Author: Hans Vogel reports from the front line in Cologne | Date: October 2008

Cologne routs the racists

On Saturday 20 September we scored a truly massive victory in Cologne. “We” being the 50,000-strong broad alliance of trade unions, community groups, left-wing groupings, school pupils, students and, above all, the ordinary citizens of Cologne who stopped the racist “Congress against Islamisation” in its tracks with civil disobedience on a gigantic scale.

More than 1,000 racists, including leading repre-sentatives of far-right parties across Europe, had been expected to attend the congress between 19 and 21 September, organised by the right-wing populists of the pro-Köln group and its regional counterpart pro-Nordrhein-Westfalen. We saw to it that it did not happen.

The climax of the racists’ “anti-Islamic” jamboree was to be a public demonstration on the Heumarkt (Hay Market) in the heart of the cathedral city on 20 September. About 80 supporters arrived early, but the rest were prevented from reaching the square by massive sit-down protests all around it.

Another 200 racists were penned in at the airport after anti-fascists blockaded the nearest railway station, Köln-Deutz.

Our intention from the outset was to rout the racists and we got off to an early start to make the Friday a disaster day for pro-Köln. After the city council had banned pro-Köln from using council property, the racists announced a new venue for their “international press conference” and announced they were going to sail along the Rhine on the Moby Dick. This information was received with glee by anti-fascists who quickly made their way to where the ship was moored.

There they found a gaggle of right-wing extremists and journalists waiting, both on the boat and ashore, for the police to arrive. When a stone shattered a window on the boat, the captain moved off leaving part of the press corps and some very nervous racists, including the British National Party representative Richard Barnbrook, stranded.

The pantomime then only got better. After chugging about on the Rhine for five hours, the Moby Dick returned with its unwelcome passengers to collect the remnants only to find they had left by bus – no taxis would take them – for the press conference venue.

Harald Vilimsky, the general secretary of the extreme-right Austrian Freedom Party (FPÖ), was incandescent with rage, spluttering that “such total failure by the security forces would not be possible in Austria”. It was only later that the police were able to lead the badly ruffled racist rabble to their hotels where, instead of getting rest and refreshment, they were told their reservations had been cancelled. The pubs were no refuge either; congress supporters were shown the door in short order.

The hostile reception followed weeks of work by our broad anti-fascist Alliance against pro-Köln which, in addition to holding lots of meetings and concerts, exposed pr-Köln’s real character as a group stuffed to the brim with nazis. A beer drinkers’ offshoot of the Alliance printed over 200,000 beer mats spelling out the message: “No Kölsch [the famed local brew] for nazis!”

Hardly any part of the city’s communities was untouched by the anti-fascist campaign. We held football tournaments, we staged cultural events and we gained such positive press coverage that, by the time of the congress, Cologne and its political parties, its cabaretists and its carnivalists were standing shoulder to shoulder against the racists.

By the Saturday the city’s blood was up. Very early, the DGB trade union federation organised a mass demonstration filling the narrow streets near the cathedral. “This congress is not welcome, the residents of Cologne don’t want it. My message to this Euro-fascist clique, to the Haiders, Le Pens and the rest of them, is clear: ‘There is the exit. Now go home’,” boomed Cologne’s mayor Fritz Schramma. The fact that Le Pen had not turned up and Haider had not been invited bothered nobody and the throng poured towards the Heumarkt where they met another 5,000 people already blockading the square.

In one corner were gathered the Green Youth, in another the trade unionists of the public sector union ver.di. and in a third were autonomous anti-fascists. Further on, school students were blocking the street. Thousands who did not belong to any group also wanted to be involved, enthusiastically joining the ranks of the more organised protesters and waving all manner of brightly coloured flags while various Cologne rock bands provided entertainment.

The few fascists who finally managed to slither into Cologne’s Altstadt skulked around looking lost and desperately trying to be inconspicuous, apart from Barnbrook who had himself publicly photographed with a small group of other racists for his blog fans back home. Standing behind them forlornly was the enormous rally platform bearing the painted slogan “Stop Islam!” not “Stop Islamism” nor even “Stop Islamisation”. The masks of pro-Köln’s organisers had fallen off, disproving their bogus claim that they were not attacking Muslims as such.

At 12:30, hemmed in from all sides, Manfred Rouhs, pro-Köln’s chief strategist and a city councillor, timidly declared the rally open. At exactly the same time, Filip Dewinter of the extreme-right Vlaams Belang, Markus Beisicht, chairman of pro-Köln, Andreas Mölzer of the FPÖ and Henry Nitzsche, a fascist regional MP in Saxony, were holding a furtive and improvised press conference in the basement of the airport.

Rouhs demanded that the police provide his pals with transport. It was to no avail. As he spoke, the police were banning the racist rally. To find comfort, he could only look to the sky where a plane was still circling, trailing a streamer bearing the words pro-Köln.

Standing beside Rouhs was Mario Borghezio, an MEP of the far-right Italian Lega Nord, who was waving a white flag and bawling “Christian Europe, never Muslim”. There was also a miserable three-strong delegation from the French far-right splinter group, the National Republican Movement (MNR).

After the racists scurried off, most of the counter-demonstrators also went home, the peace being disturbed only by a heavy-handed police attempt to disperse a remaining crowd of around 500 anti-fascists.

Pro-Köln’s programme for Sunday never took place. Even the racists could not be bothered, although pro-Köln did not hesitate to complain about its humiliation, issuing statements accusing the police of “failing deplorably” to protect the congress and expressing their intention to hold another such event. If they do, it will probably be without their erstwhile European friends who departed in a mood of defeat, demoralisation and depression.

The scale of our victory is inestimable and shows that broad united, community-based mass mobilisation can be militant and is far more likely to be successful.

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