Post-Nazi Partisans?

12Nov12

From Souciant:

Post-Nazi Partisans?

by Randomizer on Oct 16, 2012

Radicals the world over continue to make use — some would say overuse — of the terms “Fascist” and “Nazi”, which have demonstrated remarkable staying power in the lexicon of demonization. But there’s no denying that they resonate with special force in Germany. As Europe’s economy threatens to spiral out of control and right-wing populist movements like Greece’s Golden Dawn grow stronger, often by invoking hostility towards German bankers and politicians, the Left is faced with a terminological predicament.

If the heirs of twentieth-century Fascism build support at Germany’s expense, implying that the European Union is the Third Reich by another name, is it still prudent for leftists to summon their followers to combat the specter of Nazism in defense of democratic values? The following flyer, photographed this summer in Berlin’s Neukölln neighborhood, while continuing in a longstanding tradition of mustering left-wing “troops” to counter Germany’s Far Right, subtly addresses this quandary by suggesting that its readers are “Partisans” — not a term typically applied to the German Resistance — and showing the iconic image of Benito Mussolini and members of his inner circle hung up like carcasses at a slaughterhouse.

In other words, although the ostensible target for this action was a march by German Nazis, the broader implication is that Fascism is a transnational phenomenon. Incidentally, the march barely got started before the combination of a heavy police presence along the designated route, and anti-fascist forces blockading alternate paths, forced participants to disperse. [READ THE REST]

This is in my current second favourite magazine’s Street Art section.

Here are some other recent items in Souciant:

Palestine in Africa

by Emanuel Stoakes on Nov 7, 2012

Military occupations bring certain themes to mind: human rights abuses; poverty; crowded refugee camps, and so on. Geographic references are equally synonymous: Palestine, Kashmir or West Papua, to cite the most recent example. Rarely, if ever, is the miserable situation in the sparsely-populated province of Western Sahara cited. More»

Age and Occupation

by Randomizer on Nov 6, 2012

At first glance, the flyer might have struck the jadedflâneur as parody. Instead of the crusty punks and hippies that usually festoon images of protest in Berlin, a bunch of white-hairs hold a large banner with the classic squatter’s slogan “This house is occupied.” More»

Leftover Politics

by Randomizer on Oct 30, 2012 •

One of the first things I did when I arrived in Germany as an exchange student in 1986 was to walk into a bookstore and buy a collection of Bertolt Brecht’s plays. I spoke almost no German. And the only Brecht I had been aware of back in the states was his libretto for the Kurt Weill “song-play” The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny More»

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