In fact we’ve only started!
Personal impressions from Dortmund
by Marion Baur
When our five-strong Irish delegation landed in Dortmund, the first thought that shot through my head was: It’s been thirty-five years since the first festival!
Little did the comrades know when they organised the first Unsere Zeit (paper of the German Communist Party) Festival that thirty-five years down the line the “Pressefest” would still be going strong—stronger than ever, indeed: not just the growing numbers of visitors are proof of that. Some sixty thousand people packed the Revierpark in Dortmund-Wischlingen this year to experience a three-day firework of music, revolutionary politics and culture from around the globe.
All the Irish participants had been there before, so the group was easy to organise, and I was able to take in some of the highlights myself—an unusual experience after two festivals with fifteen or twenty young non-German-speaking participants.
A run-down through the whole programme would fill pages—indeed it did. The UZ printed a full newspaper-size extra and was struggling to pack at least the majority of concerts, debates, readings and children’s events into it. Sixteen stages were buzzing for three days and most of the nights.
After a “vacuum” regarding Irish music in 2007 (2005 had featured the Sands Family and the Limavady kids’ band Domino Effect) we were happy to have an Irish act back on stage this year. The Irish singer-songwriter Pól Mac Adaim, who is now resident in Sweden, had a great gig and a memorable session afterwards. Klaus der Geiger (“Klaus the fiddler”), often called “the world’s most famous busker,” has lost nothing of his touch. The fiddle wizard left the crowd at the main stage hopping and kept on playing off stage, thereby bringing all movement up and down the main path through the park to a halt.
Inti Illimani were there—yes, the very same legendary band from Chile who were exiled during the fascist regime of Pinochet. I went to see them with my daughters, and of course tens of thousands of other people. There was no room to move in front of the main stage, and I have absolutely no words to describe the emotions in the crowd when they took the stage. Strong as ever, masters of their instruments and vocals as ever, revolutionary as ever, they left the huge audience breathless and with a very clear message: the fascists are no longer in power in Chile, but we are far from what we’ve been fighting for—el pueblo unido: a united people in a socialist Chile.
With the end of fascism the fight is not finished—in fact it has only started!
Saturday night was dominated by Konstantin Wecker’s concert. Germany’s number 1 songwriter beyond doubt, he drew a massive crowd (the local media guessed it at more than thirty thousand) and featured as a special guest Esther Bejarano. The 89-year-old last survivor of the girls’ orchestra in Auschwitz concentration camp spoke in a city which has once again experienced the brutality of fascists that she knows so well. On May Day 2009 three hundred neo-Nazis attacked and thrashed the trade union rally—undisturbed by the police.
I could just get a glimpse of Konstantin Wecker’s gig, as my personal highlight was on stage parallel. Yes, you’ve guessed it: Song Club Ernesto Che Guevara from Dresden was giving their only performance during this year’s festival.
The Ches are timeless and probably the only band on the political scene in Germany who would pack out any venue, despite Konstantin Wecker just a couple of hundred yards from them. Their gig was superb, working-class songs only, and nobody in the audience who didn’t join in. The band’s leader, Wolle Klötzer, found time afterwards to send his fond and revolutionary regards to all the readers of Unity and comrades in Ireland.
These impressions are incomplete but would be totally flawed without mentioning the “International Club.” Running alongside the festival, this venue is organised by the DKP’s international commission and has proved a unique place for meeting and exchanging information between the sister-parties present. Thirty communist parties in Dortmund this time meant a record participation and goes to show the huge international reputation of the fest.
I had meetings with many of them—Prof. Erwin Marquit (Communist Party of the USA), for example, the representative of the Tudeh Party of Iran, and the Greek comrades. It was great to meet my old friend and Morning Star stalwart Keith Barlow, and I got a deep inside look into the situation in Colombia, just to mention a few. If party branches or individual comrades wish, I’ll gladly pass on the gained knowledge in detail.
A particularly interesting meeting was that with Carolus Wimmer. The German-born international secretary of the Communist Party of Venezuela not only gave me much news from his country but also a very interesting piece written by Jerónimo Carrera, the president of the Venezuelan CP. It is titled “Korea and the nuclear weapons,” and after translating it from German I’ll have it ready for the first Unity after the summer break.
When Wolfgang Teuber, editor of the UZ, saw the international guests off with the best revolutionary wishes, I had to make two promises to the German comrades: In 2011 (the date for the fest is already set) we have to come back. The very much missed Unity extra with a front page in German (we just didn’t get it together this time) is going to be a must then.
My favourite quote of the UZ Festival 2009 is an obviously first-time visiting local journalist who was going to interview me on Ireland: “I thought communism was dead. Where do all these people come from?” My answer: See the headline of this article! |