On January 26th, the fascist organizers of the “Day of Anger” march gathered many of their militants in Paris.
They paraded with clearly anti-Semitic slogans and Nazi salutes. Neo-Nazi groups (such as the Petainists youth) were alongside the National Front (FN) politicians, as well as many representatives of clearly fascist movements: royalists, religious extremists, negationists, anti-Semitists, homophobes…
Almost the entirety of antifa militants were taken off guard, since this event and its organizers had not shown their real face before D-Day.
These same fascists renewed their call, and organize demonstrations on April 5th, 2014 in the major cities of France.
We plainly call for organizing counter-protests on the same day, to block fascism.
Fascist groups are armed, organized and extremely violent, and they have proven this on numerous occasions; the recent best-known example in France is the assassination of comrade Clément Méric, who unfortunately has not been the only victim.
Here’s a list of antifascist comrades who were assassinated over the past several years:
Silvio Meier: November 1992, Germany
Lin Newborn / Daniel Shersty: July 1998, USA
Carlo Giuliani: July 2001, Italy
Davide Cesare: March 2003, Italy
Nikolai Girenko: June 2004, Russia
Timur Kacharava: November 2005, Russia
Alexander Ryukhin: April 2006, Russia
Ian Kucira: January 2007, Poland
Ilya Bondarenko: July 2007, Russia
Carlos Palomino: November 2007, Spain
Jan Kucera: January 2008, Czech Republic
Aleksey Krylov: March 2008, Russia
Fyodor Filatov: October 2008, Russia
Ivan Khutorskoi: November 2009, Russia
Ilya Dzhaparidze: June 2009, Russia
Kostja Lunkin: May 2010, Russia
Clément Méric: June 2013, France
Pavlos Fyssas: September 2013, Greece
Furthermore, fascist groups have links to police and military services, and evident backing from them. In most cases when a few arrests take place they’re nothing but a theatre scene for the good people’s amusement through the means of mass communication. The reality is quite different: while our anarchist comrades are subjected to extreme repression at the hands of the capitalist States, the fascists are speedily released with no worries. For example, the neo-Nazi Martial Roudier, president of the CEPE (support committee for Esteban Morillo, assassin of Clément Méric), was sentenced to 4 years in prison for stabbing comrade Thomas in the city of Nîmes in 2008. Do the same standards for conviction apply to comrades Mónica and Francisco, who are facing prison time?
It goes without saying that fascism is a degenerative extension of capitalism, that’s always inclined to protect its best buddies.
This fascist degeneration in France, as well as in all of Europe, began long ago. In France, while the liberal Right of the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) clearly manifests extreme right-wing opinions and forges alliances, more or less hidden, with the National Front far-right party, the liberal Left of the Socialist Party (PS) in power, which no longer has anything socialist, combats the National Front with words alone, insofar as it encourages them with deeds for pitiful electoral purposes.
Under these conditions and for all these reasons, we affirm that a pacifist struggle against fascist groups would not only be doomed to fail but would also be completely nonproductive since it is politically recuperable by the parties in power.
Let us add to this that Marine Le Pen, president of the National Front, has asked the French Interior minister Manuel Valls to dissolute antifascist groups. This reinforces our belief that only direct action groups can truly frighten fascists, and that they represent the only possible and credible resistance.
The history of the 30s has already shown us that pacifism is nothing but a sign of weakness, and that electioneering leads to worse. It’s high time we responded in an organized and radical manner.
More than ever before, Durruti’s voice must make itself heard:
“There are only two roads, victory for the working class, Freedom, or victory for the fascists, which means Tyranny. Both combatants know what’s in store for the loser. We are ready to end fascism once and for all, even in spite of the Republican government.”
GADI. International Direct Action Group.