Diving in the Donau: Imagining the Other, or Anti-Fascism without Fascists

During a walk on the outskirts of town last Thursday, I found a series of bridge underpasses. Each one was heavily graffitied, and each one seemed to "belong" to a youth subculture. There were the antifascist skinheads: "Punks raus!" (Punks, get out!) and "Fuck the Nazis!" There were the hip-hoppers: "Nigga 4ever" and "Hip-Hop" (OK, this one was kind of obvious). And, across a creek from the others, was a small tunnel for the fascists / neo-Nazis: "Fuck antifa!" (Fuck antifascists!). It, and a small "White Pride" sticker on a trashbin near my dorm, was the only sign of actual right-wing extremism I've seen during my three weeks in rural Germany, and it was a pretty weak one at that. It's anti-fascist graffiti that covers the walls, bridges, and tunnels of Schwäbisch Hall.

Fascism isn't an opinion; it's a crime.

Ban the NPD now

I actually don't know how to translate this, but the general idea is that we need a positive movement, not neo-Nazism.

The abundance of anti-Nazi graffiti, of course, could stem from a small troupe of anti-fascist skinheads. For them, it's not about fighting Nazis in Schwäbisch Hall; it's about fighting Nazis through "participation" in the European anti-racist skinhead movement.

Much more prominent is Schwäbisch Hall's Freundschafttag (Friendship Day), an annual street festival celebrating multiculturalism, that took place yesterday on the main plaza.

A warm welcome to Friendship Day!

It was started 25 years ago, when people from different parts of the world began arriving in Schwäbisch Hall and the NPD started making some ruckus. There was at least one sign of the festival's political origin:

Banner on the church wall says: "Social justice instead of Sarrazin! Racism solves no problems."

For the most part, though, this was a day of "fun, food, and festivals" multiculturalism, which makes "celebrating diversity" a consumer choice rather than a call to reorder social power relations. Because of its anti-fascist history, Freundschaftstag is also a way of defining the self in opposition to the Other. Because we are not neo-Nazis, the festival indicates, we are not racist, either. If only it worked like that.

With that said, this type of multiculturalism does include FUN and FOOD. So it can't be all bad. And I had an enjoyable afternoon hanging out with various people from the Goethe. What began as a gathering of four on the main church steps became a circle of fifteen young people enjoying the sunshine; conversing in German, French, English, and Spanish/Portuguese/Italian (they're interchangeable here); and cheering for three other Goethe students and professional musicians who performed at festival's conclusion.