ALLIANCE FO§ DEMOCRACY

Demonstration for Democracy

Chinas students are battle-tested. For many years, they have been fighting against the dictatorship in Beijing, against inhumane conditions, against the doctrine of the state press, for the freedom to vote and education. Since the early morning hours (09/29/14), they have disabled the autonomous special administrative region of Hong Kong, as reported by dpa. The mass protest, which the police countered with tear gas, batons, and pepper spray, has been on the minds of the leaders of the country for days. The student unrest in Hong Kong has triggered the most severe political crisis since the return of the former British Crown colony to China in 1997. No end to the protests is in sight.
In a television address, government leader Leung Chun-ying called on the seven million residents of Hong Kong to respect law and order. He denied rumours that his government had asked the Chinese People’s Liberation Army for assistance. The requests of the president for the students to go home were in vain. No one wanted chaos in Hong Kong. The scale of the confusion and the extent to which political control is overstrained is demonstrated by the following detail: a red, Chinese national flag on a government building had been – intentionally or accidentally – raised upside down.
The student organizers called on the citizens of Hong Kong to continue the demonstrations until their demands for more democracy were met. The German government encouraged China to tolerate peaceful demonstrations. “There is a long tradition of freedom of expression in Hong Kong” , announced government spokesperson Steffen Seibert.
Government circles of the country stated that China’s government had “complete trust” in the government of the autonomous special administrative region. The protests were ignited by an election reform, with which Beijing intends to allow direct elections for 2017, but not the free nomination of the candidates. Typical for China – control cannot be relinquished. So much for free elections. The former British Crown colony is governed today in accordance with the principle of “one country, two systems” as a completely independent Chinese territory.
The call of the students seems to be more successful than the efforts of the politicians. Today, more demonstrators were counted than ever before. In order to protect themselves against tear gas and pepper spray (as well as from the sun), there was talk of an “umbrella Revolution”. These remained peaceful; Occupy-Central activists support the students. Special police forces refrained from violent actions. Even so: most likely fearing the spread of the images from Hong Kong, the Chinese censors blocked the photo platform Instagram – Youtube or social networks, such as Twitter are blocked in China anyway.

Chinese students are fighting with their courageous actions for a commodity on which Germany prides itself. Chancellor Merkel said that we have democracy and in front of students from the Beijing Tsinghua University, of all things. In the final address of her visit to Beijing in the summer of 2014, the Chancellor spoke of responsibility and sustainability – as though the governments of Angela Merkel, in particular, had demonstrated responsibility or made decisions, which have a beneficial effect for the people in the long run. They have an effect, but not a beneficial one. But as we all know, it is easier to talk than to act and it was surely not difficult to convince those in China that the German chancellor knew what she was talking about. The Chancellor urged thinking and democratic commitment – she did not make reference to her own country, in which these things don’t exist due to party politics. And she didn’t need to.
A look at history would be useful – Mrs. Merkel reminded them of the last days of the GDR and the “peaceful revolution” and her path towards politics, through the first free elections of the GDR. The law of the jungle should be considered outdated propaganda; the power of law on the other hand must be promoted. And because the Chancellor had a very smart speechwriter and China is a hot potato, Germany could naturally not be portrayed as an overly prospering country: a couple of faults had to be found in German democracy.
This may have impressed China’s elite students, but there is little truth in the story. The fact that all of Germany’s governments always took much more out of the state coffers then came in was not sustainable and led to debt, which will never be balanced by the Euro-saving policy. As a result of this financial dependency, the countries united under the euro went so far as to break the legal provisions, that were to protect the currency from devaluation. These legal breaches were followed by others and led to the greatest deception of the public of all times.
Menschen für Demo-kratie reported on this and it is worthwhile to look back on our reporting.
Deutschland is not a democracy. The state attempted to legitimize itself by means of a constitution, which precluded any participation by the people. After the reunification of the two German states, no mutual constitution was created, which would’ve intended or allowed participation by the people. The same will happen to the European institutions, even if they can be elected, such as the parliament.
The debts of the community of the Euro have long since become so massive that democratic participation or human rights have become completely unimportant. High finance determines, what happens in Europe, as well as in Germany. The politicians are just as helpless against this power as the people of Europe. The politicians are committed to avoiding a crash. This is definitely in the interest of high finance, which earns money from the devaluation of the euro as a currency, as well as in the interest of the politicians, who want to save face. For the citizen, the rate was important, if anything at all was important these days. It is impossible for a Europe that was born under these conditions to be democratic. It must fail.
Menschen für Demo-kratie has been documenting this development for many years. Until now, our predictions have matched the happenings. Then it doesn’t matter whether it was the ESM/fiscal pact swindle or the effects of it, such as the plundering of the accounts of all citizens, the pensions, the dipping into the pockets of the investors and depositors. Even the tricks and involving budgeting, which made it possible to support the so-called supported countries, at the expense of the young and the retirees, investors and depositors. Now, the supporter countries are fully and completely supported by their citizens. Supporter countries have also become supported countries. These countries cannot be saved. Germany is bankrupt.

Perhaps it is particularly important to observe China these days. The students there are fighting for more democracy. This is also long overdue in Germany. Let us learn from people who fight for something. We have long since lost democracy and democratic principles, or rather we were cheated out of them, as well as our economic future. It is time to recognize the propaganda fairy tale and do something about it, so that true, direct democracy can finally be introduced.