5.12.2009 Nazi Demonstration in Königs-Wusterhausen

The event in Königs-Wusterhausen planned for the 10.10.2009 was cancelled because of the alleged Antifa-attack on the nazi drinking hole “Henker” in Berlin Schoeneweide. Now the so-called “free-forces” want to march again. As usual around this time of the year the are going to demand a “national youth centre” or this time “youth need prospects, here and now” whatever that may mean. At the moment I can not find any counter-activities planned on the web but I would be surprised if there weren’t any. As soon as I get hold of meeting points and other organisational matters I will post it here.

At the moment the proponents of a one-size-fits-it-all centrally organised national outlook, i.e. the nazis, will meet at 12 o’clock at the station in KW.

29.11.2009 Information event about Russian Antifa-Movement / Berlin

Probably prompted by the murder of Ivan Khutorskoy last week in Moscow NEA and RASH Berlin plan a information evening about the situation of the Antifa movement in Russia. A member of the Moscow Antifa will talk about the situation in Russia and about the possibilities to support their activities.

29. November, 20 Uhr, Projektraum Friedel54, Friedelstr. 54 (Neukölln)

26.11.2009 Homophobic Reggae Artist Kesselhaus/Kulturbrauerei Berlin

Next Thursday the homophobic reggae artist Sizzla plans to play the Kesselhaus, which is part of the Kulturbrauerei-area in Berlin, Prenzlauer Berg. Despite initial protests the presenters of the Kesselhaus do not want to cancel the concert. Therefore the pressure needs to be increased and a anti-homophobic/anti-sexist demonstration will take place on the day at 6.30 pm starting at Schönhauser Allee (S-Bahn-station). This demonstration is organised by the Smash Homophobia group. In other European and German towns concert have been cancelled already after intervention and you can find a list at the their  blog. Also interesting in this context may be the Stop Murder Music campaign.

Edit 26.11.2009 8:00 pm:

That is how success feels, demo very well attended with about 400 people and the event cancelled in the Kesselhaus and also the last minute replacement venue Huxleys called it off. Yes!

21.11.2009 Silvio Meier Demonstration

The yearly Silvio Meier commemoration event has been announced to take place on the 21.11.2009. Silvio Meier got knifed and bled to death in the tube station Samariterstrasse in Berlin in 1992. He approached a group of nazis because they were displaying the then fashionable “I’m proud to be German” patches. His part in the left-wing movement goes far back and he helped to organize a concert in the Zionschurch in Berlin which was attacked by neo-nazis. The nazis (I think) came from a football game (Usually the Stasi-sponsored club Dynamo Berlin – BFC.) and that event caused the East German government to acknowledged publicly that they too have a  nazi problem and not just the degenerated West.

The demonstration is usually well attended because Silvio was part of the squatter and the antifa movement. And because it happened a while ago people older than the usual age average turn up as well.

This years dates taken from ALB:

Silvio-Meier-Demo: 21. November | Saturday | 16 o’clock tube station  Samariter Straße
Solemn vigil: 21. November | Saturday | 15 o’clock | tube station Samariter Straße
Antifa-Soli-Party: 21. November | Saturday | 21 o’clock | K9 | Kinzigstraße 9

Edit 18.11.2009 10:00:

On the 16.11.2009 another victim to the long list of people murdered by right-wing violence in recent years has been added.  Iwan Chutorskoi, co-founder of R.A.S.H. Moscow, died of gunshot wounds he received in the entrance to his home. Source, found here. Now there is also an Indymedia article and RASH Berlin.

I am all against the martyrdom and the sickly sweet pathos that in my eyes is only too similar to what religious people or indeed nazis celebrate because they define themselves in relation to death. But on the other hand I do not think it is wrong to remember the people who died because they were trying to change thing for a better. I also think it is very important to especially for the Russian activists to know that there is an international support network and that they are not alone in their fight. I think it is a big achievement of the RASH movement to have started the roots of that network.

If you are looking for English speaking news, also try to look for Ivan Khutorskoy. the spelling for the Russian X/CH/KH may differ sometimes.

LibCom, Myspace, Avtonom comment in English.

ABC-Moscow is accepting donations which need to be marked and pre-arranged with them. The do have an Euro-account in Germany and Austria.

NY Times, SkyNews.

Edit 26.11.2009 13:00:

There is a very interesting interview with Ivan available on Indymedia in English from September 2009.

Nazis plan “remembrance of heros” in Halbe 14.11.2009

This year the nazis plan so-called “remembrance of heros” in Halbe on the 14.11.2009. A new law regarding monuments in Brandenburg kept them at bay last year (I think) and they only had a meeting once a year in spring in Seelow. Now they are trying Halbe again. You can get all the information from the Antifa called Red Halbe “Against NS-glorification and the remembrance of the heros”. They are usually well organised and I guess there will be same information and mobilisation events in Berlin. You also get maps on their site.

