Maja’s verdict

This week I actually wanted to write another text about the future training camp and start telling you a bit more about the individual thematic areas. But Epstein – documents and Maya’s verdict are preventing me from doing so, because my head is too full of anger, worries and incomprehension. So next week there will be a text about the content of our camp. Today, I would like to express something from all the anger and emotional distress that – expressed in this clarity – does not come easily to me, probably also does not always have a sensible structure and consistent form, and which will probably once again offend many people. But today is a time for emotions and tears.

Maja’s verdict is also our failure

As I start writing this text, the anxious wait for the verdict begins, Maya is led to the court chained, which is always hard to bear. Almost at the same moment as I see these images from Hungary, I read a freshly delivered letter from Maya from the prison and the uncertainty, fear, helplessness, anger and overload with the situation is tangible and almost unbearable, in Maya’s words (‘I am afraid.’) and in me this morning at 11:30. Everything in me screams a question that I cannot find an answer to: what now? What do we do now?

Maya’s verdict is not only an expression of the right-wing turn, the rise of fascism and it is not only the ‘guilt’ and responsibility of the system, the politicians, the judge, the prosecutor, the Hungarian and German governments. Of course it is all of this, without doubt and it is therefore only another proof of how urgently necessary it is to protest, to act and to resist! But the verdict is also our own failure on the left and the far left! No, I do not want to imply that it is wrong to use counter-violence against Nazis, that it is wrong to attack them in the truest sense of the word, as well as in various ways, which do not necessarily only mean physical attacks. I want to point out how important and relevant this is, how unavoidable it is. I want to point out how unprepared we are in this regard and how important it is that people know how to do this, what it takes – skills, research, knowledge, protection options, opportunities to exchange ideas in safe spaces, to learn, to organise, to weigh up what to do or perhaps what to leave undone.

I wonder, if we want to provide protection, when we will finally link the points between, for example, civil disobedience and anti-fascism: we talk about all of this in the context of disobedient mass actions. We develop strategies for our safety, we know that many of us can make a difference in terms of safety. We have markers allowing us to decide whether to stop something or not, we weigh up the pros and cons, we do action training. We communicate with people on the ground in advance, ask for their assessment, work with them, etc. When will we also transfer all this knowledge, this approach and way of working to anti-fascist protest and anti-fascist actions?

Do we want protests or successes against Nazis?

Anti-fascists and left-wing radicals must finally answer a question honestly: how do you see anti-fascist work and anti-fascist practice? What do we do in the face of trained young Nazi gangs (youth radicalisation (S'ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre)), burning shelters (right-wing crimes) and organised attacks on queer people, such as in Neukölln (S'ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre)? Those who call for #FreeMaja and #FreeAllAntifas should know that this also means that we are not prepared for this and that it is not possible to talk about peaceful protests in the next sentence and reject all violence. There is a contradiction here. Not addressing this contradiction because you are afraid of the answer and the consequences is not something that will help Maja and all the other anti-fascists. The same contradiction is evident in the reactions to the ICE terror. #ICEout!? How do you want to achieve this and what are the consequences of an honest answer?

Left-wing radical failure is precisely the avoidance of an honest answer, because then there is no corresponding action, so that there are neither successes against Nazis or ICE nor protection for people like Maja. An honest answer can also be to reject violence. Then the discussion and consideration must start from that point, what to do in the sense of effectiveness, and it is still necessary to accept that other people make other decisions. In my opinion, we must still (even more!) show them practical solidarity, because it is these people who make it possible for many of us to renounce violence. There must be joint arrangements, organisation, precautions and protective measures to ensure that everyone is as well protected as possible and that different forms of protest are taken into account. There must be exchanges that may also make it possible to reject ideas and not carry out actions.

Too much we have not done

There are too many unresolved questions, too much that we have not done, that we have refused to do and to include in strategic discussions. We have not done it, and in spite of all our denial, we knew that sooner or later some of us would have to pay the price. Maja and other anti-fascists who are in prison, are on trial or have gone underground are paying this price, as are those who are not only threatened by the resurgent fascism and the Nazis, but are already being directly attacked and are directly affected. The anti-fascists in Budapest are also paying this price. Some of them have published a very critical text (S'ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre) on the actions for the Day of Honour and are still standing in solidarity with Maja, providing accommodation for people who are accompanying the trial in Budapest etc. We share responsibility for this, also because we no longer courageously and radically shape and influence the narrative and thus the public discourse on anti-fascist work. The criminalisation of anti-fascism begins in public discourse, in words, language and formulations, and not only with laws and prosecutions. We share responsibility for this because we leave it to a few to do everything: to counter Nazis, to actively protect people, to ensure our own safety and to communicate what is necessary and what has been done and why. This had to fail, and that is why Maja’s verdict, as well as Lina’s and Hanna’s, and the trials in the context of Antifa Ost and Budapest Complex are also our collective failure, from which I do not exclude myself. For too many of us, the support for Maja and the others only began when they were imprisoned. Too little, and too late, above all.

The verdict has now been reached: 8 years for Maja, intensified custody and security requirements. Maja’s defence lawyer does not think the chances of Maja being transferred to Germany quickly are very high. The short-term relief that it is not 24 years is gone within a few minutes. 8 years! During my 1-year imprisonment in Bavaria, I have learned how long a day can be, how much an entire year can affect one’s life, how small a cell actually becomes at night and how alone one can be behind the walls, bars and barbed wire, despite letters, lawyers and solidarity. 8 years! And again, we can do nothing. Maja will spend these years behind closed steel doors, with bars in front of the windows and a field of vision that no longer allows a view of the horizon because there are walls in front of it. Maja will be happy about visits and curse them, because visits in prison have consequences that one is left with afterwards. 8 years that do not only affect Maja directly. Today is a nightmare, and as a result of this nightmare, I would like to see us change something for Maja and the other anti-fascists who are affected now, so that this won’t happen to others while we make anti-fascism great and successful again.

Those who fight fascism cannot rely on the state

Well, let’s finally stop asking the state to do something, to appeal to it, to demand action from it and we should finally stop playing by his rules even at the protests after the announcement of the verdict. Antifa is hard work – we should finally accept it and do this work, also in the interests of those who are already affected. #ThankyouAntifa and expressions of solidarity are not enough, they never have been. Anti-fascism means protecting others and protecting ourselves, and this can only be done together. Today, with this verdict, anti-fascism means despair, grief, anger and fear for us who see ourselves as anti-fascists. This has to change.

Today, like many others, I am angry, sad and desperate, and today is one of those days when it all seems almost unbearable, so I am getting dressed and going out onto the streets on this day X, because at least for today there is nothing else left to do.

Maja’s statement shortly before the verdict was announced (S'ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre)