German comrades rally against Rheinmetall

Written by: Free German Youth on September 4 2025

Above: photo by Henning Kaiser/dpa)

We have been contacted by the Free German Youth and publish below a report on the activity of opponents of Rheinmetall, a German-based armaments manufacturer. Rheinmetall is the largest German and fifth largest European arms manufacturer. In 2023, 66% of Rheinmetall AG shares were held by institutional investors, 48 % of which came from North America. Rheinmetall is embedded in the supply of war materials to Australia, and is headquartered in Redbank, Queensland, with offices in South Australia. A solidarity message with the Free German Youth is being prepared -eds.

Comrades!

We would like to inform you about the events in Cologne last week and call for your solidarity.

From 26 to 28 August, the ‘'Rheinmetall Entwaffnen" (Disarm Rheinmetall) camp took place in Cologne, an annual protest camp that aims to disrupt the war policy of German imperialism through direct actions such as blockading armament factories and occupying the offices of warmongering parties. Workshops to educate participants are also part of the camp’s daily programme. Of course, we support such activities and therefore participated in the camp as the Free German Youth (FDJ) and organised, among other things, a workshop with examples of anti-militarist subversive work in the West German army in the 1980s. In addition, we organised distribution campaigns in front of a technical school in Leverkusen and the well-known Ford factory in Cologne, during which we were able to collect dozens of contacts for our further work against the war.

The first scandal didn't take long to happen after the camp was announced: the local police banned the camp by police order. The camp leadership immediately filed a legal appeal, but it was rejected by the Cologne District Court.

Despite the ban, all the organisations stuck to their plans to hold the camp: It was only in the second instance that the Higher Regional Court had to legalise the camp under pressure from dozens of solidarity actions and a large demonstration in Cologne. This already demonstrated the strength of the cooperation between various organisations in the ‘Disarm Rheinmetall’ alliance.

The camp itself proceeded largely without disruption. The expected number of 1,000 participants was even exceeded, with almost 2,000 people attending the camp!

The closing demonstration was planned for Saturday, 30 August at 2 p.m. All organisations made their way to the site and the arrival went smoothly. However, when all the organisations had lined up, the police prevented them from setting off on the pretext that there were flags on metal poles in the demonstration – they were referring to thin aluminium extension poles, which would have been impossible to use to commit violence due to their instability. After a short time, the more than 3,000 demonstrators were allowed to set off – only to be stopped again by the police 45 minutes later. When they were allowed to continue, they were stopped again about 40 minutes later. Then the demonstration set off one last time, until it was stopped for the final time at around 6 p.m., when the demonstration should have been over long ago and only one of the six planned kilometres had been covered.

Under the pretext of searching a loudspeaker truck, they stormed the demonstration with batons and pepper spray and separated the revolutionary bloc from the rest of the demonstration – nearly 700 people – including, besides ourselves, the Socialist German Workers' Youth (SDAJ), the Workers' League for the Reconstruction of the KPD, Communist Construction (KA), the Marxist-Leninist Party of Germany (MLPD), the Red Youth of Germany, YUNA – Democratic Youth, Perspective Communism and others, the entire bloc was surrounded by hundreds of helmeted and armed police officers from various federal states.

At around 10 p.m., the police began to lead the trapped people away one by one – in some cases using considerable force, with punches and kicks. The demonstration's paramedics report that they treated 147 people. The police took the personal details of each individual and took photos; everyone is accused of serious breach of the peace or even more serious offences! Despite all this, those surrounded remained combative until the end, linking arms, singing revolutionary workers' songs and chanting slogans. It was only through the solidarity of residents of the surrounding buildings and the part of the demonstration that was not surrounded that the demonstration was able to hold its ranks until around 5 a.m. the next day, when the last comrades were led away. Until the very end, they could not break our morale! The discipline that still prevailed in the encirclement even after 12 hours was indescribable.

Everyone knew that at that moment they were on the right side of history and that our victory was only a matter of time. Everyone knew that all the repression of this cursed state was worth it to fight for peace and end the war!

The cowardly attack by the German state only showed its weakness.

They cannot stop the clocks – Hope can never be handcuffed! The unification of revolutionary youth will lift this state from its hinges, and we as the FDJ will do everything in our power to realise this, learning from the mistakes of our own history! Not sometime, but now!

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