There is loads to say and even more to do!

Evaluating the 2013/2014 "Wieder Setzen" campaign of the alliance "Nazifrei -- Dresden stellt sich quer"

Contents:

About the Campaign
Concerning the Days of Action
How to Carry on?

A good evaluation should be thorough and prepared with enough time to contemplate well. It should furthermore be constructive, self-critical but also send along some tasks and findings for the future. This text is an attempt to do so -- it is for you to decide whether it met these high aspirations.

Our campaign titled "Wieder Setzen" was the fifth one in a row of the alliance. To organize successful resistance against the former largest Nazi march in Europe with then over 7000 participants is our goal since 2009/2010. It is important to us to emphasize this in the very beginning of our evaluation of the 2013/2014 campaign in order to analyze the progression and results of our action days in this very context. Our assessments and decisions can only be understood carrying this in mind. We are aware where we come from and know about the meaning of our alliance.

About the Campaign

Many things we did in this campaign in order to prepare our days of action in February in terms of mobilization, PR and so on could be expected from us after the past campaigns. We walked along well known pathways and moved in safe, because known, grounds. In retro perspective, this needs to be seen very critical as routine can be helpful but also a hindrance in pursuing and spotting new pathways and developments.

The campaign was started in the autumn by publishing the call for action. It was the first year where we decided to go without an initial conference but to do an initial action in the streets, which can be described as a success. From there we tried to establish the same infrastructure for 201 as we did for the previous years. Everything was laid out for one day of action (including the "Traces of Offenders" March) as we had actions in the city, charity parties and concerts  and our website in order to spread the news about the campaign and get as many people as we can to Dresden on our day of action. Numerous flyers, stickers and posters were distributed within Dresden and sent elsewhere. In parallel we tried to gather as much information on the day as possible to get an idea on what could be expected. In this process we had to learn that some things become more difficult the more accepted and established our alliance becomes. The organizations within the alliance but also people and organizations from outside are now far less willing to donate large amounts of money to us. The larger organizations from within the alliance donated substantial amounts in the past and cannot continue like that with our campaign become less important on a national scale. Simultaneously, our local groups already operate politically at their financial limit. As a result we are depending more than ever on your donations, but many people do not seem to see this need in the light of our successes. The expectations on our work and what do, however, have risen. During the mobilization stage of our camping it is now taken for granted that we hold many stalls, do other actions as well as sending out advertisement for fee. Furthermore, a professional attitude including the corresponding infrastructure during the days of action together with a 24/7 availability with definite and reliable information provided is expected from us. What many forget -- we don't get paid for what we do. In the contrary, we are all volunteers dedicating our spare time (and some much more), sparing weekends, nights and a lot of idealism and energy for the campaign, always exposing us towards repression. And as much as we dislike it, we have to accept that all of that is impossible without the corresponding financial resources. The very fact that we exist for five years does not mean that we have built up great reserves. Whether there will be another successful campaign in 2014/2015, is also highly dependent on how many organizations and people are ready to give us donations.  

