Serbian Gay Pride attacked by fascists, leads to riots

[Antifa94]

Riots spread to many parts of Belgrade as skinheads attacked targets unrelated to Sunday's parade [Reuters]
A gay rights parade in the Serbian capital, Belgrade, has degenerated into violence after police deployed to protect the marchers clashed with anti-gay protesters, sparking riots that left scores of people injured.

Protesters dressed mainly in black and with hooded tops hurled rocks and molotov cocktails at security forces who were trying to ensure the city's second ever Gay Pride event went ahead on Sunday.

One official said that 90 police officers required medical attention and two had been seriously wounded in the violence.

The riots spread to other parts of Belgrade as nationalists and skinheads attacked targets unrelated to the parade.

At one point, rioters managed to set fire to the headquarters of Boris Tadic's Democratic Party (DS) in protest against the Serbian president's support for the march. The flames were quickly put out and no one was hurt.

Dragan Sutanovac, Serbia's defence minister, said that "it's a really sad day for Serbia".

Susanne Simon-Paunovic, a German married to a Serb who attended the rally, said: "It was more like death march. The atmosphere was terrible."

Reporting from Belgrade, Al Jazeera's Aljosa Milkenovic said that "one police officer has sustained serious injuries and is fighting for his life".

The city's streets were sealed off by thousands of police officials as the march took place. Police said they had detained 101 people and that 53 of them would be investigated for "criminal act of violence.

'Toughest sentence'

A spokesman for the public prosecutor's office said the state would seek "the toughest possible sentences" against those behind the violence.

Our correspondent said that "the protesters clashed with the police not only to protest against the parade, which is deeply against the Serbian orthodox church [doctrine], but also because they are disgruntled with the current economic situation ... and wanted to register their anger with the authorities".

The parade was the first in almost a decade, a step towards an open and modern Serbia following years of war in the 1990s on account of ethnic hatred.

"Serbia will secure respect of human rights for all its citizens, no matter what their differences are and no attempts to revoke this freedom with violence will be tolerated," Tadic said in a statement.

The Serb government also condemned what it described as "hooligan violence".

The event was seen as a testament to pro-Western reforms launched by Serbia's government and its pledge to protect human rights as it seeks European Union membership.

The clashes occurred two days ahead of a planned visit by Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, who wants to highlight US support for Serbia's EU aspirations.

[The Fighting_Crusnik]

I just read about this... it is saddening how willing people are to attack the LGBT community just because of "religious" belief... but when you throw skinheads, nationalists and other forms of Fascism into the mix, it gets so much worse...From the article I read, the people are attacking TV station buildings because of this. My guess is that they are trying to "scare" the media from giving any coverage or support to this...

[Ele'ill]

How could you not want to match this violence? (in regards to self defense)

[Rusty Shackleford]

fucking reactionaries.

im honestly surprised they are that angry over a gay pride march.

[GayParade]

* yes, we know your an homophobic piece of shit, that was why you where banned in the first place now stop making countless sockpuppets and fuck off*

[Crux]

If the establishment hijack Pride, hijack it back. LGBT-people from serbia are not part of some liberal sector no. The vast majority of LGBT-persons the world over are, quite naturally, working class. However, if you're already more or less privileged middle to upper class it's easier to be open with your sexuality (although homophobia is certainly very existent in the middle and upper classes as well). And are you saying the anarcho-syndicalists and m-l organizations have no stance on LGBT politics and no LGBT-members?
Attacks like these also highlight the inefficiency of a liberal LGBT-movement. We need to be able to defend ourselves from the fascist scum. And the left should stand with us.
Bash back, comrades!

[Thirsty Crow]

fucking reactionaries.

im honestly surprised they are that angry over a gay pride march.It's not that simple. It's not just angry reactionaries, some other institutions were involved in what came off as a prelude to this chaos.
What I'm talking about is the proclamation of the Seerbian Orthodox Church, in which they invited people for a "protest march" (against the pride march; this "protest march" they called the "family march") and, moreover, in which they stated that the Pride acts violently by elliciting violent responses (the logic behind that statment is just...great, fucking great). And it is a small step from there to conclude that LGBT peoples violent actions should be violently opposed (since they even violate "normal people's" "right" to family life and privacy of sexual behaviour).
So, it's a matter of wider social relations, which also include a national Church.
This is alarming, terribly alarming. I can just wonder what regrouping of scum in the region this will cause.
QUOTE=GayParade;1891286]Situation is not so simple.
Anarcho-Syndicalist Initiative (Serbia) didn’t support Gay Pride you can find that on their web page.Also Marxist-Leninist from Serbia didn’t support that also,because LGBT from Serbia are part of liberal-bourgeois structure (citizen sector) and they don’t give a shit about workers,social-protests…etc
[/QUOTE]
This is utter and total bullshit.
There was, and there will always be, an opportunity for contact and a dialogue. This kind of shit does absolutely nothing to bind the working class organizations with th LGBT orhganizations, and consequently, it fails to bring together the LGBT community and the working class. And if you mean that the ENTIRE LGBT community is a part of the "liberal-bourgeois structure", than go f*** yourself (since you are bordering on he hilarious notion of LGBT sexuality as "bourgeois deviations).
On the other hand, if you are addressing the organizations, Majakovskij made a suggestion: hijacking. I would advocate a more modest approach: contact, communication, persuasion.

[LETSFIGHTBACK]

Well, This is the working class, the same working class that people on this board say "I have nothing good to say about". Some of the working class will join anti gay groups, anti immigrant groups, Klan and Neo Nazi groups.And since the Trot's say that we shouldn't criticize "the workers",we have to go where the working is and burrow from within, here's my advice, why don't you go and join these groups and try to change the workers within them. lol lol lol

[Thirsty Crow]

Well, This is the working class, the same working class that people on this board say "I have nothing good to say about". Some of the working class will join anti gay groups, anti immigrant groups, Klan and Neo Nazi groups.And since the Trot's say that we shouldn't criticize "the workers",we have to go where the working is and burrow from within, here's my advice, why don't you go and join these groups and try to change the workers within them. lol lol lol

Whoever said that e shouldn't criticize individual workers on grounds of their reactionary attitude/participation in reactionary organizations?
I think you're full of it. You're constructing straw men. Really productive, sure it is.

[LETSFIGHTBACK]

Whoever said that e shouldn't criticize individual workers on grounds of their reactionary attitude/participation in reactionary organizations?
I think you're full of it. You're constructing straw men. Really productive, sure it is.

OK, then I'm full of it. Hey, i'm just telling you what certain people have told me.

[Thirsty Crow]

This is alarming, terribly alarming. I can just wonder what regrouping of scum in the region this will cause.

It seems that I'm a clairvoyant (if clairvoyants have the monopoly on the ability to predict the obvious).
One of the Croatian religious figures has learnt the lesson taught by the Serbian Orthodox Church and the rioters.
One of the online Croatian sources published an article which quotes the weblog entry of a parish priest who calls for an opposition to "these psychopaths". He also thinks that "the police should withdraw in order that normal people have a talk with these sickos" (translations mine).

And yet again we see that religion still brings out psychopathic hatred. And a willingness to act.
Zagreb Pride have always been events riddled with tensions, but the tension never culminated in the way they did in Belgrade, as far as I can recall. The ultra nationalist right has always been small and weak, but that could also change. With a little help, of course, from the herders in the Church.
I just wonder if the authorities will decided to indict the poor fuckwit that is this priest - an obvious hate-monger. In fact, I hope they will not since there are a few people who would be willing and ready to publicly oppose this disgusting expression of backwardness.

All in all, I fear that the far right could be on a significant rise.

