[Picture Gallery] Neonazis hold Rock-Concert in Themar

On Saturday July 15th a group around Thommy Frenck called Turonen / Garde 20 organized a neonazi rockconcert in a small village in Thüringen. More then 6000 neo-nazis came to listen to bands like: Sleipnir, Die Lunikoff Verschwörung, Stahlgewitter and several others. The event was announced as a political rally and the local admission failed to get the event prohibited in front of court. Journalists were insulted, spit at and physically attacked by participants of the event. Police did not see a chance to enter the public political rally with joutnalists and therefore reporting was only possible from outside. Neonazis were shouting “Ruldof Heß” after a speech in commemorance of Hitlers deputy.

Picture Gallery

Protests against G20 in Hamburg

On July 6th and 7th the leaders of the most powerful countries around the world gathered in Hamburg. Aim of the meeting was to connect the twenty leading industrial states and emergent countries under the motto ‚Gemeinsam mehr erreichen als allein’. The city of Hamburg was shattered by more then fifty demonstrations during the summit. Courts interdicted spontaneous gatherings of people. Nevertheless thousands tried to block G20 in Hamburg. Some of the heaviest riots and clashes in the past thirty years and one of the biggest police missions in german post-war history took place around the International Congress Center in Hamburg.

Before protest began activists already got in trouble with police as they tried to prevent demonstrators that travelled to Hamburg from setting up tents in parks. In the end several small campsites were errupted. Two days before the summit meeting, on the 5th a night-dance demo took place. Everything stayed very peaceful as people were raving through the streets. The summit still seemed quite a bit away. On Thursday the protest wave hit the city.

Welcome to Hell – Police escalates situation at Fischmarkt

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‘Welcome to Hell’ demonstration is dispearsed by police with water-cannons on Hafenstrasse.
On Thursday evening – starting with a concert – more than twenty-thousand people gathered at Fischmarkt. Die goldenen Zitronen, Neonschwarz and many more played music against G20. As the protestor gathered on Hafenstrasse some of the participants mummed themselves. According to Hartmud Dudde, police operations manager, known for commiting breach of the law for several times with his tactics, six-hundred participants were hiding their faces. This number published in a press conference on Sunday July 9th is very hard to verify and was used to legitimize a police intervention that left many hurt and at least one person heavily injured. Our team whiteness the intervention. Groups of people were dispersed throughout the area near the Hafenstrasse. One car and a roadblock were burning. The police escalation of the demonstration in still and moving images:

At night the situation calmed a little down. People were getting ready for the first day of the summit and the many protests against it.

Shut Down the Logistics of capital

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Front-banners of demosntration towards Hamurg harbour.
Early in the morning on July 7th the communist group ‚…Ums’s Ganze‘ organized a protest a little off the actual meeting. Activists met at the harbour to block goods from being transported into the container terminals. More then 500 parttook in this action. A huge traffic jam evolved and trucks did not reach the harbor on this route. On-site speakers said from the truck with a soundsystem that this is the exactly perfect spot, this is not an action against police or the harbour-workers, but a direct intervention in the stream of goods and therefore capital.

Color the Red-Zone

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Road block of VIP Shuttle bus.
Already early the morning several thousand gathered all across the city to disturb the meeting and block routes of delegations and politicians transported to the International Congress Center. On Twitter was reported that VIP shuttles had to turn around as they were blocked. Even in the afternoon every once and a while smaller roadblocks led to full stops of busses. At the same time in Hamburg-Altona militants took action. Several cars were burning and banks attacked. Police tweeted that a Molotov cocktail was thrown at officers. This could not be verified so far and is possibly false information.
In the afternoon approximately five-thousand demonstrators tried to disturb an event at the newly opened Elbphilarmonie in a so called ‚Second Wave‘. Spontaneously a large group moved throughout St. Pauli. At least one luxury building was attacked with stones. Police pushed back a mass of people that approached the concert hall with water cannons. Several police officers were hurt as rockets, bottles and stones hit. The crowd then spread throughout Schanzenviertel and St. Pauli.

