The Berlin Senate and the police approved a route, blocked the way with concerts and festivals, and did not assist the people, creating the conditions for a tragedy. Only the people’s self-organization prevented deaths and serious injuries.
May 1st is a commemoration that has historically united the working class of the world in its different traditions: trade unions, cooperatives and political parties, anarchists, socialists and communists. A date of struggle and celebration, of discussion and resignification. And also a day that, beyond differences, unites us against a common enemy: the ruling classes that enrich themselves with our labor power. This May 1st in Berlin, that common enemy acted with an unprecedented irresponsibility that could have caused a tragedy.
In Berlin, mobilizations for Workers’ Day have been developing peacefully since 2021. The Revolutionary March organization officially advocates non-confrontation and non-escalation in the face of police aggression. For years, the existing repression has been generated by the police with the aim of demonizing the mobilization, but with each passing year, this tactic shows its inability to prevent tens of thousands from taking to the streets, and appears to civil society as a waste of valuable resources that could be used in other sectors (health, social assistance, education, etc.).
However, what we saw this May 1st, 2026, is something completely new in terms of the irresponsibility, inoperativeness and violence that the ruling classes and their representatives in the Berlin Senate and the police are willing to carry out in order to prevent the people from expressing their opinion.
A demonstration whose route had been approved by the police and the Berlin administration found parties and concerts blocking its path, causing tens of thousands of people to crowd into a few square meters with no possible exits. Panic seized the unorganized people, creating a situation that could have ended in tragedy. Thanks to the actions of the organizations present in the “Revolutionärer 1. Mai” demonstration, thousands of people were able to get out of this situation without having to mourn any deaths or serious injuries.
Meanwhile, the “plan” devised by the Berlin government directed people leaving the Die Linke festival at Mariannenplatz toward the place where the march was taking place. The side streets were open, cars were parked on Oranienstraße, and no one controlled where thousands of people were flowing. In addition, a concert was approved from a apartment window overlooking the demonstration street, which intensified the bottleneck and increased the risk.
At the same time, the police were waiting for the demonstrators in Görlitzer Park and by the canal, ready to repress, but never to help anyone.
There are hundreds of accounts of activists and militants helping people who fainted, people who were in panic or simply did not know how to react to a terrifying situation. The people helped each other to defend themselves from the inoperativeness or malice of the repressive forces and the Berlin administration.
On May 1st, 2026, in Kreuzberg, the police and the city administration cleared the neighborhood and turned it into a trap, deliberately leading the mobilization toward a potential tragedy. Never before have we been faced with such a perverse plan as the one we experienced on this date.
Now we see clearly that, given the loss of prestige that police repression of the May 1st demonstration had suffered in the eyes of society, they had to develop another tactic to delegitimize the protesters and prevent the discontent, the denunciation and the organization of the popular sectors from being seen in the center of the German capital (and of Europe), sectors that daily experience the austerity cuts and the results of militarization.
It sounds ridiculous, but in Germany and in Berlin under the CDU-SPD government, we are forced to remind everyone that demonstrating is a right enshrined in the constitution and should not be subject to manipulation, threats or repression. Having a guaranteed safe passage along the route approved by the police, no more and no less, is also part of that right. However, day by day, this right, together with others such as freedom of expression, is being curtailed by elites who, knowing that they are hated by the people, try to uphold a system whose legitimacy is being called into question by those from below.
Nevertheless, what happened will not prevent the people from taking to the streets. It will not prevent us migrants from making ourselves visible with our organizations and our demands. It will not prevent us from continuing to organize ourselves and fight for what belongs to us. Just as we did not stop doing when we were repressed in past May 1st demonstrations or deported for taking part in actions against the genocide in Palestine.
And we will continue to fight wherever we are: in our jobs, in elections, in schools, in universities and in the streets.
Only the people will save the people.
- Alpas Pilipinas,
- Auswärts Solidarity Group,
- Bloque Latinoamericano,
- Gabriela Germany,
- Kali Feminists,
- Solisur,
- Todas las Sangres,
- Worker’s Party of Turkey.
