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Thousands join memorial march for communist icon Rosa Luxemburg
Jan 9, 2011, 16:02 GMT
Berlin - Several thousand people marched through Berlin on Sunday in memory of revolutionary icons Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht, who were both murdered 92 years ago.
Luxemburg and Liebknecht, founders of the German Communist Party, were killed by rightist soldiers in the early days of the Weimar Republic and are seen by the left as martyrs.
Organizers estimated that around 40,000 people attended, the same number as last year. Hundreds of leftist and left-wing extremist groups joined in the march to the memorial site, in eastern Berlin.
Left Party leaders Gesine Loetsch and Klaus Ernst, as well as the party's parliamentary caucus leader Gregor Gysi took part in the memorial service, alongside the party's former leader Oskar Lafontaine.
In recent days Loetsch provoked heavy criticism with comments suggesting that her party should pursue communist goals. 'We can only find the paths to communism if we set off and try them out, whether in opposition or in government,' Loetsch had written in a guest article for Marxist daily Junge Welt.
In his memorial address, Gysi defended the Left Party leader and attacked the 'malignance' of criticism levelled at her.
Just a few days ago, however, Gysi had said the communist label carried negative overtones in Germany, adding, 'We cannot describe our objectives with the word communism.'
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