Re: SV: Saving Germany and liberating Estonia, Finland, Latvia, andLithuania 1918-23

[John King <john.king@st-johns.oxford.ac.uk>]

> I read about the demonstration. Nothing worth of
> comment. Among the demonstrators
> were a terrorist group "Antifa" based in
> Germany who are nothing more
> than a bunch of punks with a lot of time in
> their hands.

Although I am no symapthiser of "Antifa" groups, IMHO you are
oversimplifying:

1. There is not *one* "Antifa", but a whole series of organisations across
Germany.

2. Although many of their members are associated with the Anarchist and
Autonome Szene and are prone to use violence against the police and their
political opponents this does not amount to terrorism. Not that I condone
left-wing hooliganism. That said, the Rote Armee Fraktion did emerge out
of similar groupings - and recently disbanded itself.

My main problem with people who label themselves "Antifa" is that they
exploit the majority revulsion at the crimes of the Third Reich as a moral
cover for their own often extremely dubious politics. I always find that
their implied (and sometimes explicit) position is that anyone not with
them is a dangerous Nazi sympathiser.

And, if I'm not much mistaken, Antifascischmus was worn rather proudly by
the GDR state apparatus.

Nevertheless the murders of Liebknecht and Luxemburg can be seen as
prefiguring the excessive extra-judicial use of lethal force first by the
Freikorps and then by the SS, etc. But that again is a long way from
making saints of them.

Regards,

JK

PS - Whilst in HH, I was HSV and not St. Pauli ;-) Not a patch on Oxford
Utd, of course.

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John King
St. John's College	
GB - Oxford OX1 3JP
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