Largest Pro-Palestine Demo in German History: A Revolutionary Socialist View

By Omnia Magdy

On the 27th of September the biggest demonstration in solidarity with Palestine took place in German history. Over 100,000 people took part in the mass demonstration in Berlin under the slogan “Together for Gaza.” The demonstration offered an opportunity for pushing the Palestine solidarity movement out of isolation and activating wide sections of the working class for concrete solidarity with Palestine. It is the organized working class who has the power to stop the German state’s military, ideological and political support for Israel’s genocide in Gaza and the Zionist settler colonial project.

The “Together for Gaza” demonstration was organized by over 50 organizations who called for the end to the genocide, a weapons embargo against Israel and the right to self-determination by the Palestinian people. The reformist Left Party (Die Linke), NGOs, Palestinian community groups, revolutionary organizations and other leftist groups were involved in organizing the demonstration.

At the demonstration there were different blocks: The leading block of the demonstration was assembled under the banner “Palestine Anticolonial” and organized by the Palestinian community in Berlin together with revolutionary socialist, migrant and anticolonial organizations. Another block under the banner of international solidarity, was organized by climate activist, migrant and student groups in solidarity with Palestine. Another block was organized by Die Linke.

Die Linke’s track record on Palestine has been dismal. The party stands for a two-state solution, has condemned the Palestinian resistance and repeatedly reiterated the Zionist narrative of Israel’s so-called “right to exist.” Yet the party was forced to now take a stance by the Palestine solidarity movement, which for almost two years, has upheld pressure and perseverance in calling for an end to the genocide and for a free Palestine. The base of the Left Party is to a large extent more left, and hence more pro-Palestine than the party leadership.

Pressure on the Reformist Left Party and Trade Union Bureaucracy

In light of a growing far-right embodied by electoral wins by the fascist Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, tens of thousands of people became members of the reformist Left Party in the last half a year, especially those who are in solidarity with Palestine and in opposition to the stances of the leadership of Die Linke.

This tension between the party leadership and the base was on display at the demonstration. The head of the Die Linke, Ines Schwerdter, who until the 27th of September had not called the genocide in Gaza by its name, was surrounded by Palestinian women who initially blocked her from taking the stage demanding that she “apologize for being silent.” Base members of Die Linke joined the chorus in the crowd yelling “apologize!” Schwerdter, after taking the stage, was forced to apologize immediately, admitting that she was silent for far too long, and shouted with the crowd “free Palestine” as well as “it’s not a war, it’s a genocide.” As the crowd in front of her was in full solidarity with the Palestinian struggle, the party leader was not able to condemn the Palestinian resistance as she had done in innumerable previous TV interviews.

The contradictory nature of reformist parties is not a purely German phenomenon but repeats itself in different contexts. Yet, in the German context, pro-Zionist stances are rife not only in the leadership of Die Linke but also the leadership of the German trade unions. This has resulted in pro-Palestine organizing being more isolated in combination with severe state repressions and criminalizations.

In contrast to countries like Italy where the trade union leadership has called for pro-Palestine strikes and demonstrations, the leadership of the German Trade Union Confederation (Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund, DGB) has not called for any pro-Palestine demonstration, not even on the 27th of September. In fact, the leadership of DGB has taken a clear pro-Zionist stance. In the beginning of September 2025, DGB as the umbrella organisation for eight German trade unions, which represents over six million people, celebrated 50 years of partnership with the so-called Israeli Trade Union Federation “Histadrut.”

On this occasion, the Hans Böckler Foundation (HBS) which is the research and study support organization of the DGB, published a 90-page booklet celebrating the 50 year partnership between DGB and Histadrut. The booklet, written during the genocide in Gaza, is filled with Zionist tropes about the founding of the state of Israel, racist depictions of Palestinians and calls for “solidarity with Israel.”

Yet at the “Together for Gaza” Demonstration on the 27th of September there were innumerable demonstrators carrying flags and banners with the logos of German unions. The group “Unionists for Gaza” (GewerkschafterInnen4Gaza) was also present at the demonstration and held a speech critiquing the trade union bureaucracy and demanding pro-Palestine positions within the unions as well as highlighting the necessity of workers strikes for Palestine and the blocking of weapons deliveries. There are big divides between the positions of the base of the unions and the trade union bureaucracy and it remains a difficult but crucial task for members of the trade unions to fight for anti-genocide positions within their unions as they have the power to make the capitalist (pro-genocide) system come to a standstill.

Sectarianism, Opportunism and a Revolutionary Socialist Stance

The experience of base members of the reformist Left Party, who are also organized in trade unions, pushing their bureaucratic leaders to take a stance, could also lead to similar effects in the trade unions. At the same time, the leadership of the Left Party will not take on a fully pro-Palestine stance any time soon, as it goes against their material interests of wishing to co-manage capitalism in a “peaceful” manner.

Therefore it was all the more important for revolutionary socialist forces to participate in the demonstration on the 27th of September to show base members of the reformist Left Party the contradictions and bankruptcy leadership of the party, and win them over for fully pro-Palestine and revolutionary stances.

Strategy and tactics in the Palestine solidarity movement have been a point of much debate.

Sectarian forces in the Berlin Palestine solidarity movement had argued for boycotting the demonstration on the 27th as not all groups who organized the demonstration stand for a free Palestine from the river to the sea or are in support of armed resistance. Yet wishing to keep one’s hands clean and only demonstrating with those who share the exact same convictions as oneself, is a recipe for complete isolation. In this context, some leftist groups decided to organize their own demonstration in the name of total liberation in another part of town, where two thousand people showed up and were brutally beaten by the police. A mass of 100.000 people could have protected these groups from police violence and offered a space to spread their ideas.

