Seventy thousand attend “Rock against the right wing” in Chemnitz, Germany
By
our reporters
5 September 2018
One week after neo-Nazi riots in the German city of Chemnitz, around 70,000 people attended a rock concert against the far right on Monday. The concert in Chemnitz, held under the motto “We are more”, showed the massive opposition to right-wing extremism and fascism on the part of workers and youth.
The performances by well-known German bands and rappers–including the Toten Hosen, Kraftklub and Marteria and Casper—were repeatedly interrupted by chants from the crowd of anti-fascist slogans such as “Nazis out” or “Alerta Alerta Antifascista”. Protests against the far right also took place in other cities on the same day. In Hanover around 3,000 people took to the streets and in Duisburg a protest by 1,500 stopped a march by 50 supporters of the extreme right Pegida movement.
Reporters from the World Socialist Web Site, members of the Socialist Equality Party (SGP) and its youth and student organization, the IYSSE, distributed large numbers of a leaflet titled “The fight against right-wing terror requires a socialist perspective” and spoke with participants at the concert.
“We come from Chemnitz and are not prepared to tolerate what happened here,” Felix and Jenny said. “Such a protest shows that something is really wrong in society and makes people aware, even those who are not directly involved. I hope that people then become active, not just at such ‘events’, but in general. And I hope they openly take to the street against the right wing.”
Anika, a student of politics, said: “I’m here today because all the radical right-wing movements active in East Germany and especially in Chemnitz make me…