Not only are the SPD/Green alliance sending German troops to Afghanistan to back the US massacre, they have given the go-ahead for Orange Order-style racist intimidation in Berlin.

Thousands of neo-Nazis from the NPD are expected to converge on Berlin today (Saturday) to protest against an exhibition detailing the crimes the Wehrmacht committed during the Nazi era. It will be the largest fascist march since the Nazis and will go through the Scheunenviertel Jewish quarter and past a synagogue on the Jewish Sabbath.

The NPD is widely believed to be behind the upsurge in racist attacks, which have resulted in six deaths this year. Reich Chancellor Schroeder is dragging his heels on banning the NPD, despite a recent 200,000-strong demonstration against racism. The ban is going through the Constitutional Court, which is not expected to give a ruling for many years. Meanwhile, the Bundestag (lower house) refuses to debate the ban, despite a vote in favour of banning the NPD in the Bundresrat.

The SPD/Greens refuse to stop the march because they claim it will be in breach of the constitutional guarantee of freedom of speech. Just how intimidating and murdering members of ethnic minorities and promising a return of the holocaust has to do with free speech is puzzling to most people outraged by the Nazi revival. Moreover, the route of the march, like the Orange Order marches in Northern Ireland, is designed to upset and frighten the Jewish community. However, the SPD/Greens refuse to back down and either ban the march or change its route.