You may read previous updates here
October 30th
In Hamburg, the 8th Wednesday Lampedusa-demonstration had about 600 participants and started at dusk from the information tent at the central train station. The march went across the Mönckebergstraße to Jungfernstieg and then back. In the evening, 30 people took part in a spontaneous demonstration in the Schanzenviertel.
October 31st
In Bremen, at noon, about 25 activists occupied the office of the SPD (Social Democratic Party of Germany) for one hour in order to call attention to the situation of the refugees in Hamburg. In front of the office, passersby could see a banner giving information about the action and its reasons.
November 2nd
In Bremen, nearly 200 people attended a solidarity demonstration in the downtown area of the city.
In Hamburg, at least 15,000 (organizers spoke of 25,000) people took part in a large demonstration under the slogan “Recognition for the Lampedusa group in Hamburg – now!” Additionally, “War, escape, deprivation of rights – enough is enough! Residence permits following Paragraph 23” (the German law that provides for residency to be granted to refugees) and “We are here to stay!” were written on the banners which the Lampedusa-refugees held in the first row of the demonstration. A wide variety of protesters (from refugees, anti-racist and antifascist groups, neighbourhood initiatives, autonomous and anarchist blocs, trade unionists, members of left-wing parties, and many others who are in solidarity with the refugees) took part in this strident demonstration, showing their indignation at racial profiling and deportations. Some of the affected refugees gave speeches from the sound-truck about the roots of their movement, their current situation and struggle. They underlined that they would not be separated, and that they would keep on struggling together, demanding a right to stay for the entire group; there cannot be any trust given to the responsible politicians, when the mayor and interior minister announce “you have no future here…” Later in the evening, police stopped people from making spontaneous demonstrations in St. Pauli and Schanzenviertel with much force. People were forced to identify themselves, and some were banned from specific areas. We can only hope that these spontaneous demos make it impossible for the police to have enough forces left to carry out their racist controls.
November 3rd
In Hamburg, after a well-attended concert from a commercial hip-hop band in the Rote Flora squat, another spontaneous demonstration took place. People shouted slogans such as “Say it loud, say it clear, refugees are welcome here!” When the protest march arrived at the police station in the Sternschanze, cops dispersed it with batons and pepper spray. In addition to some people receiving eye-injuries from the pepper spray, one protester was kicked to his genitals and lost consciousness until other demonstrators took him out of the danger area in front of the police cordon.
November 4th
Several small spontaneous demonstrations took place in the Hamburg inner city. Despite a massive police presence (multiple anti-riot units posted throughout the entire downtown), activists managed to distract passersby from their consumption binge, in order to call attention to the refugee struggle. The demonstrations, which received positive responses (bystanders taking part in shouting anti-racist slogans), were stopped by the police who kettled demonstrators, forced people to identify themselves, and banned individuals from certain locations. The rough treatments by cops were criticized by passersby.
Hamburg’s mayor Olaf Scholz was invited as prominent guest to hold a speech at the art collection K21 in the Ständehaus in Düsseldorf. Around 150 activists “welcomed” him in front of the building with banners, whistles and paroles like “Refugees welcome – Olaf Scholz fuck off!” Afterwards activists made a demonstration to the central train station.
November 6th
About 30 activists occupied the SPD offices in Leipzig for a short time to draw attention to the situation in Hamburg, and to provoke the Leipzig SPD to give a statement.
In the early evening, the 9th Lampedusa-refugee demonstration was held in Hamburg, which ended with a minute of silence at the Rathausmarkt for the deaths that happened on the coast of Lampedusa Island, Italy.
November 7th
In Hamburg, at around 8am, there were racist police controls at the central train station and on Talstraße. At least two refugees were taken away by the police. In the morning, activists took the protest against the racist politics of the Hamburg SPD to their main office in the Kurt-Schumacher-Allee 10. Activists wanted to disturb the normal workflow of the SPD. There was a banner hung from the roof reading “Still loving the right to stay…”
At noon, 30 activists occupied the SPD office in Frankfurt. At the same time about 150 people took to the downtown streets of Frankfurt without police disturbing them, chanting slogans like “No border, no nation, stop deportation”, “Lampedusa was murder; resistance everywhere” and “The Nazis kill, the State deports – that’s the same racist scum.” A fake press release in the name of Frankfurt’s SPD was faxed. In this press release Frankfurt’s SPD criticizes the racist deportation policy of their colleagues in Hamburg and joins the demands from the Lampedusa-refugees…
November 8th
In Erfurt a solid 200 people demonstrated against racism in all of its manifestations. The central topic was solidarity with refugees, both in general and the struggle of the group “Lampedusa in Hamburg”. Additionally addressed were the racist protests against refugee homes, such as those that have taken place in Beichlingen, Hellersdorf, Greiz and Schneeberg.
In Dortmund fascists gathered in support to the Golden Dawn neo-Nazi party of Greece: photos of the scum here.
