NOWKR
NOWKR (Abbreviation for No WKR Ball ) was a left-wing , anti-capitalist and anti-fascist alliance founded in 2008 . It was primarily directed against the ball of the Vienna Corporationsring and, since 2013, against the Vienna Academic Ball , which is organized by the FPÖ . In February 2015 the alliance announced its dissolution and the establishment of an offensive against Austria .
The NOWKR demonstrations were the starting point for violence against police officers , ball guests and demonstrators, as well as property damage in some cases. Several demonstrations were officially prohibited. The Constitutional Court ruled the 2011 ban on the demonstration by the Vienna State Police Department as unconstitutional .
Emergence
In 1952, the Wiener Korporationsring (WKR), consisting of striking student associations , established a ball . For decades this event was a meeting place for right-wing, right-wing extremist and nationalist politicians from all over Europe; Among the ball guests were also some who at least put the Holocaust into perspective. According to the Documentation Archive of the Austrian Resistance (DÖW), Markus Beisicht , Patrik Brinkmann , Filip Dewinter , Alexander Dugin , Matthias Faust , Bruno Gollnisch and the right-wing Catalan politician Enrique Ravello took part in at least one ball between 2009 and 2011 .
The criticism related on the one hand to the event and on the other hand to the venue, the Vienna Hofburg , the official seat of the Austrian Federal President . In 2008 the NOWKR alliance was formed and began to demonstrate against the ball. Since 2013, the WKR-Ball has had an unofficial successor with the Vienna Academic Ball, but the demonstration alliance kept its name.
manifest
The current website of the alliance states as a basic text:
“The NOWKR alliance sees itself as a left-wing anti-fascist alliance that has been organizing protests against the WKR / Academic Ball since 2008. Our continuous work managed to pull the WKR ball into the limelight of the media and has already achieved several successes. In addition to the delegitimization of the ball and German national fraternities in general, the ball has to struggle with falling numbers of participants and had to be renamed the Academic Ball in 2012. It was always important to us to understand the academics ball as the tip of a reactionary iceberg. To make the ball impossible for us also means to make impossible a form of society that produces reactionary ideologies of all stripes. That is why it has always been central for us to put radical left-wing social criticism in the foreground of our political work and to advertise the project of overcoming the existing conditions. "
Demonstrations
Since 2008, NOWKR has been organizing demonstrations against the ball every year - some of which are prohibited by the authorities. This developed into the successor to the opera ball demos . The demonstrations were banned for the first time in 2010. At the originally registered rally site, Christian-Broda-Platz , named after the judicial reformer of the 1970s and 1980s, around 700 people were surrounded and charged with administrative offenses. The Human Rights Advisory Board of BMI worked a result of this experience recommendation for dealing with so-called " police boilers " from.
The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution and the Fight against Terrorism (BVT) mentioned the demonstrations in its annual reports for 2009 and 2010. In the 2011 report, the NOWKR protest against the law was named as a “central element of left-wing extremist activities”: “The biggest event in this context was the demonstration against the Ball of the Vienna Corporationsring (WKR), in which several hundred people took part despite an official prohibition. In the course of this rally there was property damage, the use of incendiary devices as well as bodily harm and attacks against police officers. "
When the demonstrations were again banned at short notice by the police in 2011, a spontaneous rally with around 150 participants took place on Stephansplatz that same evening. Shouting slogans against the police , the crowd, some of which were hooded in black, moved through the city center and finally dispersed at the Naschmarkt. The next day, the police gave this spontaneous demonstration, in which garbage cans were set on fire and officials were attacked, as the reason for the demonstration ban from the previous day. Nevertheless, on the day of the ball, hundreds of demonstrators gathered at various locations in the city and took spontaneous routes through the city that were only partially blocked by the police. Again there were hundreds of ads by boiler. According to the media, around 1200 officials were on duty.
Judgment of the Constitutional Court
After the Austrian student body took action against the decision of the police and the resulting prohibition of the 2011 rally, the Austrian Constitutional Court (VfGH) decided in April 2013 that the prohibition of the properly registered NOWKR demo in 2011 was unconstitutional and appealed to the case law of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), according to which a demonstration cannot be forbidden because of possible clashes, but the police must present themselves in clashes between two groups in order to guarantee freedom of assembly .