On the other hand, an opportunist stance would be to merely go to the demonstration on the 27th, not critique the leadership of Die Linke and simply walk with them. This constitutes a subjugation to the stances of the leadership of reformists without challenging them or going further than their demands.

Organisers who seek material gains for the Palestinian cause must reject both sectarianism and opportunism. Their approach must be in a revolutionary socialist stance; embodied by participating in the 27th demonstration, agitating with one’s own revolutionary propaganda and openly naming and critiquing the contradictions and hypocrisy of the leadership of reformist forces. This means winning people over for revolutionary socialist politics that call for an end to Zionist settler colonialism, a one state solution, solidarity with the Palestinian resistance, and the need to topple the capitalist world system as the root cause of genocidal imperialism. These revolutionary positions are ones that bourgeois propaganda never allows the majority of the population to hear, which is why mobilizing in a protest of over 100,000 people offers revolutionary socialists in solidarity with Palestine a field to reach a mass of people.

This also means not merely verbally voices one’s positions but strategizing how they can be reached. Simultaneously it means that concrete material support for the Palestinian resistance can be achieved through mass mobilization for a weapon’s embargo in Germany against Israel as the German state sends 30% of all weapons.

And this mass of people can only be reached in a broad united front that demands freedom to spread one’s content (or in other words freedom to spread revolutionary propaganda that counters hegemonic propaganda) and organizational independence. With a mass of working class people who hold the power to bring the war machine to a standstill we can stop the genocide in Palestine and support the Palestinian resistance from abroad.

Revolutionary Socialist Speech

A practical manifestation of a revolutionary socialist stance that intervenes in mass demonstrations can be seen in the following speech held at the leading “Palestine Anticolonial” block at the “Together for Gaza” demonstration:

“A live stream genocide in Gaza has been taking place for almost two years. This is a continuation of the expulsion of the Palestinians for over 77 years, since Nakba has been committed by the settlers colonial Zionist project, supported by Western imperialism. Resistance to the genocide in Gaza, but also against the imperialist world system is possible. We see how the general strike in Italy brought the country to a standstill in solidarity with Palestine. We see what port workers do in Belgium and Spain are capable of when they block weapons deliveries and say clearly: “We will not be involved in the export of arms deliveries for genocide.”

We see how the Global Sumud Flotilla with over 40 ships is currently on its way to Gaza to deliver humanitarian aid and have already been massively attacked by the Israeli state. We see how our ruling class here in Europe only give lip service to Palestinian suffering but at the same time are not even willing to deliver humanitarian aid, let alone stop weapon  deliveries or support the rights of the Palestinians! Because the German ruling class is not on our side. It is in its material interest to support Israel ideologically, militarily and politically. We have to resist against it! Because we are the majority, we have power to paralyze the genocidal system!

We should never act opportunistically, we do not let our content be determine by the bourgeois press, genocide-deniers or racists! The leadership of Die Linke should take note of this the next time before they slander and delegitimize the anti-colonial struggle of the Palestinians!

There are some that only want to express solidarity after 600,000 Palestinians have already been slaughtered, they see Palestinians as the wretched of the earth who are to be pitied and who have no right to resistance.

At the same time, the ruling classes in the West make deals with the criminal vassal regime of the Palestinian Authority (PA) and performatively takes the rotten “two -state solution” out of the dust bin! This is shameful! Since the Oslo Accords, the Palestinian left has told us that the “two state solution” is not only unfair, it is not only unjust, it is a stillbirth, by the doings of Israeli state itself! No, we are calling for: a state solution without apartheid, without settler colonialism! With the same rights for everyone, a free Palestine in the entire historic Palestine from Yafa and Haifa to Taba to Safad and Tabaria to Yerisho to Askalan to Gaza! Solidarity with Palestine masses when they resist colonialism and oppression and that for over 77 years! That is your right!

Germany delivers 30% of all weapons to Israel, weapons that are also produced here in Berlin. Weapons that are used in Gaza to massacre men, women and children. Ammunition is manufactured here in Berlin that is delivered to Israel. If we are able to implement a weapons embargo that is direct material support for the Palestinian resistance against the Israeli state – that is worth more than abstract slogans.

We do not need bureaucratic, artificial separations between armaments and weapons exports! No, we need a weapon embargo now! The Federal German Government issued 500 million for arms exports to Israel in the last two years! We need to fight this! We do not want NATO upgrade and no compulsory military service! Weapons production must be converted into civil production!

We must not let ourselves be pushed into the corner through racist narrative of the so-called “reason of State” (German unconditional support for Israel) or let us be divided! The Israeli state rapes, murderers and slaughters entire families in Gaza! And not only Gaza in the past two years, for 77 years, Palestinians have been systematically wiped out by this settler-colonial entity. At the same time, Israel attacks Iran, Syria, Yemen and Lebanon and even sends drones to exercise attacks on international waters against the Global Sumud Flotilla!

We stand for an immediate weapon embargo, for the right of return of the Palestinians, for a free Palestine! We stand for the right of the colonized to defend themselves, just like in Algeria, in Namibia, in Kenya; In Angola, in Afghanistan, in Vietnam! The fight for free Palestine is our struggle!

We say: Globalize the Intifada! Because our struggle here against our capitalist class is a direct fight against the imperialist world system and a direct fight against weapon production and genocide! Let’s combine our fights! There is only one solution, intifada revolution! Free, Free Palestine! Yalla Intifada! Long live international solidarity!”