In this issue:

British Book Reveals Battle Between Powell, Neo-Cons

Kohl Addresses Deindustrialization of Eastern Germany

German President Offers East Germans 'Tough Love'

German Monday Demos Sweep into 240 Cities

Press Cover BueSo/LYM Monday Rallies

Monday Rallies May Soon Be Held in Switzerland

Polish Parliament Unanimously Demands War Reparations from Germany

From Volume 3, Issue Number 38 of EIR Online, Published Sep. 21, 2004

Western European News Digest

British Book Reveals Battle Between Powell, Neo-Cons

BBC correspondent James Naughtie is about to publish a book in which he reports that U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell denounced the neo-conservatives in the Bush Administration as "fucking crazies," in discussion with Foreign Secretary Jack Straw in the 2002 buildup to the Iraq war, according to an account in the Guardian Sept. 12. Naughtie alleges that Powell was reported to have believed that the neo-cons were destroying the alliance with Europe, and even with Britain. Both Powell and Straw called the U.S. publisher of the book, "Public Affairs," to say they would vigorously deny the report if it were published. Since there was no threat to sue, it is going forward, with the F-word on the book jacket. New Statesman editor John Kampfner is quoted saying that, "the British Government saw Powell as the most significant voice of sanity in the U.S. Administration," and "used Powell to get across their point of view to the White House," adding that "bizarrely, Powell sometimes also used Blair to pass messages to Bush."

Kohl Addresses Deindustrialization of Eastern Germany

At a Brandenburg election campaign event in Strausberg, Sept. 14, former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl give a speech in which he surprised his audience by addressing the past 15 years of economic problems in the east.

Kohl said that western German industries were involved the deindustrialization of the east: "Also in the west, there were people in leading positions in industry, who had no interest in the development of GDR [East German] firms.... Instead, many industrial bosses only saw the 17 million consumers in the GDR, but did not want the production capacities, because there were surplus capacities in the western Federal Republic."

Eastern Germans purchasing new cars or washing machines from western firms, helped "these firms improve sales, at a time of an overall European economic crisis," Kohl said. In earlier interviews, Kohl had denounced the "tone of agitation" at Monday rallies, but had also been sympathetic, in general, with the eastern German citizens who are taking to the streets to protest their situation.

German President Offers East Germans 'Tough Love'

In an interview in the Sept. 13 issue of the weekly Focus, Bundes President Horst Koehler insisted: 1) the Agenda 2010 "reforms" have to be pursued; 2) the Maastricht rules have to be defended against its critics; and 3) the government has to show that it will not soften the Hartz IV policy.

Implicitly referring to the Monday anti-austerity protest rallies, Koehler added that, in his view, people in the eastern regions will finally have to accept the "fact" that living standards differ between regions of Germany, between north and south, west and east, and that "whoever wants to level that, is locking in the system of state support and burdening the young generation with unbearable debt. We have to get away from the system of state support." The estimated cost of evening out the disparity of living standards across reunited Germany is estimated at $1.5 trillion.

In what was seen as a mild rebuke of Koehler, on Sept. 14, German Chancellor Gerhardt Schroeder told journalists: "It is quite naturally the duty of the government to work toward achieving equal living standards. That is the view of all of us, that we have to keep working toward that aim.

German Monday Demos Sweep into 240 Cities

Monday rallies in Germany Sept. 13 took place in about 240 German cities, most in eastern regions. Economics Minister Wolfgang Clement announced prematurely on Sept. 12 that protests against Hartz IV are dying down, claiming that the leading media had reported that, "again, about 10,000 took part in Monday protests in all of Germany." Closer to the truth, is that, in the three big cities Berlin, Leipzig and Magdeburg, altogether 20,000 took part, and many smaller cities with the same attendance as last week or the week before. Moreover, some smaller cities held a Monday rally for the first time, and an impressive number of citizens took part: For example, in Belzig and Zossen (both in Brandenburg), 150 and 300 showed up, respectively, also 150 in Oschersleben (Saxe-Anhalt).

There may be a lower turnout in the big cities, because normal people get frustrated about the useless faction fights between the various leftist groups, and many citizens now show up at rallies in smallers.

More rallies are expected on Thursday, Sept. 16 in Erfurt, Sondershausen, Soemmerda, Bleicherode, all four in Thuringia, and Neubrandenburg in Mechlinberg.

Press Cover BueSo/LYM Monday Rallies

At least five articles have appeared in local media and online websites covering activities of the Bueso (Civil Rights Solidarity party of Helga Zepp-LaRouche)/LaRouche Youth Movement this week:

* From Potsdam and Hoyerswerda, references were made directly to BueSo. Indirect references were included in two articles from Goerlitz, and one from Meissen, where the BueSo candidate and campaign poster were featured. From Leipzig, the ARD Tagesschau program showed BueSo leafletting at the big rally, without naming the BueSo.

Monday Rallies May Soon Be Held in Switzerland

In an exclusive interview with the German daily Neues Deutschland Sept. 15, Alessandro Pelizzaro, chief secretary of the Attac organization in Switzerland, spoke of considerable unrest, coming labor strikes, and potential protest in his country. Asked about the Monday rallies in Germany, Pelizzaro said:

"That is the most interesting thing occurring in Europe right now. It makes us confident, how collective protest articulates itself in Germany. We are watching this development with great interest. In Vienna, Paris, and Montpellier, there already were solidarity rallies for the Monday rallies in Germany."

Asked if there will be Monday rallies in Switzerland, soon, replied: "We are already discussing the idea of Swiss Monday rallies. We have to see what the outcome of Sept. 23 is," referring to a planned day of action against budget cuts in Switzerland. Pelizzaro hinted that since labor unions in the French-speaking parts of Switzerland are more rebellious than in the German-speaking parts, the center of protests may be in the west of the country.

Polish Parliament Unanimously Demands War Reparations from Germany

All 328 deputies in the Polish Sejm (parliament) voted up a resolution at the end of the week of Sept. 16 demanding war reparations from Germany, for damage to Poland in World War II.

For the city of Warsaw alone, costs are estimated around 35 billion euros. The resolution was the result of a provocation, after Poland became a member of the EU, from a German refugee association, the Prussian Treuhand Gesellschaft Gmbh. The Treuhand has begun to have individual Germans, who fled the eastern parts of Germany which had been absorbed into Poland in the post-war era, demand restitution for their property before European courts. Leading German politicians, such as Bundestag member Markus Meckel (SPD), have warned of a new "ice age" in bilateral relations.

Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski, Prime Minister Marek Belka, and Foreign Minister Wlodzimierz Czimoszewicz declared the Sejm resolution unacceptable and non-binding. In 1953, the Polish government had declared the war reparation question resolved. Sources whom EIR talked to, pointed out that it is a political maneuver to drive a wedge in German-Polish relations, at the very moment that Chancellor Schroeder was meeting with Russian President Putin in Sochi.

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