12 May 2004
Dear Workers,
The 1st of May - Labour Day - is usually a bit of a knees up in Europe, and it was certainly no exception this time. First of all, the EU just got a lot bigger with the addition of 10 new countries, which is gonna create a whole new scene one way or another - a possible influx of people looking for work for a start (always makes the Germans a bit nervous!). And, staying with the subject of foreigners, add hate and you´ve got a speech for a bunch of unhealthy, uneducated, unemployed yobbos with no hair - better known as neo-Nazis!...who, as usual for the 1st of May, turned out to march in certain cities all over Germany, irritating decent folk with their chants, banners, symbols, tattoos, and slogans on t-shirts (such as "Opa war in Ordnung" = Grandad was right). Also present in equal numbers but scattered along the routes to heckle were the far left, who some believe are as bad if not worse.
Anyway, this particular march in Leipzig was relatively uneventful. The 900 intellectually underendowed were escorted by around 1000 armed cops in full body-armour (to protect them from small bands of drunk and anaemic punks) most of the way to the Volkerschlachtdenkmal which is a huge stone momument commemorating the defeat of another little man with big ideas (Napoleon) but were thwarted a few hundred metres short of their goal ´cos the city government had quietly arranged for a school concert to be held there. Because Leipzig has a special status as a "city of freedom", democracy rules, so these marches have to be permitted despite the overwhelming opposition, not to mention the security costs and disruption to traffic - and the neo-nasties intend to stage(attempt) at least four more marches here this year!
Listening to the pre-march pump-up speech by their leader, Hamburg lawyer Christian Worch, was funny in an eerie sort of way - especially when his rantings about foreigners taking jobs reached the pitch and delivery style (deliberately I´m sure) of "the one whose name should not be mentioned"! I managed to get close enough to get a good snap of him as he saw me and scowled, and then yelled at me about what might have once happened to a long-haired lout like me - I smiled and said "danke" (and left!)
By the way, the bum in the foreground belongs to a mate of mine, Stefan Hoyer, who also works at the Punctum agency. Nice guy who doesn´t say much, just gets on with the job - and does a good job - without making a fuss. We worked this march together without flashing press credentials to avoid undue attention (you don´t want your mug ending up on a neo Nazi website), although I did get a good truncheon prod in the chest for not moving back quickly enough when the green gorillas decided to clear the street a bit, but no bruise thanks to a thick notebook in my breast pocket. Note: long hair is gonna mark you as a lefty in such situations (or, listen to your mother!)
Stefan used his Nikon F100 D (which is for sale, so gizza call - I´ll get you a good deal), and I went with my small but extremely practical Olympus XA4 loaded with my last roll of old formula Tri X - which I´m likely to replace with Neopan 400 since Kodak has (#@!!!%) halved the silver content in their new "improved" version...!
Men´s Day here next week - and it´s a national holiday! Germany can be so cool sometimes! Then, I´m doing seven weeks in the old coal mines near Poland...no, not ´cos I did anything bad...more about that later.
L8r,
Dean