40,000 people from right across Europe turned out, on a very hot day, to demonstrate in Cologne on June 29. The mobilisation was aimed at the EU heads of Government meeting held under the German presidency of the EU. It was another remarkable success after the demonstration of a similar size in Amsterdam two years ear: lier. Both demonstrations were protests against unemployment, social exclusion, poverty, low wages, racism and the drive towards the single European Currency.
Given that the war in the Balkans broke out during the campaign for the demonstration opposition to the bombing and to NATO were added to the demands of the demonstration.
Like Amsterdam, Cologne was a clearly internationalist mobilisation with the majority of the demonstration coming from outside of Germany, although the German delegation was at least 10,000.
Again the demonstration represented a vast coalition of groups and organisations and campaigns from across the continent: organisations of the unemployed, political organisations, anti-racist organisations, feminist organisations and trade unions. The composition of the demonstration was different to Amsterdam, however.
The core of this demonstration this time was the left trade unions from across Europe. The big union delegations were from France, Italy and Spain from where some of the union delegations were huge. There were 300 from Greece made up almost entirely of official trade union delegations (most of which came on a chartered aircraft).
Of the political delegations the biggest was Rifondazione Comunista (RC) from Italy which looked to be well over 1,000 but contained union banners connected to RC. The PDS from Germany had a large delegation.
The Fourth International (FI) had the strongest contingent of any far left tendency and marched behind the banner of the Ligue Communiste Revolutionaire (LCR - French Section of the Fourth International). If one takes into account the many FI members marching with other delegations the size of the mobili' sation becomes even more impressive.
The Committee for a Workers International ( CWI) delegation, led by the Socialist Party in Britain, was well organised. Workers Power's International grouping had a delegation of about 150 from half a dozen countries.
There was also a very large contingent (several thousand) of German anti-fascist youth surrounded in the most provocative way by huge squads of riot police.
The delegation from the French • New! sand. There was a big delegation from the World March of Women and another from the anti-racist caravan.
The event was very well organised and had a good carnival atmosphere. A main city highway was closed for the day and filled with stalls and meetings and demonstrators for several hours before the demonstration and into the evening with entertainment afterwards.
There was a ridiculously large police presence, thousands of police with hundreds of armoured vehicles, which caused some problems on some parts of the demonstratien but it did not mar the overall event.
Five coaches Went to the demonstration from Britain; one from Leeds, one from Newcastle, and three from London.
The fact that this is quite a good mobilisation in British terms reflects the very different political conditions which exist here as opposed to most other European countries.
Unlike Amsterdam (or even Cardiff last year) this particular summit had almost no publicity prior to the event.
Although the agenda covered issues such as the enlargement of the EU to the east and the introduction of "flexible" employment conditions across the EU in the event it was turned over to backing up NATO over the war, trying to cut a deal with Milosevic, and discussing the implications of the war for the EU itself.
Thus the key discussions were around the stepping up of moves towards a common foreign and defence policy and the "problem" of relying of US military hardware in order to fight such a war. Resolving that one, however, is a big one.
The idea that the EU could get itself in a position to put as many war planes in the air as the USA without completely restructuring the financial basis of the EU was a problem which was unresolved. However these discussions will now continue with Blair on side for the first time in supporting these moves - clearly parroting as usual the voice of the USA in Europe.
The next targets for the strengthened Euro-marches movement across Europe will need to be discussed over the next few months.
Certainly in Britain the need for an internationalist against both the single currency and the effects of European integration have been strongly demonstrated by the results of the European elections. Let's hope we can measure up to the task by building on the strengths of Cologne.
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