[FROM A CORRESPONDENT IN On 2 June 967…]
Socialist Press1977 1977-06-22Read it in the scan (PDF), scan page 3 →
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FROM A CORRESPONDENT IN On 2 June 967, during a demonstration called to protest against West German aid to Iran's fascist dictatorship, Benno Ohnesorg was killed by a policeman's bullet.
The judge who presided over the investigation that followed declared that the policeman had "acted in self defence" , although dozens of witnesses testified to the contrary.
As in the case of the Kevin Gateley cover up two years ago, this affair serves to convince anyone still in doubt of the links betweer the state and its agents.
NOT FORGOTTEN That the murder of Ohnesorg has not been forgotten was proved at the beginning of this month when both in commemoration and to protest against the ever-growing wave of political repression, an 8000-strong demonstration was held in West Berlin.
The repression most overtly manifests itself in the mounting prosecutions under the so-called 'Anti-radical Laws' designed to prevent 'elements tostile to the constitution' from emninment in WEST the Civil Service.
Among factors considered indicate such "hostile elements" are: membership of left wing parties or sharing their ideas; personal contacts (i.e. marriage, flat-sharing) with suspects; and participation in demonstrations protesting against aspects of government policy.
Brandt Although this law has been built into the German Constitution since Bismark unified the country, its real designs only became apparent in January 1972 when Brandt's government authorised the states of West German to internret the law they saw fit.
First in Hamburg and then in the rest of West Germany, the Red Hunt was on. In the months that followed, the number of investigations into workers' pasts grew to McCarthyite proportions.
By the start of 1976, there had been over half a million checks. The number of people investigated for "loyalty to the constitution' now exceeds 800,000.
UNIONS
Apart from vaguely worded motions of opposition passed at meetings of the OGB (W. German TUC), the trade union rank and file has found itself fighting both the government and their own leaderships.
Among the exceptions is the GEW (Union of school and university teachers) which has attempted to organise resistance.
In Bavaria alone, the GEW estimates that during the period 1972-77 over 136 of their members were denied jobs on political grounds.