% of all capital is in the hands of West German corporations), Eastern Europe (Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic) is the next region to move into. At the same time, 12 years of CDU rule have led to social polarization : At present there are 8 million people (including those in re-schooling programs) out of work, 2.2 million children live in poverty, and at least 2.5 million new homes are needed. Workplace reconstruction has led to the following : This year alone, 100,000 machinery jobs will be lost, as will 30,000 in the electronics industry and 23,000 in the steel industry, and so on. The CDU government is furthering these developments through its privatization program (another 35,000 railway jobs will be cut this year) and is expecting the number of unemployed to grow by at least 500,000 by the end of 1994. Around 60% of the population are worried about the present situation in Germany, particularly regarding uncertain employment, and a majority of the German population has a lot, on a global scale, to lose in all of this. The workers in the steel industry are, thanks to the situation with the corporation Eko-Stahl, getting first-hand experience at how big capitalists can eliminate an entire industrial region if they feel like it : In 1989, there were 11,000 jobs, now there are only 3,000. First Krupp refused to take the firm over, now Riva is also refusing. Ever since the CDU first came to power in Dusseldorf in 1949, nothing has changed in the way this party mobilizes large sectors of the population in the interest of the capitalist elite. Unlike the FDP, which openly characterizes itself as a party of the elite and thereby always gets at least 5% of the vote [the minimum required for representation in parliament - trans.], the CDU is supposed to be a "people’s party" whose voter potential reaches well outside its own regular clientele (businessmen, self-employed persons).

"The facts surrounding the anti-terror action in Bad Kleinen have been cleared up, we introduced anti-crime legislation in 1994, we have worked out a concept for the BKA [federal crime bureau - trans.] and the BGS [federal border protection agency - trans.], the asylum-problem has improved, the violent PKK has been banned, and the program for internal security has been approved. That’s how I want to work." (Kanther, CDU, in an interview at the end of April)

To those people in Germany who have a lot to lose, and they are the majority, the CDU presents itself as a party of internal and external security. For internal matters, that means full prisons, more cops, more cops on the street, honourary cops, a lessening of the separation between the police and the intelligence agencies, etc. The new police bill introduced in Saxony, "the best and most modern one in all of Germany" (Kanther), calls for 14-day internment and eased restrictions on telephone tapping. Private guard and security services are the ones that profit most of all from all of this security hysteria : 280,000 of these security people are presently "protecting" cars, subways, airports, etc. External security politics for the CDU ["Safe into the future !" European election slogan - trans.] means not only developing the Eurofighter 2000, but also purchasing it for 102 million DM (Ruehe, CDU, wants 140 of these jets). The wall of security around the countries of the West European Union is a reality as of May 5 (cutting off Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Rumania, and the three Baltic states). Previous associations with Norway, Iceland, and Turkey are being re-evaluated. All is quiet for the time being, because there are not enough provisions for the 50,000 soldiers who will make up the quick-reaction force, which will intervene in actions like the one in Somalia, because "until now, these were designed for action in Central Europe and they are not adequate to meet the demands of, for example, desert regions."

"We Germans are, at the present time, once again being made into a fated society." (Herzog, CDU, German president, in a magazine interview)

Since 1979, the CDU has always been the party which has filled the office of federal president [a significant albeit ceremonial post - trans.]. Richard von Weizaecker (CDU) was especially esteemed by a majority of the German population. From 1958-1962, he was a banker in Dusseldorf and Essen before moving to the chemical corporation Boehringer in Ingelheim. Weizaecker was the number-two man in this corporation, which made its profits by selling dioxins to Dow Chemical for its Agent Orange production during the Vietnam War. At the same time (1964-1970), he was president of the "German Evangelical Church Days". Because he was so apt at joining one thing to another, he was predestined for the post of German president. And this is just what he did from 1984-1994 : For thousands of people across the globe, he praised the murderous imperialist business practices of the great power Germany in his polite and refined christian way of speaking. On May 25 of this year, Roman Herzog (CDU) was sworn in as his successor in the Reichstag during a 2.5 million DM ceremony. Herzog’s career is closely tied to that of the Nazi Maunz, with whom he studied and with whom he issued the "Maunz-Duerig-Herzog" commentary on the German constitution. Maunz makes no secret of the fact that he often gave judicial advice to the leader of the fascist DVU party, Frey. So it’s no surprise that Frey’s newspaper ’Nationalzeitung’ wrote in 1982 that it’s impossible to imagine "a more honourable person than Dr. Herzog to serve at the head of Germany’s highest court". In 1987, Herzog became head of Germany’s constitutional court, and even before his election as president, he stated in an interview with Focus magazine that he supports a form of politics which would have pleased his deceased friend Maunz. Focus : "The preamble of the German constitution speaks about the German people ("das Deutsche Volk")..." Herzog : "The Weimar constitution phrased it even better : The German people, united in its roots... Those people that don’t wish to become German should be allowed an adequate amount of time to make up their minds. In the end, if they decide against taking up German citizenship, then we should say to them : We expect you to go back to that country which you consider to be your home."

