On Saturday, April 8, a demonstration “Nationalism shall not pass” was organized by an anarchist collective Rozbrat[1], in Poznan. The protest was organized as an opposition to the growing wave of hatred, xenophobia, racism and homophobia. The goal was to show this wave as a result of the exploitation of the capitalism. The demonstration was supported by various groups and organizations, such as foreigners living in Poznan, feminist and LGBTQIA + organizations, the academic community and people of culture. There was approximately 800 people participating. The demonstration started in the city center, next to the one of the shopping centers where the racist attack on a Polish citizen of Syrian origin had taken place a few months ago. After reading off the statements “Nationalism shall not pass” and “Students and academics of Adam Mickiewicz University against nationalism and racism”, the demonstration was attacked by a few nationalists. The attack was quickly repelled by immediate protestors’ reaction. Antifascists ran after the aggressors but police blocked the way of antifascists and blocked the entrance to the shopping center where the aggressors hid and prevented the chase and indeed protected the nationalists. Police did not go after the nationalists but they prevented the chase by the antifascists and tried to catch them not the aggressors. As it turned out later, one of the aggressors was the owner of “patriotic” shop “National” (“Narodowy”) in Poznan. He is well known for his collaboration with nationalist and fascist organizations such as All-Poland Youth (Młodzież Wszechpolska) and National Dawn (Narodowy Świt). One of the aggressors left by his friends had his fucking ass kicked all over. After calming the situation, the march moved on.
On the way there were several speeches by AMU representatives. Stonewall Group, anti-fascists and anarchists. As the demonstration approached the office of the ruling party, the police threatened and blocked the earlier reported way of the demonstration. Several people from the front of the march stepped forward, one girl jumped on the ladder of the police car. Police officers hastened to take off and arrest the girl, but luckily some of the protesters rushed to the rescue. There was a clash with the police, who tried to pull out individuals from the crowd to arrest them. The police beat the protesters with truncheons and sprayed the gas. The organizers appealed to the police officers to calm down and let the demonstration pass. Finally, the demonstration was continued to the ruling party’s office, where protest to police activity was spoken, the outraged protesters shouted about the police coalition with the fascists and pointed out that the ruling party not only allowed such action, but encouraged them. Then the march moved toward the anarchist club and bookstore “The Revenge”(“Zemsta”)[2] , where the protest ended. “The Revenge”(“Zemsta”) was many times a target of nationalists’ attacks and last one took place about three weeks ago. The representative of “The Revenge”(“Zemsta”) stated that the collective will not stop fighting for peoples, labourers and animals rights and antifascist activities.
As a result of the clashes with the police and nationalists, 7 antifascists were arrested and taken to the detention far from the city center. The information of number and location of the arrested antifascists was only available in the evening. Eventually everyone was released the next day and accused of being involved in the fight. It is significant that no nationalist has been arrested.
Tove, czarnateoria.noblogs.org
via insurrectionnewsworldwide.com