Funny story two years ago in Seelow was that some “comrades” left their flowers and wreath on the monument for the Red Army soldiers. So much for missing history lessons. Or maybe a very impressing display of quick learning.

The author does not have very good memories regarding Halbe because getting there by train can mean sharing the train with the opposition. That meant that one year a decision to leave the train to them was made and I have to say that now  I see that as a clear mistake. I did not look forward to a confrontation on the train itself even though we were roughly matched in numbers. The other side got an easy moral victory out of this which was surprisingly not widely publicised after the event as far as I know.

Live and learn. This was a clear case of not being (mentally and equipment wise) prepared for the situation before it arises. If I had considered the situation beforehand I could have made a rational decision and stuck to it and not think under pressure and be driven by fear. Also I have to add that despite my experiences I did not contribute to a transparent decision finding process within the group. So now the self-criticism is out of the way we will much more effective this year and that is what Anti-fascism is meant to be in the first place. It is not a beauty contest.

See also (Anti-)NPD-Blog, Taz

See also Inforiot article.

I will try and compile a list of events connected to Halbe/Seelow and the counter activities in the last years.

Halbe March 2006

Seelow November 2006 – 700 to 800 at counter demonstration in Seelow and 8000 in Halbe, 1000 nazis in Seelow (Indy article)

Halbe March 2007 -

Press overview

Edit 29.10.2009 10:40:

There is mobilisation event announced which will take place on Thursday the 12.11.09 at 8 o’clock pm in the Projektraum H48, Hermannstr. 48, 12049 Berlin.

The nazi demonstration is predictably not allowed to march to the war cemetery itself. The reason is a particular law in Brandenburg which was passed to prevent exactly those events. As things stand at the moment the Nazis are restricted to the close area around the station which in reality if I remember correctly is more a stop point than a station. I don’t think Halbe got more than one station (It is even a listed building but like most station buildings in East-Germany it is in a state of disrepair.).  This means that arriving and leaving Halbe may become interesting indeed. But they still have time to appeal against the orders from the police.

Up to date information are available here:

Edit 2.11.2009 12.00:

There are quite a lot of events announced for the 14.11.2009 from the opposite side. As far as I know we got Munich, Göttingen (No, this is Conny remembrance from our side.) and Halbe. Last week a high ranking member of the NPD died, the skull shape measurer Rieger and this triggered plans to organize a commemorations in Wunsiedel on the same weekend. Rumours have it that Worch is in charge and as he is responsible for the event in Halbe as well the whole event in Halbe is now even more likely to be cancelled. The other possibility is that if Wunsiedel is not permitted by the authorities Halbe may become the main focus for the Rieger commemorations.

Edit 3.11.2009 17.00:

RedHalbe confirms that they too suspect that the event in Halbe may be cancelled or will be used as a commemoration for Rieger depending on the event in Wunsiedel. If Wundsiedel is permitted by the authorities, Halbe be not take place. I can only speculate about the linkelyhood for that to happen but not that is at least to me the most likely outcome.

Siempre Antifascista Festival November 2009

The Siempre Antifascista Festival already took place in 2008 and consisted of concerts, a demonstration and a conference. I attended the conference where people from other countries in Europe presented their work. I can remember the Spanish people from Madrid involved into solidarity actions around the murder of Carlos in the tube. There were also contributors from East Poland, Prague and Novi Sad in Serbia. Also we listened to speakers from Russia and Italy. I found that conference highly informative and I am convinced that it helps the Antifa networking across Europe. Looking at the alleged already well-established cooperation between nazis from south of Saxony with their counterparts in the north of the Czech republic we clearly have a need to link up as well. Therefore it was quite embarrassing for the Berlin Antifa when the conference with international attendance was suddenly announced to take place in German language. What a complete and utter failure even when not considering the international claim of the people involved. The conference is in my eyes the highlight of the work done by NEA but that is probably also the contribution  of the attending groups and not solely due the organising group. They have managed to issue a flyer in English.

This years festival is going to take place from the  11th to the 14th of November 2009 and the full title is Siempre Antifascista 2009 – Kick fascism out of your subculture. Here is the blog-entry in English. I am not sure if there is another conference planned for this year.

10.10.2009 Leipzig: Still not loving Germany

On the 10th of October you can either go to KW or to Leipzig and tell Germany that you do not love it at all.

There is an infomation event in the Jup Pankow on Monday the 5th of October where you can buy tickets for the busses going to Leipzig:

The extreme Right in Poland – Presentation Review

I attended the event advertised here.

