Antifa Congress-“Nest tasting is a left must”

In your self -portrayal, you describe yourself as an association of left -wing radicals, anti -fascist groups and individuals from Berlin. How did it come about?

Tina: Counter-form has emerged from the anti-fascist no-al-Quds alliance, which has been organizing the protest against the anti-Israeli propaganda day of the Iranian regime in Berlin for years. With the cancellation of the march in recent years, the specific reason had been lost, but not the anti -Semitism, which also showed itself on other demos and very explicitly and rigoros after October 7, 2023. As an Israeli -solidar left, we looked around who you can use to make progressive politics with.

In view of the political insignificance of left-wing political groups, it wouldn’t be more appropriate to strengthen existing structures and to expand existing coalitions instead of promoting further fragmentation?

Tina: We would understand the alliance as a merger and not as a separation; Networking will play a major role in the congress. And split: Well, in every good left there should be a decent degree of delimitation needs against incorrect content. We do not think much of a so -called unit of the left, content clarification.

The congress has the authoritarian formation on the subject. What do you understand?

Bob: In general, one could perhaps say that the authoritarian formation represents the opposite pole to individual reflection, i.e. the ability to sit down in a critical relationship with the object, to experience and feelings. This includes, for example, to be able to reflect and question your own political-theoretical basics, but also to criticize the political opponents at its highest level. Apparently we are currently dealing with social conditions that do not exactly promote these skills. In addition to, let’s say, classically authoritarian -structured regimes such as Russia or Iran, the social tendency towards authoritarianism is formed even in such phenomena such as trumpism, transverse thinking or those parts of a propalestinian movement that act affirmatively on Islamist and regressive ideologies. In these cases, authoritarianism does not manage in the form of strict hierarchies or command chains. However, this does not make the whole thing less authoritarian, even if there is a freedom pathos here. This is rhetoric in order to label everything that stands in the way of the unconditional enforcement of one’s own delusion as oppression and to point the hatred of no reflection on the supposed oppressor – be it a liberal elite or Israel.

Hannah: Another bigger topic on the congress is Islamism. We think that this ideology is still far too little attention in the left. From a global point of view, political Islam is one of the most dangerous anti -emancipatory movements, but instead of consistently standing against it, the transverse front with Islamist ideologies has gained the uprising since October 7. And then there is a theme block for left -wing self -criticism. There are also enough authoritarian people in “our circles” and you have to take a critical look at it. For us anyway, nest waste is a left must. A more common problem that occurs more and more even in radical left -wing, theoretical, theoretical milieus is a form of identity policy that puts argument and concern, truth and point of view in one. Every means should then be allowed within the group because it comes from the waiting of political marginalization. Our congress is certainly only one beginning in devoting yourself to this problem.

What is the meaning of an anti -fascist movement in the fight against authoritarian tendencies?

Tina: You can lead the anti -fascist struggle for rooms or also around the heads where it still makes sense. We have to do the world with a scale of authoritarian formation, if not fascation, that nobody thought possible 15 years ago. What you can and must do to defend the better worse – which Antifa is only called – has just become a very concrete, tendency to be vital question.

There was criticism of the thematic focus of the planned program: the authoritarianism of the left is overrepresented, while rights, right -wing extremists and fascist developments are given too little attention.

Bob: The criticism may have come from those who feel overrepresented in the program. (laughs) For the fact check: A podium and a quarter of the lectures are devoted to the extreme right and possibilities of anti -fascist resistance. We have no answer what you would have to do in theory in order to combat right -wing extremism more successfully. There is an exchange with many antifas from the federal territory. Also: If you still put hope in a leftist as a social actor against the authoritarian formation, then you not only have to formulate an adequate criticism, but also know what you stand for. This requires an inner link. We tried to cover a certain width. That the whole social nonsense can not be right with everyone at the moment with a three -day congress, well …

An essential aspect of the innerlinks discussion on the congress is anti -Semitism. There are different positions on how far the term can be made. Do you see the criticism of Israel’s procedure in the Gaza Strip as anti -Semitic?

Tina: Some yes, some no. I think the question is roughly as misleading as if one would ask critics of lateral thinkers whether they consider any discussion about certain pandemic protection measures to be conspiratorial. However, this completely passes the criticism of those parts of an international solidarity movement, in which symbols of an anti -Semitic terrorist organization are now completely normalized, where the intifada is called up and a “free” Palestine from Jordan to the Mediterranean is required.

Bob: In addition, the question is somewhat projective. She assumes that critics would be silenced by the anti -Semitism allegation, but Israeli warfare is criticized land on land.

The Berlin Jusos recently decided not to speak of “Islamism” because the expression promotes anti -Muslim racism. On the other hand, it suggests a kind of new anti-Semitic consensus in which Islamism, (tradition) left anti-imperialism and postcolonial identity policy are shaking their hands. Doesn’t the emphasis on anti -Semitism of radical minorities at the expense of perception of everyday and widespread racism of the German majority society?

Hannah: Our criticism of Islamism is fundamentally different from right -wing resentment, it is directed against ideology, not against humans. Regardless of where someone or their parents came from at some point, you have to measure people on what they do. And if you solidarize yourself with the Hamas, you are to criticize and describe what you are: anti -Semitic. If I do not criticize Muslims in this context, because they couldn’t be supposed to be supposedly congenital religion, then rather that is racist. Even if the problem of racism is always involved in Islam criticism, we think a left -wing capitulation in terms of criticism of religion is wrong.

Bob: We consider the Jusos decision to be fatal. It lets the people from migrant milieus down, which are not in the mood for compulsion to “community” and are very threatened by Islamism – the ones with which left should actually ally. But of course you are right: you shouldn’t play the fight against anti -Semitism and racism. What you have to turn against is often dependent on the specific environment in which you move as an individual or Antifa group. In Berlin-Neukölln you have different opponents than in Görlitz.

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The repressive procedure of the German state against propalestinian demonstrations is criticized as part of an authoritarian state bundle. Four activists are currently threatened with the expulsion from Germany. Ferat Koçak, freshly elected Neuköllner Left Bundestag member, speaks in this context of “a systematic strategy to urge certain positions from public space”. How do an anti -fascist self -image and the advocacy of state demonstration bans, as speakers of the congress, went together?

Hannah: You have the problem more often as Antifa. If the state prohibits right -wing extremists demos, you don’t fight against the ban, even if you find it better that such demos would be prevented by anti -fascist resistance. It is not about love for manual work, but it would be an expression of the strength of progressive social forces. If the state prohibits demos on which Jewish hatred and Islamist terror are glorified, it would be really better that it would be left that would not leave the street to them. We are currently too weak for that, which also applies to the prevention of AfD party days.

Tina: If the state does real things like an anti -Semitic demo, then it does not do so by chance. The German state currently has a problem if Germany is no longer perceived in public as a shelter for Jews. But that only affects the discourse, not the specific conditions on site. The Bajszel program tavern in Neukölln, to which anti -Zionists repeatedly commit attacks, is an excellent example of how far the knowledge of having to do something and the enforcement of protection diverge.

How was the ticket allocation?

Bob: The congress is fully booked with several hundred tickets, but a waiting list will continue to be managed, you can register online. You may no longer get into all events, but probably still in individual workshops and lectures.

The congress »Antifa out the Line« finds from 1st to May 3rd in Berlin, with a total of over 35 panel discussions, lectures and workshops. All information at: https://gegenform.tem.li