Heavy Riots in Alternative Schanzenviertel

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‘Peace is not an option’
Towards 7 PM groups gathered around Neuer Pferdemarkt. Some of the heaviest riots Germany has seen in the past thirty years started. Street barriers were lit. At least four stores were loitered. Police was pushed back by militants with stones, pyrotechnics and iron bars. Police did not enter the district for more then three hours. Drunk people from bars in the area joined organized militant anticapitalists. This is the point where the protest and the mood completely changed. Drunk people attacked police with glass bottles, started filming themselves, taking selfies and posing. Police then called special forces trained for high-security arrests, terror events and tactical mission. Thus joined other police forces and a task force entered a house to arrest people on a roof. On video footage released today by police in a press screening police pretends the throw of a molotov can be seen, that did not explode. 24mmjournalism was on site as this supposively happened and we can not verify nor deny that the bottle that is thrown in the video from the rooftop was a molotov cocktail. Police also presented a steel ball that was supposively found stuck in the armor of a water cannon, that was involved pushing into the district Schanze. Officials justify the deployment of heaviy armed special forces with people on roofs shooting iron balls with slingshots. With more then six-hundred police men and women, some of them armored with riffles, tear-gas, armored trucks, and water-cannons police was able to clear the area around occupied theatre Rote Flora at approximately 2 AM. Rumors about evictions of the occupied social center spread on Twitter. Thus were incorrect. Little clashes continued for two more hours in the area around. The number of hurt demonstrators by brutal police forces is unknown. Paramedics on site told us they were not able to count, but it were many.

Photo and Video

Mass Demonstration

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Front banner of mass demonstration against G20
On Saturday ten thousands of people then gathered for a mass demonstration. Organizers spoke of more then 76.000 people participating. In the back of the demonstration that stayed relatively peaceful several groups that showed antisemitic signs marched. Amongst those BDS. The march ended in a concert with several punk bands playing.

Drunk People Attack Police

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Beer drinking, unmasked, blocking armoured police truck getting hit by water-cannon
After concerts ended on Saturday, near famous Millerntorstation, people moved towards the alternative Schanzenviertel again. Opposing the night before, the mood was really chill. People were drinking and hanging out. Then police started to arrest single people. Others already drunk started to throw bottles. Hour by hour the situation got more tense. Completely different then the night before, no organized groups started actions. Groups of mainly young men shouting swear-words attacked police.

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SEK with rifle.
Glass bottles were thrown. Water-cannons were used. A group of people tried to intervene and stepped in front of the water cannon with hands held up in the air. Drunks and unorganized rioters kept throwing bottles. This led to a further escalation of the situation. After action the night before with people attacking police from the roofs special forces were deployed again. SEK showed up with their brand new anti-terror truck Survivor. The military-equipped forces stood amongst drunks in front of Reithalle – in full gear with riffles etc – as the street was crowded and their deployment completely unnecessary they took off.
Later on Schulterblatt street drunks throwing bottles at police continued. Me and a freelance colleague were directly targeted by a group. I was also body-checked twice. The actions against police in the district continued for several hours.

Neo-nazis attack Alternative Bars

After a night of heavy riots neo-nazis from Northern Germany called for action to protect Germany. Eye-whitnesses told us a group of 15-50 attacked punk bars Onkel Otto, Kogge and at least another bar in the area around Hafenstrasse. The group could not be found by us in the early morning hours of July 9th.

Calm returned to the alternative district the next morning. Several unbearable and questionable things happened during the protest to colleagues working. Therefore some of the stories described below.

Press Freedom

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Journalists taking pictures of burning barricades at Schulterblatt – icon image
As usual at mass events and summit meetings the organizers set up a press center close to the meeting area. Journalists – also accredited our team – are able to work here, are offered free food, high-speed internet and most recent breaking news. Several critics were tweeted by colleagues: Workspaces were to few on the first day with 5000 journalists that signed up. On the second day colleagues started reporting that there accreditations were withdrawn. This concerned mainly journalists working on protests against the meeting.

The german federal bureau of investigation BKA handed out four-page lists with names of journalists to take away their pass. We did not attempt to enter the press center as the accreditation is utterly important for working without trouble by police on demonstrations against such events. Journalists’ unions and Reporters without Borders got involved with the process and are questioning the case. This is especially strange as the BKA even did not answer to public television ARD what the exact cause for the withdrawel was. Also on the streets the situation with police officers and press was very tense several times. Colleague Flo Smith reported that he and his TV team were directly attacked with the words ‚Fuck the Press’ by police – more to be read in an article by Huffington Post.

Our team was body-checked, cussed at and targeted with bottles whilst working on the night of the 8th. This did not happen during the heavy riots on the 7ths even though we were reported a camera-team of news channel N24 was attacked. As well as a reporter of taz-die tageszeitung:

Journalist Erik Marquadt was insulted antisemitic on the night of the 8th.

An unbearable situation for journalists that has do be brought to the public nd widely questioned throughout society.

