German police unions | The police union problem

Created to discipline the working class: Police Photo: dpa/Caroline Bock Hinz and Kunz have now warned of riots at the youth protests announced for this Saturday - often with more or less racist undertones. At the forefront: Jochen Kopelke, federal chairman of the police union (GdP). A few days ago he spoke in the "Bild" newspaper with a view to the protests of "young riot migrants" who should not expect "any mercy."

As one of eight member unions, the GdP is part of the German Federation of Trade Unions - i.e. under the same roof as IG Metall, Verdi, GEW and so on. It is the more “moderate” police union in Germany: The DPolG (German Police Union), best known for its ex-chairman Rainer Wendt, has been spreading extreme right-wing positions for years. Kopelke's statements have once again shed a bright light on the fact that the problem is not just DPolG, but also police unions in general (and thus affects the DGB).

Nelli Tügel is editor of the monthly newspaper “Analysis & Criticism” and a freelance journalist. Here she takes a close look at exploitation, workers' movements and left-wing strategies.

What is this problem? Police unions act as lobby organizations and interest groups for police officers. Since these are not a professional group like any other, but rather have a very special role and task in our society, which is organized by capital interests, their unions are not simply unions like others. The police, as a central institution of state power, emerged for diametrically opposite reasons than the unions once did: the latter wanted to achieve the emancipation of the working class, the former was created to prevent this and to discipline them.

Police are deployed to use violence to combat “deviant behavior”: When tenants are evicted from their apartments, the violent “colleagues” of the police come. When people are deported, the violent “colleagues” from the police come. When a protest or strike is not legal enough, like the iconic Ford strike of 1973, the violent “colleagues” of the police come.

“Trade union” commitment to occupational safety, protection against dismissal and legal protection when applied to the police means the disenfranchisement of those people for whose rights trade unions were founded. In 2015, for example, the GdP provided several hundred thousand euros in legal aid for a service group leader from Dessau. The trial dealt with the death of Oury Jalloh, who burned to death while tied up in a police station cell in 2005. At that time there was no audible outrage from the DGB partner unions. However, in 2014, the Berlin DGB regional association under Doro Zinke called the police "colleagues" to forcibly remove refugee colleagues who had occupied the ground floor of the DGB building seeking help. The officials also gave unflattering answers to the classic trade union question: order factor or countervailing power? (Eberhard Schmidt)

Now the chairman of the GdP is intimidatingly announcing to young people who want to demonstrate for a better future that they will show “no mercy” in advance of their protests. What are the leaders of the real unions doing?

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