In comparison to previous campaigns, our public communication towards the city of Dresden with her Mayor Helma Orosz (CDU) together with her "AG 13. Februar" which she initiated and is organizing the human chain, has changed significantly. Despite the city's office for demonstrations and rallies being our annual opponent, talks with (semi)official delegates or other groups representing the city of Dresden were never ruled out from our side. Such talks are helpful to clearly name the different interests forcing each side to make clear statements. To us, a minimal requirement has always been that a substantial improvement in the city's commemoration policy together with the Dresden's Nazi-problem would be reached. As we realized that the standstill of the past years in these areas was not satisfactory for us, we decided to invite the Mayor for talks. Talks with the "AG" took place in previous campaigns and reached a limit for a mutual agreement (respecting each other's actions as long as they serve the common goal of opposing the Nazis). We now wanted to demonstrate openness towards negotiations, hoping to trigger the very same on the other side. Neither did these talks take place before our day of action nor did they until this day. The reasons for this are purely with the mayor and can only be regarded as excuses from our side. Also an utterly busy Mayor of Dresden would have been able to spare an hour or two for talks with us, if she would have made an effort -- the lack of this can only due an absence of willingness to meet with us at the same table. However, we are not too sorry for this as we can only speculate whether such a talk would have yielded something meaningful. Judging from the aftermath of the campaign, we have strong doubts whether talks before the 12^th and 13^th of February could have triggered positive developments. Despite of this, only some rhetorical improvements of the acting people of the City but no changes in their actions could be observed. Mrs Orosz did, for example, talk positive of our admonishing march. We appreciate this, as we tried to emphasize this very bit throughout the past years. We do continue though, to have a critical view on how the City's cultivates the memorial culture around the 13^th of February. To exaggerate this anniversary in its reception over other dates dealing with the Nazi history in Dresden, must lead to an uphold of the victim-myth of this city. And we criticize the official commemoration events even more as it Nazis slip into them easily on the heathside-cemetery (Heidefriedhof) as well as the human chain. As a result, we have to have to accept that our more open strategy towards the city has failed. There has been progress in the commemoration debate within the campaign (e.g. accepting our admonishing march for the traces of offenders), but there have been drawbacks in other fields which we thought to have settled in the past years -- as it can be seen with the heathside-cemetery but also with our talks addressing the "AG 13. Februar" where delegates of the AG began to questions a settled consensus from the past. What worries us most, is that there have been tendencies to co-opt us due to the closeness we allowed. If people suggest that the alliance "Dresden Nazifrei" is just one part of a larger city-wide consensus on commemoration and protest, we have to deny that strongly. Neither can we see the City to deal with this date adequately to the day, nor a clearly expressed antifascist attitude. We do not stand alongside the human chain and the memorial service on the heathside-cemetery -- we criticize both. Neither are they part of our campaign, nor do we think them suitable to find a feasible way to deal with the day or to oppose the Nazis. We will express that more clearly again in the future: It is only due to us starting with our decisive actions together with the people who went onto the streets with us in 2009 that we can even dare to think about a relatively Nazi-free February, 13^th -- neither the Mayor, nor a human chain, nor the "AG 13. Februar" have blocked a single Nazi in Dresden or can take a share in the demobilization within the far right in the past years!

Concerning the Days of Action

Let's face it: The 12^th of February was step backwards for Dresden. As an alliance, we have been surprised -- were not prepared for this. One reason is that we got caught being careless, but it is also due to the city's authorities deliberately withholding some key information from us. In the aftermath we have to conclude that the strategy of the office for demonstration of Mr Lübs, of whom the mayor Helma Orosz is in charge, and of head of police, Mr Kröll, worked out successfully: Give the Nazis the evening before, let them do their march and thus having a calm city on the 13^th of February. We think this strategy to be disastrous, a step backwards into past decade, but we mainly think that it has failed! The route of the Nazi-march was obviously declared and agreed on. This was no spontaneous call. That means: The police and the city's authorities knowingly made wrong announcements to the public or withheld them. Even the Mayor herself seemed to have no knowledge of the Nazi march, which shows once again how little she controls the authorities she is the official head of. The strategy behind this must be criticized heavily. It is of no importance to us on what day the Nazis march through Dresden, but whether they are able to do so in the first place. Making it possible on the 12^th of February -- and forced through trough heavily by police -- just to keep it from happening on the next day, does not make less unbearable to us. Essentially, this is only topped and made totally absurd by the way the 13^th of February went on after that. Regardless how often the media claim that the "Dresden people" would "have their day back", we have to state: There were Nazis in town on the 13^th of February 2014, 80 of them joined the commemoration on the heathside-cemetery, made their way into the human chain easily, moved around in small groups, tried to disturb, to hold a rally and kept the police busy. There was no Nazi-free February, 13^th in 2014, there was no calm day!

