The brown behind the table (and gun)

In the most recent edition of konkret (in my opinion the best source for political news and analysis in Germany) Hermann Gremliza has written an article about the recent news in Germany regarding a Neo-Nazi cell in Zwickau which is very relevant to the concerns of this blog (as shown in articles about "Why prejudice against the 'far-left' helps the far-right" and "Wachet auf!").

Now, I don't always agree with Hermann Gremliza.  His understanding of the uprising in the GDR on the 17th of June 1953 is full of shite.  However, he does offer a very good analysis of contemporary politics in Germany and economics generally and I recommend reading his articles.

Here is a summary of his most recent article (one can listen to the original here in German).  The text in italics is my additions, as are the photos:

 "Lazy justice.  Comfortable judges.  Delayed trials."  From the Spiegel.

"When eight people from Turkey and one from Greece are murdered in the civilised and notoriously xenophobic Germany, society and state concentrate their suspicions regarding "Who did it?" on who?  On the milieu of those who were murdered, their "mafia" and "clans".  As soon as a policewomen is shot and there is no suspicion of this being the work of "left-wing extremists who are enemies of the constitution", the people to blame (according to the state bar of Baden-Württemberg) are "mobile social groups like Sinti and Roma", in other words "Gypsies" (Inverted commas here added by myself).

"As soon as it comes to light that it is an unhappy accident that the murderers were Nazis politicians and the media march separately to make a combined strike: Liberals demand a "relentless clarification" of "mistakes" and "accidents", while Conservatives shake with disgust and use the moment to call for an extension of police and intelligence services.  The Spiegel  made this clear with their title for their write-up of the murders: "The brown army faction" (In other words, they are like the "Red Army Faction".)

"Chancellor Merkel spoke of the ten murders as being "probably from extremism from the right side" (obviously "right" means direction in this case) and speaks that this incident "should make us attentive to every form of extremism".  In Niedersachsen the Interior Minister Uwe Schünemann speaks that there must be a "a centre for the defense against terror, also for the area of right-wing and left-wing extremism".

"Who or what is a left-wing extremist?  For Merkel, Schünemann and other defenders of the state in public authorities and editorial offices, left-wing extremism begins with people who sit down or lie down in the way of the police who clear the streets free with blows for brown (i.e. Nazi) battalions, after city administrations have declared racist slogans to be a matter of free-speech and not of criminal acts and therefore declare the Nazis to require the protection of the constitution.

"The  dominating thing that we are told in politics is this: Left and right don't exist any more; and when it looks like they do exist it's the case that left is like right, and right is like left.  Of course everyone knows that this isn't true.  It wasn't an Islamist (though many thought so) who did the massacre in Norway, rather it was a blonde Arier.  No-one thought: It must be a fascist, a Nazi, someone from the right-wing; this mass murder could have been started by a Communist, a Socialist, someone from the left-wing: even in the wildest dreams of the President of the protection of the constitution and the Professor for totalitarianism they didn't believe such things.

"The talk of extremism or, alternatively of radicalism is propaganda.  There is no left-wing extremism or no right-wing extremism or "right-wing terrorism".  What there is are Nazis, Communists, Anarchists, Autonomists.  Undoubtedly many of these are prepared to do criminal acts.  Six million Jews, twenty million "Slavic sub-humans" (actually 25-30m Soviets died) and, in the past few years, 182 people in Germany were not killed by extremists, in other words Nazis and/or Communists, rather by Nazis.

"The definition of extremism is a derivative of the totalitarian "theory".  It insinuates that there must be a something on the left side that is a version of the Nazis.

"The Red Army Faction started murders [and were, in a marked difference to the Fellowships (Kameradschaften, nationalist groups) in general and the National Socialist Underground especially were hunted by state and press organs, until all its fighters were imprisoned or dead].  However condemnable the motives of the RAF were, their victims were no poor devils, rather were representatives of the ruling class.  99.9% of people in Germany could go without fear into the streets or in bed.  There are 6.7 million (non-native Germans) potential victims of Nazis.  That state offices such as the Spiegel magazine can name the brown murders as like the RAF shows that they so-called theorists of totalitarianism have made their old chestnut that the "class war" is the left-wing equivalent of the "race war" and therefore the president of an industry group, a rich SS man, the head of the federal office as well as representatives of a persecuted race (the Jewish, perhaps?) become ennobled.

