North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany: Solidarity action for the comrades in Greece

The banners read: ‘Environmental protection from the Base’ and ‘Solidarity with the struggles in Greece’

This year Anarchistischer Funke (Anarchist Spark) and Schwarze Katze (Black Cat) put up a stand together at the Friedensfestival (Peace Festival) in Iserlohn, that is held as a counter-event to the local Schützenfest —a ‘marksmen’s festival’ which includes a target shooting competition. With two banners, we made the most significant problems perceived carefully by the visitors.

Especially in Germany, the environmental protection is currently experiencing a new strength via the anti-nuclear power movement and the protests against the Stuttgart-21 project. With our banner ‘Environmental protection from the Base (from below)’ we wanted to make people aware that they should become active themselves, rather than trust any politicians.

The second banner concerned our comrades in Greece who have been fighting for months against the tough austerity measures imposed by the government and the Troika. Since most people in Germany are totally blinded by the mass media’s distorted representations about the situation in Greece, we communicated Contra Info to which we have often linked, so that people can make their own opinion about the struggles in Greece.

The subject of Greece produced interesting discussions with our stand’s visitors. We realized once again that most people don’t know what has really happened in this country, and let themselves get carried away from hatred incited by the mass media. After the discussions though, people were more understanding regarding the protests in Greece.

In addition, there was plenty of informative material on many other topics, and even homemade vegan hazelnut cookies which tasted very good to all people.

Also, a compilation (Zitatbox) of anarchist quotations was well appreciated, and many noticed how much anarchist ideas can meet their own ideals.

anarchistischer Funke