Today we took part in the last stage of the traditional Rhine-Ruhr Easter March
in Dortmund. The peace demonstration started in Dorstfeld and then ran witharound 350 people along Rheinische Straße in the direction of the city centre. Weactively participated in confronting and isolating right-wing forces. --- Peacemovement in crisis --- The Easter marches have been the most importantdemonstrations against war and for peace in Germany for decades and take placeevery year nationwide. They are directed against all wars in the world, againstarms trade and rearmament, involving a large and diverse range of differentactors. This makes them important sites of anti-militarist struggle. In therun-up to this year's Easter marches, controversial debates took place within thepeace movement. The war in Ukraine has shaken up supposed certainties anddifferent assessments of the war are being discussed. While a minority ispursuing a course that defends the actions of the Russian state, the majorityseems to be disoriented, which is reflected in the repetition of the usualpacifist slogans. A clearly anti-imperialist, internationalist andanti-militarist attitude, which consequently includes an anti-capitalist andanti-state position, hardly plays a role. The lack of orientation in large partsof the movement is evidently accompanied in many places by the desire not todistance oneself from one another. Again and again, this means that organizers orparticipants of the demonstrations tolerate obviously wrong positions or evenopenly reactionary forces - primarily remnants of the lateral thinker movement.The bourgeois press uses this acceptance of right-wing forces to write againstthe peace demonstrations in line with the war mood. But large parts of the leftto the radical left sense an alleged transverse front and therefore turn theirbacks on the Easter marches, limit themselves to observing the events and thesearch for right-wing forces or even organize counter-protests.We consider both the toleration of the rights by organizers and participants aswell as a hasty rejection of the event itself to be wrong. Instead, we think it'simportant to confront both overtly reactionary forces and misconceptions in thepeace movement. This can only work if we go into the movement. And only then arewe able to spread our views. That's why we took part in the Easter march inDortmund today.Report from the demonstrationAt 1 p.m., the participants of the Easter march gathered as every year for theopening rally on Wilhelmplatz in Dortmund-Dorstfeld in the immediate vicinity ofthe houses of the Dortmund Nazi scene. Some fascists hung around across thestreet and took photos of the demonstrators. The crowd at the rally was mixed.Classic peace groups, Christian peace groups, authoritarian communist partiessuch as the DKP and MLPD. Around two dozen lateral thinkers from the "DortmundDemocratic Resistance" and the lateral thinker party "Die Basis" also gathered onthe fringes, most of whom were initially ignored. There were a few speeches onthe microphone. Among them were quite good contributions, which, for example,addressed war as a cause of flight, but also clearly wrong positions, which, forexample, referred to the legitimacy of Russian security interests, for example tojustify demands for Ukrainian territory cession instead of attacking theprevailing system, which is war in itself like the cloud carries the rain. Wepositioned ourselves with a banner and black and red flags on the fringes of themeeting.After the last speech and a few arguments with provocative fascists, the demothen set off towards the city centre. Here it became apparent that the demoleadership had no concept or intention of excluding the right-wing forces. Theseran undisturbed and even as blocks in the back of the demonstration. We didn'twant to accept that and so we gathered a few comrades and positioned ourselvesdirectly in front of them with our banner that read "Peace for Ukraine - Fightimperialism!" and chanted internationalist and anti-fascist chants. The rightistswere visibly annoyed and distracted by this, so the rest of the demo passed themand after a short time and for the rest of the demonstration they had to run atthe back at a good distance. With a group of about 20 people, we loudly shoutedstable slogans against war, rearmament and capitalism for most of the way toHansaplatz.Together with about 20 comrades we isolated the right-wing forces from the restof the demonstrationOverall, we draw a positive conclusion of the day. We have succeeded, albeitspontaneously, in creating a collective anti-imperialist expression, confrontingand isolating the right - as it should be. That would not have been possible ifwe had simply turned our backs on the Easter March. But that it was necessary atall is really an indictment. It would have been the duty of the demo leadership,presenting itself as anti-fascist, to ensure that these forces were not given anyspace at the demonstration from the outset. We sharply criticize the fact thatthis did not happen. We will continue to intervene against right-wing forces atpeace demonstrations and for a clear position against war, militarism and rearmament!Down with this system and the wars of the rulers!Post Navigationhttps://ruhr.dieplattform.org/2023/04/10/bericht-vom-ostermarsch-rhein-ruhr-2023_________________________________________A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C EBy, For, and About AnarchistsSend news reports to A-infos-en mailing listA-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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