Berlin, in July 2002

No to the FRG and No to its Army!

On the activities of the FDJ since the 15th World Festival of Youth and Students 2001 in Algiers:

Ringo E., member of the FDJ, has totally conscientiously objected to do military as well as civil service in the Bundeswehr or for the FRG. He made his motivations clear to the public, the administration and the press as soon as he was called to start the service on the 3rd September 2001. (See the personal declaration attached to this document).

He avoided being caught by military police until April 21st 2002. Through this time he as well as the FDJ made it clear that he would stand before court and fight his case through - with all consequences.

After 51 days in so-called disciplinary arrest, a date for the trial against him was finally set. On day 1 of his being arrested, the FDJ had been for half a year working on this antimilitaristic campaign for a GDR-citizen who still feels being a GDR-citizen and who therefore cannot do service in an occupational army in his home country.

We spread the aforementioned personal declaration of his to the public, the press and media, to personalities of the GDR, members of Parliament of the PDS and also to left organisations and groups in Germany and abroad. We quickly received many solidarity addresses and regards (around 450 now) that were, in the beginning, mostly solidarity on a personal basis. Only after the arrest of our member, this changed to political statements of solidarity and asking for further information on the political reasons for Ringos total conscientious objection.

Spreading new information at least every week during the time of the arrest, including new solidarity addresses and Ringos letters from the arrest describing the political necessity of his motivations at this time in German history - all this helped build a broad solidarity movement on the territory of the GDR. At a special solidarity week of action and events before the set date for the trial, we took into account the whole territory of Ringos home country GDR we spread hundreds of thousands of leaflets, specials, flyers and posters in the urban and rural areas.

One day before the trial was set, the judge cancelled the date without setting a new one. He told us that one single telephone call from the Bundeswehr had advised him to do so. The independence and the strictly civil brief of civil courts in Germany was truly demasked for everyone to see: When the Army calls, the so called independent court stands to attention in broad daylight! Instead of going to the trial, we held an event with the youth organisation solid, which is close to PDS and with the direct and indirect support and participation of three members of Parliament: Heinrich Fink, Ulla Jelpke and Eva Bulling-Schröter - all of them PDS-members.

On the 66th day of arrest in the end of June, Ringo was released and started work immediately. Our campaign "No to the FRG and No to its Army!" has reached a new level. We are holding events with Ringo and, in the West, also with other members of the FDJ who did antimilitaristic work inside the Bundeswehr with the help of the organisation outside the barracks.

On the 21st of August 2002, a new date has been set by the court in the North-Eastern town of Ueckermünde. We want broad public to participate, mirroring the broad solidarity movement that we started building - on our way home from the 15th World Festival of Youth and Students.