Despite a ban on all demonstrations by Munich Council 10,000 people still protested against the NATO Conference on Security Policy last weekend, where government officials hobnobbed with 500 odd military experts. Central themes were the planning of current and future wars, the establishment of powerful mobile strike forces and the development of new billion-dollar weapons systems. A few days before, the city council passed a law declaring all protests during the Conference illegal. The whole city was declared a 'red zone', road blocks, were set up preventing people getting to Munich by train, coach or car, known activists were warned in letters and phone calls not to protest, organized info points and sleeping places were closed down and several people were arrested before it all began. The police then desperately tried to prevent meetings and spontaneous demonstrations during the next three days, arresting people at random - 849 people in total - including a speaker at a press conference! Bans on demos are common in Germany, with one protestor telling SchNEWS "People usually still go ahead but it gives the cops more powers to nick people." The main Trade Union building was surrounded by police for several hours, with people complaining that the last time the police threatened an official trade-union building was in 1933 when the Nazis seized power.
