Czech Republic: Neo-Nazi march on 18 February to be met with blockade

On Saturday 18 February 2012, Czech neo-Nazis under the heading of an official gathering of the Workers’ Youth (Dělnická mládež – DM) will march through the town of Jihlava. The local Anti-Fascist Action (AFA) group in Jihlava is planning a blockade on that day starting at 14:00.

According to the route announced to authorities, the neo-Nazis plan to march from the bus station down Fritzova street to the intersection and along Havlíčkova street directly to náměstí Svobody (“Freedom Square”). After reading speeches there, the march will return to the bus station along Tolstého and Jiráskova streets.

By setting up the blockade, AFA Jihlava wants to send the neo-Nazis a clear message: “We, the residents of Jihlava and its environs, want to show that we are not indifferent to current political events. We do not want to reconcile ourselves to the fact that the neo-Nazis are trying once again, after a pause of several years, to show their strength under the cover of a nationalist civic association and with the support of the DSSS political party. That party traffics in topics which, while they may often be current and popular, would result in suffering if the party’s solutions were ever implemented. That is why we, independent of any political force, have decided on that day to express our disagreement with the neo-Nazis’ demonstration and we call on everyone who is not indifferent to what is going on to come on 18 February to náměstí Svobody and show the neo-Nazis that Jihlava is no place for them. We have chosen a blockade as our form of protest, but it is of course not our aim to engage in street fighting with the police. If possible, we want the neo-Nazis to be unable to take even one step away from the place where they assemble and for their speeches to be drowned out by our powerful ‘NO’, sending the message that we do not want Nazis in Jihlava!!!!”

For more information (in Czech only), please visit http://jihlavablokuje.blogspot.com/ .