‘We don’t forgive, we don’t forget’: anti-fascists commemorate ten years since the murder of Davide Cesare

Ten years after the murder of leftist militant Davide Cesare aka DAX, stabbed to death by fascists on March 16 2003, thousands of activists march in Milan to commemorate his death and to carry forward his ideals.

On Saturday 16th March 2013, around 10,000 people took part in a demonstration in Milan to commemorate ten years since the murder of Davide Cesare aka ‘Dax’ by fascists.
Traffic in the city centre was blocked while a section of the demonstration attacked banks and luxury hotels with rocks, hammers and flares. Others sprayed graffiti on the city’s walls: ‘Dax odia ancora’ (‘Dax still hates’) or ‘Dax Vive’ (‘Dax lives’). Also, the Scuola Militare Teuliè – one of the oldest military academies in the world – was attacked as activists kicked open the doors, smashed windows and threw flares inside the building and there were clashes with the police, in which the police fired teargas at demonstrators.

The demonstration was organised in several blocs, representing groups from across the country and abroad. Blocs representing students’ organisations, anti-fascist groups and social centres were present, as well as local squatted housing and anti-eviction committees, self-organised popular sport centres (sports associations which have anti-fascism and solidarity as founding principles) and migrants’ groups.

The demonstration snaked across town, sometimes ignoring the route previously agreed with the police. It eventually finished in Corvetto, a working class area in the south-east of the city, where an abandoned building had been occupied before the demonstration and was used for a concert in the evening, with some of Italy’s most famous hip-hop acts playing. As well as all this on the Saturday, there was also a demonstration of students on Friday and a day of ’People’s Sports for Dax’ organised for the Sunday.

Ανακοίνωση Antifa League

Στην εποχή της απόλυτης εμπορευματοποίησης και εκμετάλλευσης του ποδοσφαίρου, των ομάδων-εταιριών και των υπέρογκων και προκλητικών μισθών, των στημένων αγώνων και της ντόπας, της συνεχούς καταστολής και ελέγχου εντός και εκτός γηπέδων, της απαγόρευσης μετακίνησης των “φιλοξενουμένων” οπαδών και της έξαρσης του φασισμού στα γήπεδα…, αποφασίσαμε μια ομάδα ανθρώπων που αγαπούν τον αθλητισμό γενικά, να διοργανώσουμε ένα ποδοσφαιρικό πρωτάθλημα που να εξυπηρετεί την ανάγκη όλων μας για άθληση και όχι το οικονομικό όφελος, για συναγωνισμό και όχι ανταγωνισμό, που να διοργανώνεται από όλους μας – για όλους μας. Μια εναλλακτική λίγκα ποδοσφαίρου στις γειτονιές της Αθήνας που θα ανατρέπει το σημερινό ποδοσφαιρικό μοντέλο, μια λίγκα αντιφασιστικού χαρακτήρα χωρίς διακρίσεις, μακριά από διαιτητές, από υποχρεωτικό αντίτιμο, κόντρα στην νοοτροπία των επάθλων, με στόχο εκτός από την καθαρή άθληση και την ευχαρίστησή μας, την προώθηση του αντιφασιστικού αγώνα.

Πιστεύουμε ότι έφτασε η ώρα να κάνουμε πράξεις τα πιστεύω μας, χωρίς να στεκόμαστε μόνο στα λόγια και να περάσουμε στην αντεπίθεση, χτίζοντας τα θεμέλια για το ποδόσφαιρο που οραματιζόμαστε. Δε θεωρούμε ότι με τον τρόπο αυτό θα αλλάξουμε τον κόσμο, πιστεύουμε όμως και αισιοδοξούμε ότι δημιουργώντας τις αυτοoργανωμένες εναλλακτικές δομές, κάνουμε ένα βήμα ενεργό στο να ευαισθητοποιήσουμε και να δραστηριοποιήσουμε την κοινωνία.

Γι’αυτό και καλούμε όλους/ες όσους/ες αγαπάνε το πραγματικό ποδόσφαιρο, το θεαματικό ποδόσφαιρο του δρόμου, μακριά από σκοπιμότητες, και θέλουν να στηρίξουν την προσπάθεια μας, να έρθουν σε επαφή μαζί μας δηλώνοντας την ομάδα τους στο antifaleague@espiv.net ούτως ώστε να γίνει πραγματικότητα το 1ο ANTIFA πρωτάθλημα 5×5 στην Αθήνα από τις αρχές του νέου έτους. Φιλοδοξία μας είναι να πάρουν μέρος όσες περισσότερες ομάδες, από όσο δυνατόν περισσότερες περιοχές της Αθήνας, έτσι ώστε εκτός από το μεγαλύτερο αγωνιστικό ενδιαφέρον, να υπάρχει χρώμα και πολυμορφία στο τουρνουά.

16 march 2013 «Dax vive»

http://daxvive2013.noblogs.org/

16th march 2003: the Dark Night of Milan.
Fascists stab to death Davide Cesare, nicknamed “Dax”.
Soon after, police and carabinieri beat up to blood friends and fellows that rushed to San Paolo Hospital to have some news about him. Fascist squads and police brutality. Knives and cosh.

March 2013: 10 years after Dax’s death, murdered because antifascist, Milan prepares to remember his Dark Night and to fight back any fascist attempt, through a 3 days of counter information, fight, music and demotic sport.

16 march 2013: antifascist and anti capitalist national demo. To remember Dax and his daily intervention to fight back any xenophobic act or injustice.
To claim his antagonist identity, his hate toward inequality that feeds the powerful and hungers the people.
To feed his and our dream to radically change society, revolutionizing life and work conditions, tearing down the relationship of domination we face daily.
To reconstitute a militant and active antifascism internationally against the new rightwing, which in years of crisis finds an easy solution in fighting the weak people, never putting into discussion the constituted power.
Against who seeds racism and intolerance, feeding a ‘poor’s war’ which is enslaved to the cultural and economical supremacy of global capitalism.
Because the freedom of living where one is born or migrated, health system, education, home, are never given by the powerful. These need to be conquered struggling, adopting solidarity and mutual help, recognizing each other’s different culture, habits, age, but equally aiming a more rightful world for everybody.

Against fascism, since ever defending dominant classes.
Against capitalism, responsible of exploiting and oppressing the whole world. A model in permanent crisis which deserves to be teared down from his foundation, to build an alternative made of social justice, solidarity and respect of any living being.

16 march 2013: Dax lives in each fight in the present days, in every antifascist and anti capitalist militancy.
UNITED WE WIN!

Dax’s fellows

Rome:School and anti-fascist demonstrations, November 24

On November 24 2012, three different demonstrations took place in Rome and in other cities. In the morning, two separate rallies marched through the capital, both protesting against cuts in school budgets. The first was led by the COBAS union, which had called for a strike, while the second was a students’ rally.
In the afternoon, a third important demonstration took place in the city centre: an anti-fascist demonstration against the national rally of Casa Pound Italia. Casa Pound’s rally attracted around 2,000 people, protected by a heavy security presence. At the same time, thousands of demonstrators (ordinary people, students, migrants, partisans, social centre militants, left-wing party and anti-racist activists) met to protest against the neo-fascist organization and the support it receives from the city council, led by the ex-neo-fascist Mayor, Gianni Alemanno.
The Rome council, which has approved huge budget cuts and increases in local taxes, has also approved the purchase of Casa Pound’s base for around 12 million euros in order to protect the organization from eviction. The Mayor’s son, as it happens, is an active member of the students’ section of Casa Pound.

