The day of May 1st has already been in the past in a certain way the day of provocation. But this time it will be much stronger than before.
First there is the provocation of a Neonazi manifestation in Berlin which has been allowed by the judiciary. It really is too much that these organisations and groups treading in the footsteps of those who had an indescribable responsibility of bloodshed in Europe, of reactionary intentions and fanatic racism are allowed to demonstrate in this way in Berlin. It was especially the responsibility of the high courts and authorities that this demonstration will be permitted although there are several claims to prohibit it, to give no permission to this demonstration.

Another provocation are the demonstration calls and declarations by the autonomous scene partly "opposing" the demonstration of the Neonazis. Some parts of this demonstration have slogans like "Switch Off Germany" or, as it was said in the past, "If we want to live, Germany must die". These provocateurs practice a reverse racism and anarchism and a true contempt of the own nation. They try to give grist to the Neonazis' mill. They make no attempt to struggle against the source of misleading among young people. Those who are misled so far are the exception, but they could increase by such a propaganda and such a public behavior. 
The "autonomous" demonstrators like those of the so-called "Antifa" ("anti-fascist action") have published declarations deeply hostile against Marxism and revolutionary dialectics, trying to wipe out revolutionary thinking which has to refer to the global scale.

Another demonstration is the one by RIM and others propagating idealism, anti-materialism or at best socialism as a wishful dream. There is word about "great longing for the goal", about the "struggle of all oppressed", but no more about material forces able to push socialism through. In its whole tendency there is the same reversed racism as with the before mentioned.

Finally there is something like the so-called "independent Antifa" which is even more radical in all of this and is in the swamp of imperialistic perversion and degeneration.

All of these forces never can be serious enemies neither of the system of state dominating today nor say of the fascist phenomenon.

And what concerns the demonstration of the official trade unions taking place on May 1st, it is characterized by its unconcealed support for the government in its measures of redistribution, of a government which started under the slogan "put an end to the redistribution from below to above" and in fact carries through a redistribution from the very below (and the middle) to the very, very above; which pushes forward the decay of the working class, which pushes forward the reduction of industrial production and would prefer to have a society consisting of nothing but services. The Allianz group, the largest financial group in this country is a downright fan of the so-called red-green coalition government. In its substance it represents utterly reactionary policies. There is no need to wonder that other reactionary phenomena are even particularly flourishing by the coalition of these parties. 

It is the potential of this state that it is still able to keep the 1st of May under its own lid. Belonging to this are various forces: fascists, official government demonstrations and so-called autonomists who form a potential of several ten thousands of people in Berlin and who already in the past have stood by for utterly dubious policies. In the former anti-nuclear energy movements, for example, the autonomous contingent from Berlin has for many years formed the most decisive shock force. This has a tradition of its own up to now and has to do with the special status of the former Western Berlin of being kept and with the flow of public money into the so-called left. The characteristic term for this multitude of subcultural phenomena is "scene". They are always eager to conceal their anti-communist character.

To say it frankly, the 1st of May demonstrations in our opinion are not decisive. After the 1st of May the same social problems will exist as before, and the corresponding struggle will continue in the whole of the concrete reality. Maybe such forces will be able to dominate the 1st of May, but in the end this will not have an essential influence on the course of development.

Editorial staff of Neue Einheit
April 30, 2000