A group of 57 refugees, mainly from Africa and the Middle East, have pushed the plight of the more than 100,000 asylum seekers in Germany into the national spotlight.
In September, they rejected regulations that constrain their movement and began a long march to the German capital, Berlin. They came from as far as Wuerzburg, a Bavarian town in Germany鈥檚 south. Some of them completed the 600 kilometre journey on foot over 29 days.
Arriving in early October, the refugees and scores more German supporters established a tent city in the Berlin suburb of Kreuzberg.
Berlin
Germany is usually presented in the mainstream media as having successfully weathered Europe鈥檚 vast economic crisis. German Chancellor Angel Merkel from the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) has gained enormous influence on the European political and financial scene.
By contrast, in protests across Greece, Spain and other countries hit hardest by the crisis, references about Germany as the 鈥淔ourth Reich鈥 are increasingly being voiced.
Literature Nobel laureate and Germany's most famous living author Gunter Grass labelled Israel a threat to "already fragile world peace" in his poem 鈥淲as gesagt werden muss鈥 (鈥淲hat must be said鈥).
The work, published by German daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung on April 4, accuses "the West" of hypocrisy in relation to the arming of Israel. In publishing the poem, Grass, who regards himself as "irrevocably connected to the country of Israel鈥 has made a big contribution to breaking a long standing German taboo about publicly criticising Israel's warmongering.
About 215,000 public service workers struck on March 27 as a warning to their employers a day before talks between the public sector union and the bosses.
Two weeks earlier, 130,000 took part in the first round of strikes. The award being negotiated by the United Services Union (known as ver.di) covers more than 2 million public service workers from national to local level.
Ver.di is Germany's second biggest union, with a membership of about 2.1 million people.
Boats 鈥 an enemy evoked by major Australian political parties to win elections 鈥 have become a symbol of international resistance to Israel鈥檚 blockade of the Gaza Strip.
This is particularly the case since Israeli commandos attacked an aid flotilla headed for Gaza in May, killing nine people.
With this in mind, the Berlin Coalition for Gaza (BCG) launched a one-boat 鈥渇lotilla鈥 through an inner-city Berlin canal on October 15.
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