Change the Deadly Paradigm Now!

A mass panic at the techno "Love Parade" mega-event in Duisburg this weekend, left 19 youths dead and 511 more wounded. The event took place in the context of the "Kulturhauptstadt Europas Ruhr 2010," which pushes the "post-industrial" virtues and "culture" of this former center of German industry. This whole scam had been strongly attacked by BüSo leader Kasia Kruczkowski, who headed the party's slate in the May North Rhine-Westphalia state election campaign, which turned the population's focus toward a truly optimistic cultural and productive perspective under the slogan: "Von Duisburg zum Mars," (From Duisburg to Mars).

There was a long controversy about the event beforehand, because the debt-drowned city, which like all other Ruhr cities, is under financial supervision and control of the regional administration, was not permitted to spend extra money apart from its allowed budget. Then, an exemption was to be made by the Interior Ministry, after heavy pressure from "above." At present it is unclear how much the city, which otherwise is being forced to impose brutal austerity to balance its existing budget, was finally "allowed" to pay for this bloody event.

On Saturday, July 24, up to 1.4 million people attended the techno-event in Duisburg, which perversely was promoted as a main event "for young people" by the Ruhr 2010 organizing committee. The chosen area could only hold 250,000 people officially; other figures say 350,000. While it is not clear, how many were simultaneously at the site, the only entrance and egress to the event was through a short tunnel. In addition to the 19 deaths, there were reportedly 511 injuries, with more than 40 still in hospital. Visitors from The Netherlands, Italy, Australia and China were among the victims.

Local police and firefighters had prepared another safety plan, including avoiding such traps as the tunnel, but that would have required much more manpower, and hence more money. Hence, neither the city nor the event organizer would accept the plan. The vice president of the N.R.W. police trade union remarked afterward, that people "had become victims of material interests." In a TV interview yesterday evening, he also said, that the organizers and "others" used the media to put maximum pressure on the city to hold the event. Their argument: cancelling such an event would ruin the image of the Ruhr during the Cultural Capital year.

The city administration according to press reports, removed the most essential safety requirements from the official permit to hold the event, including guaranteeing sufficiently wide emergency exits, and further, did not require the organizers arrange competent plans for a fire emergency. In what can only be called a "fig leaf," they ordered that not more than 250,000 people should be on site at the same time, which was completely unrealistic, given that attendance figures at similar events in previous years have drawn far more than 1 million people, a fact the event organizer had even bragged about.

Back in February, Fritz Pleitgen, the chairman of the organizing committee of Ruhr 2010 GmbH, and former boss of ARD media, had personally warned Duisburg against cancelling the event, calling it a "festival for the trendy culture with international radiation." Now he is backpedaling, saying that Ruhr 2010 was neither organizationally nor financially involved, but "only" allowed its label to be used. However, the whole event was promoted as one of the most important mega-events of the year. He also claims that he personally had not heard of any safety concerns.

Ruhr 2010 is an explicitly post-industrial, expensive New Age operation, to brainwash the increasingly unemployed population, that former industrial sites — mines, mills, railyards, ports, etc.— can be turned into museums and places to hold large "culture" events, which will "create jobs." The Ruhr region, crowned for 2010 as the European Capital of Culture, was enticed by the "success" of such onetime industrial as Liverpool, Bilbao, the French mining town of Lens. Emblematic, two weeks ago, a segment of Ruhr Highway 40 — one of the region's main arteries! — was closed off for a Sunday festival of music, food, etc., drawing 3 million habitués of "trendy culture" (Szenenkultur).

Since 2006, the main organizer of the "Love Parade" event itself, (after it was cancelled in Berlin), has been one Rainer Schaller, the founder and owner of the McFit chain of fitness centers, who is also an admirer of Arnold Schwarzenegger. He used these events, whose main sponsor was his another of his companies, Lopavent, to promote McFit, reportedly investing EU3 million and bringing in the boxing champion Klitschko brothers.

The completely cynical mindset manifested in this horrible event, proves this mad oligarchical post-industrial, counterculture drive is a literal dead-end, into which society and especially its youth is being pushed. It signifies dramatically, that there has to be a rapid turnaround, to provide a productive future for the youth, a mission, in which they can participate, to fulfill their humanity, instead of allowing themselves to be treated like rats. To realize a true new renaissance is the task of our movement — now more than ever, as the whole system is breaking apart into hellish pieces.