Call for the Luxemburg-Liebknecht-Demonstration 2018 on 14th January 2018 10:00 a.m. from U Station Frankfurter Tor to the Memorial of Socialists in Friedrichsfelde and also on 15th January 2018 at 06:00 p.m. from Olof Palme Place to the Memorials in Tiergarten.
In a message from Luckau prison to his wife Sophie, Karl Liebknecht wrote in April 1918: »Action - Action! Is nothing at all possible? But it must be! And it must not be eased up but only tightened. Now more than ever.«
Almost a hundred years have passed since then. »Is nothing at all possible?«, we often ask ourselves today. And we answer like Liebknecht: »But it must be … Now more than ever.«
Eight people possess as much as the poorer half of humanity together. Wars and warlike conflicts cover the earth and drive more than 60 million people into flight. A nuclear catastrophe is again conceivable. NATO terror not least generates asymmetrical answers, including new terror. Those who plunge the world into chaos for profit reasons, are demagogically talking about the values that we - the West - insist on.
Is exploitation a value? Social regression a value? Comprehensive surveillance a value? Are asylum packages and deportations a value? Is capitalism a community of values also for those who have to sell their labour increasingly below value? And how shall are evaluate the almost worldwide fascist tendencies?
99 years ago, Rosa Luxemburg, Karl Liebknecht and many of their companions were murdered by the reaction for their steadfastness against exploitation and war. In their spirit, we - leftists of various provenance - call for a peaceful demonstration on 14th January 2018 for the solidarity among the exploited, wherever they are born. Let us demonstrate against war and fascism - for a world of social justice and solidarity, a world liberated from exploitation and oppression.
In spite of all!
LL Demo Organisation Committee, Berlin, September 2017
V.i.S.d.P.: Klaus Meinel, Platz der Vereinten Nationen 25, 10249 Berlin
We are an alliance of leftist parties, organizations and autonomous groups. Since 1996, we have been preparing the annual demonstration within the framework of the Luxemburg-Liebknecht-Commemoration. We combine the memory of the ideas of Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht with the demands in the struggles of our time: We demonstrate for peace and international solidarity, against exploitation, against the dismantling of democratic rights and the increase of fascist dangers.
In spite of all!
Alliance for the preparation of the demonstration within the framework of the Luxemburg-Liebknecht-Commemoration
We kindly ask for donations to cover the costs of the annual Luxemburg-Liebknecht-Demonstration.
Bank account:
Laura von Wimmersperg
IBAN: DE92 1005 0000 6010 2191 81
BIC-/SWIFT-Code: BELADEBE
Reason for payment: LL-Demo
Assassination of Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht by a band of soldiers of the Cavalry Guards Rifle Division.
Karl Liebknecht, together with 31 murdered comrades, is buried in Friedrichsfelde Cemetery. The funeral procession develops into a mass demonstration.
Rosa Luxemburg is buried next to the burial site of Karl Liebknecht. Tens of thousands form the funeral procession.
Inauguration of the revolutionary monument created by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe at Friedrichsfelde Cemetery.
Commemoration ceremonies took place annually at the tombs of the murdered revolutionaries
Organized commemorations of Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht were impossible. The revolutionary monument was destroyed by the fascists and the tombs of the murdered were levelled.
In the GDR, demonstrations took place every year on the second weekend of January to the Memorial of the Socialists in Berlin-Friedrichsfelde in honour of Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht.
The demonstration was at first replaced by a Silent Remembrance.
The Lenin Square Alliance organized a demonstration from the former Lenin Square to the Memorial of the Socialists in Friedrichsfelde to protest against the later realized intention of grinding the Lenin Monument and renaming the Lenin Square (now Place of the United Nations).
The Lenin Square Alliance concluded its activities and a Berlin-wide alliance was established, which since 1996 has organized the annual demonstration within the framework of the Luxemburg-Liebknecht Commemoration. Elements of the commemoration are also the Silent Remembrance and the Wreath Ceremony at the Landwehr Canal, which since 1987 is always held on the 15th January.
Preparation of the Luxemburg-Liebknecht-Commemoration on 13th January 2019
On 15th January 1919 – two weeks after the foundation of the KPD – Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht were murdered by the reaction. On 13th January 2019, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of this shameful crime, we will once again march to the Memorial to the Socialists in Berlin-Friedrichsfelde in the context of the Luxemburg-Liebknecht-Commemoration.
We should prepare for this event in the long term and build upon the experience of this year’s demonstration. It was attended by 12,000 people. The demonstration was spirited and disciplined. The intervention of the police was absolutely unnecessary and also unannounced. We share the position expressed in the press release of 16th January 2018 by Ulla Jelpke (Member of the German Bundestag for the party DIE LINKE) on this police raid. Likewise we share the position from the statement of NAV-DEM Berlin: »We condemn the repression and violence of the Berlin police! The arrests, harassment and brutality against predominantly Kurdish youths at the demonstration make it clear that the Federal German politics and the Berlin police are particularly targeting Kurdish activists.«
We ask all who are traditionally involved in the preparation and performing of the demonstration to think and discuss early on how we can succeed in having great many participants of the commemoration on 13th January 2019. We further ask to start the organisational preparation in the federal states early and to ensure that we go to the streets with demands that are on the agenda here and now – in the spirit of Rosa and Karl.
Berlin, January 2018
Klaus Meinel
Platz der Vereinten Nationen 25
10249 Berlin
Deutschland
0049 0172 7085059
ll-Demo@web.de