Massive Barricades in Germany against the Far Right
The AfD, Germany’s far right political party, had plans this morning to form their new youth organization, "Generation Deutschland”. The students and workers of Germany had other plans.
Yesterday evening and this morning over 20,000 protestors traveled from all over Germany to disrupt the establishment of “Generation Deutschland”, the new youth organization of AfD. Since early this morning students and workers have successfully blocked multiple streets, causing extensive delays and disruptions. There have been several instances of police brutality, including but not limited to pepper spray, clubs and water canons, yet the resistance continues to hold.
At almost 12:00, The conference still can not start as planned, as hundreds of members are still awaiting their police escorts, yet the escorts, still, thankfully, can not get through.
The AfD (Currently the strongest party, based on surveys, with 25% of the vote) have recently received recognition from several members of the US Republican Party, including but not limited to Trump and Vance. In addition, Elon Musk last year showed his unequivocal support of this party. While AfD is not a fascist party, yet, there are a lot of fascists in the political party, and their extreme violent beliefs are not only permitted but encouraged. There have been several instances of large demonstrations against them, but as in Riesa earlier this year, the workers and students have decided that these demonstrations are not enough but they must be prevented at all costs from having their meetings.
We, as workers and students, must stand up against the AfD and other far right parties in our world and continue to resist. Several Unions are mobilizing their members to actively join the barricades. These protests and barricades show the critical need for a united working class against racism and welfare cuts. Just this week, a large group of companies („Die Familienunternehmer”) wanted to start discussions about working with the AfD. This attempt from the capitalist shows how strong their tendency is to side with the far right and how only more capitalist will continue to do so in the future.
There have been recent discussions in the ruling coalition, CDU/CSU/SPD about retirement cuts. These cuts would profit the AfD and increase poverty and desperation. The current German government claims, loudly, to not want to work with the AfD but more and more politicians from different parties continue to call for a collaboration with them. (CSU/CDU, BSW, and individuals from SPD and the Greens) German Chancellor Merz, who is legendary for his very far right views, recently incited racist beliefs with his “StadtBild” or his ideological views of how a German city should look like, which was predominantly white.
The authoritarian nature of the current regime already works together fairly seamlessly with the AfD. In order to prevent further cooperation, the only way to successfully fight this is through the workers uniting. The youth movement already plays a significant role in this, particularly in the Palestinian movement. The current Government represents them less and less. The youth organization Solid, from the Left Party, made a resolution to support Palestine against the leadership of the party.
In closing, we would like to call on the Left party members to not rely on their own participation in capitalist governments but to rely on the worker’s struggle in order to protect against the far right, militarization and welfare cuts. The massive mobilization to block the AfD in Giessen shows that the united workers and youth are capable of struggling independently of capitalist and the State. The workers united can never be defeated.