We have to blame ourselves: We were not informed well enough to judge the overall picture properly. We were not prepared well enough to get enough resistance to the streets for successful blockades already on the 12^th of February. We were not ready to act in terms of the communication network, the infrastructure or the structures to take action -- or only on a small scale. We only called for a "Warm-Up" on that evening in order to not overemphasize the Nazi actions we expected from our side. The term "Warm-Up" ought to suggest a low level protest as we only expected a negligible amount of Nazis trying to take action from the Theaterplatz/Postplatz area. We now -- judging in the aftermath -- know that would have probably been better to call for blockades on the 12^th already and that have a share in why the scale of the situation on that day was only realized throughout the evening and that a decisive call for action could have brought people to the streets for a proper protest. As they say -- you are always smarter afterwards. However, using the information we had beforehand, no other decision could have been made, which brings us back to the previously mentioned lack of information. As a result, the Nazis could hold a march on the 12/02/2014. We are as angry as you are about this and are also as disappointed as you are and want to -- hopefully also alike you -- prevent this from happening next year. Loads of criticism has reached us after this day. We take every constructive criticism very seriously and ask ourselves what we could have differently -- could have done better. Rapidly questions were raised regarding why we were not present as an allicance, had no web-ticker, no official announcements and had no official advice. We need to stand up to this: There was no web-ticker as the corresponding infrastructure was prepared for the 13^th of February and was not ready the evening before. Only communication using facebook and twitter was ready to use (and has been used in the end). But even if the web-ticker would have been working, we would have had no means gather and digest all information gathered to inform you with the usual quality. However, we want to consolidate that we have, of course, been on the streets -- together with roughly 1000 people being engaged in all sorts of actions. We, the campaign Dresden-Nazifrei, had quite promptly 2 loudspeaker vans operational and initially attempted to disturb and eventually block the Nazis on the Sophienstraße and later on close to the cinema complex "Kristallpalast". And we did call for action on the streets beforehand -- and called it a "warm-up" following the reasons just stated as many things were unclear to us and we thought it irresponsible to send out a call for blockades and then send people into a situation which could get out of control quickly. Judging from now, these unclear words can quite rightfully be seen as a mistake.  

The criticism together with the expectations towards us reveals another problem though, which we would like to address: We are no agency offering a blockade service!  Expectedly, people sympathizing with us look at us are thus disappointed if we are not as well prepared as they are used to it. It is our ultimate goal, however, to make "Dresden-Nazifrei" totally expendable. Following this goal, we have tried from the beginning to set conditions in which people could act autonomously. This years' 12^th of February demonstrated that Dresden is in need of more people in peer groups which can act independently to oppose spontaneous Nazi actions - without a large organization in the background. In the end, one thing has to be stated that many people rely on us and we have to accept that. They rely on us to organize disruption of Nazi marches and rallies wherever and whenever they hold them and are disappointed from us if the Nazis succeed in the end - whether we like it or not. We would like to emphasize though, that Dresden-Nazifrei cannot and will not be present everywhere. It is your own responsibility as well. Organize yourselves in long-term peer groups which can be activated easily and quickly and take decisive action on the streets yourselves. You know how it's done; you have proven that in the past years. We have offered trainings for blockades and proper preparation in the past and will continue to do so. However, it is down to you in the end to empower yourselves to get successful antifascist resistance to the streets. Don't just rely on us as we would be nothing without you. This could be seen nicely on the next day (13/02/14). Thanks to the more than 3200 people participating in our march looking for traces of offenders where we were able to hit a new record in participation. The
march itself went on without major issues and undisturbed from the beginning until the end. For the third year in a row it marked our contribution on how the historic day for Dresden is dealt with. The criticism mentioned beforehand should not dim this positive summary but needs to be applied as well: Protecting the event from disturbance form outside has to improve next year and needs to be focused on more after small groups managed to infiltrate and interfere with the event on multiple occasions. In addition we need to tackle trials from city officials to assimilate this event and pay more attention to the political messages going along with the whole alliance. We will, for example, alter our criteria for the people present at the first transparent to make the whole spectrum of the alliance visible rather than focusing on prominent people.