This Herzog-variation of "Foreigners out !" ("Auslaender raus !") is to be seen against the backdrop of the development of CDU politics over the past 5 years : In 1989, the social polarization as a result of 7 years of CDU politics was extreme ; while the so-called revolutionary left was more concerned with itself than it was with the development of a fundamental systemic anti-capitalist alternative, fascist groups shouted their racist "solution" to the problems of unemployment and a lack of housing : "Auslaender raus !" This fascist mobilization was successful : The Republikaner won 7.5% of the vote in Berlin in January 1989 and 7.1% during the European elections in June 1989. During their party conference in Bremen in September 1989, the CDU drew the necessary conclusions : Instead of the solution offered by Lummer (CDU), who proposed a coalition with the Republikaner, a decision was made to make Republikaner voters feel at home in the CDU by forcing through anti-foreigner politics. Geissler was replaced as the party’s general secretary by Ruehe, and Ruehe got all the local CDU organizations to take up anti-immigrant policies step by step, thus clearing a path for the changing of Article 16 [the guaranteed right to asylum - trans.] in the German constitution. After November 9, 1989, the CDU made an offensive to present itself as a truly national party, thus leading to election success in the ecstatic year 1990. In 1992, camps were set up all across Germany where refugees were to be put during their first three months of residency. Ruehe’s campaign was tremendously successful : He achieved a sort of division of labour between the racists on the streets (Hoyerswerda, Rostock, etc.) and CDU party politicians. By means of a self-fulfilling prophecy, "so that things don’t get even worse", the CDU was able to abolish the right to asylum in Germany. It’s no surprise that the vote to change the constitution and the fascist firebombing in Solingen took place during the same week in May 1993.

"The present levels of immigration exceed that which a population can successfully integrate." (Olderog, CDU, during the parliamentary debate regarding the racist pogrom in Magdeburg on May 12, 1994)

Since November 1, 1993, the CDU has pushed through another extremely racist piece of legislation, namely the "Refugee Service Law". Now, refugees receive only 80% the level of subsistence welfare payments given out to Germans, and even this is paid out in the form of humiliating food packets or vouchers. The levels of deportations have greatly increased since Germany’s constitution was changed. The Berlin interior minister Heckelmann (CDU) reported a six-fold increase in January 1994. On May 1, the first step was taken towards Germany’s biggest-ever deportation action : 100,000 Croatian refugees are to be sent back home, a move which the Croatian government has used to justify its deportation of 200,000 Muslim refugees back to Bosnia.

"We Germans need to once again feel ourselves to be one nation." (Schauble, CDU)

Schauble, the present leader of the CDU/CSU parliamentary fraction, is practically the number-two man in the party, and he is already preparing himself for the post-Kohl era. At the Berlin party conference in 1993, he gave a hint at its direction with his notions of a "protected and fated German society" and "our German fatherland" : The CDU as the party of German imperialism for the 1990s. The party delegates welcomed this ideological direction, and they rewarded him with standing ovations. With this direction, Schauble is not only reaching out to Republikaner voters, but he is also securing an ideological course which will hold together the party’s own 700,000 members after Kohl is gone. Schauble accepted his position as key negotiator, first with the last DDR government (the reunification agreement) and then with the SPD (changing the asylum clause in the constitution). But he is not only a pragmatic power-politician, but rather he is also one of the few CDU leaders who can effectively articulate the party’s ideology.

That is made clear in his 256-page book ’Und der Zukunft zugewandt’, which is a mixture of bland capitalist political demands (for example, more daily hours of machine production) and reactionary-fascist proposals (he writes that the German ( !) family is the foundation of the German state, and he hopes to reverse the declining birth-rate of the German ( !) population, something which he describes as an "active form of constitutional protection" for the German state).

Attack the CDU in those areas where the party has its decentralized bases of operation, the regional and local offices !

"Many different forms of armed actions and militancy will simply take place in various political and social confrontations. It doesn’t matter what the RAF or the prisoners say." (Helmut Pohl, RAF-prisoner, August 1993)

Stop the state witness trial against Heidi Schulz which began on May 25 !

Greetings and solidarity to Fatma, Mehmet, and Abidin !

We have nothing to lose.

Struggle together !