Friday, May 05, 2006

Der Spiegel and Fighting the Neo-Nazis

Der Spiegel has good news, people are fighting the alarming rise in neo-nazism here in Europe. Grandad would have approved of the humour in this new approach.

A Leipzig performance artist has found an original way of disrupting neo-Nazi marches and demonstrations. When the skinheads come to town, the German Apple Front is there to meet them -- complete with its very own Führer of fruit.

The Apple Front has appeared at counter-demonstrations to protest neo-Nazi marches since the autumn of 2004 with May 1 and October 3 having become two dates permanently marked on their calendars. The group was founded after the right-wing NPD party was voted into the Saxony state parliament.

While the counter-demonstrators gather at an intersection and sit down -- exactly along the route Worch is expected to follow -- the Apple Front establishes the appropriate revolutionary atmosphere. "Theees interrrrsection must be helllld at any prrrrice!" Alf Thum growls into his megaphone as demonstrators erupt in laughter. Part of the apple-fighters' strategy is to ridicule the far right by using exactly the same intonation and vocabulary as both Nazis and neo-Nazis. A policeman observing the scene -- who refuses to be identified -- is glad the parodists are there. "They relax the situation," he says.

Public appearances are only part of what keeps the Apple Front together. Every two to three weeks, members meet for a film or game evening -- also a helpful method of recruiting new members. "Führer" Thum is excited by his group's successes: "Young folks have been working with us for the past year and a half without us requiring any sort of formal commitment. Everywhere they are being told that they should do something against racism. With us, it just happens." Indeed, it is exactly this lack of commitment that gives the Apple Front an advantage over groups organized by teachers or political parties, Thum believes.

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