[Rafiq]

What did the Fascists accomplish? Doing harm to people who aren't of the same sexuality? How Pathetic of these Fascists.

[Thirsty Crow]

What did the Fascists accomplish? Doing harm to people who aren't of the same sexuality? How Pathetic of these Fascists.

Did you bother to read my previous post?
They might have accomplished a regrouping of the far right within the region (time will tell), and that is a heavy task since there are significant ethnic tensions between (certain) Serbs and Croats due to war and other factors.

[Bandito]

Also Marxist-Leninist from Serbia didn’t support that also,because LGBT from Serbia are part of liberal-bourgeois structure (citizen sector) and they don’t give a shit about workers,social-protests…etc
Not true.
It is true that anarchists did not support the Pride, but marxist-leninists were there. Of course, not the reactionary NKPJ(some members were on the other side actually, smashing the city with the nazis and other morons), but members of my organization were at the Pride and gave their support to the LGBT community.
It was a decision not to go there with party flags and symbols, because it is not a very good idea to be promoting a revolutionary organization when protected by 5500 cops, now is it? Revolutionary leftists were actually on the front of the Gay Pride column, singing partisan songs and anti-regime chants.

[Crux]

Not true.
It is true that anarchists did not support the Pride, but marxist-leninists were there. Of course, not the reactionary NKPJ(some members were on the other side actually, smashing the city with the nazis and other morons), but members of my organization were at the Pride and gave their support to the LGBT community.
It was a decision not to go there with party flags and symbols, because it is not a very good idea to be promoting a revolutionary organization when protected by 5500 cops, now is it? Revolutionary leftists were actually on the front of the Gay Pride column, singing partisan songs and anti-regime chants.
Well done. So why didn't the anarchists participate?

[Thirsty Crow]

Not true.
It is true that anarchists did not support the Pride, but marxist-leninists were there. Of course, not the reactionary NKPJ(some members were on the other side actually, smashing the city with the nazis and other morons), but members of my organization were at the Pride and gave their support to the LGBT community.
It was a decision not to go there with party flags and symbols, because it is not a very good idea to be promoting a revolutionary organization when protected by 5500 cops, now is it? Revolutionary leftists were actually on the front of the Gay Pride column, singing partisan songs and anti-regime chants.

I "take my hat off" for this act (I had an urge to use the actual Serbo-Croatian expression, but this is still an internatinal forum, so...:D)!



Well done. So why didn't the anarchists participate?
That's a good question, and I want it answered.
All in all, I cannot really condone this decision whatever the reasons for it may be.

[Crux]

Just as a side note I think I did see at least one red flag in there in the pictures of the pride demo I have seen.

[Bandito]

Here is a part of the statement made by ASI, the only, to say, respectable to certain extent, anarchist organization in Serbia:

The confederation "Anarchosyndicalist Initiative (ASI) does not support the f" Parade "organized in this way. State pride parade will not in any way contribute to improving the position of the gay community in Serbia. On the contrary, the more it will be removed from the rest of the population by LGBT pride of defending politicians, the state and its repressive apparatus - those who spend most of the population of this country are kept in misery and poverty. Those who until yesterday were prepared and made war against other nations, and those who are still prepared, those who kidnap, privatize and fire, those who serve the oppressors and criminals from the United States, European Union and NATO, who are responsible for the suffering of billions people and destroying the planet we live on, exactly as they found themselves to "defend" the rights of Repressed minorities in its imperial quest system has to provide a monopoly to force the states that are there to facilitate the smooth functioning of the capitalist system of exploitation. This year's "Pride", despite the title, as the goal above all is strengthening and consolidating the system. Alignment on the side of those, and organized participation in events of this type means the classification of the system. The trade union confederation "anarcho-syndicalist initiative" is an organization that sees as its mission the destruction of this and such a system, and therefore we will not support the police pride parade.Basicaly, they didn't want to join the parade because it was protected by the police.
What is the alternative, I ask you? In this moment, something held without the police would end in a bloodshed. The reason why ASI did not join the Pride is acknowledged, but weak. Because of that particular reason, communists did not wave their party symbols at the pride, because no revolutionary hides behind the police, and, personally, I shit on every individual who was ever happy to see the coppers. But it was our duty as a progressive force to show up and show our solidarity. That is why the anarchists' statement falls in the eyes of history, through dialectic point of view.