Another big demonstration against Casa Pound was held in Bologna, where a base opened recently.

http://strugglesinitaly.wordpress.com/2012/11/26/en-school-and-anti-fascist-demonstrations-november-24/

The Rebirth of Radical Nationalism: Welcome back to the 30s

Warsaw – The past days following the Nationalist riots of November 11, 2012 have been a time of solemn reflection for those of us in Poland and our friends watching around the world. We have awoken to a new reality, not in a hyperbolic or theoretical sense, but to a practical new reality of fascist terror on the streets of our cities, escalating exponentially. With burned out apartments, hospitalized anti-fascists, murders, mass nationalist marches through our cities, and now the formation of nationalist militias, and a call to overthrow the republic, we’re asking ourselves, just as our grandparents asked 80 years ago, ‘how could this be happening in our times?’

1918-1922: The Arditi del Popolo

from libcom

A history of the people’s militias who fought Italy’s fascists covering the birth, growth and decline of the world’s first anti-fascist group, the Arditi del Popolo.

By the end of World War I, the working class in Italy were in a state of revolutionary ferment. Not yet ready for the conquest of power themselves, workers and peasants by 1918 had won a variety of concessions from the state: an improvement of wages, the eight-hour day, and a recognition of collective contracts.

By 1919, however, a new radicalism had descended upon the labour movement. In that year alone, there were 1,663 strikes across the peninsula, while in August the newly formed shop stewards’ movement in Turin (the forerunner to the workers’ councils) underlined the growth of a new vibrant militancy that drew its strength from the autonomous capacity of workers to organise themselves along libertarian lines and which had “the potential objective of preparing men, organisations and ideas, in a continuous pre-revolutionary control operation, so that they are ready to replace employer authority in the enterprise and impose a new discipline on social life”.*

In the countryside, the peasantry opened up a second front against the state by occupying the land that had been promised them before the war. The Visochi decree of September 1919 merely validated the co-operatives that had already been set up while the ‘red leagues’ assisted the formation of strong unions of day labourers.

However, 1919 also marked the initial signs of capital defending itself against the growing onslaught. A meeting of industrialists and landowners at Genoa in April sealed the first stages of the ‘holy alliance’ against the rise of labour power. From this meeting were drawn up plans for the formation, in the following year, of both the General Federation of Industry and the General Federation of Agriculture, which together worked out a precise strategy for the dismantling of the labour unions and the nascent councils.

Alone, however, the industrialists and landowners could not undertake the struggle against the labour movement. The workers themselves had to be cowed into submission, had to have their spirit of revolt broken on the very streets they walked and the fields they sowed. For this, capital turned to the armed thuggery of fascism, and its biggest thug of all: Benito Mussolini.

1.May Demo, Prague

1maj.cz/2012/english

Βόλος: Άμεση αντιναζιστική δράση ενάντια σε καθάρματα της Χρυσής Αυγής /Volos, Greece: Direct action against neo-Nazis of the ‘Golden Dawn’

Το μεσημέρι της Κυριακής, 8 Απρίλη, κατά τις 14.00, μία ομάδα περίπου 25 νεοναζί της Χρυσής Αυγής επιχείρησε να κάνει προπαγανδιστική προεκλογική παρέμβαση στην περιοχή της Παραλίας Βόλου. Εκτιμάται ότι σε αυτή την απόπειρα οι περισσότεροι από την ομάδα των χρυσαυγιτών ήταν από τις γύρω περιοχές και όχι από την πόλη του Βόλου. Μόλις έγινε αντιληπτή η παρουσία τους, περίπου 50 σύντροφοι και συντρόφισσες συγκεντρώθηκαν στην περιοχή και συγκρούστηκαν μετωπικά μαζί τους. Μετά από την ολιγόλεπτη συμπλοκή, η ομάδα των ναζήδων (ανάμεσα στους οποίους ήταν τουλάχιστον και ο ένας από τους υποψήφιους βουλευτές τους στον νομό Μαγνησίας) κατέφυγε σε κοντινή καφετέρια για να γλυτώσει.