“If the mere fact of a risk of disputes would allow a planned meeting to be prohibited in any case, this would amount to a preventive ban on meetings, which is incompatible with constitutional principles. The authority concerned is to be accused of such a violation in the present case. "
From the WKR ball to the academics ball
In December 2011, the Hofburg Betriebsgesellschaft mbH terminated the contract for the WKR-Ball after the Casinos Austria involved in the operating company declared that they “resolutely reject any form of extremism and organizations that lack the necessary distance to relevant ideas , [don't want to give a stage] ” and spoke out against holding the ball in the Hofburg. In the run-up to the protests in 2012, “for a short time it looked as if the campaign work had borne further fruit.” Since the following year, however, the ball found an unofficial successor under the auspices of the FPÖ as an academic ball.
2015
Two rallies by NOWKR against the Vienna Academic Ball 2015 were prohibited by the Vienna police. In contrast to the 2011 ban, constitutional lawyer Bernd-Christian Funk considers the 2015 ban to be proportionate. Since the organizers have not expressly excluded violence, a ban is justified. The basic right of freedom of assembly is not a license for violence, according to Funk. The criticism was sparked by the statement of a NOWKR spokesman in the direction of the ball guests: "[...] we will not touch them with kid gloves."
The Viennese police filed a complaint about the formation of a criminal organization . The public prosecutor's office in Vienna initially examined a charge against two people under Section 278b of the Criminal Code (Terrorist Association) , but announced two weeks later that it was only due to the formation of a criminal association , forced land , coercion, bodily harm, dangerous threats, property damage and attempted resistance against the To determine state authority. Green and Alternative Students (GRAS) condemned the investigation and drew comparisons with the Wiener Neustädter animal welfare process and the Refugee Protest Camp Vienna . For the Austrian Students' Union (ÖH), the investigations indicate "a new dimension in the repression of anti-fascism in Austria". In February 2015, NOWKR announced its dissolution and the establishment of the successor group Offensive against Austria .
Groups from abroad
Due to its networking with foreign left-wing radical groups, NOWKR was able to win support from friendly groups from Germany , Italy and the Czech Republic , some of whom came and left with their own buses, including a Black Bloc from Germany who is classified as ready to use violence.
Mottos of the demonstrations
Since 2009, every NOWKR demonstration has had a slogan :
- 2009 No reason to celebrate
- 2010 En Garde! Challenge the WKR ball
- 2011 The same shit every year ?!
- 2012 Vienna Calling - Crushing the WKR ball
- 2013 No, we don't love this country and its people
- 2014 You can have our hatred
- 2015 For an end to violence - making the Vienna Academic Ball impossible
On the motto of the demonstrations in 2015:
“When we talk about violence, we mean these violent conditions, and when we demand an end to violence, we demand an end to these conditions. When we demonstrate and stand up for the abolition of violent civil society, we always do so in the knowledge that this abolition can also happen in a negative way, as currently, for example, IS and historically National Socialism show and have shown. "
On January 8, 2015, the NOWKR alliance announced resistance to the German right-wing populist Pegida movement. The alliance announced that it would organize demonstrations and blockades against the first Austrian Pegida demonstration on February 2, 2015. For example, on February 2nd, the Freyung was mobilized for 5:30 p.m., around 200 came.
Spin-off and start-ups
In 2011 the new Alliance Offensive Against Right (OgR) was founded, supported by a number of socialist and communist groups and organizations, mainly youth organizations. It was a split from NOWKR and differs in that the OgR focuses on anti-fascism , while NOWKR sees itself primarily as anti-capitalist .
In 2012 a third alliance was established, which extends much further into the middle of civil society. The new platform Make your mark now! is supported by the Austrian Trade Union Federation , the Austrian Trade Union Youth and the Austrian Students' Union , by three parties and representatives of various religious communities, including Catholics , Protestants and Jews . Numerous well-known organizations of Austrian civil society , such as Asyl in Not , Hemayat , Integrationshaus Wien , the Austrian League for Human Rights , the PEN Club and the Republican Club - New Austria are also involved . Since this alliance - in addition to the KPÖ - is also supported by the Viennese coalition partners SPÖ and the Greens , this initiative is considered a mainstream protest. The very first demonstration of Now is setting an example! at Heldenplatz (right in front of the Hofburg ) on January 27, 2012, several thousand participants were able to mobilize. Speakers of this platform at various demonstrations were Holocaust survivors, such as Rudolf Gelbard and Dora Schimanko , as well as politicians from the Social Democrats, the Greens and the People's Party .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b NoWKR alliance dissolves , Der Standard, February 19, 2015
- ↑ Police scandal at the WKR ball ( Memento of the original from February 7, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . About the use of pepper spray by the Vienna police, accessed on February 7, 2015
- ^ Klaus Stöger: Vienna: The demo metropolis . In: The press . January 29, 2011
- ↑ a b Annual report of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution and Counter Terrorism for 2011
- ↑ Strache on WKR-Ball: “We are the new Jews”. derStandard.at, January 29, 2012, accessed on March 25, 2012 .
