IMPERIALISM BY "HUMAN RIGHTS" AND RETAILING

"Rights are of course always defined by the State
while freedom is defined by the people."

 

Dateline: 29th July 2004

INTRODUCTION (by Rodney Atkinson) Although there is little historic experience of or political sympathy for nationhood and democracy among the German political class (of left or right) there is an unusual emphasis on "human rights". Why? Because they serve the imperial cause of Franco-German Europe. Unlike freedom, common law and democratic nationhood which concern the Anglo Saxon nations the Franco German political logic has always dictated "rights", State authority, centralised power through statutes and a rigid constitution which leaves little freedom to parliamentary sovereignty - but gives excessive power to judges. Rights are of course always defined by the State while freedom is defined by the people, with Government having specifically to remove a freedom before it can become law. It was this logic in the United Kingdom which used to dictate that no law or part of any law could be removed except by express repeal. Needless to say this was the first of the basic principles thrown out by Edward Heath's "Conservative" Government when European Treaties were put into British law after 1972.

But for the German politician the emphasis on human rights (and the emphasis on the irrelevance of the nation states) today plays a significant role in the re-conquest of Eastern Europe. It is the "human rights" of individual Germans which serve as the battering ram for the expansion of the German State eastwards. As we have noted on previous occasions on this website the European Citizens' rights to move, settle, purchase and invest enshrined in the European Treaties serve this aim.

We have translated extracts from two articles from our German friends at german-foreign-policy.com The first confirms the success of this policy in Poland and the Czech Republic as the European Courts now form a far more powerful army of conquest than tanks and armies. The second article shows how the intended mass migration of Germans eastwards is being preceded by an invasion of German retailers - which is much resented!

STRASBOURG/KOENIGSWINTER German expellees filed suit for the return of their former properties before the European Court for Human Rights in Strasbourg. The properties had been confiscated in the Czech Republic in 1945 (as were all foreign owned assets, not just German). The lawyer for the plaintiff explained that the admission of the Czech Republic into the European Human Rights Convention is the central basis for such a lawsuit. Moreover, a director of the Interior Ministry of the German Federal Republic confirms that the German government ,,views a confiscation of German assets without compensation as contrary to international law".

The 79 ,,Sudeten-Germans", who had filed their suit in Strasbourg on 28 April 2004, demand the return of their confiscated assets or ,,full market value compensation" from the Czech government. The legal representative of the plaintiffs, Thomas Gertner explains that concerning the ,,issue of property", the Czech Government is in violation of Article 1 of the first supplementary protocol to the European Human Rights Convention (EMRK) as well as the prohibition against discrimination of Article 14. According to the claim, these provisions would have to be applied by the Czech Republic to the expropriation of Sudeten German assets. This is in spite of the fact that the expropriations took place a long time before Prague's admission to the EMRK.

The complaints before the European Court for Human Rights are coordinated by the ,,Sudeten-German Initiative" (SDI) which consists of several Sudeten-German groups. The SDI chairman, Erich Hoegn, explained during an interview with the rightwing Austrian monthly ,,Die Aula" that the ,,Sudeten-German homeland association" has expressed its willingness, to allow the checking of the SDI complaint by expert jurists. Hoegn, who was a member of the federal council of the Sudetendeutsche Landsmannschaft (SL) subdivision ,,Witiko-Bund" in 2002 had previously been speaker for a ,,basic seminar" of the extreme rightwing ,,Young Homeland Association of East Prussia" (Junge Landsmannschaft Ostpreussen, JLO). The JLO declares ,,the East German issue (...) to be unchanged and open even after May 1, 2004."

,,Genocide"

Claims for restitution by relocated Germans which impact Polish territory, are deemed ,,not hopeless" according to the opinion of German legal experts. A study published by the institute for Eastern law in Munich, states that ,,ethnic discrimination" exists in the Polish law of January 3, 1946, for the purpose of nationalising private property. This contradicts the EMRK. Gertner, lawyer for the SDI, pleads to classify the relocation of Germans as ,,genocide." Should this succeed, one could certainly assume that we will win our claims, Gertner stated recently during the ,,Day of the Sudeten-Germans" in Nuernberg.

Meanwhile, Klaus Poehle, director in the interior ministry, confirms that the German government classifies the relocation of the Germans with its attending expropriations as an injustice. ,,The present Federal Government, like all previous governments, has always considered the expulsion and uncompensated expropriation of German assets as a violation of international law." ,,This position remains unchanged" according to Poehle's welcoming speech before the Koenigswinter conference of the ,,cultural endowment of the German expellees". The conference was dedicated to the ,,right to a homeland" with which the German associations of ,,expellees" intend to strengthen their claims vis-à-vis their states of origin. The conference was promoted by the German Federal Interior Ministry.

GERMAN RETAILERS DOMINATE IN EASTERN EUROPE

West European corporations, in particular German firms, are dominating the food retail business in the new EU member States. Local traders are losing out and being pushed to the wall. The aggressive expansionist course of these German companies is meeting resistance in some of these countries.

As the German market goes into retreat (due to the grotesque Euro policy of German Governments since Helmut Kohl - ed) German companies are expanding abroad into those very countries enticed into the failing European Union! Vast sums are being invested in these new growing markets where larger profit margins entice!

While the Baltic States have remained relatively untouched these large retailers dominate Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Slovenia.

The Cologne based Rewe Group after the take-over of Billa, Merkur and others now the market leader in Austria already has a turnover in Eastern Europe of 2.4 billion Euros (circa £1.6 billion) and seeks further expansion. The chemist Schlecker is expanding into five new countries this year. The German discount store Lidl is opening ever more stores in Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary. Lidl is exploiting its position in Austria as a door opener for the Balkans - in particular Slovenia and Croatia. The leading German discount store Aldi is now considering entering Poland and the Czech Republic.

The German Trading Group Metro AG which already has 65% of its profit before interest and tax outside Germany is well represented in the new EU member states. Metro which is invloved in wholesale, electronics (Saturn) construction, hypermarkets and food retailing is now the largest private company in Poland. In Russia the company has been in the wholesale market since 2001 and continues to expand. They intend to double their investment in the Ukraine and Metro intends to open in Serbia and Moldova this year.

In Slovakia foreign trading companies have acquired since 1999 35% of the market (note how these new member states were not allowed to trade freely with the rest of the EU until 2004!) The German firms Metro and Tengelman are already there and Lidl is due to arrive soon. Most of the market is covered by local cooperatives which are now trying to defend themselves by forming purchasing alliances.