Οι σύντροφοι συγκεντρώθηκαν έξω από την καφετέρια φωνάζοντας αντιφασιστικά συνθήματα, αλλά δεδομένου του σημαντικού αριθμού αστυνομικών δυνάμεων που είχαν φτάσει στο σημείο για να προστατεύσουν τους ναζήδες (4 μηχανές ΔΙΑΣ, 5-6 λιμενόμπατσοι, και 3 περιπολικά), αποφάσισαν να μην επιτεθούν εκ νέου. Τα πατριωτάκια φυγαδεύτηκαν τελικά από την καφετέρια με τη βοήθεια των ένστολων συνεργών τους και απ’ ό,τι φαίνεται δεν συνέχισαν την εμετική προπαγάνδα τους, τουλάχιστον για τώρα, στους δρόμους της πόλης.

Ομάδες συντρόφων συνέχισαν τις αντιφασιστικές περιπολίες μέχρι το απόγευμα και παραμένουν σε επαγρύπνηση. Νωρίτερα, οι αντιδράσεις αρκετού κόσμου ήταν θετικές απέναντι στην άμεση αντιναζιστική κινητοποίηση, με κάποιους να παροτρύνουν δημόσια στον ξυλοδαρμό και στην εκδίωξη των νεοναζί της Χρυσής Αυγής.

On Sunday, April 8th, at about 14.00, a group of 25 neo-Nazis from ‘Chrissi Avgi/Golden Dawn’ attempted an intervention of pre-election propaganda in the area of Paralia (‘beach’) in Volos. Some estimated that most of the Nazi scum came from nearby towns, rather than the city of Volos itself.

As soon as the Nazi’s organized presence was reported, nearly 50 antifascists rushed to the area and confronted them. The reactions of many passersby were positive to this direct action, and several incited publicly the fight and the chase against the fascists.

After a few minutes, the goldendawners (among them was also at least one of their general election candidate for the regional unit of Magnisia) hid themselves in a nearby coffee shop in order to escape (the blows, but not their obvious humiliation).

Comrades gathered outside the café chanting antifascist slogans, but given the presence of a significant number of police who hurried to the place (4 DIAS police motorcycles, 5-6 cops of the port police and 3 patrol cars) they chose not to strike again.

The antifascists left dignified, while the coward patriots fled from the coffee shop assisted by their accomplices in uniform. Apparently (at least for the time being), the neo-Nazis have not proceeded with their vomiting propaganda and material distribution on any of the city’s streets.

Antifascist patrols continued during the afternoon, and comrades remain on full alert.

http://en.contrainfo.espiv.net/2012/04/08/volos-greece-direct-action-against-neo-nazis-of-the-golden-dawn/

Patras, Greece: Antifascist direct action

Today, March 15th, shortly after 13.00, a large group of anarchists and antifascists stormed the local offices of the neo-Nazi party Chrissi Avgi/Golden Dawn, located on Germanou Street, in the centre of the city of Patras. The fascist nest, which had been inaugurated just on Monday, March 12th, was completely smashed. Also, antifascist slogans were painted on most walls of the building which was provided for the neo-Nazi thugs, while their hatred material was set ablaze and dumped on the street. The comrades left the spot in a demo.

http://en.contrainfo.espiv.net/2012/03/15/patras-greece-antifascist-direct-action/

Beating The Fascists – The Untold Story of AFA

Following the electoral collapse of the National Front in 1979, fascists went on the rampage. Race attacks escalated. NF/BNP gangs employed violence on the streets, on the terraces and to control the music scene. Young anti-fascists stepped up. A new hardline leadership emerged and AFA was formed in 1985. ‘A state of war’ was how one rueful BNP leader would describe what happened next. Not only is ‘Beating the Fascists’ a meticulously researched study, it is also a much-needed piece of ‘history from below’. Throughout, the voices of working class anti-fascists come across hard, clear, and without apology. Illuminating and sometimes chilling by turn, the running commentary they provide helps ensure the tempo never flags. Gradually the reader is drawn into an outlaw world of back street idealism, paramilitary style violence and heroic self-sacrifice.

http://beatingthefascists.org

Moscow: Direct action in solidarity with prosecuted antifascists

On Thursday afternoon, March 1st, a group of nearly 20 anarchists and antifascists blocked the traffic on a central avenue in Moscow, near the metro station Krasnye Vorota (‘Red Gate’), to protest the recent police crackdown in several Russian cities. One of their banners read: ‘Solidarity with antifascists of Nizhny Novgorod.’

