This is a pic of me at a Julian Assange vigil from couple of months ago. The vigil was held outside the old city hall in the Freiburg city center.
By Luke Brooks-Shesler
Greetings from Freiburg, Germany! Here is my third peace missive from Freiburg.
On April 13, 2024 Frei Sein Freiburg (Be Free Freiburg) organized a peace march through Freiburg. The day was sunny and gorgeous, and approximately 100 protesters participated. As usual, we met in front of the Freiburg concert house and marched around the Freiburg city center. We stopped at various locations along our route that were packed with people sitting at outdoor restaurants and cafes. Sunita, the group’s lead organizer, gave a brief speech at each stop.
Above: Sunita, the lead organizer of Be Free Freiburg (Frei Sein Freiburg) holds a sign saying “Freedom is the Way” (Frieden ist der Weg). Note: This picture was taken at protest a few weeks ago.
The overarching theme of the protest was that the German government continues to enact policies that are contrary to the interests of the people and the well-being of the world.
Below is my English translation of the protest’s specific aims, as stated on the protest flyer:
- No Euros for war!
- Peace with Russia!
- Politics for the people!
- Keep cash currency!
- Real healthcare instead of WHO dictates!
- Reevaluate the causes and consequences of COVID-19!
- Freedom for Julian Assange!
Below are some pictures from the protest.
Above: a protester holds a sign in front of police officers, who accompanied the protest, that says “War = Environmental Destruction” (Krieg = UmweltzerstΓΆrung).
Above: Protesters hold signs that say “Peace in Ukraine now!” (Frieden in der Ukraine jetzt!), “Free Assange,” “Send Green Party politicians to the front” (GrΓΌne Politiker an die Front), and “Peace talks now!” (Friedensverhandlung sofort!).
Above: A protester holds a sign that says “Green is the new Brown” (GrΓΌn ist das neue Braun).
As you can see in the pictures above, the protesters direct particular ire at the Germany Green Party. According to protestors that I spoke to, many protesters feel betrayed by the Green Party. They had supported the Green Party their entire lives until the COVID-19 pandemic. At that point, they were appalled by how the Green Party enacted some of the most extreme – and in the protesters’ view – fascist covid measures, such as social distancing, masking, school closings, censorship, and linking vaccination status to employment, which was, in effect, a “soft” vaccine mandate. Many people lost their jobs because they were unvaccinated. A key aim of the protesters now is to revisit the true causes and consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. They want the German government to acknowledge the mistakes and harm that it caused.
These former Green Party supporters were further appalled when the Green Party became the most vociferous Germany political party in favor of the war in Ukraine. Support for the war in Ukraine contradicts the core values of peace and the environment that many protesters thought that the Green Party stood for. Ironically, the Green Party and its government coalition partners, the Socialist Party of Germany (SPD) and The Free Democratic Party (Die Freie Demokratische Partei), rail against “far-right extremism” while they send money and weapons to actual Nazis in Ukraine. In 2018, the US Congress passed a bill outlawing the funding and arming these very same Nazis: https://khanna.house.gov/media/in-the-news/congress-bans-arms-ukraine-militia-linked-neo-nazis.
The protester sign that says “Green is the new Brown” is a reference to how the protestor feels that the Green Party is becoming like the Nazis.
While writing this report, I texted one of the protesters to
see if he could tell my why so many protesters, who supported the Green Party
for most of their lives, feel so betrayed by the Green Party now. He left me a
three-minute voicemail. Below is what he said. (Please note that these are not
his exact words, but rather my best attempt to translate them from
German in to English.)
The Green Party arose out of the peace and the environmental movements of the 1960’s and 70’s. The Green Party was against atomic weapons, the so-called “peaceful” use of atomic energy, and it was for environmental protection, which included soil, air and water. I was 100% for this party.
In the meantime, this party has done a 180 degree turn-around because they think that Putin is an evil warmonger and a war criminal. Now the Green Party does not talk about environmental protection very much but rather about climate protection. Environmental protection and climate protection are two different things. In my opinion, you can’t protect the climate.
The Green Party is totally twisted now, and it has turned itself against the people who criticized the COVID-19 restrictions. The Green Party supports the COVID-19 restrictions 100%. This means that the Green Party has totally conformed to the government. The Green Party doesn’t allow you to be the least bit critical of the government’s COVID-19 restrictions.
It looks to me like the Green Party has sold out to the American deep state or the inter-agency permanent government, or whatever you want to call it. The German politician Sahra Wagenknecht calls the Green Party the most dangerous party because it has a fascist streak, which you can see if you take a look at some of their statements.
The Green Party has utterly betrayed its original values of peace and environmental protection.
~ Luke Brooks-Shesler lives in Waterville, Maine and is in Germany for one year along with his wife and children.
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