# taz.de -- Right Wing Violence and Self Defense: Thanks, Antifa
       
       > Invoking the slogan “no violence“ in the fight against the right is a
       > betrayal of the victims of neo-Nazis and does nothing to stop the
       > violence they experience.
       
 (IMG) Bild: Peaceful protest: 2,000 people block a neo-Nazi demonstration in Leipzig (fall 2009)
       
       On October 25, 2010, Kamal K. was murdered across from the main train
       station in Leipzig. He was approached by two neo-Nazis who then shoved a
       knife into his stomach. Marcus E., the main perpetrator, had been released
       from prison just ten days earlier: he had been sentenced for three counts
       of rape, five counts of aggravated battery, and two counts of assault. The
       prosecution said that he had the word “Rassenhass“ [racial hatred] and
       pictures of Hitler tattooed on his body. He was sentenced to [1][thirteen
       years in prison for murder].
       
       The state’s monopoly on violence did not help Kamal K. that day. And anyone
       whose only response to the many appeals to violence from the AfD or other
       right wing groups is to say “no violence“ and talk about principles of
       justice fails to recognize that those principles mean nothing to Kamal K.’s
       murderer or that their violence toward other people is very real. Given
       that there are a lot of people in Germany today who ideologically advocate
       and perpetrate violence, “no violence“ is a naïve slogan. [AfD is an
       abbreviation of Alternative für Deutschland, a far right German political
       party that has made significant electoral advances since it was founded in
       2013 by trafficking in anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim rhetoric. -Tr.]
       
       There are certainly countless other stories like Kamal K.’s. I have chosen
       to tell his, because it could have been mine. When Kamal K. was murdered, I
       was studying in Leipzig and commuted there from Berlin regularly to attend
       seminars. I could have been Kamal K.: a victim of a stabbing outside the
       main train station. When I got on the tram to go home one day and a tall,
       beefy man followed me repeating a racial slur over and over, I thought,
       “This is it.“ But he just wanted to put an NPD sticker on my window. [The
       Nationaldemokratische Partei Deutschlands is a white supremacist German
       party that the German government's Office for the Protection of the
       Constitution identifies as a neo-Nazi organization. -Tr.]
       
       At the time, the NPD held sway in the right-wing scene in the city of
       Leipzig and the state of Saxony. They are insignificant now, but their
       successor, the AfD, is even more influential than the NPD ever was. AfD
       politicians have advocated shooting people at the border (Beatrix von
       Storch, chair of the AfD caucus in the Bundestag), “hunting“ politicians
       (Alexander Gauland, AfD party chairman), “slaying“ Angela Merkel (Nicolaus
       Fest), “disposing of“ people in other countries (Alexander Gauland),
       putting journalists up against a wall (Holger Arppe, AfD state leader for
       Schleswig-Holstein), and throwing political opponents from helicopters
       (Thorben Schwarz). They have also expressed their desire for terror attacks
       (Arvid Samtleben). For several years, the AfD has propagated a rhetoric of
       violence that is at least as noxious as the NPD’s was.
       
       ## When Violence is a Constant Possibility
       
       At the time, I inwardly prepared myself for my death at the hands of
       neo-Nazis. “No violence ever“ might sound like a reasonable position to
       other people. To me, it does not. Kamal K. and the neo-Nazi from the tram
       were not the first times I braced myself for far-right violence. “No
       violence“ is therefore an absurd slogan: I had to deal with violence again
       and again. It was always there, at least as a possible fate.
       
       I lived in the eastern part of Leipzig, where the far right organization
       [2][Freie Kräfte Leipzig] was making trouble. They painted [3][a large
       swastika] on our somewhat rundown building at an intersection. Leftists
       promptly painted over it with the words “Nie wieder Deutschland“ [Never
       again Germany, an antifascist slogan]. The neo-Nazis then escalated their
       threatening behavior: [4][their next march] went past our building and they
       planned their rally right outside. When we raised objections with the city,
       officials said that there was no proof that the people who applied for the
       demo permit were the ones who painted the swastika.
       
       That is when the building got organized. When the neo-Nazis marched on the
       intersection outside, it was to the sound of loud circus music; when they
       tried to speak, they heard a playlist of antifascist rock bands. The Nazi
       organization was only able to hold its rally after the police broke into
       our basement and destroyed the fuses (despite our reports, the police never
       prosecuted for the property damage). The Nazis’ revenge came swiftly. They
       broke into the building one night and tried to assault a woman who lived on
       the ground floor. She and a friend who was visiting braced themselves
       against the door, saving themselves from bodily injury.
       
       The police were unable to do anything for our safety, but the Leipzig
       antifa scene was something else entirely: 300 people attended a
       demonstration outside our building and shouted the old slogan “Alerta,
       alerta, antifascista“ in the neighborhood. At night, men dressed in black
       kept watch in the hall of our building with truncheons and I was able to
       sleep. We heard rumors that the leaders of the Nazi organization had been
       attacked and given a good thrashing, that their phones had been stolen and
       analyzed. I do not know if that is true, but they never visited our
       building again.
       
       “No violence“ did not protect us. My neighbor on the ground floor was
       traumatized and moved out. I got in touch with my martial arts teacher and
       asked him to teach me full-contact street fighting techniques. Over the
       months that followed, I allowed myself to be beaten up by martial artists:
       once by a 6’5“, 265 lb. giant, another time by an advanced black belt in my
       weight class. We wore hand protection, but otherwise nothing was off
       limits. I had to survive for two minutes without leaving a yellow square on
       the mat. I never made it past thirty seconds.
       
