Dear queers and allies
A few more days after CSD Bautzen, we would like to thank you once again: thank you for your courage, your care, your solidarity! Thank you for the awesome umbrella choreos, your dance moves and choirs, your fast response, getting involved and sticking with it.
Shoulder to shoulder, banner to banner, umbrella to umbrella, we have shown queer self-confidence!
It’s time to tell your grandma that we were on the Tagesschau and in the taz newspaper, to return the queer pride flags we borrowed (for example at the unholy club on August 30th) and to evaluate the day again in peace. Our interview on Coloradio about the journey and the atmosphere in Bautzen offers an approach to this. If you like, you can also read our speech below.
We think that our strategy disrupted the Nazis’ schedule several times and limited their options for action. At the same time, we were able to ensure a safe arrival and departure. This made it possible to have a confident CSD in Bautzen despite the strong mobilisation from the right. We hope that, like us, you saw the day as a clear signal of solidarity from the queer community. But of course we are always open to criticism and suggestions for improvement.
But let’s not kid ourselves: the day was not a failure for the extreme right-wing scene. They were able to mobilise an alarmingly high number of predominantly young, male, violent Nazis to Bautzen. The district administration made it possible for them to symbolically chase the CSD in front of them with their route. And the martial behaviour tolerated by the police, sometimes accompanied by illegal chants, certainly did not fail to have a mass psychological effect on the clientele. We assume that they will want to attempt such a demonstration again at the next opportunity – and could turn the escalation screw even further.
It is up to us to remain alert, keep an eye on these developments and counter them effectively – as in Dresden on June 1st or in Leipzig on 17th of August. At the very least, we must ensure that queer demonstrations and events are possible everywhere in Saxony in the future without fear of attacks. This requires exchange, organisation and solidarity. Please stay up to date via our channels and join us on our joint rides. The CSD season in Saxony is far from over!
Plauen: 24.08.
Zwickau: 31.08.
Freiberg: 07.09.
Riesa: 14.09.
Döbeln: 21.09.
Görlitz/Zgorzelec: 28.09.
An adress to the town in grew up in
It’s July, I’m sitting on my terrace drinking coffee. Scrolling through the latest news, I stumble across an article in the Sächsische Zeitung. It’s a report about an attack on the Kurti youth club in my home town of Bautzen. ‘Fuck’, I think to myself, “not again”. Reading the article, I am overcome with many emotions – sadness, compassion, but one above all: Anger. Because it wasn’t the first attack of this kind, and it certainly won’t be the last. Because the town hall of Bautzen still doesn’t recognise the seriousness of the matter. How many people still have to fear for their physical integrity before action is taken against the right-wing occupation of space, against anti-human violence? How many more refugee shelters and youth clubs have to be attacked before the city of Bautzen realises that it has a damn Nazi problem?
The saddest thing is that it doesn’t even shock me anymore. Even back then, when I still lived in this city, my friends and I had to walk through the city like on eggshells. Especially at night. We were often chased through the city at night by fascists and hid in car parks so we wouldn’t get beaten up. When I once made my political views known in ethics class, word got around. A few days later, my best friend came to me and told me to watch what I said. The fascists would now have me on their radar. That was over 10 years ago and a long time before I came out as queer. I don’t want to imagine what would have happened if I had come out back then.
Experiences like these are to blame for the fact that I now walk through this city with particular wariness when I visit. My constant companions are fear and the uncertainty of what the people I meet on the street are like. I can hardly imagine what it’s like for the people who live here and do such great, stable anti-fascist work. Who have to worry every day about being attacked on their way home. Who think about whether they would be let down by the police in an emergency. They probably provoked the attack because they were wearing a T-shirt with a clear, left-wing message. However, if the attackers have anti-constitutional tattoos, then for some people this only counts as an expression of opinion rather than a criminal offence. Blind in the right eye, it’s nothing new.
I put my phone aside and take a deep breath. I feel helpless because it’s yet another piece of news from Bautzen. But I don’t think I need to tell anyone here. Everyone who is here today has probably had very similar experiences.
Fortunately, I also know a different Bautzen. One with so many great people who organise themselves in an anti-fascist and queer-feminist way. Committed people who don’t let the right-wing piss on their legs. People like you, who are now organising CSD Bautzen for the second time, the people from the Kurti youth club or the Steinhaus. I celebrate you and your work! I’m so grateful that you exist and that you don’t let yourselves get down. You guys are awesome!
I wish there was more coverage about you. About the incredibly important work you do here. Because then perhaps this city would finally stand for other news – for the news that anti-fascist resistance is worthwhile.
I mean, how cool would that be: true to the motto ‘there is no safe hinterland’, we simply turn the tables. We’ll give the fascists in the city a hard time. We show them quite clearly that they are not wanted here. All the rallies and demonstrations this year show that many people here don’t want to put up with extreme right-wing activities any longer!
Let’s show that today at CSD. And let’s also show it in three weeks’ time at the state elections. If you can, please go and vote. Use your vote for your queer fellow human beings, for POCs, for disabled people – for all those who are so often overlooked in society. Use your vote for a just and social future.
Because together we are stronger. With mutual support and solidarity, we can oppose the ongoing shift to the right. Together we will show what place queer hostility and right-wing agitation deserve in Bautzen – namely none at all! The motto of this year’s Queer Pride Dresden was ‘Queer and antifascist – unite and resist!’. And we remain true to this motto. Dear people from CSD Bautzen, I want you to know that we have your back. We see your efforts and we celebrate you for them. And we will stand by your side when eggs come flying from the Kornmarkt Centre. Because the more eggs they throw at us, the fewer they have themselves.
Shoulder to shoulder for queer visibility, queer self-confidence and safety!
Shoulder to shoulder against anti-queer hostility.
Shoulder to shoulder against fascism!