What it takes to stop the Nazis

THANK YOU for the article on the blockade of a Nazi march in Dresden ("Stopping the Nazis in Dresden").

A couple of corrections are in order: there was both the blockade itself--with 10,000 to 15,000 participants, which actually stopped the Nazis from marching. It was organized by "Dresden Nazifrei" (Dresden without Nazis), which is not so much an "anti-fascist group" as a coalition of such groups, encompassing anarchists, revolutionary and reformist socialists, and social democrats. This action brilliantly succeeded in its goal.

Then--and this was a separate event--there was the "human chain," organized by the liberal, Christian and conservative groups. This is where the (conservative) mayor spoke, and it was deliberately held far away from the planned route of the Nazi march to "avoid confrontation."

It was not designed to actually stop the Nazis, only to signal disapproval--and in this way was similar to the ineffectual protests of years past. The organizers of this human chain did not agree with the blockade strategy, and in fact, German state's attorneys tried to shut down organizing for the blockade through confiscation of fliers, and even an order to shut down the Dresden Nazifrei Web site.

Given the rise of neo-fascist movements in many parts of Europe, and (so far to a smaller degree) in the U.S., it is important that comrades carefully evaluate what does and does not work in combating the threat. The highly disciplined, non-violent blockade worked; the symbolic demonstrations of years past didn't.
Christian Haesemeyer, from the Internet