{"id":39588,"date":"2026-03-13T18:07:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T18:07:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/39588\/"},"modified":"2026-03-13T18:07:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T18:07:08","slug":"berlins-biggest-womens-day-in-decades","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/39588\/","title":{"rendered":"Berlin\u2019s Biggest Women\u2019s Day in Decades"},"content":{"rendered":"

First published in The Left Berlin<\/a><\/p>\n

When I went past the\u00a0statue of K\u00e4the Kollwitz<\/a>\u00a0a few weeks ago, I didn\u2019t understand why it was covered with floral arrangements. Had I missed some anniversary? No, it turned out this was an advertisement for a flower shop offering cheap bouquets for March 8.<\/p>\n

This was not, by a long way, the worst misappropriation of International Women\u2019s Day, a holiday\u00a0launched in 1910<\/a>\u00a0by Clara Zetkin and other socialist women.<\/p>\n

This year, the German army offered\u00a0Tiktoks<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0\u201cdiversity as strength\u201d<\/a>\u00a0factsheets. Women soldiers of Israel\u2019s genocidal military\u00a0proclaimed<\/a>: \u201cI\u2019m not here to watch history from the side. I\u2019m here to build it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The future that imperialists are building could be seen in Minab, where graves for over 150 schoolgirls were being dug; in Teheran, where burning oil rained down on millions of women; or in Gaza, where tens of thousands of women have been massacred, and many more lack food, hygiene, and health care.<\/p>\n

Women can now commit genocide alongside men\u2014the glass ceiling has been smashed forever!<\/p>\n

Two Demonstrations<\/p>\n

Despite imperialist attempts to co-opt Women\u2019s Day, the revolutionary foundations of March 8 can still be seen. Berlin saw not one but two massive demonstrations.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When I moved here over 20 years ago,\u00a0Frauentag\u00a0had almost disappeared, with only tiny events. This year, some\u00a030,000 people<\/a>came to the demonstration at Oranienplatz (somewhat bigger than last year, which was already huge). Feminism is channeling a lot of rage against austerity, imperialist wars, and the\u00a0Rechtsruck\u00a0(shift to the right).<\/p>\n

The march to the Red City Hall was organized by different unions, including the confederation DGB and the service sector union ver.di, but there were also big contingents from political groups, ranging from radical leftists to the Green Party.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As speakers pointed out, Germany remains a deeply patriarchal society. On average, a woman is\u00a0killed every 72 hours<\/a>\u00a0by a partner or ex. Women earn\u00a016% less<\/a>\u00a0than men. Abortion, while decriminalized under certain circumstances,\u00a0remains illegal<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Many speeches expressed solidarity with women in Iran, yet often in vague terms denouncing \u201cwar\u201d and \u201coppression,\u201d without saying directly that it is the U.S. and Israeli bombings that are killing Iranian women. This kind of both-sideism amounts to neutrality in the face of a horrific imperialist attack\u2014and this is why the Green Party felt welcome, even though their \u201cfeminist foreign policy\u201d consists in\u00a0justifying the bombing of hospitals<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A second demonstration in the afternoon, starting just a few hundred meters away, tried to fill that gap. As in previous years, the Alliance of International Feminists called on people to\u00a0\u201cRise in Rage\u201d<\/a>\u00a0against imperialist war and occupation. This demonstration went through Kreuzberg and Neuk\u00f6lln, accompanied by heavily armed police.<\/p>\n

These thugs were more restrained than last year, when\u00a0images of cops punching women in the face<\/a>\u00a0went around the world. The legendary Kitty O\u2019Brien was\u00a0detained again<\/a>, clearly not intimidated by police violence that previously\u00a0put the Irish activist in the hospital<\/a>.<\/p>\n

March Lick Ovaries\u00a0<\/p>\n

All of Germany has been talking about a slogan from the\u00a0school strike against militarism<\/a>\u00a0last Thursday. An 18-year-old was arrested for the sign: \u201cMerz, lick eggs!\u201d I\u2019m too old to know exactly where this phrase comes from, but the meaning is clear enough, and thousands of kids were shouting it at the demonstration. Thanks to the repression, it\u2019s now got its own domain:\u00a0merzleckeier.de<\/a><\/p>\n

On March 8, we saw a feminist version:\u00a0\u201cM*rz, leck Eierst\u00f6cke!\u201d<\/a>, with \u201cegg-sticks\u201d being the German word for ovaries. The asterisk leaves some ambiguity: This could just as easily be the month of\u00a0M\u00e4rz\u00a0as the Blackrock manager Friedrich Merz. The woman carrying this sign was grabbed by police after she left the demonstration, as she reported to me. Two hours earlier, people had overheard cops talking about detaining her, but they waited until she had left the crowd to pounce. \u201cIn the wheelchair I\u2019m less likely to vanish,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Is it actually a criminal offense to tell a politician to lick eggs, right before Easter when the whole country is full of colorful candy eggs? I suspect charges will be dropped, as the embarrassment for the state grows. This shows that the German state, in its quest to become a world power, is nervous about the extreme unpopularity of militarism.<\/p>\n

Thus, March 8 in Berlin combined women workers\u2019 protests against exploitation with anti-imperialist solidarity and fights against militarism. It\u2019s just what Clara Zetkin and K\u00e4the Kollwitz would have wanted\u2014despite florists and IDF social media managers.<\/p>\n

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