GERMAN police attacked the annual march to the graves of Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht today, targeting marchers expressing solidarity with Palestine.

The second Sunday in January sees a traditional procession from Berlin’s Frankfurt Gate to the Friedrichsfelde cemetery, where a monument marks the graves of communist revolutionaries killed in the struggle, with thousands joining to place red carnations on their graves.

But a Palestine solidarity bloc came under immediate attack as the march moved off, with police charging marchers who chanted “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” and seizing individuals from the crowd to carry off.

Organisers halted the march and called for everyone to close gaps to prevent any bloc being separated and beaten up by police. But officers continued to snatch people from the crowd, saying placards or items of clothing were promoting “unconstitutional” messages, which ranged from expressions of solidarity with Palestine to one member of the German communist youth league being detained for wearing a red triangle, the badge assigned to political prisoners by the Nazis as the yellow star was for Jews.

Though the march closing up led police to back off, eyewitnesses told the Morning Star the police attacked again toward the end of the demo, charging young people stood around talking without provocation. 

Leipzig-based Morning Star supporter Keith Barlow said he was unable to see what the young demonstrators targeted were handing out and whether it was unconstitutional or not, but “there was no need for fists, they were not attacking anyone.”

A delegation from the Communist Party’s Manchester branch took part in the demo, with member Dan Ross saying the worst police violence was averted by the march grouping together and organisers ensuring nobody was left behind.

The Morning Star had the day before attended the yearly Rosa Luxemburg conference organised by our German sister paper Junge Welt, at which former Irish MEP Clare Daly called for mobilisation against a new world war in the spirit of Luxemburg and Liebknecht’s unpopular defiance of the warmongers of their day.

Belgian Workers Party leader Peter Mertens said building the power of communist and Marxist parties was a priority for the whole European left, which should not fear but seize on “the turbulence to come.”

Further reports on the conference will follow in the Morning Star.