"Since the capitulation of the RAF in 1998, the year in which the protectors of the constitution now know to be the year when the now discovered Nazi group started to arm themselves with weapons and explosives, and nothing happened with them for twelve years, because of "the lack of concrete evidence of planned murders", there were, apart from the defense from police attacks, from the left no occasions of violence against people as far as I can remember.  What there were and are, are a few marks on bank industry property and burned cars, things that insurance could give pay-outs for.

"The Spiegel  says "the secret service is under the suspicion of being found out".  In truth all offices have functioned as they wished.  Regarding this we have to look into their history.  The police, the federal information service, the office for the protection of the constitution, the judiciary and military were all formed by people from the Nazi state.  Almost all Nazi policemen and women stayed in their jobs, the federal information service and the offices for the protection of the constitution were formed and occupied by men from the Reich Main Security Office, the Gestapo and the "Foreign Armies East" (a Nazi formed military intelligence organisation). Not a single Nazi judge was prosecuted and the German army was formed (and let it be said, given a soul) by officers of those who had planned and carried out the "war of extermination" (i.e. in the Soviet Union).

"That's all a long time ago now.  The thing is, it's not over.  The last founders were still working in their posts in the 1980's and those who are now in their posts received their spirit, a spirit which goes through all floors.  As someone who left the Neo-Nazi scene, Manuel Bauer was asked "Do you have the experience of whether Neo-Nazi sympathisers also work within the police and the 'Protection of the Constitution?'" the answer was given "Yes.  We received information from members of the police who we knew about when and where their colleagues were to do their patrols".  "Why?" one can ask.  "Their existed a sympathy among the police", said Bauer, "Just because they can hide themselves behind their uniform, their state uniform or system uniforms it does not mean that they are different or think democratically."

 Theodor Maunz

"The number of secret sympathisers and understanders in robes and other uniforms is higher than the book-learned could dream of.  The NPD and other Nazi fellowships  (Kameradschaften) are so intermingled with state-paid informs (V-Männer und Frauen) that the Federal Constitutional Court is not able to differentiate between the Nazi men who are paid by the state and the original Aryan faces.  The Minister for the Interior Hermann from the CDU, who wishes to present himself as the protector of democracy, should look to the early history of his party, as well as the jurist Theodor Maunz.  (Theodor Maunz was a Jurist.  He joined the SA in 1933 and for his services to the Nazis was made Professor in Freiburg and served as enabling the Nazis to gain juristic legitimacy.  To highlight his Naziness I would add that he wrote articles for an extreme right wing newspaper till his death in 1983.) He is quoted as saying "That which the Führer assigns in the form of judicial commands forms the judicial foundation of the police".  The "Maunz-Dürig" commentary to the constitution (written after the war) has been quoted by Roman Herzog (president of Germany 1994-99), the judges of the constitution Udo di Fabio and Hans Hugo Klein, as well as Hans-Jürgen, who was president of the court of the constitution.  (In other words, he was influential in how the constitution of Germany is being understood and applied.)

"Here and there lies the suspicion that the "National Socialist Underground"were behind the (of course) unsolved attack on the "Crimes of the Wehrmacht" exhibition in Saarbrücken in the March of 1999.  After the opening of the exhibition in 1995 a former officer of the Wehrmacht who had taken part in the blockade of Leningrad (at least 900,000 died from hunger and cold), was later a consultant to Hermann Göring's Reich Air Force Ministry, was able to observe the trials of men following the 20. July 1944 assassination attempt on Hitler before being a head of a military battery on the west front; this former officer spoke out against the calling of 19 million of German soldiers of being members of a criminal organisation and said that no-one "who knows anything seriously about historical truth" can "see the Wehrmacht wholly and collectively as being a criminal organisation."  The name of this man was Helmut Schmidt [who was Chancellor of West Germany from 1974 til 1982.  Note also that Helmut Schmidt, the co-founder of the "German national foundation" spoke out against immigrants ("It was a mistake to call people from other cultures here") as well as "anti-authoritarian education")  See here for more details.]

"The "right-wing terror", said Chancellor Merkel to her party friends is "a shame for Germany".  One which is earned."