The group’s communiqué follows:

We are outraged.
The reason for our rage is the acts of the police that persecute antifascists. Such things have happened before, but now the cynicism and the impertinence of the police have gone through the roof. Recently, a wave of repression against our friends spread across several cities, such as Ivanovo, Kirov, Nizhny Novgorod and Moscow. The last of these cases was the arrest of the Muscovite antifascist Aleksej Olesinov (‘Shkobar’) on February 13th. The pretext for his detention was a fight in a club, which happened in December 2011, when several security guards got injured after openly expressing Nazi views. During the investigations, the police officers behaved in their usual manner; without thinking twice, they arrested the person whose antifascist background was known to authorities. This time such a person was Aleksej, who’s been repressed more than once. With a similar way, in the recent past, the activists Solopov and Gaskarov were arrested due to an action in front of the premises of the municipality administration in Khimki [militant action of anarchists, ecologists and antifascists in the summer of 2010, as part of the protests against the Khimki deforestation due to highway construction]. The next trial session against Aleksej Olesinov will take place on March 18th in Basmannyj district court of Moscow.

On February 24th another antifascist, Anton Fatulaev, was sentenced to 4 years and 2 months imprisonment. Anton attacked and beaten up seven neo-Nazis, according to the investigating authorities. We address our symbolic action to the public. We must not offer any opportunity to politicians and police officers, who live on our expense, to behave impudently. It is our inaction that gives them free hand; it is our silence that enables them to continue to oppress us.

We address our symbolic action to the antifascists. We must not stop. Only direct actions and firm positions in relation to the Nazis and the State will clean up our streets. Nothing must be forgotten or forgiven. The arrests of our friends must not be accepted as seemingly legitimated. We address our symbolic action to the Nazis. Think again whether life and health of abstract ideas based upon hatred are even worthwhile. Your goals are blurry, and your authorities are betraying you for their own benefit.

Muscovite antifascists

photos from the action also here

Currently, Aleksej is remanded in custody. You may donate for legal costs through Anarchist Black Cross of Moscow; more details are available here

2009 solidarity action for Aleksej ‘Shkobar’ Olesinov (imprisoned also then)

http://en.contrainfo.espiv.net/2012/03/05/moscow-direct-action-in-solidarity-with-prosecuted-antifascists/

 

Nizhny Novgorod anti-fascists need your solidarity and support! A call for coordinated actions around the world on March 16–18, 2012

Friends and comrades!

We, the anti-fascists and anarchists of Nizhny Novgorod (Russia), appeal to concerned people around the world. The political police (the Center for Combating Extremism or Center “E”) have fabricated a criminal case against our comrades. Anti-fascism has been outlawed in our city. We need your solidarity and support!

What are the charges against our friends and comrades?

Five young men, our friends, have been charged with organizing an “extremist community” under the exotic name of “Antifa-RASH.” According to our illiterate police, this strange acronym stands (in English) for “Red anarhia skinheads” [sic] and should be translated from their broken English slang into Russian as “red anarchy of skinheads” (a combination of all the fears of ordinary law-abiding citizens.) Artyom Bystrov, Albert Gainutdinov, Pavel Krivonosov, Dmitry Kolesov and Oleg Gambaruk are alleged to have formed this organization in order to carry out assaults on people espousing ultra-rightwing views and to incite hatred against them and against wealthy people.

Fascists out of our cities! More on Casapound and recent racist murders in Florence, Italy

from http://italycalling.wordpress.com/

After the shootings of 3 days ago in Florence at the hand of a right-wing extremist who killed two Senegalese street vendors and injured another three, Senegalese migrants joined by local residents and antiracist organisations improvised a march through the city centre, ending at the local Court.

