MINELRES: UNITED: Dresden - Nazi Free! A city puts its foot down against Neo-Nazis

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UNITED E-NEWS 16-02-2010
Dresden - Nazi Free! A city puts its foot down against neo-nazis

On 13 February 2010 more than 10,000 protestors gathered in Dresden (D),
determined to stop the annual biggest neo-nazi march in Europe. 
The civil society alliance 'Dresden - Nazi Free', a broad initiative of
the antifascist movement 'No Pasaran!', successfully stopped about 5,000
neo-nazis with an enclosing blockade strategy.

Finally, in 2010 antifascists succeeded to stop the annual neo-nazi
march in Dresden that is organised under the guise of commemorating the
victims of the air raids against the city of Dresden, 13-15 February
1945. 
The 'Nazi Free' alliance - including different NGOs, political parties,
labour unions, artists and individuals - called to blockade
strategically important streets around Dresden's Neustadt train station,
the gathering point of the neo-nazi manifestation. Despite the strong
ambitions of the authorities to hinder the antifascist mobilisations
under the slogan 'Blockade Together' already beforehand, thousands of
anti-fascists came into Dresden's Neustadt to block all possible routes
of the neo-nazi march with peaceful sit-ins. The police tried several
times to clear the anti-fascist blockades, but their efforts failed and
so the police ultimately was forced to cancel the neo-nazi march.

The aim of the protesters was to prevent the annual 'mourning march' of
thousands of neo-nazis in Dresden and to discourage them from planning
future marches. 'It was not easy - there were people injured in nazi
attacks and it was horribly cold, but it was worth it' stated the
Alliance spokeswoman.

Beside the 'Dresden - Nazi Free' alliance a second initiative, 'Remember
- Remind - Act' under the patronage of Dresden's mayor Helma Orosz,
called for a human chain as a symbolic wall around the city centre of
Dresden to set a sign against right-wing extremism. Ms Orosz openly
condemned the neo-nazi thugs and their misuse of the commemoration date
for their revisionist propaganda, describing the allied bombardment as a
'bombing Holocaust'.

It was the diversity of protest actions that mobilised so many people
from a broad spectrum of society, which was crucial to the success of
stopping the neo-nazis.

More information:

http://www.euronews.net/newswires/157187-german-neo-nazis-mark-wwii-raid-in-
dresden
http://jta.org/news/article/2010/02/14/1010617/neo-nazi-march-blocked-in-dresden
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,5245414,00.html
http://www.demotix.com/news/250733/neo-nazis-dresden-during-65th-anniversary-
world-war-ii-bombing

Alliance 'Dresden - Nazi Free': http://www.dresden-nazifrei.com
Initiative 'Remember - Remind - Act': http://www.13februar.dresden.de
 

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