Direct actions against the nazimarch

Dresden 19th february 2011

Several thousand people blocked a planned march of neonazis in Dresden on Saturday. In the area around the meetingpoint of the neonazis numerous barricades got setted up and torched and all big streets got blocked. Again and again the cops got massivly attack while they used watercanons, pepperspray and eviction-tanks to clear the streets off from the blockades. Further on a copstation in Dresden-Mitte got attacked with stones, a building and a car of a temporary-work company got attacked and several busses of neonazis lost their windows.

From the police report:
A first résumé from Dieter Hanitsch this evening in Dresden:“ The police had a difficult operation today. The day got marked by attacks of violent persons, esspecially against police-forces (...)
(…) On many spots thousands of violent people broke through the police lines to get into the area where the right-extremists gathered.

On Liebigstraße/Bamberger Straße the police forces had to use sticks and CS-gas to hold the lines.
At Münchner Platz watercanons and batons were used to keep 1000 violent protesters in distance. At Strehlener Platz around 100 persons broke through the police lines.

In the southern area of the mainstation, like on Gutzowstraße, Ackermannstraße and Zelleschen Weg several trashbins were torched by unknowns. Further on barricades were built and torched on the street Am Beuthlerpark and Ackermannstraße.(...)

(...)The forces got massivly attacked again and again by violent persons. Violent offenders several times tried to get near the area of the rightwing demonstrators and tried to attack the nazis that were on the way to their meetingpoint. They especially aimed on police forces. The police got massivly attacked with stones and fireworks. Watercanons had to beused.

Violent persons of the left scene torched several thrashbins. Further on they pulled different objects on the streets and torched them. Several streets got blocked.

At the Neustädter Markt violents persons attacked a bus, that has been on its way to the rightwing meetingpoint. The bus got demaged.

Several protesters attacked the police station Dresden-Mitte on Kaitzer Straße with the use of stones. Several windows got demaged. Nobody got injured.
(...)

A car of a temporary-work company called „Activjob“ got torched and the building of the same firm got attacked with stones.

Thousands of demonstrators blocked 3 planned neonazi-events in Dresden. Massive riots broke out between the cops and mainly left demonstrators. Dozends of cops got injured.

Dresden – The situation escalated temporary quit heavily. In the riots several cops got attacked with stones, bottles and fireworks. Cars which were parked in the area got demaged. The police used watercanons and pepperspray. Witnesses were speaking about a streetbattle. The whole day trashbins got torched by rioters on different spots.

The police tried to distinguish both political scenes by a massive amount of forces. Repeatedly the policelines run over.

Because of the blockades the nazis got kettled at the mainstation. Witnesses reported that there have been around 2000 neonazis in the city, clearly less then expected. A part of them stayed in a southern district. There some „Cat and mouse“- game between rightextrimists, protestors and the police happened.
More then 30 cops got injured, said a spokesperson of the police in the evening. He wasnt updated about the injured persons in the lines of the protestors. Around 50 demonstrators, mainly from the left side got arrested because of injuring somebody else, resistance against policemen or masking up.
Even though the organizers of the protest about the fact that the rightwing events couldnt happen, the police said that the price for that was quit high.
Originally 4000 neonazis were expected to come. About 500 of them tried (in cooperation with the cops) to change their march to Leipzig. But in the end they were not allowed to enter the city so they had to drive home. Another 400 rightwing persons went directly from Dresden to their hometowns.
The union of the police is criticising the violence against the police. „ The call for peaceful blockades and civil disobidience was like playing with fire“, the federal chairman Bernhard Witthaut explained. The president of the police of saxony Bernd Merbitz also judged the „pure violence“ against the police.
The legal process about the rightwing marches has been difficult til the end. After complaints and new restictions from the town of Dresden the Verwaltungsgericht (higher judge) allowed the events of the neonazis on late friday evening.
Already last sunday, organized by the Junge Landsmannschaft Ostdeutschland, around 1300 neonazis marched on the 65th anniversary of the destruction of Dresden in some suburb. They had to shorten their demonstration because of protestors. Around 3000 protestors found their way to the route of the right extrimists. Hours before that about 17 000 citizens of Dreden were forming a human chain in the innercity.
In the morning politicians were calling out for peaceful protest against the neonazi-events. „It has do be absolutely peaceful.“,the Bundestags-vice-president Wolfgang Thierse (socialdemocrats) said. He came because the protest isnt just a job that needs to be done by the citizens of Dreden, its a job for „all democrats. He criticised the decisiion of the council of the city to allow 3 neonazi-demonstrations on one day.
Police raids the offices of the left party „Die Linke“
The leftparty reported that one of their office got stormed on saturday. Katja Kipping, member of the left party in tghe parliament reported, that cops broke the main door in the evening and raided the „Haus der Begegnungen“. Intitiaves like „Dresden Nazifrei“ and the office of the left party belong to this house.

The reason for the police was the suspicion of organising a crime and disturbing the civil peace, said Kipping. Apareantly the 20 policemen in safety suits destroyed all the doors of the building and handcuffed several workers. They took one laptop. Kipping said that this operation was „unproportional“.
The police refered to the prosecution of Dresden. But we were not able to get a statement from them. Neither from the alliance.