Wagenknecht-Schwarzer Petition and Berlin Peace Rally on Feb. 25

Feb. 10, 2023, 2022 (EIRNS)—Die Linke member of Germany’s Bundestag Sahra Wagenknecht, joined Alice Schwarzer, (in German) publisher of Germany’s leading feminist-political magazine EMMA, to promote a petition urging peace talks on Ukraine before the conflict escalates into war between NATO and Russia. The two initiators of the petition also announced a national mobilization for a peace rally to be held in Berlin on Feb. 25. The petition already lists 69 German signers, and as translated from the original German, reads as follows:

“Today is the 352nd day of war in Ukraine. Over 200,000 soldiers and 50,000 civilians have been killed so far. Women have been raped, children frightened, an entire nation traumatized. If the fighting continues like this, Ukraine will soon be a depopulated, destroyed country. And many people throughout Europe are also afraid of an expansion of the war. They fear for their future and that of their children.

“The Ukrainian people, brutally invaded by Russia, need our solidarity. But what would be solidarity now? How much longer should fighting and dying continue on the battlefield of Ukraine? And what is now, one year later, actually the goal of this war? The German Foreign Minister recently spoke of ‘us’ waging a ‘war against Russia.’ Seriously?

“President Zelenskyy makes no secret of his goal. After the promised tanks, he is now demanding fighter jets, long-range missiles and warships—to defeat Russia across the board? The German Chancellor still assures that he does not want to send fighter jets or ‘ground troops.’ But how many ‘red lines’ have already been crossed in recent months?

“It is to be feared that Putin will launch a maximum counterattack at the latest in the event of an attack on Crimea. Are we then heading inexorably down a slippery slope toward world war and nuclear war? It would not be the first major war that has started this way. But it might be the last.

“Ukraine can win individual battles—supported by the West. But it cannot win a war against the world’s largest nuclear power. That’s what the top U.S. military man, General Milley, says. He speaks of a stalemate in which neither side can win militarily and the war can only be ended at the negotiating table. Then why not now? Immediately.

“Negotiating does not mean surrendering. Negotiating means making compromises, on both sides. With the goal of preventing further hundreds of thousands of deaths and worse. That’s what we think too, that’s what half of the German population thinks. It is time to listen to us!

“We citizens of Germany cannot directly influence America and Russia or our European neighbors. But we can and must hold our government and the Chancellor to account and remind him of his oath: ‘To avert harm from the German people.’

“We call on the Chancellor to stop the escalation of arms deliveries. Now! He should lead a strong alliance for a ceasefire and for peace negotiations on the German as well as on the European level. Now! Because every lost day costs up to 1,000 more lives—and brings us closer to a Third World War.

“Alice Schwarzer and Sahra Wagenknecht”