Wew!  Let's briefly consider what has been said here.  Regular readers of this blog will know my position regarding the focus on so-called "left-wing extremism" in GB, Germany and beyond, and also how this focus in Germany contributed to the fact that Nazis were able to kill immigrants in Germany and stay undetected for over ten years; therefore I agree with much here.  The same regular readers will also know of my pointing out that Nazis are much more of a danger to society than any supposed act of "left-wing terrorism".  I also share the view that it is the police who are often the force behind the issue of violence regarding those who are anti-fascists.  What Gremliza says, though, goes further, namely that it is the state institutions of Germany themselves which carry Nazi echoes within their corridors.

Certainly, many Nazis continued working for the state, sometimes in important positions in both West and East Germany (see here for more information.)  The Allied occupying forces wanted to build up the structure of the West German state in order to keep Germany as a strong force in the threat of the Soviet Union.  Therefore many of those who underwent trials for being members of illegal organisations (the NSDAP, the SS, the Gestapo, for example) or actual criminal acts were later amnestied.  Regardless of the moral nature of such acts, it could be understood that Gremliza is indeed right in saying that it is Nazis themselves who influenced the spirit of German state organs (including those with the monopoly of violence) post-1945.


Germany wouldn't be alone of course in having state organs that have dodgy beliefs.  The City of London police consider the peaceful protestors of the Occupy movement in GB to be "terrorists". As I have written before, Spinwatch have written an excellent report showing how prejudices against the "far-left" were much more important than the threat of actual (but less overtly political) violence from the IRA.  The Polish judiciary has itself recently made a bizarre and dodgy decision regarding Nazis.

Maybe Gremliza is however being too dark in his analysis of the situation in Germany.  Certainly, not all members of state organs in Germany (say, the police, the protectorate of the constitution) are Nazi sympathisers.  The thing is, as sure as we see in GB a police which carries a cold-war hangover regarding the left-wing, it is very much possible that German police and other state security organisations carry not only such a hangover, but one from the Nazi times.  To tell the truth I am not totally knowledgeable about post-1945 history in Germany.  I do know, though, the motivation of the aforementioned RAF:

"They'll kill us all. You know what kind of pigs we're up against. This is the Auschwitz generation. You can't argue with people who made Auschwitz. They have weapons and we haven't. We must arm ourselves!"

Don't get me wrong.  I am not RAF fan, sympathiser or excuser (after watching "Der Baader-Meinhof Komplex" I thought they were a load of stupid bastards for whom I had no sympathy).  A look at post-1945 history in West Germany however does offer a few clues as to why they existed.  When one knows however about things like Operation Gladio or see how German state authorities have dealt with the Zwickau Nazis, one can get quite anti-state, I have to say.

In any case, I believe that Gremliza could be right in saying that we are wrong to use the term "right-wing extremism" in that it insinuates a left-wing alternative.  There are murderous twats on both left and right.  The thing is, there are many many many many more on the right, and their potential victims comes from a much wider group. 

Keep in touch.  I plan to write a review of the Wrocław Modern Art museum next week, and also the start of the "Taboos and other subjects to piss people off" series: Starting with "How Britain deals with its history".

On the anti-fascist Germans in Poland and a few other things

Just one more article (following the last one) about last Friday's events (EDIT: alright, I have one more, which I'll probably do next week.)

Those dangerous anti-fascists in Warsaw

You've heard about those anti-fascist Germans who came to Poland to confront the far-right?  Well I was with some of them.  I know what they did.  You see this attack?  (You must have.  The mainstream media has been full of it.  Alert as they are to right-wing violence.)

The Germans were there!  I saw them.  I spoke with them, before, during and after the "equivalent to the far-left" went past.  You know what they did?  What dastardly action they did?  They backed away to escape the fire torches being thrown at us.  The violent, coming-to-Poland-to-start-fights bastards!  If you don't believe me (and understand German), read this article of German terror!

Some, for some evil reason didn't join with the continued (and enabled by the police, left-wing violence fans) march of the anti-fascists.  I spoke with those that did come with us.  We laughed about having such a peaceful time in Poland.

 Probably not a German, but I can do with a nice picture here

Oh, you didn't want to hear about them

Alright, the other Germans.  Let's move away from Wrocław, then.

