Statement of the Workers' Communist Party of Denmark (APK), June 20, 2002
We are accusing Danish police of threatening freedom of expression!
We are accusing the Danish state of launching a campaign of psychological terror
against the right to demonstrate and to political protest, accompanied by rearmament
of the police which most of all looks like preparations for civil war!
We are accusing the Danish state of putting handcuffs on democracy!
The preparations for the Danish EU Presidency have lead to a hitherto unprecedented
rearmament of the police with new equipment and numerous "civil war"
exercises for neutralizing demonstrators, costing billions of DKr. Preparations
for proclaiming Copenhagen in a state of emergency are being made. Restrictions
of the right to demonstrate in the centre of Copenhagen are being carried out.
Foreign demonstrators will not be allowed to stay in public schools.
If somebody has been having illusions about the police being "the protector
of the whole society", the incidents in the period leading up till Denmark's
assumption of the EU Presidency tell something else. The police is the protector
of the rulers, not of the citizens, and not at all of the tens of thousands
of demonstrators who will come to show their protest against the EU superstate,
against the global terror war, against the globalisation of the multinationals,
and against neoliberal reforms and cuts on the social budgets.
A scare campaign has been launched in order to keep people away from political
protest and demonstrations during the Danish EU Presidency, especially at the
summits. The purpose of this is to try to diminish the massive popular protest
against the EU superstate, war and neoliberal globalisation in the eyes of the
public. Millions of people have been on the streets at the summits. The rulers
of Denmark are trying to stop this.
By carrying out a massive campaign in which the police are constantly feeding
the reactionary media with information saying that "violent actions"
are being prepared, it is being established publicly that "of course, there
will be trouble". This is meant to legitimise the civil war preparations
of the police, the incredible rearmament expenses, and keep people away.
As the police and intelligence well know that violence is not being prepared,
and that all political forces in Denmark, both inside Stop the Violence and
outside this umbrella organisation, reject violence and are concentrating on
mass manifestations, the police are resorting to lies of the Goebbels kind.
The network, Global Roots, which is an organisation of declared non-violent
activists with a history of non-violent actions, is at the centre of the tirades
of Copenhagen's jolly Police Commissioner Kai Vittrup: A label of violence and
terrorism is consciously being put on the organisation. Vittrup has been given
the task of drawing a "restrained" and "sober-minded" picture
of the anti-democratic activities of the police. He is doing nothing else but
throwing suspicion on peaceful demonstrators and activists and justifying the
provocations and smear campaigns of the police.
As the arrest of two young women, both members of Red Youth and activists of
Stop the Violence, on Noerrebro in Copenhagen shows, the police are trying,
by humiliating treatment and verbal obscenities like "leftist dirty hooker",
to provoke the youth to rage and violence.
Provocations are part of the methods used by the police.
We are convinced that the police are not just the only ones who are actively
preparing violence at the summits; the police are also the only ones who want
violence. Vittrup's assurances, which he is making over and over again, that
he should like nothing better than to see all the expensive equipment and cages
remain unused, are ringing hollow and hypocritical. It is a fact that the police
are following a line of provoking the demonstrators, labelling them beforehand
as "potential criminals" or even "similar to terrorists".
If the police really wanted the protests against the summits to be peaceful,
they would stop their provocative line.
Therefore, there is also reason to expect that the police will make use of agent
provocateurs among the demonstrators, that is, fascist elements or paid agents,
who can organise violent episodes or spread fear for real terrorist actions.
This has been the picture around the world.
And Danish police do not work independently, but in very close cooperation with
their partners in the other EU countries, and even more countries, about putting
handcuffs on democracy. Norwegian police are doing exactly the same, following
the same manual close to the upcoming World Bank summit in Oslo.
In the long term, work is being done to criminalize all forms of political protest,
especially the protest on the street. The terror legislation, which has been
adopted in a number of countries, forms part of this.
Hopefully, the many different forces in the Stop the Violence network have realized
that there cannot be any "trusting cooperation" with the police of
the rulers. It will end as in Gothenburg and Genoa. Instead, the preparations
for violence, lies, scare campaigns and provocations of the police should constantly
and critically be brought into focus. All agreements made with the police should
be made public in order to make it difficult for the police to break them.
The police, acting on behalf of the rulers and according to their instructions,
and not on behalf of the whole society and democracy, should be a target for
the peaceful political protest, too.
June 20, 2002
The Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Workers' Communist Party of Denmark (APK)