Commentary

All in all to me the protest against the meeting seemed successfull. Plenty groups drew attention away from the meeting. Travels for delegations with bus to the center were at least delayed. In the public reception loitering will always take a big roll when talking about G20 in Hamburg. Especially the second night of riots though was not at all done by organized people, but simply drunks getting into stress with police. This takes away attention of the aims of the protest and leads to a criminalization. An historic protest weekend happened the past four days in the downtown of Hamburg – it will stay in people’s minds.

Aftermath

To present a little overview over the damage – some pictures of cleaning and spectators taking selfies next to broken windows, as well as journalists working in the area.

Subculture in the Bavarian Hinterland – Jugge Open Air 2017

If one thinks about the Bavarian ‘Hinterland’ – roughly translated outback – stereotypic pictures arise: Lederhosen and Dirndl. Beer and Cows. Mustaches. Farmers. Dialect. Sadly also – racism and scepsis towards everything that is diverse from the patriarchial-determined normality. If one takes a closer look though one can find little bastions of resistance to this normality.In what way people step up to this situation really differs – possible it is a pediatrician that organizes people against deportations or an autonomous organized youth center that brings subculture to the middle of nowhere – where there is only ‚Edge’ cellphone connection and the next gas-station a fifteenminute car ride away.
On a early summer weekend in June buddy Max Marquadt and me travelled to the Hinterland and had a blast at Jugge Open Air.

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Hinterland – photo by Max Marquardt

Parking our two mini Coopers – yep we are that stereotypic journalists – we set up our basecamp and watched the setting sun. About three-hundred were camping on the grounds prepared by the organizers. Got to know our neighbors – very cool people – guys and girls from villages around Dorfen. Made friends with them pretty fast. As the light was getting better we got to work.

 

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The stage – photo by Michael Trammer

 

Summed up the broad variety of music played was just vast. Reaching from singer-songwriter type music to electro-punk in carton suits every taste was met. We enjoyed some great HipHop by e.g. Johnny Rakete and Illflow. Jumped into pogo – yes with our cameras – enjoying loud angry Ska-punk sounds by e.g. Undenkbar. Or just enjoyed the sun in the afternoon listening to blues performed by the Noksyur Soksow Ensemble. The final act – Sputnik Booster – made it rumble with electro-punk and nintendo sounds. What a blast. Concerts ended every night at approximately 2 AM – but the party then continued.

 

Sourrounding the Center Stage organizers set up small tents for different activities- colleague Max took part in a motivation course – utterly necessary when working at a news desk. Max also retrieved the foosball table he learned playing  on when he was a little youngster-metal-head underdog. To explain Max grew up close to the youth center that organizes the event. In the past years the foosball table has been very well taken care off.  You all cannot imagine that happiness.

 

To really sum it up: These two days of camping and just enjoying sub-culture in a comfortable environment felt like a week of vacation. Yes this might have to do with the absence of an Internet connection and the always rushing world out there. I really recommend you to take your gang next year and join the Jugge Open Air – if there will be another one. Support those guys rocking the Hinterland with subculture.

 

March of Identitarian Movement in Berlin Blocked – Far-right Activists Clash with Police

Some 800 followers of the far-right Identitarian Movement joined a rally in Berlin on June 17th, 2017. The demonstration was dispersed by impatient leaders of the movement after counter-protestors blocked the route and it took police more then two hours to evict a roadblock. This led to Identitarians running off, clashing twice with police and then travelling home after only having marched a little more then 600m.


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Front-Banner of the far-right march.

In Mid-April leaders of the Identitarian Movement announced to hold their annual so called mass demonstration with participants from all over Europe in Germany’s capital Berlin. This demonstration followed several rather prominent placed actions such as climbing Brandenburger Tor, blocking the entrance of CDU‘s headquarters and blocking the entry of the Ministry of Justice. Months in advance leaders of the movement addressed their followers on social media to prepare for the march in Berlin. Approximately 800 attended the march. Police decided to partially control participants of the rally.

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Activists line up to have bags checked

Officers checked backpacks and banners. As the movement stated that no other, but official Identitarian banners were allowed to be displayed during the march a marshall also checked some other banners and forced people to keep them in their backpacks. A regular attendant of BÄRGIDA seemed quite unhappy about this and was hissing something similar to ‘…I have never seen anything like this at an AfD or PEGIDA march anywhere…’.
At the beginning of the rally at station Gesundbrunnen Martin Sellner and his followers seemed very enthusiastic. As usual at marches of the IB, there were also quite a few women amongst the demonstrators. Other then the classic neonazi-skinhead scene the Identitarian Movement seems to attract more women – links to articles on this topic at the bottom.

