Enough! October 19th -- Heart, not Hatred!

For one year now hate speech, racism and violence have found its “occidental” home in Dresden. From here, group-based enmity radiates throughout Germany. The very foundation our society is built on is being threatened.

PEGIDA is effect-ive: Saxony is witnessing a wave of attacks on humans who do not fit the racial world view of PEGIDA. Violent excesses such as in Dresden-Prohlis, Heidenau and Freital are the consequence of the incendiary rhetoric of the Monday PEGIDA-marches. The people bringing violence to the streets are nurturing their hate at these weekly PEGIDA-“strolls”. The fear-mongers and demagogues around Lutz Bachmann and Tatjana Festerling are inciting their followers in an utterly disgusting manner against fellow humans who are on the run, who are now just viewed as “muslim” or simply as “not-German”.

On the other hand, thousands are contributing towards a culture of humanity. They have become the heart of our society. They stand for lived solidarity, they represent the often-evoked culture of welcome. Now they are as well becoming a target of slander, hate and violence. They are being threatened and bullied because they are getting involved in helping and oppose the hate-mongers.

We say: Enough!

It is our imperative that we demonstrate on the streets of Dresden for the kind of society we stand for: A society in which the dignity of man is the foremost priority. A society that views empathy as a valuable and worthwhile endeavor. And a society that consistently opposes hate-mongering and violence without hesitation and second thoughts.

Racism must not become the new standard. When politicians are stirring up resentments on the back of refugees, when they start to divide them into good and evil asylum seekers and are beginning to demand servile gratitude for a bed in an overcrowded mass shelter, constitutional human rights have become all but empty phrases.

Against this we need to raise our voices! But we need to speak up just as vigorously against a further weakening of German asylum law that continues to emphasise on deterrence and isolation and is partially responsible for the death-toll on Europe’s external borders.

In the end, we are also responsible if we don’t act against it.

Because of this we claim the streets in Dresden on October 19th.