Left-Extremist Endeavours

Protests against NATO’s
military operations in
Yugoslavia
2. "Antimilitarism"
"Antimilitarism" - agitation and activities directed against war,
NATO, the Federal Armed Forces (Bw) and military operations
and/or against Germany’s alleged great-power politics - was a
major field of action in 1999 within left-wing extremism. In this
regard, the action of left-wing extremists is not determined primarily
by pacifist motives; rather, they see the antimilitaristic fight
as an immanent element of the fight against imperialism and for
socialism. In deciding whether military actions are acceptable or
must be rejected, they base their judgment essentially on Lenin’s
doctrine of just and unjust wars 156) .
The participation of the Federal Armed Forces in NATO military
actions against Yugoslavia from late March until June triggered
demonstrations and rallies, and also damage to property, occupations
and attacks.
The "Party of Democratic Socialism" (PDS) unconditionally opposed
the NATO-led operations. At the level of domestic politics,
it gave the impression of being the only uncompromising opponent
of war among the political parties. It use the role thus assigned
to it for initiating and/or supporting protest actions.
Already on 12 March, writing in the weekly "Freitag", the top
functionary of the PDS, André BRIE, had made the following
comment on the question of the alleged pacifist character of the
PDS:
"No, that is not its [the Party’s] nature. Nor does it have a
pacifist basic consensus. This has never been really
discussed. For instance, with regard to national liberation
movements or the theory of just wars. Moreover, we have our
roots in anything whatsoever excepting a pacifist tradition."
For protest rallies and demonstrations, the PDS sought to form
"broad-based alliances" which, however, did not meet its high
expectations. This was brought home with particular clarity when
an event scheduled for 8 May in Berlin and for which 80,000 persons
had been notified, ultimately drew only a few thousand
participants.
In view of the elections to the European Parliament on 13 June,
the PDS extended its agitation also to the European level. After
talks held in March with friendly Communist Parties in Russia,
Italy and France, "peace talks" took place in April with the Yugoslav
President MILOSEVIC in Belgrade. In mid-April, Party Chairman
BISKY was among the participants in international conferences
of - mostly Communist - parties in Greece and on Cyprus.
In a joint appeal, top functionaries of Communist Parties from all
over Europe and of the PDS in mid-May addressed their demand
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