“Autonomous” fascists

11May09

Late Mayday news. SlackBastard on violent Neo-Nazis in Germany:

[...]A communiqué from Autonome Antifa Freiburg, on the other hand, is a little more direct: Beat the Fascists wherever you meet them! (Schlagt die Faschisten, wo ihr sie trefft!) It identifies the ‘autonomous’ or ‘free’ nationalists — essentially, the extra-parliamentary far right — as being “a new form of right-wing radicalism in Germany”, one which first came to major media attention only last year (but which has been developing slowly for many more years). Aside from its rejection of close stewardship by the leading neo-Nazi party the NPD, the autonomists distinguish themselves by way of their aping the tactics of ‘antifa’ opponents. The protection the German state provides their public assemblies, and the impatience many on the far right have with the arrogance and corruption of the NPD, have proven attractive to a number of racist youth in Germany. Given that, in one study, almost 5 per cent of boys ’said they belonged to a “right-wing group or Kameradschaft“, the future is looking rosy for the ANs.

The relevant bit of the source text:

While in Ulm autonomous Antifa were subjected to excessive police violence, they were yet again betrayed by the “German Confederation of Trade Unions” (DGB) but received solidarity only from Kurdish as well as communist demonstrators. The DGB has yet again placed itself in the tradition of May Day 1933. Even then the Nazis attempted to transfigure the international workers day into the “day of national work”. On the 2nd of May 1933 they devoured the trade union movement while on the day before part of the trade Union movement went on the streets together with the Nazi Party. Every year the Nazis try to claim May Day for themselves so that its roots will be forgotten: The anarchist assembly in 1886 at the Haymarket in Chicago to promote a general strike for an 8 hour working day.

May Day 2008 became a signal for a new form of right-wing radicalism in Germany. For the first time the “Autonomous Nationalists” (AN) received attention from the media. It was then that 1,100 Nazis from a militant youth subculture marched through the Barmbeck district of the city Hamburg. Over 9,000 leftists gave resistance, the Nazis concentrated their attacks against members of the press as well as political opponents. The police were surprised and dumbfounded by the new quality of right wing militancy. Within the scene the attention resulted in a greater momentum in the attractiveness of the AN. The AN present themselves as a superficial right-wing rip-off of Autonomous Antifa and are attempting to develop a violent and modern image in order to attract young people. Although they are turning away from traditional repugnant Nazi images such as the narrow minded hair parting (aka Hitler) or the thuggish Nazi-skin, in order to appeal to a new generation, they have however failed to achieve the support of a broad spectrum necessary for a mass movement.

On the 12th of April 2008, 800 ANs had already marched through the town of Stolberg (North Rhine-Westphalia). The reason for this is that on the 4th of April a youth had been killed in a street fight after attending an NPD meeting. The largest rally so far by the Autonomous Nationalists occurred on the 6th of September 2008 when 1,200 Nazis, despite counter-protests from 1,800 left-wing demonstrators, were able to march undisturbed through the streets of Dortmund (North Rhine-Westphalia). The march was to commemorate the German invasion of Poland on the 1st of September 1939. The Nazis have been commemorating the start of the second world war for the past four years, cynically running under the motto of “national anti-war day”. On the 1st of May 2009 the AN marched once again through their stronghold Dortmund, this time 300 of them attacked a Trade union demonstration.

SlackBastard adds:

In Australia, the ‘autonomous nationalists’ have established a tiny foothold among the far right, with the only development of any real significance of late being the announcement of an informal alliance between the ‘New Right’ and boneheads belonging to ‘Volksfront Australia’. The chief architect, in both cases, is the Sydney businessman, German-born ex-NPD member Welf Herfurth. Presumably, the handful of boneheads belonging to Volksfront are intended to supplement the teenyboppers Welf has assembled around the banner of the New Right.

Here’s another Melbourne blogger on the same topic. Similar currents are emerging or growing elsewhere. There are blogs out there from English “autonomous nationalist” claiming to “radically” oppose capitalism and globalisation. In the Czech Republic, they have been putting the boot in to the Roma (see here/here). This report of the 2009 Anarchist Activist Conference at Pitzer, in California, shows that they have infiltrated that scene, with utterly inadeqaute resistance.

Not significant yet, but way past time to kick them out of the movement.

Filed under: Antifa, Fascists in the anti-globalization movement, germany   |  Leave a Comment
Tags: anarchism, Antifa, Australia, autonomous nationalists