20,000 anti-fascists against Nazis

Mounting many varied blockading actions, 20,000 anti-fascists from all over Germany and other European countries prevented a planned large-scale Nazi march in Dresden on Saturday 19 February.

There were massive clashes with police acting extremely brutally. They attacked the blockers with batons, pepper spray, water cannons, armoured vehicles and newly acquired pepperball guns. Several people were seriously injured. But the brutal police violence didn’t stop the broad spectrum of activists who’d travelled to Dresden from making its centre impassable for the fascists. In addition to mass squats, in the old quarter there were also many barricades.

Only about 2,000 fascists of both sexes had dared to go to Dresden and failed with every attempt to carry out demonstrations. Even a spontaneously demonstration called by them in nearby Leipzig ended on the rails of its main railway station before it even began.

All in all a very successful day for the anti-fascist movement in Germany.

Naturally not everyone is happy about that. While the Nazis are sulking, the Saxony police are also proving sore losers and on Saturday stormed the press office of the “Dresden Nazi-free” alliance. The alliance people present were forced to strip naked and submit to a registration of personal data.

Information available so far is that they’ll be charged with conspiracy and public incitement to criminal acts as well as breaches of public order. The raiding police took all computers and storage media. That has led so far to 79 arrests of anti-fascists.

Indymedia

Thanks to NewsHound for the heads-up