To tell the truth, my Polish isn't the best.  I can understand the general gist of articles in Polish, but my head starts to spin after a while, so I am reliant upon Google translations; which only adds to the lack of comprehension of what happened.  Anyway, here is a report about those dastardly Germans and now follows the aforementioned translation:

German anti-fascists argue that it did not take part in riots on 11 November. - As we all know, the riots began around 14.00-15.00, and ended around 17.00. While all the German group has already been stopped at 12.00, so you do not have the opportunity to take part in riots - said the representative. [...] Representatives of anti-fascists of Germany said that at the time of arrest were not allowed to contact a lawyer and an interpreter was not provided for 32 hours to stop not given food or drink.

At. 15.00, where we were detained for a long time at the police station, 8 thousand. neo-fascists in the city center was beating people, the police beat and devastated city - he said.

Today, when I was released, I read in the German media and learn from the Polish media that we have a responsibility for the escalation of violence in the city center. How is it possible that people who were trapped three hours earlier could devastate the city center? 

As pointed out Representative Agreement on November 11 , German participation in the events was negligible, because most of them were released after detention without charges, and charges against some of them are not very significant.

And there's more, from here:

"... allegations were presented to us. Translator was unable to translate them, twice translated it wrong. I said that I do not want to participate in this circus, I tried to leave, he demanded a lawyer. We wanted to grab the phone, twisted our hands. Translator said he did not want to further explain. The situation escalated, officers with the interpreter began to challenge us. (...) We were in a room with five girls, the officers sang "Deutschland uber alles Deutschland" and other racist song. K. mocked that she burst into tears after the hearing, and that at first glance might be considered a man. (...) In the morning we asked for food and warm drinks, but we received nothing. It was cold, the windows were still open. "

"... Circle 0:30, when it became clear that on that day no longer get out to freedom, our cries for water became louder. In response, called for more police officers in full riot gear battle. Until the end of steel over our heads, playing with guns, throwing gas and making sarcastic remarks. Peter was Head of the floor leading to the people in the chicanes. We are constantly walking through the floor yelling, preaching to get up and sit down, etc. .. Seven of us were taken to a place resembling a drunk tank chamber (tiles on the walls, etc.). They gave us to sign the Charter of Rights was written in German, in which the speech was enjoyed by us about the right to an interpreter - this place was not. We had to strip naked and do squats and then we were thrown into the cell. In the morning (after 17 hours) we got breakfast and confined us again in the cell. " 

So, the claims are that Germans were in fact abused by the police, in fact, I would use the word tortured.

I daresay you've heard of that, eh?

The violence in Warsaw

There are allegations that the media is falsifying the picture of what happened on the 11th of November.  The usual 'far-left versus far-right' (with the subtext that both groups are as bad as each other) dominates the narrative (not that Poland is alone in this, though watch out for another link later in this article).

As I have said, due to the outright falsified representation of what happened in Wrocław (I know about what happened, as I was there) I have not been trusting the accounts of what has happened in Warsaw.

I gather that this is what happened: 

Starting at 9 am nearly one hundred and fifty right-wing thugs with sticks in their hands circling the pl. Three Crosses in search of victims. Around 11:30 another group of people walking nationalists attacked the New World, but you put a resolute resistance. Police enters into action. This leads to the first arrests neo-fascists, while the anti-fascists are pushed to the premises of Political Critics, the Coalition of Agreement.

So legally, and anti-fascist Independent Colored Lock are constantly attacked by a group of neo-fascists, armed with metal pipes. Burning outside broadcast van TVN, Polsat cars are destroyed and the Polish Radio, the participants of the March of Independence attack the embassy of Russia and the Belvedere.

Gathered at the Constitution Square "patriots" pull cobblestones and attack the police.

This is born out by this video, which shows the fascists attack the police (from about 4:30):

Anti-fascists were attacked on the street:

I think this type of video shows the context in which 'right against left' happened.  The far-right attacked the anti-fascists, therefore they defended themselves.  One sees no sign here of both groups going after each other.

He we see fascists attacking a left-wing shop:

Fascists also attacked a Vegan cafe:

The media said that members of 'far-left' had attacked people in Polish football shirts and also a historical enactment society.  While I don't trust the media (have you heard of any of the videos or claims given in this article?) it is possible that they happened (this may be due to a cultural misunderstanding, seriously).  Perhaps video evidence can be offered.  The organisers of the anti-fascists have spoken of 'people not attached to us' who did violent things.  Now, that may not be true.  Perhaps the fascists are saying the same.  But no, the attack on the shop shown above shows that the far-right crowd supported their actions.

