Bush Visit Brings Protests to Europe

June 10, 2007

On June 4, President Bush traveled to Europe for a 6-day trip which included stops in Poland, the Czech Republic, Germany, Italy, Albania and Bulgaria. On June 6-8, he participated with other leaders in the annual G8 summit meeting in the German town of Heiligendamm.

Before Bush even arrived in Europe, demonstrations were held to denounce the visit and to speak out against U.S. imperialism's war program. On June 2, tens of thousands of demonstrators converged in Rostock, Germany, near the seaside resort site of the G8 summit. The entire area was sealed off by a massive police security operation that included 16,000 policemen and a seven-mile fence topped with barbed wire. Numerous warships and helicopters patrolled the waters nearby. Throughout the protest, thousands of baton-wielding riot police using tear gas and water cannon attacked the demonstrators, and over 500 demonstrators were arrested by the end of the day.

On June 4, thousands of Czechs turned out for a protest in Prague, prior to Bush's arrival. In addition to demanding an end to the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the demonstrators called for a halt to U. S. plans to build a missile-base, supported by hundreds of U.S. military troops, in the Czech Republic. "Shame On Bush, No To Base," read one banner, "The Radar Stinks of Death," said another. "This only supports the current aggressive foreign policy of the United States," said Miroslav Jilek, a 31-year-old who attended the rally. "I don't see it as a defensive system, but as something which will allow the U.S. to attack anywhere it wishes in the world."

From June 6-8, during the G8 summit in Germany, thousands of protestors again swarmed around the fence outside the site of the meeting. Thousands more blocked roads leading from the airport to the summit, and for two days the protestors staged numerous protests against Bush and the U.S. war program, and in opposition to the G8 economic program.

On June 9, during Bush's visit to Italy, tens of thousands turned out for two largescale afternoon protests in the city of Rome. Demonstrators not only spoke out against the U.S. wars in the middle-east, but also the planned expansion of a U.S. military base in the northeastern Italian city of Vicenza.