       ## First Priority: Safety!
       
       My teacher summarized the lessons this way: when Nazis attack you, run
       away. When you are cornered, run away. If you have to fight, run away at
       the first opportunity. If none of that works, finish with your attacker
       within thirty seconds. A neighbor who focused on nonviolent conflict
       resolution agreed with him, saying, “The first priority is always to leave
       an unclear situation and get out of harm’s way.“
       
       I bought pepper spray. “Trouble with right-wingers?“ the clerk asked. “Not
       yet,“ I answered. It was only years later that I realized I had been living
       in a state of exception for a long time.
       
       The state, which watches out for its monopoly on violence, could not
       prevent or punish the violence against us. It abandoned my neighbor and me.
       “No violence“ did not mean that we did not experience any violence. It only
       meant that we were responsible for our own protection. The state only acted
       after violence was done to us.
       
       But even when the state acts, there are the countless examples of the far
       right [5][infiltrating the authorities], of the [6][police being blind to
       right wing terror], or of the judiciary [7][delaying trials] and
       [8][downplaying right wing violence].
       
       What helped in Leipzig back then was violence: first, the threat of
       violence by antifascists who, from then on, came to eastern Leipzig more
       often and opened a collective store and, secondly, the actual violence that
       they exercised against organized right wing extremists. I took care of the
       remaining risk by intensively training for violent situations.
       
       I and, presumably, the antifascists would have preferred it, if they did
       not have to use force and if the state, which has at least rhetorically
       dissociated itself from fascism since its inception, had found the means to
       break up neo-Nazi structures itself. Would Marcus E. have listened to
       someone yelling “no violence“ at the central Leipzig train station that
       day? Unlikely. He was already too far gone for that; the monopoly on
       violence and the justice system did not render him harmless.
       
       What would have happened if an antifa hooligans had paid him a visit every
       day after he was released from prison? Would Kamal K. still be alive? Would
       it have been worthwhile to exchange his life for Marcus E.’s physical
       safety? And can emergency aid be preemptive?
       
       ## A Party that Ideologically Justifies Violence
       
       AfD politician Frank Magnitz has posted [9][several images that endorse
       violence] on Facebook. One of them depicts German Chancellor Angela Merkel
       with a black eye. Another shows a shapeless, flesh-colored mass on the
       ground: Magnitz’s caption reads, “Did Merkel fall down?“ Both images have a
       certain poetry. Last week, Magnitz similarly lay on the ground [10][after
       being attacked]. He had a similar black eye, which spread throughout the
       media.
       
       Even if Magnitz is not physically violent himself, as a member of a party
       that endorses political violence and ideologically justifies it, he
       contributes to the fact that Germany has become a more dangerous place for
       many people over the past several years.
       
       Just as I slept soundly because an antifascist was willing to stand guard
       and use violence, Magnitz and his fellow party members also have their
       proxies, like Marcus E., who are willing to transform threats of violence
       into action. And they are willing to accept the state’s penalties for that
       violence. “No violence“ is not a slogan that they will listen to.
       
       (Translation by Joe Keady. The [11][original German story] is here.)
       
       18 Jan 2019
       
       ## LINKS
       
 (DIR) [1] http://www.lvz.de/Leipzig/Lokales/BGH-entscheidet-Urteil-wegen-Mordes-an-Iraker-Kamal-K.-in-Leipzig-ist-rechtskraeftig
 (DIR) [2] https://www.chronikle.org/dossier/neonazis-leipzig-freien-kraefte-0
 (DIR) [3] https://www.chronikle.org/ereignis/nazis-greifen-wohnhaus-reudnitz
 (DIR) [4] https://www.chronikle.org/ereignis/nazidemo-reudnitz
 (DIR) [5] /taz-Recherche-auf-Englisch/!5558072
 (DIR) [6] /Neonazi-Terrorzelle-NSU/!5097335
 (DIR) [7] /Frueherer-NPD-Mann-erneut-vor-Gericht/!5564401
 (DIR) [8] https://www.sueddeutsche.de/politik/rechtsextremismus-sachsen-anhalt-prozess-justiz-1.4280352
 (DIR) [9] https://twitter.com/PatrickGensing/status/1082952006543831040
 (DIR) [10] /Neues-zum-Ueberfall-auf-AfD-Politiker/!5561196
 (DIR) [11] /Rechte-Gewalt-Notwehr-und-Nothilfe/!5563181
       
       ## AUTOREN
       
 (DIR) Lalon Sander
       
       ## TAGS
       
 (DIR) taz in English
 (DIR) taz international
 (DIR) Schwerpunkt AfD
 (DIR) Frank Magnitz
 (DIR) Rechtsextremismus
 (DIR) NPD
 (DIR) Antifaschismus
 (DIR) Lesestück Meinung und Analyse
       
       ## ARTIKEL ZUM THEMA
       
 (DIR) Rechte Gewalt, Notwehr und Nothilfe: Danke, Antifa
       
       Wer im Kampf gegen Rechts die Parole „Keine Gewalt“ zitiert, lässt
       Neonazi-Opfer im Stich. Die Gewalt, die sie erfahren, wird so nicht
       verhindert.