Proportionally, the far-right were responsible for more violence on Friday.  This does not invalidate the seriousness of any violence done by the 'far-left', but it has to be remembered that the narrative that the 'far-left and far-right went to the parade in order to attack the other' is not true.  The far-right went there to attack the anti-fascists.


NEWS JUST IN:  It seems that one of the people allegedly 'beaten' by the Germans is the creator of a conservative-nationalist website, a website that had (before they had been quickly deleted) links to the Klu Klux Klan and Redwatch (an anti left-wing page used to help people know who they're supposing to be hitting.)  Indeed, here it is shown that Mr Rafał is a Nazi.  Hmmm.

This is also new.  Turns out that those historical enactment people actually attacked the German anti-fa, joining in with the attack that fascists had started!

AGAIN, MORE NEWS JUST IN (24th November): All violence was fascist violence (from someone who was there).

The far-left being violent

There's more

Whenever something involving violence happens there's a media panic afterwards.  People feel the need that 'something must be done'.  Politicians get caught up in this mood.  The result is never good for human rights.  We've had the Patriot Act in the US, various anti-terror legislation in GB, and so on.

Poland is not exempt from this.  I gather that there may be a ban on the covering of faces.  I covered my face in Wrocław.  The police used tear gas and I was trying to protect myself.  Also, the fascists were taking photos of us, so to avoid future bother I covered my face a bit as well and my clothes were very much not stand-outy.  Incidentally, this is one reason (and also that of police violence) why Black Blocks wear black clothes.  The banning of covering faces would be dangerous.

The banning of counter-demos is plainly undemocratic.  Also, simply having the far-right and the police would not a peaceful situation make, as the video showing them attacking the police above makes clear.

I would hope, and I would say that regardless of one's political views (i.e. I hope the same for the fascists as well) that any legal procedures would follow humane procedures with respect for the human rights of the defendants.

One thing that the state could do would be to ban flares and lit-torches.  They are weapons and were used against the left in both Warsaw and Wrocław (with no police invention in Wrocław).

If the state really means business, their representatives would come to the counter-demos on Wrocław and Warsaw next year, in order to show their commitment to democracy.

I won't hold my breath.

As Germany is finally remembering, the far-right are extremely violent.  Graffiti in Białystok and the hospitalisations of gays in Kraków are two examples of what they have done this year.  German intelligence has been massively criticised for not knowing of a Nazi-cell group in Zwickau which were responsible for the deaths of ten people over the past ten years.  Perhaps they were too busy looking at the 'far-left'.

PS The successful approach of anti-fascists in Dresden gives us some hints as to what we can do in Poland.  Look at this article.

If you wish to keep in touch with upcoming articles (on the Jewish graveyard in Oświęćim, the new modern art museum in Wrocław as well as some cool cafe, and the 'Taboos and other subjects to piss people off' series), 'like' my page on Facebook here.

On fascist violence and the media distortion of anti-fascists

Blast off!  It's party time
and we don't live in
a fascist nation.
Blast off!  It's party time

and WHERE THE FUCK ARE YOU?

(From this excellent song)

I'd like you to do a little role-playing now.  Imagine yourself to be a young lad or lass

You're not interested in politics., but you're happy that Poland regained its independence in 1918.  You like living in Poland (your friends are Polish, you like Polish hip-hop, you've had many nice holidays in Zakopane and Sobot.)   You're glad to be Polish.

Some friends of yours hard about a 'march of patriots' on Polish Independence Day and, as Poland will be playing Italy in Wrocław that evening, it sounds like a cool thing to do, to experience the mood before a game, to express that you're glad to be Polish.  You arrive in Wrocław, and wow!  So many people!  These are people like you.

The march starts and people light flares, like at a football game.  It's all so impressive.  You feel good.  We're all Poles together.  You enjoy the football-type chants.  This is a good thing.  You walk along, and people are smiling, people are making noise, on this nice looking market square, packed together.  This is Poland!


While walking away from the market square you see a small group.

