Bündnis 12. Mai | Star March and Protest Work Shop

A sunny afternoon in May on Alexanderplatz. A group of people seeks refuge in the shade of the Neptune fountain, some are distributing flyers, others are conversing and sorting through colorful posters and umbrellas that have phrases like "Global Change" and "Give Peace a Chance" printed on them.

It might not look that way upon first glance, but this is an official event. It is a press conference held by the Bündnis 12 Mai on the occasion of the Occupy movement's first anniversary. A demonstration and information stands scattered across the city aim to pick up where the movement left off last year, after it was sparked by protesters in Spain. Few journalists have attended the press conference, a mere four people joins the pow wow to listen to the initiators explain the Bündnis' aims.

Different groups share the "stage", amongst them Berlin's Occupy group, an overseeably sized but well-connected group that has been organizing events and running different homepages for a year. All of the groups want to participate in the "star march", which will run from five locations in Berlin towards Alexanderplatz in the shape of a star. A "marketplace of ideas" is meant to follow the march with information stands and an action work shop to, in a nutshell, protest the lack of solidarity in our system, and to express a demand for more justice and more real democracy.

The participating journalists are mainly interested in the meaning of the term "Occupy", that last year triggered countless global protests. Matthias Merkle, a gastronomer, film maker and occupy leader, delivers a somewhat bumpy explanation, perhaps because the definition of the word itself remains slightly blurry "I would describe it as a process in which people participate that want to change something, that want to leave the system. There are many ways to express this, and many ways that the media has interpreted them, as you can see by looking at the Occupy Wall Street protests or the protests in Spain last year. It's hard to describe it in a nutshell, regardless if you call it Occupy or something else."  

The Occupy movement in Germany was briefly present in the media last year, like the spontaneous occupation of the Reichtagswiese on October 15. But there hasn't been much coverage over the past couple of months. Compared to other countries, events staged by German occupiers lacked the drama, the grand dimensions of protests in other countries. "Part of the reason for that is that we're comparatively well-off here. People are so immerged in their everyday lives that it's hard to get them excited about our ideas" sais Merkle. "But it doesn't frustrate me when as little people show up as today. It's not like we have to meet a certain quota just because it's a Saturday. We're mainly spurred on by the other country's reactions. Spain, Greece, the USA: the feedback has been magnificent."

It is the relationship to the authorities that has sparked the most problems, including restrictions concerning the May 12 event. According to occupy organizers, local authorities had forbidden the forming of a camp on May 12. "Our information stands and the work shop have nothing to do with a camp. But if people decide to camp here, they'll camp here. That's out of our hands. All we've planned is a correctly registered demonstration which will definitely take place."  

(isi)