November 9th
Again many spontaneous demonstrations took place in Hamburg. In the evening, 100 people demonstrated with flares and firecrackers from the Dammtor train station to the Gänsemarkt without a police escort. The demonstration went through Hamburg’s most important shopping streets and headed to the central train station. Slogans like “No wall around Europe – right of stay for everyone” and “No one is illegal – right to stay everywhere” could be heard from people walking by. After the demonstration left of the railroad station, participants dispersed before the disorganized cops could intervene. Several other demonstrations took place in the south of Eimsbüttel, Schanzenviertel and on the famous Reeperbahn in St. Pauli. Again the police just tried to keep track of the demonstrators. Many passersby were able to be reached. With slogans like “Enough baiting, Olaf Scholz – the right to remain will be enforced” and “Stop racist controls,” the responsible authorities were clearly named and demands were made.
In Duisburg, around 30 racists from the bourgeois far-right party Pro-NRW – aka Pro Germany Citizens’ Movement, whose members include scum that have previously been in Nazi parties such as the NPD (National Democratic Party of Germany) – tried to agitate against Roma families. At the same time, given that these far-right populists are self-proclaimed pro-Israel, they had a minute’s silence for the victims of the pogroms against Jews throughout Germany and parts of Austria in November 1938; this was a harsh provocation. Over 300 antifascists took part in a demonstration against the Pro-NRW and later tried to block the demonstration route of the racists. The second demo route from the Pro-NRW was successfully blocked by antifascists in the evening – see the video (ignore its date; it occurred on the 9th):
The protests in Hamburg should not hide the fact that racism is widely spread both in the population, and from the State. Current events in Hamburg do not ensure that socially relevant protests against racist conditions have established themselves in Germany. In other locations, citizens have protested together with fascists against refugee homes, and politicians have supported these causes while the administration has hindered antifascist protests. Attacks on people who do not fit into the worldview of the neo-Nazis are everyday occurrences; a few examples of this will be described below.
Greiz County, in the state of Thuringia, is known as a particularly restrictive and discriminatory area for refugees. In the city of Greiz, since the middle of September 2013, a racist citizens’ initiative has been operating. Week after week neo-Nazis and citizens have assembled in the Pohlitz area and publicly agitated against refugees and the newly created refugee shelter there. At least, on the 9th of November (the anniversary of the Reichspogromnacht, the infamous night of organized anti-Jewish violence in 1938), there was a bit of resistance, as 500 people demonstrated in the city against deeply ingrained social racism under the slogan “Stop pogroms before they start!”
On the 2nd of November, for the second time in a row, 2,000 people participated in a torch-lit march through the city of Schneeberg in Saxony, which they referred to as a “light walk”. They demonstrated against a camp for newly arrived asylum seekers located directly outside the city. The march was registered and organized by the local NPD (the largest far-right party in Germany) cadre. Facebook was also used by the fascist mob to spread their racist agitation and mobilize further protests. To make clear the true state of affairs: if the numbers are made proportional to the populations of the two cities, there would have had to have been 120,000 people on the street for refugees in Hamburg on the 7th of November, to have represented their cause as strongly as the fascist mob displayed their misanthropy in Schneeberg.
For the Saxony politicians currently in power, the coordinated protests of fascists and citizens are not a problem, rather an encouragement to campaign for “immediate deportation of criminal foreigners,” which is coincidentally also a well-known NPD slogan… This brings things full circle back to the Hamburg politicians that want to make clear to refugees that they have no future in Germany. The restrictive so-called “asylum laws” are not enough for these arsonists in pinstripes. Full of pride, the Saxony state minister declares on his internet information page that the state is in the leadership position in terms of deportation numbers, and announces a shorting of the asylum length to three months.
On the 2nd of November in Aachen (located in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia) a demonstration under the slogan “Fight the causes of flight instead of refugees – against war, misery, and Fortress Europe” was attacked multiple times by neo-Nazis who were led by a banner with the emblem of the Golden Dawn party of Greece. Many antifascists were injured by the Nazis, as well as by the police, who used pepper-spray directly against the antifascists. As the cops allowed the fascist mob to register its attacks and provocation as a “spontaneous demonstration” and a democratically protected right, the Nazis were allowed to provokingly accompany the antifa demonstration for two more hours. There followed another attack, with more injured antifascists. This time, while the defensive antifascists had to fend off 15 attackers from an Aachen hooligan pub, the police used pepper spray, against the antifascists once again, and the injured had to be medically treated. After the end of the demo the Autonomous Center Aachen was “visited” by 7 hooligans, and people inside were harassed. Only the very prudent actions of antifascists were able to prevent worse. Neo-Nazis in Aachen have recruited a large portion of the fan scene from the football club Alemannia Aachen. Already in January 2013, a fan group that was engaged in antifa activity was dissolved after multiple attacks from right-wing hooligans; they cited a lack of support from their football club, and multiple assaults against a backdrop of steadily growing hostility.
In the night between the 2nd and 3rd of November 2013, it was possible for multiple groups of Nazis to march, undisturbed, through the town of Burg, located in Saxony-Anhalt, to harass specific people, and then attack them. They dragged a known antifascist into a car to mistreat him, and then drove to a forested area to abandon their victim.
Upcoming:
SILVIO MEIER DEMO 2013 IN BERLIN
Saturday, November 23rd, 2013 by 3pm at Samariterstraße underground station
We don’t forgive – We don’t forget! Antifa on the offensive!
ANTI-RACIST DEMO IN BOCHUM
Saturday, November 30th, 2013 by 11am at the central train station
Against the racist normalcy!