Violent, up to no good, anti-free speech scum, apparently

They appear to be against us.  People around you at shouting at them, so they must be against this parade.  They're anti-Polish, people are shouting.  They're not one of us.  They're not real Poles.  You are caught up with the group mood.  Apparently they are the 'red gang'.  That name rings a bell.  They must be communists.  They did bad things in Poland.

You see a flag with a man you don't recognise on it.  "Who's he?", you ask your friend.  "Roman Dmowski", is the answer.  He was a "Polish patriot" who helped to make Poland exist.  He wanted to protect Poland against their enemies, "Germans and the Jews".

You have already noticed a few flags with the letters 'NOP" written on them.  You don't know who they are, but they must be cool.  They organised this parade, you hear.  You like this parade, so the NOP must be good people.  They are pro-Poland and anti-those who are against Poland.  Your grandmother had told you about those nasty gays, trying to destroy Poland on behalf of the EU.  They're not like us. 

You begin to feel more powerful as part of the group.  God bless (Roman) Catholic Poland and the NOP!

The importance of a strong counter-voice


What I have tried to convey here is the process made possible by such marches.  A march by fascists is not the danger per se.  A Poland without marches by fascists would not mean a Poland without fascists.  The thing is, a bit of awareness of group dynamic procedures (see Zimbardo) shows two outcomes that can occur after marches by fascists: While such inbetweeners may not be as radical as the NOP fascists, such a march strengthens their sense of being Polish, a sense with is exclusive.  People of other religions, views: LGBT's and Jews implicitly do not fit into this Poland.  This implicit sense can become more explicit over time, upon being exposed to more radical views.  While the young people or other 'patriots' may not leave the parade as NOP members, they'll be more open to them as being a "good thing" and also more open to extreme views.


Secondly, the point of the fascists I imagine they felt more powerful after the march.  They were so big, and the counter-demo was so little.  Such a feeling of power can lead to an escalation of violence in their everyday life (attacks on people of different colours, graffiti on Jewish graveyards), as they feel that there is a small opposition to them.


That we, the counter-demo was so small (there were about 150 of us compared to 1,200 of them) shows that no credible alternative to right-wing extremism was demonstrated.  For the inbetweeners such a parade can serve as a turning point.  The counter-demo was so small and contained no-one they had heard of.  No Priest.  No politician.


Of course, there was the 'march for tolerance' on the Wednesday before (a good event that I attended), but I doubt if the fascists and inbetweeners read Gazeta Wyborcza, the newspaper which supported the event, an event which will certainly serve to maintain or increase group cohesion between those who are pro-tolerance; furthermore, the Israeli/Norwegian/Polish school exchange will help.


With a very small exception, those who support tolerance did not turn up to stand against intolerance.  Instead, they left it to the anarchists.  However, anarchists are not liked by the mainstream.


Prejudice against the 'far-left' and anarchists


Gazeta Wyborcza has reported that at there were 'gangs from both sides running after each other' (last year) and 'people on both sides were throwing fireworks at each other' (this year).  Probably unlike the reader of this article, I was present at both events.  Regarding last year the claim is totally untrue.  I saw one scuffle between an antifa girl and a fascist over a flag.  What was reported simply didn't happen.  Regarding the throwing of the fireworks, well look at this video:

Torches of fire were thrown at us as soon as they came to us.  These hit people.  One girl found herself with small burning bits of paper on her head.  I would estimate that about 25 lit torches were thrown at us, and two lit flares.  Of them about four lit torches were thrown back.  The words used by Gazeta Wyborcza are a misrepresentation of what happened.  We were under a sustained attack.  People on our side backed away from the police line to avoid being hit.  Some went into the passage to escape the flames.  We were under immense provocation (click on the video about, by the way, and see how in the comments how happy people were that we were being attacked in such a manner).  That is the context in which to read that some lit torches were thrown back.  The great majority of people on our side simply stamped the torches out.  (Read also here for first-hand eyewitness accounts.)


This attack on us was simply described with the words "people on both sides were throwing fireworks at each other", thus creating the false impression of the same old story of the 'far-left and far-right being as bad as each other' (something I wrote about here).  The Gazeta Wyborcza did also not help in their selection of photos shown, which showed no lit torch coming our way (I would put this down to a difficulty in producing such photos myself, or perhaps I am being naive).