The information event about the Polish extreme right in Poland was surprisingly well attended. I can only guess that the strong Polish continent within the Berlin squat and DIY scene has something to do with it. Although people from Poland may not have a need for a general overview like I do.

The presenter divided the extreme right into three main groups, the football hooligans and nazi skinheads, extreme Polish right and finally the patriotic Polish right. The latter being the most dangerous one in his opinion which managed to be a smaller part of the governing coalition until two years ago.

Most of the personnel moved from the football supporter to extreme right into government responsibility. So the Never Again initiative concentrates its work on the fan culture. They showed some pictures of what is currently going on and it was shocking. Banners with swastikas and racists slogans are still present despite being illegal. So the initiative issued a brochure explaining symbols and enjoyed some success. Now when you watch a game on the tv you will most likely not see any openly racist banner. Because the stadiums are currently refurbished for the world cup the NA hopes that this will have an additional positive effect and make football more attractive for non-rightwing youths.

The Never Again project also collects data about what I would call hate crimes. The reason is that in Poland like elsewhere these crimes are being played down as an argument between youth gangs or violence without political background. Not surprisingly the collected data shows more incidents then the police would admit to. Even though the numbers are concerning the initiative claims that some groups will not submit incidents. Despite that Poland has a number of 50 lethal hate crime cases since counting began in 1989.

Noticeable is a strong connection between subculture to antifa. The presenter mentioned that the Never Again logo is widely used there and that sometimes it is combined with the good night wide pride logo and sometimes even with never again communism.

Another topic that stuck was Thor Steinar in Poland. There are some shops selling it but the main distribution in Poland happens trough the Polish Ebay-equivalent which name I forgot instantly.

Also slightly strange is the wide spread belief in Eastern Europe that the Antifa in Berlin is very well organised and that in Germany a well organised civil society exists which is very alert and active.

2.10.2009 Köpi AGH Gurkha, Desolation, Abrupt

This Friday in the Köpi AGH (That is the big ballroom like hall rather than the slightly claustrophobic Koma F) :

Gurkha (Brutal Hardcore-Punk Hammer/ UK)

Desolation (HC with people from Born/Dead USA)  and

Abrupt(HC Punk with female vocals San Francisco/USA)

10.10.2009 Demonstration in Königs-Wusterhausen

The yearly event in KW is nearly upon us. The so-called “free forces” which basically mean they are not directly associated with the NPD call for a demonstration for a national “youth centre” in KW. Last time they tried that in Berlin-Lichtenberg and they had to shorten their route despite the police using everything they had at their disposal to clear the road for the nazis. Including water cannons and batons. So now they try it in KW again because they got the impression that it may be slightly more successful.

Oh no, this time the nazis are marching because “youth needs perspectives”. Convincing.

You can find a call for counter-activities at AFAReisen and the meeting point for Berlin at the stressi. The local Antifa is called AAKW. They also have a report of the events from last year on their blog.There is a probability that the event in KW is called off in favour for Berlin. During the early hours of Sunday, the 4.10.09 a well-known right wing drinking hole in Schöneweide (Zum Henker) was attacked using two bottles filled with inflammable liquid. During the escape two neo-nazis were injured by a car, one of them seriously. At the moment it is not quite clear who committed the attack on a pub situated in a residential house. If it was indeed an Antifa action it was very poorly planned and if it was a gang related incident as rumored it was very poorly carried out. But at the moment we only know what happened from the opposite site and they seem bent to maximally use this a rallying call. So they do have a vested interest not to stick closely to the real events. All I know is that they long for martyrs.

The police describe it as attempted arson and a man was run over by a car which was suspected of carrying the perpetrators.

Indymedia article 1, Indymedia article 2 and the cancellation of the KW event here.

At the centre of the discussion going on now is whether to go to Leipzig and effectively ignore the right wing we-need-a-martyr-quickly march. The other option of course means that the other side is setting the agenda for us. As we lack a central decision making body I would suggest that everybody accesses the situation independently and decides what to do themselves.

The ABSO (Antifaschistisches Bündnis Süd-Ost) and now also the ASV published a call for counter activities to the nazi march. Some details are also in the Tagesspiegel article.

Linie106 and the ASV got the starting point for the nazi march with 12 o’clock Alexanderplatz, in front of the tv tower.

Now the long awaited post with all the infos needed appeared on Indymedia 3. No Leipzig event mentioned, therefore the appeal to think yourself still stands. According to Indymedia 4 it looks as if the police got hold of the perpetrators, just a few guys who were refused entry a week ago. The nazi march is probably going forward anyway. See also Indymedia 5.

Just for completeness the ticker was here and pics are available here, here and here. Always funny when nazis are trying to emulate anti-capitalism: German left is the protector of the international capital. International capital in their crude way of thinking is the code for jews.