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# taz.de -- Right Wing Violence and Self Defense: Thanks, Antifa
> Invoking the slogan “no violence“ in the fight against the right is a
> betrayal of the victims of neo-Nazis and does nothing to stop the
> violence they experience.
Bild: Peaceful protest: 2,000 people block a neo-Nazi demonstration in Leipzig …
On October 25, 2010, Kamal K. was murdered across from the main train
station in Leipzig. He was approached by two neo-Nazis who then shoved a
knife into his stomach. Marcus E., the main perpetrator, had been released
from prison just ten days earlier: he had been sentenced for three counts
of rape, five counts of aggravated battery, and two counts of assault. The
prosecution said that he had the word “Rassenhass“ [racial hatred] and
pictures of Hitler tattooed on his body. He was sentenced to [1][thirteen
years in prison for murder].
The state’s monopoly on violence did not help Kamal K. that day. And anyone
whose only response to the many appeals to violence from the AfD or other
right wing groups is to say “no violence“ and talk about principles of
justice fails to recognize that those principles mean nothing to Kamal K.’s
murderer or that their violence toward other people is very real. Given
that there are a lot of people in Germany today who ideologically advocate
and perpetrate violence, “no violence“ is a naïve slogan. [AfD is an
abbreviation of Alternative für Deutschland, a far right German political
party that has made significant electoral advances since it was founded in
2013 by trafficking in anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim rhetoric. -Tr.]
There are certainly countless other stories like Kamal K.’s. I have chosen
to tell his, because it could have been mine. When Kamal K. was murdered, I
was studying in Leipzig and commuted there from Berlin regularly to attend
seminars. I could have been Kamal K.: a victim of a stabbing outside the
main train station. When I got on the tram to go home one day and a tall,
beefy man followed me repeating a racial slur over and over, I thought,
“This is it.“ But he just wanted to put an NPD sticker on my window. [The
Nationaldemokratische Partei Deutschlands is a white supremacist German
party that the German government's Office for the Protection of the
Constitution identifies as a neo-Nazi organization. -Tr.]
At the time, the NPD held sway in the right-wing scene in the city of
Leipzig and the state of Saxony. They are insignificant now, but their
successor, the AfD, is even more influential than the NPD ever was. AfD
politicians have advocated shooting people at the border (Beatrix von
Storch, chair of the AfD caucus in the Bundestag), “hunting“ politicians
(Alexander Gauland, AfD party chairman), “slaying“ Angela Merkel (Nicolaus
Fest), “disposing of“ people in other countries (Alexander Gauland),
putting journalists up against a wall (Holger Arppe, AfD state leader for
Schleswig-Holstein), and throwing political opponents from helicopters
(Thorben Schwarz). They have also expressed their desire for terror attacks
(Arvid Samtleben). For several years, the AfD has propagated a rhetoric of
violence that is at least as noxious as the NPD’s was.
## When Violence is a Constant Possibility
At the time, I inwardly prepared myself for my death at the hands of
neo-Nazis. “No violence ever“ might sound like a reasonable position to
other people. To me, it does not. Kamal K. and the neo-Nazi from the tram
were not the first times I braced myself for far-right violence. “No
violence“ is therefore an absurd slogan: I had to deal with violence again
and again. It was always there, at least as a possible fate.
I lived in the eastern part of Leipzig, where the far right organization
[2][Freie Kräfte Leipzig] was making trouble. They painted [3][a large
swastika] on our somewhat rundown building at an intersection. Leftists
promptly painted over it with the words “Nie wieder Deutschland“ [Never
again Germany, an antifascist slogan]. The neo-Nazis then escalated their
threatening behavior: [4][their next march] went past our building and they
planned their rally right outside. When we raised objections with the city,
officials said that there was no proof that the people who applied for the
demo permit were the ones who painted the swastika.
That is when the building got organized. When the neo-Nazis marched on the
intersection outside, it was to the sound of loud circus music; when they
tried to speak, they heard a playlist of antifascist rock bands. The Nazi
organization was only able to hold its rally after the police broke into
our basement and destroyed the fuses (despite our reports, the police never
prosecuted for the property damage). The Nazis’ revenge came swiftly. They
broke into the building one night and tried to assault a woman who lived on
the ground floor. She and a friend who was visiting braced themselves
against the door, saving themselves from bodily injury.
The police were unable to do anything for our safety, but the Leipzig
antifa scene was something else entirely: 300 people attended a
demonstration outside our building and shouted the old slogan “Alerta,
alerta, antifascista“ in the neighborhood. At night, men dressed in black
kept watch in the hall of our building with truncheons and I was able to
sleep. We heard rumors that the leaders of the Nazi organization had been
attacked and given a good thrashing, that their phones had been stolen and
analyzed. I do not know if that is true, but they never visited our
building again.
