23 Arrested In Germany For Neo-Nazi Radio Station

[Stand Your Ground]

German authorities have arrested 23 people from around the country suspected of being involved in a right-wing extremist radio station that played neo-Nazi songs, Federal Criminal Police said Thursday.
They were arrested after raids of 22 homes in 10 German states, police said. Some 270 officials were involved in the searches, most of which were in the states of Rhineland-Palatinate and North Rhine Westphalia, along Germany's western border, police said.
Some of those arrested were appearing in court Thursday, but a spokeswoman for the Federal Criminal Police would not specify the charges they face.
Police said those arrested are between the ages of 20 and 37. They operated an online station called Widerstand-Radio (Resistance Radio) that played music by skinhead bands about killing people and broadcast racist and hate-filled comments.
It is illegal in Germany to play Nazi songs, said the police spokeswoman, who asked not to be named in line with policy.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/11/04/germany.neo.nazi.arrests/

[Rusty Shackleford]

not surprising that most were in the west.

[Widerstand]

widerstand-radio.com is down. Hm. It seems widerstand.info as well. Good thing, fuckers stealing progressive terms.

[Rusty Shackleford]

they stole your name for christ stake!

[Widerstand]

they stole your name for christ stake!

Well Widerstand really just means resistance, however it is a troubled term. On one hand there is the "Widerstandsbewegung" (resistance movement, also called German resistance or "antifaschistischer Widerstand" - antifascist resistance), which is basically an umbrella term for every opposition to the Third Reich and NSDAP.

At the same time, there was the newspaper Widerstand, with the subtitle "Zeitschrift für nationalrevolutionäre Politik" (newspaper for national-revolutionary politics), which was the left wing of the NSDAP.

Then there is the more modern "concept" of Widerstand, which came up as part of the New Left / Autonomenbewegung, which basically means a total resistance to the state, the bourgeois, capitalism and reactionary culture on all spheres of life - strongly linked to the "politics of the first person". That's what inspired my nick.

Anyhow, I don't really know this radio station. :/ It's sorta telling that all the German gov's anti-Nazi actions are largely irrelevant.

[Optiow]

I am happy that right wing extremists were arrested, but doesn't that mean left wing comrades could be arrested also?

[Widerstand]

I am happy that right wing extremists were arrested, but doesn't that mean left wing comrades could be arrested also?

What do you mean "could be?" A fucking lot of comrades were and are being arrested/charged because they are targeted by the same laws that are sold to the public as "anti-Nazi" laws, for example wearing a crossed out swatiska, which was popular amongst German antifa, was punishable because swatiskas may not be displayed. Since this has come to public awareness, massive studies are fabricated to show a "rise in left wing violence" by linking up vague statistics describing unrelated phenomena. These studies are then used to justify specifically anti-leftist repression. And of course 129a and 129b, the historical anti-leftist paragraphs, still exist and are still used.

A.C.A.B.!

[Cham_Empire]

Is it bad that I'm for the legalization of imprisoning right-wingers? because I think it'd be the benefit for the nation if everyone who has shown an allegiance to the right is thrown into what can be described only as a "gulag".

[William Howe]

I don't approve of arresting of Rights based on beliefs alone (though I heartily disagree with them), but these people were promoting violent Nazi ideals, something anyone Right or Left can agree deserved imprisonment.

[Crux]

What do you mean "could be?" A fucking lot of comrades were and are being arrested/charged because they are targeted by the same laws that are sold to the public as "anti-Nazi" laws, for example wearing a crossed out swatiska, which was popular amongst German antifa, was punishable because swatiskas may not be displayed.
And they successfully sentenced people for wearing crossed out swastikas? Fucking hell. I mean, in Sweden it's illegal to display swastikas too, but only if it is in a context of racial hatred.
The pro-zionists tried to use this law against some antizionist protesters who had had signs with the israeli flag with a swastika and the star of david equals swastika and the like. I don't think it ever came to anything though as it was quite clear it was hardly about supporting nazi policies.

[Widerstand]

And they successfully sentenced people for wearing crossed out swastikas? Fucking hell. I mean, in Sweden it's illegal to display swastikas too, but only if it is in a context of racial hatred.
The pro-zionists tried to use this law against some antizionist protesters who had had signs with the israeli flag with a swastika and the star of david equals swastika and the like. I don't think it ever came to anything though as it was quite clear it was hardly about supporting nazi policies.

I think there were a few sentences, but at the very least a lot of people and sellers were charged. Crossed out swatiskas have more or less disappeared from the anti-fa scene.

Similar laws which were sold as "anti-nazi" laws were the adjustments to the Versammlungsrecht (first and foremost affecting demonstrations) in Bayern and BW. Since they were introduced in Bavaria they have been consequently and almost exclusively used against leftists, even though there were a couple of Nazi events to which they could have been applied.

[ed miliband]

Is it bad that I'm for the legalization of imprisoning right-wingers? because I think it'd be the benefit for the nation if everyone who has shown an allegiance to the right is thrown into what can be described only as a "gulag".


Call me a liberal, but I worry that if the state starts making laws about locking up fascists then revolutionary socialists will be the next along. I dare say the state would be harsher on self-described communists / anarchists than they would be on the fash.

[Weezer]

In this situation, fuck freedom of speech.

In a National "Socialist" society, freedom of speech would not exist. The German Government gave them what they want: a lack of freedom of speech and expression.

I don't think Neo-Nazis should be able to express themselves, if expression is what they want to destroy.

[Crux]

Call me a liberal, but I worry that if the state starts making laws about locking up fascists then revolutionary socialists will be the next along. I dare say the state would be harsher on self-described communists / anarchists than they would be on the fash.
Nothing liberal about that. That's why we don't support a ban on the nazi organizations, it could very easily and quickly be turned into an "anti-extremist" law instead. In any case, such laws, even if they were applied against nazi's cannot stop the nazi and fascist movement, only mass protests and organization in the neighborhoods, schools and workplaces can do that.

[Property Is Robbery]

I don't approve of arresting of Rights based on beliefs alone (though I heartily disagree with them), but these people were promoting violent Nazi ideals, something anyone Right or Left can agree deserved imprisonment.


I don't think anyone should have those kind of rights stripped away, Nazi or not. Although they definitely deserved it and had it coming so it was good, but like someone else mentioned that opens a door for any radical to be arrested. Anarchist, Communist or Fascist.

[Crux]

I'd also like to say, I am not opposed to a ban of fascist organizations on principle. Even the small sects that exists today could one day form a mass reaction and even now they represent a threat on an individual level against anti-racists, immigrants, LGBT-people and socialists. But anywhere such legislation exists the governments tend to be notoriously bad at applying it, and there is a reason for that. Even if a fascist threat became immediate we can never lend our trust to the bourgeois state, however, if a radical government in the face of reaction chose to outlaw fascist organizations, I think that is correct, as they represent the armed reaction. Legislation will however never be enough to actually stamp out the forces of reaction.

[Sugar Hill Kevis]

Is it bad that I'm for the legalization of imprisoning right-wingers? because I think it'd be the benefit for the nation if everyone who has shown an allegiance to the right is thrown into what can be described only as a "gulag".

Yes, it is.