Interestingly enough, the police, who, after the first murder, should have in theory been trying to catch the murderer, decided instead to focus on and repress heavily the spontaneous demonstration with charges and beatings. The same happened in Rome the following day, where a protest against the neofascist organisation’s local centre was charged by riot police. Numerous initiatives are being organised all over Italy; in Pistoia a picket appeared outside the local Court a few hours after the shootings, and a banner was hung demanding the closure of Casapound and other similar neofascist groups. More protests took place yesterday and today in various places, organised by migrants and antiracist groups.

In the meantime, Casapound and other fascist groups are doing their best to delete any proof of the killer’s connection with them: Casseri’s writings have been taken off websites of organisations he had collaborated with in the past – he was a writer and editor, had his own magazine and had a reputation as one of the main contemporary far right “intellectuals”, fond of fantasy literature and poets like Ezra Pound. Although not officially a member of Casapound, Casseri was in fact very close to the group, had spoken at many talks and more than once had worked with them. The national Casapound’s website had a whole page about him that was swiftly taken off a few hours after the murders. Despite Casapound’s attempt to take distance from Casseri, some activists from Pistoia, as soon as they saw his picture in the newspapers, recognised him as the man they’d seen in tribunal at a trial against some left-wing activists wrongly accused of attacking the local Casapound centre. He’d been at every hearing, unknown to the defendants, as a delegate of the local Casapound group in Pistoia.

Moustapha Dieng, one of the Senegalese men injured, is still in hospital fighting for his life. In the meantime, the media can’t find anything better to do but give space to the fascists: one of the leaders of Casapound, Gianluca Iannone, was interviewed by Rai3 (one of the public channels) and described Casapound as a “voluntary organisation whose work revolves around culture, sports and politics”. When the journalist questioned the “voluntary” nature of Casapound and referred to it as a far right organisation, he got really angry and refused the accusations of racism and antisemitism, claiming that these myths are created by ignorant people whose only interests are “creating monsters and scapegoats”. On Casseri, he contradicted himself: he started by saying he was a very normal person with a normal life, and later stated he was obviously insane, and isolated in his actions.

These murders, like the racist attacks against a Roma camp in Turin a few days ago and many other attacks that are unfortunately becoming more and more frequent, are not caused by isolated “crazy loners”, but are the product of a xenophobic, neofascist mentality that groups like Casapound, and parties like the Northern League, have been preaching about for years.

State-nourished Nazi terror in Germany

How politicians, police and judiciary promote fascist terrorism in Germany

“Relentless and all-inclusive clarification” of the scandals around the murders by the National Socialist Underground (NSU) is being demanded by politicians across the spectrum from Left Party to Greens to Christian Social Union. “Relentless and all-inclusive clarification” is being promised by the responsible persons in the ministries, the secret services and the police. Shocked and bewildered, the bourgeois political establishment is having to look at something that the favourite enemies of families minister, Kristina Schröder, namely active anti-fascists, have long known about and stated: that fascists have terrorism networks in Germany. The terrorism of the effectively networked Neonazis comprises not just the everyday, often lethal terrorism that those in government didn’t care a fig about for decades. Nazis definitely plan and perpetrate murders.

All of them could have known, but their job was to conceal and trivialise the rightwing terrorism and also in part to fight those who offered serious information about Nazi structures, brown [the Nazi colour] terrorism and the scale of rightwing violence. It can almost certainly be assumed that nothing will come of the all-inclusive clarification. Already unpleasant facts are again being concealed. Nazis suspected of having actively cooperated with the “terrorist trio” (!) are accused of supporting a terrorist organisation not of being members of it. A National Socialist who appears to have produced the “we claim responsibility” video of the terrorism network was at first allowed to roam free for days, giving him plenty of time to secrete away evidence materials. The everyday fascist terrorism continues unhindered though seen by the police and secret service. Nazi terrorist Martin Wiese, released from jail, happily breaches his probation restrictions by contacting his accomplices without the police or justice system showing the slightest interest. They’re busy with other things, anyway, these days: intimidating and persecuting anti-fascists.