“No violence“ did not protect us. My neighbor on the ground floor was
traumatized and moved out. I got in touch with my martial arts teacher and
asked him to teach me full-contact street fighting techniques. Over the
months that followed, I allowed myself to be beaten up by martial artists:
once by a 6’5“, 265 lb. giant, another time by an advanced black belt in my
weight class. We wore hand protection, but otherwise nothing was off
limits. I had to survive for two minutes without leaving a yellow square on
the mat. I never made it past thirty seconds.
## First Priority: Safety!
My teacher summarized the lessons this way: when Nazis attack you, run
away. When you are cornered, run away. If you have to fight, run away at
the first opportunity. If none of that works, finish with your attacker
within thirty seconds. A neighbor who focused on nonviolent conflict
resolution agreed with him, saying, “The first priority is always to leave
an unclear situation and get out of harm’s way.“
I bought pepper spray. “Trouble with right-wingers?“ the clerk asked. “Not
yet,“ I answered. It was only years later that I realized I had been living
in a state of exception for a long time.
The state, which watches out for its monopoly on violence, could not
prevent or punish the violence against us. It abandoned my neighbor and me.
“No violence“ did not mean that we did not experience any violence. It only
meant that we were responsible for our own protection. The state only acted
after violence was done to us.
But even when the state acts, there are the countless examples of the far
right [5][infiltrating the authorities], of the [6][police being blind to
right wing terror], or of the judiciary [7][delaying trials] and
[8][downplaying right wing violence].
What helped in Leipzig back then was violence: first, the threat of
violence by antifascists who, from then on, came to eastern Leipzig more
often and opened a collective store and, secondly, the actual violence that
they exercised against organized right wing extremists. I took care of the
remaining risk by intensively training for violent situations.
I and, presumably, the antifascists would have preferred it, if they did
not have to use force and if the state, which has at least rhetorically
dissociated itself from fascism since its inception, had found the means to
break up neo-Nazi structures itself. Would Marcus E. have listened to
someone yelling “no violence“ at the central Leipzig train station that
day? Unlikely. He was already too far gone for that; the monopoly on
violence and the justice system did not render him harmless.
What would have happened if an antifa hooligans had paid him a visit every
day after he was released from prison? Would Kamal K. still be alive? Would
it have been worthwhile to exchange his life for Marcus E.’s physical
safety? And can emergency aid be preemptive?
## A Party that Ideologically Justifies Violence
AfD politician Frank Magnitz has posted [9][several images that endorse
violence] on Facebook. One of them depicts German Chancellor Angela Merkel
with a black eye. Another shows a shapeless, flesh-colored mass on the
ground: Magnitz’s caption reads, “Did Merkel fall down?“ Both images have…
certain poetry. Last week, Magnitz similarly lay on the ground [10][after
being attacked]. He had a similar black eye, which spread throughout the
media.
Even if Magnitz is not physically violent himself, as a member of a party
that endorses political violence and ideologically justifies it, he
contributes to the fact that Germany has become a more dangerous place for
many people over the past several years.
Just as I slept soundly because an antifascist was willing to stand guard
and use violence, Magnitz and his fellow party members also have their
proxies, like Marcus E., who are willing to transform threats of violence
into action. And they are willing to accept the state’s penalties for that
violence. “No violence“ is not a slogan that they will listen to.
(Translation by Joe Keady. The [11][original German story] is here.)
18 Jan 2019
## LINKS
[1] http://www.lvz.de/Leipzig/Lokales/BGH-entscheidet-Urteil-wegen-Mordes-an-Ir…
[2] https://www.chronikle.org/dossier/neonazis-leipzig-freien-kraefte-0
[3] https://www.chronikle.org/ereignis/nazis-greifen-wohnhaus-reudnitz
[4] https://www.chronikle.org/ereignis/nazidemo-reudnitz
[5] /taz-Recherche-auf-Englisch/!5558072
[6] /Neonazi-Terrorzelle-NSU/!5097335
[7] /Frueherer-NPD-Mann-erneut-vor-Gericht/!5564401
[8] https://www.sueddeutsche.de/politik/rechtsextremismus-sachsen-anhalt-prozes…
[9] https://twitter.com/PatrickGensing/status/1082952006543831040
[10] /Neues-zum-Ueberfall-auf-AfD-Politiker/!5561196
[11] /Rechte-Gewalt-Notwehr-und-Nothilfe/!5563181
## AUTOREN
Lalon Sander
## TAGS
taz in English
taz international
Schwerpunkt AfD
Frank Magnitz
Rechtsextremismus
NPD
Antifaschismus
Lesestück Meinung und Analyse
## ARTIKEL ZUM THEMA
Rechte Gewalt, Notwehr und Nothilfe: Danke, Antifa
Wer im Kampf gegen Rechts die Parole „Keine Gewalt“ zitiert, lässt
Neonazi-Opfer im Stich. Die Gewalt, die sie erfahren, wird so nicht
verhindert.
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