A-Infos (en) Germany, Die Platform: Whether AfD or traffic light government: we can only stop the shift to the right from below! (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

On January 10th, the research network "Correctiv" published a report 
about a private meeting of Identitarians, AfD politicians, conservatives 
and entrepreneurs in November 2023. ---- The content of this report is 
likely to be of interest to many who are already Those who have spent 
some time studying the New Right, their ideology and their plans to take 
power have come as no surprise. What was particularly new was how 
specifically fascist ideologues are already discussing the racist 
expulsion of millions of migrant people and how naturally high-ranking 
officials from the AfD and the right-wing fringe of the CDU take part in 
this discussion. The response from civil politics and the media was and 
is enormous. Politicians from as far away as the CDU and FDP warn of the 
right-wing danger, denounce the AfD and indulge in phrases about 
defending democracy. Newspapers, talk shows and podcasts are full of 
reports about the plans of the right and calls for energetic action from 
politicians and so-called civil society.

And this actually mobilizes people onto the streets. Large 
demonstrations are taking place in all major German cities these days. 
The numbers seem to increase with each new demonstration. In most 
cities, the protest is organized by extremely broad alliances, ranging 
from parts of the radical left, to NGOs and DGB unions, to the civil 
parties and their youth organizations. The representatives of these 
parties, whether they are called Olaf Scholz or Nancy Faeser, 
immediately applaud the democratic protest against the right. The 
protests are giving hundreds of thousands of people space to take their 
anger and rejection of the AfD's rise, which has been going on for 
years, and the shift to the right as a whole to the streets. It is 
empowering to see that there are so many others who will not silently 
accept the emerging new fascism. Who do not accept that plans are being 
made in back rooms to forcibly evict themselves or their partners, 
friends, colleagues and neighbors. The signal that these demonstrations 
send to the right as well as to parts of society that are still 
undecided or are in immediate danger is important and it is therefore 
right and good that we take to the streets together!

But we must not deceive ourselves either: demonstrations are symbols of 
resistance. They alone cannot stop the rise of the right. How often have 
we seen that after right-wing terrorist attacks, attacks on asylum homes 
and hunts against migrant people, tens of thousands of people took to 
the streets in a short space of time? And how quickly did the protests 
and with them the outrage subside? Undeterred, the AfD's poll numbers 
continued to rise. If we want to effectively combat the shift to the 
right, then we need a broad-based anti-fascist mass movement. This must 
be anchored in our workplaces, neighborhoods, schools and universities. 
It must be able to refute the content of the fascist slogans; to oppose 
the fascists with public protest wherever they dare to go out to meet, 
campaign or demonstrate; and, last but not least, to act militantly 
against the infrastructure and personnel of the right. There is already 
a starting point for what would be necessary. Open anti-fascist 
meetings, anti-fascist and anti-racist groups and alliances. What must 
now be done is to strengthen and broaden these approaches. Each of us 
can contribute to this by joining the existing structures and supporting 
them. In many places, an anti-fascist movement needs to be built almost 
from the ground up. Here, trade unions, district organizations, student 
syndicates and university groups are the right place to develop 
anti-fascist work.

As important as it is that we organize ourselves and start fighting 
together, it is equally important that we become aware of who our 
opponents are. The right wing, of course, is the AfD and its 
extra-parliamentary front line made up of think tanks, youth groups and 
local right-wing networks. This is still the old neo-Nazi scene, which 
has lost a lot of importance in recent years and is still dangerous. But 
it is also - and there can be no doubt - the bourgeois parties and the 
governments that they form. The same government, whose officials speak 
with much pathos against the AfD's deportation plans and applaud the 
anti-fascist protest, decided last week to massively tighten German 
asylum law with the cynically so-called "Repatriation Improvement Act". 
She is currently working in the EU to create mass camps at Europe's 
external borders. It is constantly cutting social benefits, which is 
driving masses of dissatisfied wage earners into the arms of the AfD. 
The same parties that now uphold anti-fascism have done everything they 
can for years to criminalize the anti-fascist movement. There are people 
in this state's prisons because they didn't watch as fascists conquered 
more and more space. The traffic light, like the bourgeois governments 
before it, is responsible for the rise of the right and is already 
implementing its racist demands into practical politics today. The 
capitalism that it defends brings about fascism and makes it possible. 
An anti-fascist movement must resolutely oppose the AfD, the bourgeois 
parties, the racist and anti-Semitic attitudes that are still widespread 
among the population, capitalism and the bourgeois state.

It is therefore also questionable to place all hopes in the institutions 
of this state by calling for a ban on the AfD. It currently doesn't look 
as if the bourgeois parties can even agree on such an undertaking. It 
would also take years and, especially in the case of the AfD, legal 
success is by no means certain. If the AfD is nevertheless banned, its 
structures, money and mandates will be lost - but the people and their 
reactionary ideologies in the form of racism, anti-Semitism, sexism and 
queer hostility, which made the rise of the AfD possible, are still 
there and it is It is not unlikely that a ban would even consolidate and 
radicalize them. A ban on the AfD would at most be a breathing space 
before right-wing forces regroup to form a new party or choose other 
strategies. The signaling effect that such a procedure would have for 
the bourgeois parties should not be neglected: state repression against 
the right usually hits progressive forces next. So instead of trusting 
that the bourgeois state will save us from the right-wingers, we must 
trust in our own strength. The anti-fascist mass movement remains the 
most effective means in the fight against fascists. So let's start 
building it today. Shoulder to shoulder on the streets of our cities and 
squares in our villages.

Build the anti-fascist movement!
Not an inch to the right!

https://www.dieplattform.org/2024/01/26/ob-afd-oder-ampel-regierung-nur-von-unten-koennen-wir-den-rechtsruck-stoppen/#more-2859
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