- ↑ Goetz, Judith: Punched! A critical assessment of the protests against the WKR ball. In: right-wing extremism. Developments and Analyzes - Volume 1. Ed. By the research group Ideologies and Policies of Inequality (Vienna), Mandelbaum 2014, page 208
- ↑ Most controversial ball in Austria. In: Salzburger Nachrichten . January 26, 2012
- ↑ Most controversial ball in Austria. In: Salzburger Nachrichten . January 26, 2012
- ↑ Christa Zöchling: loss of visitors and honor: the protests against the fraternity ball are having an impact , Profil , January 19, 2015.
- ↑ Jakob Winter: WKR-Ball: How demonstrators want to inflict the “death blow” on the academics ball . In: Profile , January 19, 2015, 36–37.
- ↑ Christine Imlinger, Erich Kocina: The fight for the Hofburg . In: Die Presse , January 24, 2014
- ↑ CONSTITUTIONAL PROTECTION REPORT 2009 , accessed on December 3, 2014
- ↑ 700 advertisements in Demo gegen Ball , oe24.at, February 1, 2010 (accessed on August 30, 2014)
- ↑ The Human Rights Advisory Board : 2010/04 recommendation on how to deal with so-called “police cauldrons”. Recommendation No. 349
- ↑ Annual reports of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution and the Fight against Terrorism (each for the previous year): 2009 , 2010
- ^ Vienna: Spontaneous demonstration after the no-WKR demo ban , January 28, 2011 (accessed on August 30, 2014)
- ↑ Spontaneous demonstration against the ban on demonstrations , Daniel Hrncir, WienTV.org, January 28, 2011 (accessed on August 30, 2014)
- ^ No WKR 2011 - The forbidden demo , Free Medium Ottensheim, January 29, 2011 (accessed on August 30, 2014)
- ↑ Prohibition of the anti-WKR demo 2011 unconstitutional. derStandard.at, April 16, 2013, accessed on April 18, 2013 .
- ^ Casinos Austria against WKR-Ball in Vienna Hofburg , Der Standard, November 30, 2011
- ↑ Goetz, Judith: Punched! A critical assessment of the protests against the WKR ball. In: right-wing extremism. Developments and Analyzes - Volume 1. Ed. By the research group Ideologies and Policies of Inequality (Vienna), Mandelbaum 2014, page 214
- ↑ Michael Matzenberger, Maria von Usslar: Police forbid six rallies around the academics ball . derStandard.at , January 28, 2015, accessed on January 28, 2015 .
- ↑ Academic Ball: Prohibition of demonstrations legal. ORF, January 29, 2015.
- ↑ Die Presse : NOWKR: Akademikerball guests “do not touch with kid gloves” , January 27, 2015
- ↑ ORF.at: Police report NOWKR , January 30, 2015.
- ↑ Akademikerball: State determined against NoWKR , DiePresse.com
- ↑ derStandard.at : Akademikerball-Demo: Landzwang and criminal association accused , April 27, 2015, accessed on May 1, 2015
- ↑ Der Standard : NoWKR: Investigations into allegations of terrorist organization , April 10, 2015
- ↑ NOWKR , call for demonstrations on January 30, 2015, accessed on January 22, 2015
- ↑ Austria Press Agency (OTS): NOWKR: Doesn't work with us! , January 8, 2015.
- ↑ nowkr on Facebook: Stop PEGIDA Vienna (date; accessed on February 16, 2015)
- ↑ liv3.at: PEGIDA in Vienna - neo-Nazi thugs and an anti- fascist blockade ( memento of the original from February 16, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , February 15, 2015 (accessed February 16, 2015)
- ^ Offensive against the right : consensus of action, accessed on January 18, 2015
- ↑ Make your mark now! : 70 years of liberation from Auschwitz - 70 years of building a democratic, open Austria and Europe, accessed on January 18, 2015
- ↑ Progress On-Line: Antifascism is necessary but not sufficient , interview with two representatives from NOWKR, accessed on January 18, 2015