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Women in front-row – according to leaked paper of IB e.g. for good publicity

Only a few of the more then one thousand counter-demonstrators were to see at the beginning as they were sitting down on the marching route and setting up roadblocks quite early. This led to police stopping the far-right demonstration after only 600 meters marched.At the front banner during these first 600 meters: Female followers of the movement. Sellner also proclaimed over speakers that this shows the diversity of the movement and that women can be women with IB. Later male participants ripped away the front-banner from those to scuffle with police. This shows once more that women clearly do not have the same position as men in this patriarchal movement. As the group had to wait for several hours while police was evicting a sit-in a few blocks down the route and some smaller groups that were getting close to the march, organizers started to get more and more nervous. Martin Sellner, Daniel Fiß, Robert Timm and other leaders of the

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Roadblock by antifascists on Brunnenstrasse in Wedding.

movement threatened police in negotiations to dissolve the march if the roadblock was not evicted right away. Impatiently waiting they gathered their marshals and then Rober Timm announced via microphone that he is not willing to bear this impact on free speech any further and the demonstration is officially ended now. This tactic is well know from other far-right marches. Neonazis of the party Der III. Weg have used the same tactics several times e.g. on Mayday in Plauen 2016 – 24mmjournalism was on site: Neonazi demonstration in Plauen errupts in heavy clashes on Mayday
Young male Identitarians from Bavaria and Halle amongst others reacted right away by taking the front-banner and turning around pushing forward towards police. Soon this ended in scuffles. Activists pushed into and attacked police with kicks. The group then partially made it around the first police line. Activists took off running towards the next line of arriving police officers waving black and yellow flags with the Lambda symbol.

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Clashes with police – up front: Activists of the Bavarian division of the Identitarian Movement

After a short stop the demonstration started a second attempt to break through police lines. With activists from the back pushing their comrades in the front into others this lead to fights. The block was shouting ‚AHU, AHU, AHU‘ as this happened. After the situation calmed down a little the group was then allowed to rally back to the station of Gesundbrunnen. A police officer wished leaving activists a good day via speakers.

Picture Gallery

Commentary

All in all this shows the danger and acceptance of violence of a movement that is self-proclaimed peaceful. The tactics used against police were equal to those of other neo-fascist groups in Germany. Lutz Bachmann of the PEGIDA movement was traveling on the truck. Designs of banners etc were painted lookalikes of left-wing demonstrators. IB leaves Berlin-Wedding with very few meters marched unmasking themselves as a violent, neo-fascist, patriarchal and authoritarian movement. No hip young people, just selfie-taking fascists that know how to use the internet.

Links to articles on women in the Identitarian movement – giving a reason why their participation is mentioned especially:

Katja Thorwarth for FR-Online: http://www.fr.de/politik/gender/feminismus/identitaere-bewegung-rechtsextreme-grinsekatzen-a-1111035
Takis Würger for Spiegel: http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/melanie-schmitz-der-star-der-ultrarechten-identitaeren-bewegung-a-1149449.html

And some general Links to good articles about this movement:

Michael Barthel for Stoerungsmelder on reporting about Identitarians: http://blog.zeit.de/stoerungsmelder/2017/06/19/von-postergirls-und-dunklen-rittern-wie-man-ueber-die-neue-rechte-schreiben-sollte-und-wie-nicht_23988

Protest against G7 Ministerial Meeting on Environment in Bologna

After the Trump administration announced to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris agreement the world’s attention turned to the G7 Ministerial Meeting on Environment in Bologna in June 2017. Activists used this chance to gather and protest against the G7, ecological crimes and to remind that our environment needs protection. Also activists from Hamburg participated and invited people to join the protest against the G20 meeting in July, as well as the ‘Ende Gelände’ protest in August (we will report on both). More then 500 activists joined the protest in Bologna that stayed very peaceful. 

Picture Gallery

Protest against Deportations to Afghanistan in Munich

After a massive bomb attack on the diplomatic district of Kabul, violent scenes going viral of police deporting a pupil from school in Nuremberg and protest by politicians and the public, deportations to Afghanistan have been – partially – paused since the evening of June 1st. The past two days protestors had been taking it to the streets all over Germany – and also in Munich, showing solidarity with refugees in danger of deportation.

Demonstration on Wednesday, May 31st

More then 400 people attended, of whom many were refugees themselves to stand up against deportations to Afghanistan. The event was very peaceful, only when riot-police showed up the atmosphere got worse. Also smaller scuffles with police broke out when a bystander showed a Hitler salute towards the demonstration walking down Ludwigstrasse in downtown Munich. Police arrested the bystander.

Rally by Bellevue di Monaco on June 1st

Many politicians and celebrities from Munich joined a rally in front of the ministry of education and cultural affairs on Wednesday night to especially protest against deportations out of schools – but also deportations to Afghanistan in general. Munich Hip-Hop/Brass band Moop Mama played a few songs.

Deportations to Afghanistan Rescheduled

On May 31st another two charter-deportation flights to Afghanistan were supposed to be conducted from Munich and Frankfurt Airport in the evening hours. In the morning a heavy explosion shattered the area around the german embassy leaving more then 80 dead – death tolls still rising. Therefore the ministry of the interior issued a statement announcing a rescheduling of the flights. The statement from government circles states that the embassy does not have the capacity to handle the bureaucracy connected to the deportations after the attack.  At the same time a 21-year-old Afghan trainee was pulled out of his class in school. Pupils tried to block his deportation. Police used massive violence. Afghanistan is still seen as a safe-to-deport to country.

Header-picture: Rejected refugees are transported to the charter-plane heading for Afghanistan March 2017.

Flights rescheduled

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Meridiana plane with rejected asylum seekers aboard, before heading to Afghanistan – March 2017

According to government circles the flights are cancelled for the following reason:

” Die deutsche Botschaft in Kabul hat eine wichtige logistische Rolle beim Empfang rückgeführter Personen vor Ort. Die dortigen Mitarbeiterinnen und Mitarbeiter haben so kurz nach diesem Anschlag jetzt wichtigeres zu tun, als solche organisatorischen Maßnahmen vorzubereiten. In den nächsten paar Tagen wird es daher keine Sammelrückführung nach Afghanistan geben.

Es ist und bleibt aber richtig, dass nach unserem Gesetz bestehende Ausreisepflichten durchgesetzt werden müssen. Dieser Grundsatz  gilt auch für Afghanistan, insbesondere bei Straftätern, und dieser Weg wird konsequent weiter beschritten. “
– aus Regierungskreisen

roughly translated, this means:

The german embassy in Kabul is taking an important logistic role in taking in deported people on site. The employees have more important things to do after the terror attack, then preparing bureaucratic measures. In the upcoming days there will therefore be no mass deportations  to Afghanistan.
It is and stays important to conduct obligations to leave the county according to our laws. This principle also applies to Afghanistan, especially with criminal offenders, and this road hast to be taken consequently.

– from government circles

This statement undermines the government’s approach on deporting to Afghanistan very well. The country is seen as safe. Therefore people – no matter how well integrated – will be deported. In our short video-report we took on the question if Afghanistan is a safe country and documented deportations from Munich a little more then a month ago.

Deportation from Class in Nuremberg

On May 31st police entered class of a refugee from Afghanistan, according to the BFR a 21-year-old, well integrated, fluently german speaking man that had begun a traineeship as a carpenter a while ago. As they arrested him other 200 to 300 pupils stood up to show civil unrest and block the seportation. According to nordbayern.de after the first police car was blocked the young man was forced into a second car. A second roadblock was evicted by police and several pupils were arrested. A spontaneous demonstration evolved from the events.

Demonstrations in several cities tonight:

Activists, supporters and refugees are calling for demonstrations against deportations tonight – we will be in Munich to cover the demonstration.

Gideon Levy Speaks in Gasteig on BDS- 24mmjournalism is Prohibited Entry

Return of Jüdisch-Palästinensische Dialoggruppe to Gasteig

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BDS talk 2015 in Gasteig, with Christopher Ben Kushka

Almost two years after the event of the ‘Jüdisch-Palästinensische Dialoggruppe‘ ending in trouble the group is allowed to return to the munipicial center. According to reports of the Süddeutsche Zeitung, the city checked possibilities to cancel the event but saw no option as the group only rented the rooms. 24mmjournalism’s photographer Michi was again on site to report on the event and counter-protest.

