The Fall of the Berlin Wall and the Multiplication of Western Walls

James Petras Biography


Key concepts

• The Walls of Freedom and the Walls of Prison 

While NATO regimes celebrate the ‘Fall of the Berlin Wall’ as the highest expression of freedom, these same political leaders support, finance and promote the construction of oppressive walls throughout world:  Unified Germany and its NATO partners have supported Israel’s Separation Wall dividing and caging millions of Palestinians for the better part of two decades.

• Democratic Re-Unification or Annexation by Force

The West German regime seized control and dictated economic and social policies that destroyed their eastern neighbors’ economy by fiat.

There are many ‘death strips’ denying Latin Americans, Palestinians, Middle Easterners their freedom from want, blocking their escape from US-NATO wars and Israeli genocide.

Imperial wars are characterized by the construction and maintenance of complex ‘Western Walls’, far deadlier and brutal than the Berlin Wall and less likely to fall.  

• The Malignant Consequences of the Fall of the Berlin Wall and the Annexation of East Germany

The annexation of East Germany vastly increased the economic power of Germany, providing German capital with several million skilled workers and trained engineers at no cost.  Germany’s enhanced power dictated the course of the European Union’s economic policy.