Rally 3 pm – Prison Hammerweg – Dresden
May 8, 2021, anniversary of Germany’s surrender and liberation from German fascism, is a day for celebration. But it is also a day to denounce racism, anti-Semitism and fascism. Today we denounce the #police problem in Germany. We demand: The consistent clarification of countless racist incidents and the immediate denazification of security agencies riddled with radical right-wing networks and ideologies. We say: This is not security!
We denounce
Racist police violence – discriminatory checks, intimidation, attacks, murders and deaths in custody – is the order of the day in Germany. We are not talking about tragic „individual cases,“ but about entrenched institutional racism against refugees, Black people, persons of color, Rom*nja and Sinti*zze. Since 1990 alone, 181 people affected by racism have died in prisons and police stations. Most recently, the racist, cruel treatment of several inmates at Dresden Prison, who were harassed and mistreated by security personnel, became public.¹ And national borders are also associated with experiences of violence for many people: Police persecution, inhumane deportations, and illegal pushbacks with EU benevolence in Greece and the Balkans.
You have police, we have questions
The Saxon police are in the public eye with numerous scandals that show that the entire police apparatus is riddled with neo-Nazis and racists: leaked documents and information that turn up at right-wing groups², police officers who themselves act as organizers and participants of right-wing demonstrations³ or conduct shooting training on the premises of convinced neo-Nazis.⁴ On the other hand, there is a notorious zeal for persecution against left-wing and anti-fascist groups and individuals. It ranges from Lothar König and the so-called Antifasportgruppe to the surveillance and persecution of Kurdish activists under §129a to the work of the „Soko Linx“ and the arrest of the antifascist Lina.
Early Warning System for Democracy
The involvement of the Saxon Office for the Protection of the Constitution in the NSU complex has clearly shown that this agency was directly involved in the development, networking and financing of right-wing terror. But instead of dissolving the agency and holding those responsible accountable, the „V-Mann-System“ was legally expanded and central figures of the scandal that came to light were promoted.⁵ As before, the agency is a site of anti-communist and right-wing ideology production: its main enemy is on the left. This has not changed since the founding of the agency, which was largely built by Nazis.
Police everywhere, security nowhere
In recent decades, social spending has been cut, but the powers of the police and the judiciary have been steadily expanded. Thanks to the new police law, the Saxon police have military equipment such as armored vehicles, machine guns and grenades. Tasers, which are responsible for numerous deaths in the U.S., are also being added, as are new surveillance techniques. More and more, social problems are answered with violence and repression. For the profit interests of investors, squatters are evicted and forced evictions are enforced. When the state has to prove its ability to act, mosques, shisha bars, Kurdish associations and anti-fascists are raided. Especially the Kurdish movement suffers from the repression of the German state, which makes itself a stooge of the Turkish regime. The use of the police in psychological crisis situations aggravates the situation of sick people and can, as in the case of Maria B. from Berlin, end fatally. The security apparatus is a danger, because it does not create security for the people in this country, but for capitalist property and the associated racist social order.
(No) end of violence
We are angry. Ultimately, the Saxon CDU is behind all these scandals. It has established a political culture that allows impunity for police officers*, backing for racist policing, and the persecution of leftist opinions. Too rarely does all this have consequences, too rarely is the dehumanizing treatment by the authorities scandalized and justice fought for those affected. We know from experience, political change can only be achieved through collective pressure on the streets. The necessary competencies and resources to investigate racism, anti-Semitism and police violence belong in the hands of those affected and civil society.
The high financial expenditures for the security apparatus cause more violence and are better invested in education, health care, housing, affordable rents, social and neighborhood work. That’s why, in the year of the federal election, we stand for radical changes in the security agencies, the consistent prosecution of all right-wing networks and a different way of dealing with social conflicts. There is no „business as usual.
Hit the streets for the rally on May 8, 2021 – 3 p.m. – Hammerweg.
We are all antifa. We are all linX. For a solidary society!
¹ https://www.focus.de/politik/rassismus-vorwuerfe-in-dresdner-gefaengnis-niere-ausgeklopft-jva-beamte-feiern-in-chat-gewalt-gegen-auslaendische-haeftlinge_id_13149516.html
² exemplary the Leipzig police officer Fernando V. https://www.vice.com/de/article/gq38nw/gehacktes-handy-enthuellt-verbindungen-zwischen-leipziger-neonazis-polizisten-472 & https://www.l-iz.de/leben/faelle-unfaelle/2015/05/nazi-skandal-bereitschaftspolizei-prueft-disziplinarverfahren-gegen-fernando-v-90338, the publication of an arrest warrant in a murder case in Chemnitz https://www.tagesschau.de/multimedia/video/video-442339.html and AfD deputy Sven Janich https://www.addn.me/nazis/polizist-als-veranstalter-fuer-corona-proteste-in-pirna/
⁴ https://www.addn.me/soziales/lka-sachsen-munitionsdiebstahl-blieb-jahrelang-unbemerkt/
⁵ On the involvement of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution in the NSU https://www.nsu-watch.info/2014/10/aufbauhilfe-welche-rolle-spielten-v-leute-fuer-das-entstehen-der-heutigen-neonazi-szene/ & https://www.welt.de/politik/deutschland/article154082719/NSU-Moerder-arbeitete-bei-V-Mann-des-Verfassungsschutzes.html, first and foremost the former head of the Saxon LfV Gordian Meyer-Plath https://www.nsu-watch.info/2013/04/von-piatos-fahrdienstleister-zum-behordenleiter-die-vernehmung-des-gordian-meyer-plath/, https://www.nsu-watch.info/2013/01/die-quelle-und-der-prasident/ & https://jungle.world/artikel/2020/29/blind-und-sprachlos