Entry Denied after Critical Report 2015

At the entrance of the Black-box 24mmjournalism was denied entry. One of the organizers greated with: “Look who is there, our thief friend” – referring to an absurde accusation made in 2015 to have stolen all informaton material. Trying to clear tthis with the organizers led to no goal. They advised to buy a ticket, but told 24mmjournalism right away, that taking photos inside would not be allowed. So even though we wanted to report about the sucseeding event to 2015 – and also changes and other approaches – we were denied. This is almost hillarious as Ben Kushka the speaker from the last talk eventhough we reported quite critical on his talk, stole a photo published on this blog (including the watermark) to mobilize for another talk on BDS by him.

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Screenshot of picture by 24mmjournalism, stolen by Christopher Ben Kushka.

Counter-protest

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24mmjournalism

On Saturday November 7th the association „Jüdisch-Palästinensiche Dialoggruppe München“ held an event in the Gasteig in Munich. The city handed over the room for this talk without demanding any rent. In a statement before the talk the chief of the city library stated that in a democratic pluralistic society the option has to be given for all parties to speak out their opinion. Someone in the audience therefore shouted: “Why don’t you give it to the NPD” (NPD = National Democratic Party / far right/neonazi party). This free of rent handover caused a reaction by Charlotte Knobloch and the event was mentioned in international newspapers. „BDS“ – boycott, divestment & sanctions – is a internationally controversial idea of boycotting products from Israel as a reaction to settlements and “the mistreatement of Palestina”.

How BDS works


The barcode on products tells the costumer the origin of the good. Every country has its own…

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Public Friday Prayer in Munich Cancelled in Fear of Neo-nazi Disturbance

On Friday May 19th some members of the Muslim community wanted to hold their Friday prayer on Marienplatz in Munich, to draw attention to the fact that more and more mosques have been closed during the past years in the Munich downtown area. In fact in the area around the city center there is no place left for muslims to gather and hold their worship. After neo-nazis announced on Facebook to disturb the event, the public prayer was cancelled. Police guided people to a close-by jesuit church. The prayer was then held there. Neonazis and regular PEGIDA attendants showed up and mocked people from the other side of the street. As a local activist asked police why those people are allowed here the policeman answered him that they were only having a walk and not disturbing. So after all neo-nazis managed to force people of other belief to not be able to hold their demonstration and display their faith. At the Jesuit church the local priest pushed out press even though the Muslim community said that pictures before the prayer were completely allowed and wished.

Mayday 2017 in Paris

For anyone that has been watching the political situation in France during the last year and especially the last week, as the first round of the presidential elections was held, it was very clear that this May 1st in Paris would be a remarkable day. The big workers unions and antifascists mobilized for a joint demonstration from Place de la Republique over Place de la Bastille to Place de la Nation. Police deployed 2000 officers, expecting up to 40.000 participants at the demonstration. Also the danger of a terror attack was discussed by officials in advance. The maybe historic Mayday demonstration in 2017 quickly turned violent and heavy riots continued during the whole march.

Festivities at Place de la Republique
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Statue on Place de la Republique equipped with a red flag and spray-painted next to it: ‘Nique le FN’ – Fuck the FN

At noon Place de la Republique – a traditional place to gather for protest in a rather touristic area – was already crowded with people. Different music was playing. Kurdisch activists showing support with the workers’ party of Kurdistan, were therefore waving PKK flags and dancing. A variety of grilled food was sold. A banner praising Marxism and Leninism was placed in the middle of the square. Red flags with hammer and sickle were attached to statues overlooking the place. People with flags, signs and banners against LePen – but as well against Macron – were pouring onto the square. Lots of people were getting ready for the rally through the city.

Violent Mayday demonstration
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Police was attacked with Molotov-Cocktails several times.

Workers’ unions like the CGT and other had organized the event. Participating with trucks and balloons they were setting everything in place. Several thousand people got together and formed a black block in the first part of the big demo. Just after a few meter the first escalation started. Riot police was getting close and protestors started throwing stones, bottles and pyrotechnics. This was answered by police very quickly with tear-gas. The situation escalated with police in between antifascist protestors leading to several riots going on at the same time. As there were also Molotov cocktails thrown at police forces on site those answered with rubber bullets. The fighting continued the whole demonstration. Plenty demonstrators were wounded. There are reports on Twitter about broken lenses of colleagues and violence against those. Rubber bullets were also fired at journalists. 

After all the escalation does not come by surprise. Exactly in between the two election rounds with ‚the problem and it’s cause‘ in the second round peoples anger could clearly be felt. This especially displayed when the black block was marching in the beginning, lighting smoke grenades, and – rather old – people standing at the side of the street were shouting: ‚Revolution, revolution, revolution…‘. France, representing Europe, seems to be at a historic turning point or point of no return.