Here are the full statements in Serbo-Croatian:
http://inicijativa.org/tiki/tiki-read_article.php?articleId=2582
http://inicijativa.org/tiki/tiki-read_article.php?articleId=2583

Just as a side note, and the proof that I am not sectarian about this, they did participate in the attempts to organize the Pride before.
http://www.b92.net/news/pics/2007/05/954952551463a06745c91f507688941_extreme.jpg
(http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.b92.net/news/pics/2007/05/954952551463a06745c91f507688941_extreme.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.e-novine.com/comments/srbija/vesti/26301-Zbog-paljenja-zastave-SAD-dana-zatvora.html&h=310&w=368&sz=27&tbnid=6pUFkx0KzIo_hM:&tbnh=103&tbnw=122&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dratibor%2Btrivunac&zoom=1&q=ratibor+trivunac&hl=en&usg=__wFRux53TTEINByknlIdg234ENiY=&sa=X&ei=D063TKe6OcqUswbH3aSTCw&sqi=2&ved=0CCUQ9QEwBQ)

[Crux]

I see the dilemma, but I think participating as a socialist bloc would actually act as an counter-weight to the establishment parts of the Pride. Pride was never about the establishment showing how "LGBT-friendly" they are. Stonewall was a riot.

I think attacks like these also show the importance of linking the LGBT-movement to the anti-fascist struggle and vice versa.

[Sipuga]

Bandito wrote : ''Of course, not the reactionary NKPJ(some members were on the other side actually, smashing the city with the nazis and other morons)''

Of course this is not true and if this is a bit serious forum,some members of relevant Marxist-Leninist parties will check this statement where Bandito claims that NKPJ participateted with nazis in smashing Belgrade.</SPAN></SPAN>
If this not true (and it isn’t true because Bandito is lying **** which Party of Labour have 5 members) I suggest that someone ban him.

Bandito wrote : ''It was a decision not to go there with party flags and symbols, because it is not a very good idea to be promoting a revolutionary organization when protected by 5500 cops, now is it? Revolutionary leftists were actually on the front of the Gay Pride column, singing partisan songs and anti-regime chants''.

This is a despicable lie</SPAN></SPAN> because if somone of you saw pictures and videos from Gay Pride,there is only EUROPE UNION FLAGS!All ''leftists'' which were there are actually liberals who are paid to act ''revolutionary left'' in Serbia.Because of that,they together (Anarcho-Synidicalists and Party of Labour) have only 20 members.People know who they are….

I have message to the Red Anarchist who ban me all the time: listen - one of the old members from RED ACTION GLASGOW told me who you are.Contact me on PM and don’t pretend to be smart.I checked your profile.

p.s.

I had clashes with nazis for years B&H/Obraz at the end 90-s/2009 (that can be checked) while Bandito saw Nazis only on pictures. lol

[Crux]

This is a despicable lie</SPAN></SPAN> because if somone of you saw pictures and videos from Gay Pride,there is only EUROPE UNION FLAGS!All ''leftists'' which were there are actually liberals who are paid to act ''revolutionary left'' in Serbia.
Because the "real leftists" such as yourself were on the other side.

[Bandito]

You just keep coming back. How lame.
By the way, my friend from Belgrade, who is not politically affiliated, but knows the leftist scene, saw two members (one is a member for sure, and the other is often seen hanging around with these guys) of this phony communist organization siding with the assholes who ruined the city.

But that is really not the issue here.
Go embrace a flag and read some Limonov.