Editorial from Kommunistisk Politik, No. 7, March 30, 2002
On March 20 around 25,000 people participated in the demonstration outside
Christiansborg (the national parliament, translator's note) against the
2002 budget proposal of the Liberal-Conservative coalition government supported
by the far-right Danish People's Party. All these people showed up in the middle
of the day when many people were actually working. Part of the demonstrators,
as the airport workers, had stopped work in order to be able to take part in
the demonstration. And they were all there; trade unionists with hundreds of
banners, thousands of students, environmental movements, peace activists, pensioners
protesting the theft of the Social Pension Fund, and artists in great numbers.
The demonstration was so big that the bourgeois media could not ignore it.
But then, all kinds of things were wrong, of course: "This is the dying
witch of the big demonstrations" and "it is not time for mass demonstrations,
which by the way is a completely outdated means of struggle" were among
the messages being broadcasted by the bourgeois media. Among the people shouting
about this were top leaders of the Danish Confederation of Trade Unions (LO).
And, of course, the number of demonstrators was "absolutely ridiculous"
compared to the good old days when 250,000 people would march to Rådhuspladsen
(the central square of Copenhagen, translator's note) if the trade union
leaders told them to, still according to the same bourgeois media.
Clearly, the bourgeois media are talking shear nonsense. Apart from the big
general strike in 1956, the number of demonstrators has never been close to
250,000. And at that time, the same bourgeois media were postulating that the
number was far less. Two times, during Poul Hartling's Liberal government (in
power during the period 1973-75, translator's note), as well as in 1985
during Conservative Poul Schlüter, there were big demonstrations. But these
took place under special circumstances, and the same bourgeois media denied
every time that 100,000 people participated.
Approximately 25,000 people demonstrating on March 20, a working day, is really
good. In fact, it was the biggest demonstration in which the trade unionists
participated for the last 17 years. And this is only the beginning.
As regards the media storm stating that mass demonstrations are outdated, the
journalists should try to look out from their windows. Within one week, two
"records" were made in Europe.
On March 16 between 500,000 and 600,000 people demonstrated against the Europe
of capital during the EU Summit in Barcelona, Spain. The "social movements",
often referred to as the anti-globalisation movement, called the demonstration,
which was the biggest mass manifestation in the series of demonstrations that
began in 1999 in Seattle.
The media largely ignored this mass demonstration. There were not any mass street
fights to report.
A week after, the biggest demonstration ever in the history of Italy was held,
as around three million people protested the new reactionary labour legislation
of the Berlusconi government that will make it easier for employers to sack
workers. The Berlusconi government is disregarding the criticism, and the Italian
workers are preparing a general strike.
It is the time of mass demonstrations. It is the time of giant demonstrations.
In the former Soviet Union and German Democratic Republic, the regimes collapsed
following far minor demonstrations that got massive coverage in the media. With
this, we are not saying that revolutionary situations exist in Spain, Italy
or in other EU member countries. But the mass struggles are growing and intensifying,
while openly bourgeois governments are replacing Social Democratic governments
in many of the countries.
An important new feature appeared in the demonstration against the budget proposal
on March 20. The demonstration was not monopolized by the trade unions, but
it represented a coalition of organisations and movements, expressed in its
form itself as a "star demonstration"; trade unions, environmental
movements, student organisations, peace organisations, etc., were approaching
the palace square from different corners of the capital. In that way, the demonstration
resembled many of the big demonstrations around the world following Seattle.
And this feature will undoubtedly be present in the future. There can no longer
be a party or trade union top monopoly of the big demonstrations.
The new form makes the different participating forces more obvious. What happened
on March 20 was that a new movement, with the aim of stopping the Fogh Rasmussen
government and its anti-social policy, came forward. The movement is not a movement
trying to bring former Social Democratic Prime Minister Nyrup Rasmussen and
Co. back in power. It is a popular movement based on the workers, which will
formulate its own independent platform, its own demands to any government. New
alliances are being made. The development of a platform with the demands of
the workers as its core has started, and a new identity consisting of a wide
range of organisations, movements and individuals that are uniting in a joint
struggle for a concrete goal is arising. This was the importance of March 20,
2002.
March 26, 2002