No to Pegida: make sure your disgust is seen and heard!
Sunday, 7 May, Pegida is coming to show itself in Tilburg. Opponents of racism and fascism will not let that pass unopposed. That is why AFA Noord-Brabant calls for protest and resistance.
Pegida presents itself as ‘anti-islam’. In reality, they stoke hostility against Muslims, against refugees, and against anyone that, side by side with Muslims and refugees, stands for equality. Pegida is a racist group, with fascist leanings. Pegida marches are a show of intimidation and an effort to root themselves and build their dangerous organization. We don’t want to grant them this space, because of the unimaginable misery that threatens to prevail if they are allowed to strengthen themselves. That is why we call to oppose this Pegida rally with the strength of words and deeds.
So: come to the inner city of Tilburg, let them know, see, hear and feel how unwelcome they are. Let them know, see, hearn and feel how strongly we detest their message of hatred. Come with whistles, slogans from mouths, signs, banners, drwonn outn their speeches. Let us help to allow them the smallest possible space, so that their action comes of as badly as possible, or even fails to go through because of creative opposition.
Therefore, we call for:
1 Assemble beforhand, omn 1.2.30 hours, at the Stadhuisplein in Tilburg (1), where we will hold aa public emergency meeting:
To express our oppositiobn, against racist hatred in general, against Pegida in particular;
To discuss what we want to do against Pegida this day;
To find people tostamnd together against pegida with our message of resistance; here, more info will be available about the situation on the day itself.
NOTE: the venue may change, nown that the Pegida assembling point has been changed as well (see further in this text). Check back for updates.
2 Together, or individually or in groups of yourn own choosing, come to the Willemsplein in Tilburg – or as close to that square as possible – where Pegida assembles at 14.00 hour, and give them a fitting reception in the spirit described above. You can go there from the public emergency meeting, nearby. However, if you have a sensible plan of your own end know what to do, you may as well skip the meeting and do your thing. NOTE: assembling point of Pegida has been changed. It is now Willemsplein.
Afterwards, there will be symbolic actions, to express our connection that people search as against the harted, and to symbolically exorcise the develish Pegida poison.. Nice option for those who cannot or will not participate in the emergency meeting and/ or the direct anti-Pegida actions, maybe also a beatifull rounding off for those whe were active earlier on the day. See https://www.facebook.com/events/273891183068605/ and https://www.facebook.com/events/1417015805025505/
Risks
Protesting is not forbidden, not even when a protest is not discussed beforehand with the authorities. Such a prohibition would obviously be unacceptable. Coming together in public space to express our concern about growing racism and fascism is not forbidden either. And such a prohibition, if it existed, would be unacceptable as well. Shouting ‘boo’ against noise you detest is not forbidden, otherwise each rock festival would have a problem with angry visitors. What we propose concretely, does not fall under existing legal prohibitions. We should, therefore, be allowed just to do our thing with our whistles, voices, slogans, posters and banners and whatever you can think of.
At the same time, we know that police and mayor give their own interpretation to the law, especially during days when antifascists try to struggle against fascists. So, it may be the case that the authorities regards the public emergency meeting as en unannounced demonstration – which it is not! – and tries to ban it. Police maybe will usesrepression, violende and arrests to keep people as far away away from Pegida as possible. In short: it is possible that you will be arrested. That would be a violation of your rights, but that will not automatically stop the authorities from acting that way.
We can make arrests as unlikely as possible, by using our good sense in the actions we choose, by loooking after each others a s well as ourselves, and by keeping as calm and in as good spirits, as possible. Legal assistence will be available for cases like that. Extensive information can be found on “Arrested? You should know this!” Just read it, to be on the safe side of things.
Note:
The part of the Stadhuisplein where we want to assemble is alongside the road, between the bus stop and the Stadswinkel, under the trees, at the location where Opccupy had its tents in 2011.
Exact times and locations may change. Check repeatedly, check shortly beforehand, form updates
See you on 7 May in Tilburg!
Facebook event https://www.facebook.com/events/170202416837210
AFA Noord-Brabant, in which AFA Tilburg and AFA Eindhoven cooperate.
https://afanoordbrabant.noblogs.org/
https://www.facebook.com/AFAEindhoven
https://www.facebook.com/AFATilburg