20.05.2004:
Angsträume beseitigen! Chauvinismus entgegentreten! Den Nazis ins Bier spucken!
Petersburger Platz (Petersburger Straße / Ecke Straßmannstraße)
Ab 14:00: Kundgebung und Picknick
Friedrichshain - colorful and hip!?
Friedrichshain is said to be hip, alternative and colourful. Yuppies live consistent with punks, original inhabitants get along with newly settled students and tourists have drinks in Simon-Dach-Straße. There are many pensioners and young families meet each other in the Volkspark. But taking a more precise look one can realize that this paradise is illusory. The alleged colourful cohort of Friedrichshainers does not live in such a harmony. Increasingly areas of fear develop for people who do not fit in German orderliness and racist thinking.
There are pubs in which known NPD-members hang out (eg. Happy Station Petersburger Straße/Straßmannstraße), in which especially men obviously like to wear clothes with a clear message: KuKlux-Klan-sweatshirts, in the extreme right wing scene favoured symbols of Nordic myths and similar stuff.
Again and again there are attacks against persons categorized as "non-German" - some of them are documented like the attack against four Vietnamese youngsters in July 2003, started in Frank's Relaxbar in Pettenkofer Straße. Recently antifascists have been attacked several times in the region of Frankfurter Tor. On the 11th of January 2004 a young man is hunted by two Nazis until he was able to escape to the Underground-station Frankfurter Tor, the Nazis called him a "Goddam Jew" and beat against the windows of the leaving train. On the 6th of February two left persons were harmed considerably by four Nazis, likewise at Frankfurter Tor. Also in February one could see graffitis of SS-runes, the Nazi-slogan "Arbeit macht frei" (work sets free) and a swastika. For a long period of time the slogan "Revenge for Hess" was sprayed at an entrance of station Weberwiese. On the 22nd of February members of the right-wing and militant group Kameradschaft Tor (companionship Tor; which was founded in Friedrichshain) tried to commemorate Horst Wessel at the hospital of Friedrichshain. Furthermore the NPD had several info points at the Ringcenter.
Notoriously known is also the event Biermeile (Beermile) that takes place in August in the Karl-Marx-Avenue, where, especially at the booth of Odins Trunk (Odin's drink), Nazis were gathering in the previous years. Not to mention the common aggressive and threatening basic atmosphere that is caused by drunken men and dominating the whole area for three days.
Additionally there is the normal everyday-racism of suspicious neighbours that are always observing other neighbours because they consider the colour of their skin too dark, because they judge them too Turkish, too Asian or too Russian or simply too different.
Father's Day is Gents' Day is Ascension...
...is racist is sexist
Annually on the so called Father's Day the described racist and sexist tendencies can go off, for dad is really free on that day. On the Father's Day all over the cities and in the countryside drunken men walk about. As well in Friedrichshain they totter and make life miserable for Non-Germans, Non-Whites and Non-MEN. There are developing areas of fear for all those who do not (want to) fit in
The "Gent's Day" or "Father's Day" is based upon religious roots - some historians also assume Germanic rituals. Already since the middle ages it is just a pub crawl for bawling men. Since 1914 celebrated as a counterpart to the Mother's Day it is excellent adequate to be used as an action's day by Nazis. Even if not all men tramping drunken and bawling are equal with Nazis they can easily find links within their patriarch, manly-heterosexual world view. And so it is not astonishing that Nazis attack people under the protection of tramping cliques of men.
Thus in 1994 on "Gent's Day" in Magdeburg approx. 60 Germans pursued migrants and refugees. Only foreigners and a few Germans defend themselves. Several haunted were beaten brutally, suffered injuries and were even brutally abused by the police. This event becomes especially known afterwards. But similar news from the different regions of Germany crop up every year: Disabled persons are attacked; Women are threatened and so on. Especially foreigners regularly suffer serious injuries and have to be taken to the hospital. Even murder happens like in 1997 in Königs Wusterhausen when the 60 year old German, jobless alcoholic Augustin Blotzki was beaten to death by locally well-known fascists while he was called a "goddam foreigner" and ""Bulgarian sod". Many people don't leave their flats on Father's Day because of events like that or they choose their ways very carefully under the influence of fear.
Similar incidents are to be feared of on the 20th of May 2004. Also on this year's "Father's Day" Nazis and right-wing men will tramp in the streets bawling and drinking.
We want to be present on that day so that the public space can not belong to racists and fascists. For this reason there will be taking place a manifestation and a picnic at Petersburger Platz (on the corner of Petersburger Straße/Straßmannstraße). Everyone who would like to spit into the Nazis's beer, but also those who are afraid or just are not keen on the usual threats are invited! Let's have together a public place without fear, racism and sexism on this day! Join in masses!
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