Don't be afraid!
On the recent anti-AFD protests in Germany
For over a week, hundreds of thousands of Germans have been taking to the streets against the far-right AFD, whose plan to deport millions of people has been exposed by journalists. Secret meetings in hotels with various types of fascists – these events happen regularly from time to time. But it is rare for the content of these meetings to be made public. The anger and frustration of certain parts of the liberal and left-liberal political spectrum is very clear – they don't want neo-Nazis or fascists to come to power in the country. And that is a good thing.
The general mood among a lot of people I'm talking to right now is positive. Finally, you have a lot of interest from different parts of society who are starting to pay attention to the rise of the far-right agenda in politics. It gives hope that there are some people who are ready to take action for a more progressive and free society, but I personally – I'm more of a glass-half-empty person in this context...
I went to one of the demonstrations this Sunday, which brought together tens of thousands of protesters. From the very young to the elderly, from the middle class to the workers. But the mood of the gathering was more like a happening than a strong protest. Lots of creative signs, smiles and a buzz of constant conversation. It's hard to estimate how many of those I saw at the event understand the gravity of the situation. One side of me loves to dismiss liberals as naive believers in the magic land of representative democracy, but on the other side there are certainly people who are starting to wake up to the smell of the burning house.
However, there is always the danger that this massive interest will fade very quickly and turn into some people voting for less conservative parties. From personal conversations, even some left-liberal groups think it makes sense to get involved in election campaigns in order to try to break with the extreme right. Of course, I have a problem with such an approach, considering that even without the extreme right in power they manage to manipulate centrists and social democrats to play their game. It is not the AFD or the NPD that recently closed Germany's eastern borders. It is the current so-called “progressive” government in its desperate attempt to stop the growing influence of the AFD in the former GDR region. The belief that you can fight the extreme right by adopting its political agenda but still maintain your own political views is stupid, to say the least. The best example of this is the Republican Party in the US, which traditionally leaned towards the extreme right, but completely lost its policies and principles (if there were any) after Trump came to power.
At the demonstration, I had a conversation with one of the organisers because the police were filming the demonstration all the time. The idea that these videos can be used later for political purposes if the AFD comes to power is very clear to me: the first step for the fascists is to figure out who they can attack without doing too much damage to the whole society, which can rebel. There was a random guy standing next to us who jumped into the conversation and started telling me that I shouldn't be afraid and that the police weren't going to do anything wrong. They were just protecting me...
It wasn't really easy to explain to this liberal guy that I wasn't afraid of the repression that might come with fascists. As a migrant, you don't have to be afraid to act. In fact, you learn to listen to the buzz that goes off every time you feel that the authoritarian dictatorship you left behind is coming to you at the hands of other people. You learn to listen and to act because, unlike many liberals, you learn that in this situation action is vital. So no, dear reader, as a migrant I'm not afraid of being such a person in Germany. But I know that in order to survive tomorrow I will have to act in the same way I had to act when I lived in Belarus. Worries about growing authoritarian tendencies in state and society are not fears. Fear paralyses. Instead, we will continue to act, even if we face a future that doesn't look bright at all.
As for the fears... after attending the demonstration, after being confronted again and again with certain types of German leftists and liberals, my fear is that when the time comes for them to raise their voices, when I am being repressed, they will be silent, as many of them have been throughout the history of the region.