Incident in Novi Sad, Gendarmerie arrest neo-Nazis
Oct 7 2007 20:17
Just got back. Lost voice, but the whole thing was quite good, and only 2 of our people were arrested. Antifa block, separated from the liberals, had around 200 participants. We were he ones to get in fight with he nazis. More good pictures and our report soon.
From mainstream media:
Incident in Novi Sad, Gendarmerie arrest neo-Nazis
NOVI SAD -- A leader of a neo-Nazi group was arrested today after disrupting an anti-fascist rally in Novi Sad.
Goran Davidović and some 20 members of his Nacionalni Stroj group were detained after they hurled stones at citizens attending the rally.
The Helsinki Committee for Human Rights Novi Sad office head Pavel Domonji was hit and taken to hospital with light injuries. B92's assistant cameraman also sustained minor injuries.
Riot police and elite Gendarmerie were out in numbers today for the rally, which started at 4 p.m., organized by more than a dozen NGOs, joined by the Democrats (DS), League of Vojvodina Social-Democrats (LSV), G17 Plus, the Liberal-Democrats (LDP), and the Social-Democratic Union (SDU).
Last month, Davidović and his neo-Nazi group announced a rally of their own for today, however, police banned that gathering.
After meeting in a town square to hear speeches from activists and politicians, antifascist marchers headed for the Danube River, on the way passing by the spot that Nacionalni Stroj wished to use for their rally.
There, a dozen neo-Nazis waited for them, shouting, "Serbia-Vojvodina". Both sides then exchanged insults and offensive slogans, when Gendarmerie officers intervened to prevent physical conflict.
After stones were thrown, officers arrested Davidović and all other present group members, which the antifascist rally participants saluted by shouts of, "Serbia, Serbia".
After today's incident, those gathered proceeded to the bank of the Danube River, to place wreaths and light candles at the memorial of the Novi Sad raid victims of 1942, when Hungarian fascists gathered over 1,000 Novi Sad Serbs and Jews, murdering them and throwing their bodies into the river.
Late Saturday, assistant chief of the Serbian police directorate, Željko Nikač, told B92 that citizens can be confident that police will have Novi Sad under control today.
"Vojvodina is a multiethnic region, these values took centuries to build, and now someone is out to disturb that. If there is a breach of public order or an attack on any person, our men [police officers] will react. We have a good unit there and our aim is not repression, but prevention. This also defends the rights of Mr. Davidović, and the few followers he has," Nikač said.
http://www.b92.net/eng/news/society-article.php?yyyy=2007&mm=10&dd=07&nav_category=112&nav_id=44364
Some photos: http://www.b92.net/eng/gallery/index.php?nav_category=99
Novi Sad: Police rescues nazis from antifascist rage
On October 7th, in Novi Sad(*), an undisrupted celebration of the birthday of
the Nazi murderer Heinrich Himmler, directed by Goran Davidovic "Führer"(**) and
his followers from the "National front" was stopped. Members of the Union
Confederation "Anarcho-Syndicalist Initiative" (ASI) from Novi Sad, Kula and
Belgrade actively participated in the antifascist block which, clearly separated
from the liberals and politicians, was ready to stop the fascists by any means.
Under the banners "Against fascism, by any means necessary", "They will not
pass", "Death to fascism - Death to privatization" and "Those Who don't want to
fight capitalism, should be silent about fascism", antifascist block of more
than 250 people, which was formed, apart from ASI, by activists of several other
antifascists, antiauthoritarian and revolutionary collectives, as well as
antifascist football fans, blocked the road that announced Nazi march should
have taken, and than lead the antifascist demonstrations(***) towards the
monument of Jasa Tomic.
At the Tomic monument we waited for Nazi scum, which announced it's gathering at
that point at 17h. But, since the fascists didn't show up, we continued the
protest walk towards the monument of the people killed by the Nazis in Novi Sad
in 1942. While the demonstrations were passing by the beer hall which is part of
the building of the Serbian Army, some thirty neo-nazis, hidden behind the fence
of the beer hall backyard and two lines of gendarmerie, climbed up the fence and
started provoking antifascists by raising hands in Nazi style and yelling "Sieg
Heil!" The angry antifascists mass responded to this with very loud chanting of:
"We will kill Nazis", "This is the graveyard of fascism" and "Goran, Follow your
führer, and kill yourself"
In that moment, clearly annoyed, neo-nazis started attacking the demonstrations
with rocks and pieces of wood from the beer hall backyard. Antifascists
responding to neo-nazis in a solid and brave way. But once again the State
showed that it's keeping its right eye shut. Fascists were protected by police
cordons, and it was not allowed to antifascists to deal with them in the way we
always did here. Few that managed to break the cordon and hit the enemies where
it hurts, were beaten up by the police, and two antifascist comrades were
arrested. Police reacted against the neo-nazis only in the moment when a huge
rock, thrown from the beer hall backyard, hit one of the cops from the cordon in
the head. After that everything was over quickly and the neo-nazis were
arrested. Then the demonstrations continued to the monument of the people killed
by the Nazis. After the demonstrations, we were informed that some forty members
of the looser clero-fascist organization "Obraz" were hiding in the backyard of
the nearby church.
The actions of the police during the antifascist demonstrations, as well as
their later behavior toward our arrested comrades, which were tortured in
different ways in the police station, confirms what ASI was always pointing out
to. Fascism, as the most extreme version of the capitalist ideology will always
serve as a joker card that the ruling class can play in the moment when the
working class is strong enough to shake its power. Because of that, the State
being an institution whose only role is to keep the governance of the class of
the exploiters, will never work on total destruction of Nazi-fascist groups and
organizations. And because of that, the calls of the liberals and politicians
for stronger State reaction against the Nazis are totally missed out, and are
witnesses of a very low level of consciousness and lack of understanding of
reality within the representatives of the so called civil society in Serbia.
Fight against fascism starts with a fight against capitalism and the State!
Against fascism, by any means necessary!
Death to fascism, freedom to the people!
10/10/2007
ASI Secretariat for the communication with the media
--
* One of the largest Serbian cities and capital of Vojvodina region.
** Serbian neo-nazi leader.
*** Some 5000 people gathered on the citizen antifascist demonstrations "Stop
Fascism", organized as a response to the announced Nazi march.
Some of our pictures here: http://inicijativa.org/tiki/tiki-browse_gallery.php?galleryId=50