Scene in Berlin

I live just off Karl Marx Strasse in the left-wing heartland of working-class Berlin. Nazis tried to march here sometimes in the 1920s, but the infamous Berlin reds would soon set upon their fascist foes while singing The Internazionale. "Berlin Remains Red!" read the banners around the Kreuzberg and Neukölln districts in those days. Sure, things changed for a time; but nearly a century later, Berlin is still swathed in red - though it's a color with infinite shades.

Socialists, communists, far-left militants, anarchists, and - ironically - some greens each represent some of the spectral diversity of Red Berlin. No doubt, internationalist socialists can be found passing their red books through the dissident cracks of any big city; but in Berlin the left are not mere fringe dwellers.

Across the metropolis, established red tribes hatch revolution in clandestine courtyards, anarchist bars and socialist bookstores - indeed, the police have recently taken to raiding said book stores for seditious literature (i.e. advice on how to torch luxury cars, a Berlin custom of sorts blamed on the far-left anti-gentrification scene), giving rise to yet another leftist group, "Solidarity with Left Bookstores."

The sheer weight of leftist publications and propaganda, and the well-organized activism that these words inspire, is astounding and unique in Europe in 2011. Stenciled slogans like "Fight the Fight. Class against Class!" or "Rebellion is justified" are run-of-the-mill in Berlin, though you'll no longer see the like splashed on walls in London or New York.

Radical remnants

There are scores of far left and anarchist groups in the Kreuzberg and Friederichshain districts alone, and though many have small numbers, their youthful membership conjoin on many issues that are often specific to Berlin: tenant and squatter rights, jobs, welfare, rising rents, immigrant rights, and most importantly, no Nazis!

Walking recently towards Hermannplatz in Neukölln, hundreds of black-clad militants nearly bowled me over as they marched down Karl Marx Strasse in one of the numerous anti-Nazi rallies that besiege the area. It was a mixed bunch - masked revolutionaries, dreadlocked anarchists, university students, graying '68ers, mums and dads, immigrant minorities, some demanding a "free Kurdistan."

As Beavis, the young man running my local punk music and anarchist info shop (Real Deal Records: "Punk is Resistance") told me, the connecting thread is liberty and freedom. Beavis says he's an anarchist, definitely not a communist, but he's "left" all the same - anarchists and communists essentially believe in the same thing, though the former don't like the state, especially after the failures of communist East Germany.

This left/anarchist scene became especially entrenched in West Berlin during the 70s and 80s when every political radical in Germany flocked to an unhinged, subsidized, conscription-free island behind the Iron Curtain. Those heady days, when nearly a hundred squats ruled Kreuzberg, are gone, but the city remains a hotbed.

In the lead-up to this month's Berlin-Brandenburg state elections, Real Deal Records has been displaying posters mocking the "Linke," or Left party, which governs Berlin in coalition with the Social Democratic Party (SPD). The latter are accused of selling off public housing, among other pro-capitalist, "anti-social" policies.

Above the posters, a large black/red anarchist flag flies from the front of the store, a little anomalously on this relatively smart boulevard; but such radical remnants are all around. Even in my old German class, housed in a once squatted factory up the road, discussions revolved around anti-nuclear and anti-Nazi issues.

Taking to the streets

The other day I was perusing the endless leftist propaganda on the walls around my neighborhood, and decided to snap a poster declaring "We will take back our city." Soon a man asked me nicely what I was doing - I was in front of a public housing tenement-cum-squat, I quickly realized, and he was afraid I might be a neo-Nazi. After I explained, he invited me to a neighborhood demo.

This wasn't the kind of protest against anti-Semitism, sexism and homophobia that will take place when the Pope visits Berlin on September 22. I joined a protest last week against rising rents and displacement, taking to the streets of Neukölln in the driving rain with a grab bag of mostly young leftists to tell poor and immigrant residents - of which there are still a few - that the government is selling off their future for the sake of profits, etc. The audience was engaged, coming out onto their balconies and the streets as the loud speakers blasted.

Everyone knows May Day as Red Berlin's great gathering: a million people on the streets, cars burning. Or they remember the Red Army Faction's leftist reign of terror in the 70s, bombing capitalist targets and assassinating government cronies in Berlin. But while media have long hyped such militancy, Red Berlin is mostly grass roots and everyday, an enduring part of this highly politicized metropolis.

Author: Stuart Braun

Editor: Kate Bowen