A spontaneous demonstration with up to a thousand people taking part marched through Leipzig's city centre on 15 January 2014, protesting against the murder of Khaled Idris as well as the Pegida and Legida marches. A slew of reports on the trail of destruction that the demonstration had allegedly left behind came in the same evening; denials followed on the heels of false reports as two hundred people remained trapped in the police cordon until deep into the night, deprived of their mobile phones and harangued by the police.
Solidarity is our weapon
Many that took part in the demonstration are worried at the events at the demo and the subsequent reporting in the media. Another demonstration mobilised the same way would seem unlikely as many would rather stay home for fear of damage to property, police cordons and violence. There is a lot of discussion on the point – or pointlessness – of the individual activities on the Web, at the university, and at the usual hangouts of the political scene. And that's a good thing.
If you are worried, furious, anxious, disappointed, or you feel the need to voice another opinion, speak up. But you should also listen to the responses. Discourse is always a good thing as long as we don't lose sight of our main goals: this isn't about the media, public percepotions or what the political parties and decision makers think. Our discussion focuses on the continued racist demonstrations held by Pegida and Legida, and the consequences for people with migration backgrounds as we've witnessed in Khaled's murder. This is about our refusal to put up with the way things are. Our refusal to rely on those that run our city and state. Our refusal to remain apathetic in the face of those trying to drag the state fruther towards the right.
Our discussion focuses on our concerted resistance – which we are happy to note is strong in Leipzig. We don't draw this strength from uniformity in expression and activity – and this is the root of our solidarity in diversity.
We may well find one another unberable at times, and maybe this point was finally reached for many in yesterday's demonstration. Of course it might not have been the whole demo but a few individuals that attacked the police. It's correct that not everyone was happy about all the broken windows in various buildings. It's unfortunate that the media downplayed our intentions, and that the political scene has come out against us.
The fact remains that right up until the end, our demonstration was one of the loudest, most powerful demonstrations that we've seen in recent times – without official registration, loudspeaker van or any big announcements. We all came out for the one cause we all share. Our demonstration grew towards the end, no signs of fizzling out. We took a decisive and concerted stand – not because we're all the same, but because we overcame our differences and stayed together out of solidarity up until the very end.
Solidarity isn't always easy – it's much easier to drive a wedge between us in some situations, and that is exactly what the city is trying to do now with the help of the media. Our criticisms aren't welcome whichever way we communicate them. As soon as we depart from the official rules of the game, people will try to scare us off. We have to face up to this threat: whichever way, we are in the same boat – a fact that our opponents are better at recognising than we are. It's easy for them to make us out as a single enemy they can fight against.
Solidarity is the practice of mutual support – especially when there are problems. And this is our best protection in hard times.
Wednesday Evening: Let's go out together in solidarity against Legida!
(And we'd like our mobiles back if it isn't too much trouble)