I have also read the claim that all of those who protested against the 'patriots' were there to do violence.  This is a spurious claim with no basis in reality.  This is the usual anarcho-bashing.  Please, if you are to comment on 'anarchist violence' do a bit of research first.


Another incident happened, by the way; one that I am not clear about.  For some time hundreds of fascists didn't march, rather, in the midst of the thrown lit torches stood in front of the police shouting abuse at us.  I then saw that some policemen were hitting some of the fascists.  It seemed that either the fascists were attacking the police or that they were trying to get through the police to get to us.  In any case, the police used tear gas, I thought to push the fascists back, but I also hear in order to 'separate the two sides'.  In fact hardly any of us were right behind the police due to the aforementioned fire-attack.  It is for this reason that most of us covered our faces with scarfs.  Bear that in mind regarding the discussion about people hiding their faces.  (A separate article will be written about the state's answer to the day's events.)


Fear


Bravado, alcohol, group dynamics were some of the reasons why we were attacked (furthermore, after the march we were to find ourselves surrounded by fascists by Hotel Monopol with the police protecting us on both sides).  There's more to that, though.  It was, consciously or unconsciously an attempt to scare us.  This is a common fascist tactic: Recently the English Defense League sent a warning message to the Occupy LSX campers in GB.  Plus we have Breivik, of course.


They wanted to discourage us from coming again next year and from using civil courage in any acts of violence we see in our daily lives.  I know some who avoided coming due to the fear of violence.  It is this fear that strengthens fascists.  It's a (pardon the pun) vicious circle: They had a greater number, so they felt more powerful, so they attacked us (such an attack didn't happen last year when the numbers were more equal).  Less people may attend next year as a result.  I was with people who were at their first protest.  They backed away from the missiles coming our way and I don't think they'll come to a protest again.

 Those violent anarchists again, this time in Warsaw

If one wants a more tolerant Poland one has to do more than support tolerance (through marches, days of business, exchanges), one has to show courage by opposing intolerance in our daily lives, including during such marches.  By backing off, by showing fear, by inaction, by staying at home, by complaining about those people who actually wish to let fascists know what they think fascists get stronger (and, read these words very closely: 

Those at the counter-demo did not want to stop the fascists from speaking their opinions, rather, letting the fascists know about theirs.)


An alternative circle would be: More anti-fascists than fascists would mean that an attack would be less likely* as the fascists would feel less powerful and anti-fascists would feel more powerful.  To conclude: Such parades serve to move impressionable people to the far-right and to make the far-right feel more powerful.  They physically attack the anti-fascists, who find no sympathy from those who were not there who don't know the full story of what happened.


Had the state, Christians, the vaguely left-wing and liberals supported our stand for democracy and tolerance and against fascism, this would be a different situation in Wrocław.  But no, the usual scapegoating and easy-to-say-but-not-provable saying 'the far-left are as bad as the right' prejudice dominates.


Oh, and regarding the events in Warsaw I cannot comment too much because, if I know that the media are reporting untrue accounts of what happened in Wrocław then I cannot trust what is being reported about Warsaw.  I can only say that, again, we see the violent nature of the far-right in their bloody attack on the police.  If the information regarding German 'anarchists' (here one has to be careful, as we don't know that they are anarchists.  Anarchists are a very diverse group) is true, it sounds to me like, I am being serious here, a cultural misunderstanding about national symbols and who wears them.  I'll see what information emerges before I comment further.

This link shows a curious story of the German antifa actually not being at the demo. 

PS

A humble message to those who stood up to the fascists:

Thanks for being there.  The banners were excellent.

Perhaps next year (should the state be so kind as to allow us to exercise our democratic right to express our views) we could do something that the mainstream would like more.  I know we cannot really rely on them, or maybe even trust them, but still, it would be worth trying.


When the fascists throw fire torches at us, perhaps we could throw flowers at them?  With different colours, with the words 'Poland has many colours' stuck to them on pieces of paper.  I know we've got a tough battle in convincing the mainstream (and thus winning people to our cause) of our peaceful aims, but this would help, perhaps.


Perhaps we could organise a festival of culture for 11/11/12, with music and poetry from Polish people who represent different cultures: Piotr Dumała, Czesław Miłosz, Chopin, etc.?

Keep in touch.


* The police may bear the brunt of the fascists' ire instead.  At least they have legal weapons.