Two Very Different Demonstrations in Berlin
Reporting from the Trans Day of Remembrance and the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women.
Every ten minutes, a woman or girl is killed, according to new UN statistics released this Monday.
A similar report made last year stated no real progress has been made in reducing gendered violence and femicide across the globe. Trans people, especially Black trans women, continue to bear the greatest burden of fatal gendered violence, with new data from 2025 suggesting trans activists are being systematically targeted. The data is clear. Gender-based violence is not decreasing, locally or globally.
This disturbing revelation set the tone for two of last week’s important international protests in Berlin: Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDoR) on November 20, and the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women on November 25. Yet intertwined as these two dates were thematically, they could not have been more different in regards to how the bourgeois state made its presence felt.
Trans Day of Remembrance
TDoR was an evening of unforgiving cold and unwavering tension. Organised by groups such as Pride Rebellion, the demo was banned by the police a few hours before it began; a move “justified” because these groups had been involved in Palestine solidarity demonstrations in the past that had “turned violent.”
The police later rescinded the ban, demonstrators gathered, and courageously raised voices and fists high for trans grieving, emancipation, and justice. Yet while the ban may have been lifted, the echo of jackboots followed the protest through the night. The Berlin state brought out a formidable force to face off against the mourners. As the small speaker-truck and a group of approximately 150 peaceful protesters marched from S+U Neukolln to Hermannplatz, they were beset on all sides by police vans, cars, motorcycles and officers on foot.
While some might want to believe the cops were there for trans people’s “protection,” the solid wall of knuckle-duster-gloved, balaclava-wearing state thugs engulfing the crowd did not inspire feelings of safety. It was hard not to have flashbacks to the events at Alexanderplatz on October 7, 2025, when police kettled hundreds of people in the cold for hours. Many of those trapped had not even been part of the protest.
The precedent the police have been setting in recent months is clear: the mere proximity to “unacceptable” political speech can make one guilty by association. Though the cops thankfully never attacked on November 20, the threat hung in the air. On that night of all nights, in Berlin of all cities, it was not hard for the gathered trans people to imagine what German police might do to them.
International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women
Anyone politically active in Berlin will not find this account shocking. What was shocking to me, however, was the contrast I experienced at the union-organised demonstration for the Elimination of Violence Against Women a few days later on November 25.
Arranged by the bureaucracy of the teachers‘ union GEW and other unions, this stationary event took place around a stage at the Brandenburg Gate. Speakers shared statistics about gendered violence in Germany and across the world, chanted slogans, shared personal stories of survival and struggle, led a minute of silence, and collectively sang songs.
Looking around the picturesque square populated by about 300 demonstrators felt somehow jarring. There was a noticeable lack of agitation, of righteous anger, of international solidarity. Something else was missing too: flashing blue lights, black-clad armoured goons, and the feeling of hungry eyes on the back of one’s neck. I was struck by the absolute lack of police presence. Only a small handful could be seen standing casually at the back of the crowd. Never have I seen so few police at a demonstration in Berlin.
Upon reflection, it struck me that this demo was organised by union bureaucrats who are very cozy with the German police. The speeches were emotional, poignant, and important to raise awareness, but entirely toothless. The demonstration of November 25 did not rally action, build momentum, or challenge the material conditions that perpetuate gendered violence.
It is little wonder there were so few police, for a bourgeois state has nothing to fear from union leadership unwilling to organise against its warmongering policies which worsen the very conditions that enable German femicides. These union leaders stand idle as the state bankrolls the bombing and starvation of FLINTA*s overseas.
As we decry violence perpetrated within Germany, how can we not resist the German government’s rearmament plans? The state plans to sell more arms for more genocides, paid for with our tax money, by butchering the very welfare structures vulnerable FLINTA*s rely on to survive!
The data is clear. Femicide and gendered violence continue not because they are inherent facts of life, but because they are a byproduct of bourgeois rule. The shrinking safety nets we have today were won by radical queer, worker, and feminist victories — on the streets, on the factory floors, behind the barricades and picket lines.
If there is a lesson to draw from this last week’s demonstrations it is this: the state’s desire to suppress radical, international solidarity is a clear admission that they fear articulation of the truth. The reason patriarchy and gendered violence aren’t disappearing is simple: they are not glitches within capitalism, they are core features. The only way out of this cycle, the only way to erase this bloody data for good, is via a hard system reset, a permanent revolution.
