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2/5/2016 / Issue #007 / Text:

Alerta Alerta Festival

Alerta alerta festival is an annual diy antifascist benefit event taking place in Binnenpret, Amsterdam on 6th, 7th and 8th May. This is the second year it is running.

So what its all about...
The idea behind the event is to provide a platform for antifascists to meet, socialise and exchange ideas. We want to organise an event that is in parts entertaining and fun whilst at the same time is also informative and thought provoking. We want to keep it as diy as possible and provide a platform for unsigned acts to perform. The three days will be full of music, workshops, talks, vegan food, kids activities and other activities such as tattoo sessions and tall bike jousting in Vondelpark.

The workshops and talks will run on Saturday and Sunday day between 2pm to 7pm. This year the talks will focus on topics including “History of Dutch Antifascism”, “A presentation by AAGU (Anarchist AntiDeportation Group Utrecht)” and “Anarchism Vrije Bond”. Where as the workshops will be broader in context and will vary from more physical workshops such as women’s self defence, kickboxing and krav maga (a self- defense system developed for the IDF that consists of a wide combination of techniques sourced from aikido, judo, boxing and wrestling, along with realistic fight training) to fluffier activities such as kids activities, activist sustainability, bass & guitar repair to sewing patches.

Artists featured in the programme hail from all over coming from The Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, Egypt, England, Wales, Canada and the US; bringing sounds of folk, punk and hiphop with them. As organisers we decided to grow from our punk roots and to involve more variety to the show. Punk for me has always been inherently political but that of course doesn’t mean that people that are not into punk are not political or that all punks are into politics. Our mission is to create an event that is equal in terms of entertainment and education and provides a mix of talks and workshops that will hopefully appeal to lots of people.

We normally offer bands drinks, food, sleeping places and travel expenses; but its been amazing this year how many of the bands and performers have offered to play for free, are covering their own costs and want to support the event as much as they can. The response from some people has been trully overwhelming!! If you can imagine we went live with the event in November and by December we were fully booked and couldn’t take any more acts on board. It was so amazing and definitely made us even more inspired to continue. If we go ahead next year we already have half the line up covered, its insane considering we only started the festival last year for the first time.

Having watched a rise in far right politics across Europe in recent years we all (the Alerta Alerta organising collective) felt the need to get organised and do something. I think politics can feel overwhelming for some people and they just choose to ignore it or make do with the status quo but I believe there is so much we can do when we put our minds to it, especially when the status quo is in risk of becoming engulfed by far right politics. I also find it disconcerting how splintered the cells within the antifascist movement can be and I often wonder how we will find a way to bring the people together and put our differences aside to stand together on this. In no means am I saying that this event is the glue that the movement has been missing but hey its a start. Groups that may all be in agreement against nationalism, racism and fascism are often separated by other factors such as politics, social status and other socially constructed divides that keep us apart. This leads to infighting between antiracist and antifascist groups at a time when we need to be putting our differences aside and standing together united. Anarchists fight with socialists, queers fight with straights, drunk nihilist punks fight with straight edge punks, liberals fight with ... you get the idea! It is not just the infighting that needs addressing, there is also a distinct lack of communication between groups.

Smashing stereotypes
You ask some people what antifascism means to them and you get an answer that is steeped in overly macho and masculine imagery glorifying non defensive random street violence and confrontation. Whilst antifascism can be that, it is so much more. It is important to confront fascism ideologically as well as physically. To effectively counter fascism we need to use a variety of tactics and include everyone. At the end of the day antifascism is what you make it. Just because you don’t agree with someones tactics that don’t stop you from being an antifascist, surely? Any activity/talent can be put to good use if your heart is in the right (or should I say left) place.

Whats this about free speech?
It seems to me that fascism makes an attempt to use “political correctness” as an epithet against those who oppose bigotry and violence. It seems ludicrous that we are giving a voice to a group that oppose other people’s free speech and do not respect other people’s freedom. Besides while the government has no right to shut down political expression, I have every right to tell a fascist to shut the fuck up.

Why is it important to do this now?
Having moved to the Netherlands two years ago, I have watched first hand how things have changed here even in such a short space of time. I remember during the first edition of Alerta Alerta some people had approached me and even though they supported what I was doing they wondered why. I was told that fascism wasn’t prevalent here anymore, Amsterdam was a fascist free city and that they were more pressing issues to focus on such as climate change and gender politics. When I enquired about a local antifascist group people said there wasn’t need for one anymore and that the Amsterdam group had taken a step back.

Yet things seem different in the Netherlands in 2016 two years on. Even though the reality is that an overwhelming majority of people here especially in multicultural Amsterdam hold liberal views there is an increasing far right activity on the go that needs to be nipped in the bud. For example PEGIDA (Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the West) is a far right movement founded in Dresden in 2014, following some successful demonstrations in Germany by the end of 2014 Pegida Netherlands was founded. They have been holding regular demonstrations across the country however their demos are poorly attended and mostly attract the predictable load of hardened group right-wing extremists and neo-Nazis. Lets not forget the the popularity of Geert Wilders, and the stories about increasing levels of Islamophobia, regularly used violence and discrimination by supporters of the Freedom Party that go unchecked.

The current financial crisis and refugee crisis provide ideal breeding ground for fascist, racist and nationalist rhetorics to grow. People are scared and are lashing out. It’s almost the 1930s all over again ... whether we look right or left, whether we point east or west, we see hate, ethnocentrism and sectarianism.

It is time to get organised and be more than just a counter reaction, we need to become more proactive and start educating people, making antifascism accessible to everyone not just the hardliners. In the words of Sham 69, “If the kids are united, then we’ll never be divided.”

One of the organisers of the Alerta Alerta Festival