We already discussed a quite few things about the rest of the day in previous sections. It was no day free of Nazis, even though this was proclaimed often afterwards. Small groups of Nazis kept popping out into the streets justifying our urge to be on the streets with as many people as possible for as long as possible. It was important to ensure that no spontaneous action of fascists was possible after our march for the traces of offenders had ended. Here, we succeeded. We have to criticize the "AG 13. Februar" with its human chain heavily, though. Anyone who did not realize it in past years must have realized after this years' 13^th of February, how pointless this symbolic act is and how easy it is for Nazis to infiltrate it and misuse it for their case. Only the celebrity hour of victimizing-cult on the heathside cemetery is worse than that. The Memorial is already a disgrace itself as it puts Dresden in one line with Coventry and even Auschwitz. It is then even more abhorrent if 80 Nazis join the commemoration ceremony and none of the honorable figures present is tempted to protest. After some progress in terms of phased down protocol, which made it more difficult to Nazis to join the ceremony, could be noted in recent years, a wreath-laying was again part of it this year. In comparison with 2011, this marks another step backwards for Dresden. This cannot be without consequences for us and thus the heathside cemetery will be focused on more in the future as we cannot accept this event without protest in the future. However, back to the human chain: Until 13/02/2014 we have always emphasized that we respect it if people gather for a symbolic action against Nazis, although this does not prevent a single march of them. We even overlooked the fact that the human chain was originally set in light of the "extremisms doctrine" against all "extremism", trying to level Nazis and our resistance against them. If the Nazis now, as it happened this year, unashamed publish a call in the morning of the 13^th of February to join the human chain to participate in the "silent commemoration", if marshals are briefed to ignore Nazis, Nazis put down candles for "German victims" and our activists are dismayed from the event at the same time -- then even the previously mentioned symbolic aspect is gone. The human chain has thus lost any justification from 2014 onwards. It is now a symbol for how little Dresden realized where the actual problem is located. And it will stay alike, if there is not at least some kind of protest evolving where the Nazis can actually hear and see protestors. However, the Nazi marches are merely symptomatic. The real reason is the culture of hanging on to the thought of alleged German victims. The moment the human chain closes and is joined by church bells around town, it is in the end commencing that very "silent commemoration" with many of its participants which we have criticized for years now -- even though the organizers may not intend this. This very fact makes is compatible with Nazi ideology. It is for this lack of thought that they can join in easily as it perfectly reflects their intention As a result, pictures of Nazis arm in arm with the Mayor circulate on the internet afterwards. We do not blame the Mayor for it, but would like to point out that this negative publicity is the city's own fault in the end.

How to Carry on?

In evaluation of all what we have until this point, many questions to ourselves do form and we now have to work on providing sufficient answers: First of all, we need to decide whether we should continue to focus on the February issue only. We have already reached a decision here. As a result, our alliance will use all its internet-based communication channels to get as many people as we can on the streets to protest against the so-called "Day of German Future" on the 7^th of June, which takes place in Dresden. However, we will not be present with an own campaign as there is already another one in place. We think the event as a quite important one though, which is why we simply cannot remain silent on this topic.

The other questions cannot be answered as quickly, especially as they involve self-criticism, self-reflection as well as a realistic view on our resources and abilities. Summarized in brief, we have to clarify the following: What needs to change and can we accomplish that? However, this has the consequence of falling many complex single decisions. We need to be say precisely in which way important issues continue to have a common ground within the alliance, especially the relation to the city's authorities and the commemoration.  In the end, our strategies, use of resources and internal constitution needs to be adapted in order to avoid repeating this year's mistakes. Thorough research is needed to see what exactly can be expected for the 70^th anniversary in 2015, which potential partners we could find and who of the city will work against us or at least not in our favor. Most importantly, we need to adapt to the shift in the strategy of the Nazis. We had been successful until this year, but the Nazis around Maik Müller have adapted their strategy in favor of many small actions over several days and did not push for their torch-parade in public. This makes it more difficult for us as we cannot call for a specific day of action and new ways need to be found. There are many options but we need to decide what we can accomplish and also what maybe not. To fall this decision, we need to know which organizations and people are ready to support the alliance to what extent and what they are willing to contribute.  All these questions will be addressed and eventually answered in the following months. We look for the following: New strategies, solutions but also new partners. Our alliance sources from the general public, being supported by broad range of organizations. If you, as a part of the general public, want to support us, please feel free to get in touch.

Some changes are already decided on: We will criticize the citys authorities, the Dresden police and the "AG 13. Februar" more intense and also more direct. Any attempts, especially by the mayor and the "AG 13. Februar", to co-opt us will be opposed heavily. We will focus more on the meaning the meaning of work and distinctively work out the differences between our actions and the entirely symbolic actions without any effect by the city of Dresden. At the same time, we will intensify the cooperation with our partners outside the official representatives of the city who also push for changes in Dresden. We will not sit down for talks with the mayor without any preconditions. The Nazi structures will be monitored more closely again and our means to get to information improved.

We have one message, however, which we would like to send out to the city of Dresden, the Nazis and you: You didn't get rid of us! Our resistance against twisting history and Nazi ideology continues. We are Dresden Nazifrei!