Jetzt gilt’s!
It’s now or never!
United against politics that feed on fear
The fact that the Bavarian Parliament passed the new Law on Police Duties (Polizeiaufgabengesetz, PAG) has taken us one step further towards living in an authoritarian society. This was decided upon despite severe public opposition, which not only shows the current state government’s antidemocratic tendencies but also directly results in the reduction of Civilian and Human Rights in Bavaria: protesters, strikers, unionists, journalists, lawyers, refugees, leftists and migrants have since faced repression and surveillance to an even greater extent. It is also telling that all of the eleven people who have had to spend more than 14 days in police custody since “unlimited imprisonment” was introduced were refugees, without exception. Therefore, the Law on Police Duties has been, and continues to be, a key point of reference of the protests, which have been taking place for months now, against the State Governments politics and the general swing to the right fuelled by the fierce competition between the parties CSU and AfD. It has become shockingly normal in Germany for fascists to hold seats in parliaments and security agencies and for people to be chased through the streets by a racist mob.
Nonetheless, our protest continues. We consider our resistance against the Law on Police Duties to be part of a far-reaching socio-political controversy that has spread not only in Bavaria, but across Germany and all of Europe. Nationalism and racism, anti-Islamism, anti-Semitism, anti-feminism and LGBTIAQ*-phobia are all aspects of society’s change towards right-wing authoritarianism. It is expressed not only by direct attacks on marginalized groups, but is being expressed ever more harshly at a governmental level as well, e.g. by “AnkER” centres intended to receive, register and repatriate refugees at the borders, the establishment of the Bavarian State Office for Asylum and Repatriation, the criminalization of sea rescue, continued deportations to Afghanistan and the passing of the so-called Bavarian Law on Integration. Furthermore, the state government is instrumentalizing religious symbols whilst simultaneously criminalizing church asylum. While police laws are being tightened surveillance is being increased and power is thus being demonstrated in many Federal States at the moment, the social system is characterized by its weakness: millions of people are suffering from the fact that far too little is being invested, for example in care, health, housing, childcare and education. We definitively oppose these conditions. The current state of affairs in Bavaria is untenable.
Together, we are speaking up for an open, solidary society, in which human rights are indivisible and in which diverse and self-determined life plans are a matter of course. The new Law on Police Duties is a key step on the way towards right-wing authoritarian statehood, which is threatening to render impossible any political change in that direction. It therefore continues to be our aim to have revoked the amendments of the Law on Police Duties by the Laws dated July 24, 2017 and May 18, 2018. Moreover, we firmly take a stand against any measure, be it already decided or yet to come, that expresses the current swing to the right. We are asking that all the parties that are fighting this cause with us refrain from compromise in this regard also after the Bavarian state elections.
We firmly stand united against the current swing to the right, with all means available to us, against politics that feed on fear!
We demand:
- The revocation of the amendments of the Law on Police Duties from August 2017 and May 2018 as well as of the Bavarian Law on Integration
- An individual obligation of identification for police officers and an independent investigation body for any cases of police violence and other offences
- The removal of CCTV and other surveillance measures, no use of Trojan horse software by the government
- No deportations into war zones and conflict areas (such as Afghanistan), the abolition of the concept of “safe countries of origin”, no cooperation with despotic regimes for the purpose of the “protection against refugees”
- No criminalization of sea rescue and church asylum as well as the abolition of “AnkER” centres
This is what we are protesting for in Munich on October 3, 2018 in order to take a clear stand before the Bavarian state election takes place.