## mail vom 21.11.05 weitergeleitet von LPA Berlin [mailto:lpa<a>free.de] ## source : zaczek@gmail.com

EQUALITY PARADE IN POZNAN KNOCKED DOWN "homo-terrorists" against homophobe pact of nazis and cops in Poland

On november 19th an Equality March was meant to happen in Poznan. The demonstration was in favour of tolerance, equal rights, women's rights and against discrimination because of sexual orientation. Until now all marches of this type were attacked as "immoral acts of promotion of homosexuality" and delegalized under the pretext that they were a "threat to security".

The participants of the Equality March were chanting "Zomo!" and "Gestapo!" to the intervening cops ("ZOMO" was the infamous riot police used during stalinism) Football hooligans and neofascists from the "All-Polish Youth" were throwing eggs at the protesters. The police was kicking the sitting protesters and twisting their arms. 68 people were arrested (10 or so of them we are told are from the Anarchist Federation section Poznan).

The neo-fascist "Mlodziez Wszechpolska" calls the participants of the Equality March "homo-terrorists".

The president of Poznan has delegalized various demonstrations already 11 times (including demonstrations against the war in Chechnya), which was found illegal by a court. After an illegal ban on a demonstration was issued for the 12th time, people from feminist, anarchist, leftist and artistic movements decided to carry on an act of political disobedience.

Anarchists began the protest at noon at the house of Poznan president Grobelny. About 20 people stood with the banner "Tolerance yes, politics no" and made noise, distributed leaflets and chanted "All government destroys freedom", "Freedom of speech and of demonstration". Nobody inside the house had the courage to open and talk to the demonstrators.

The march itself practically didn't happen. A dozen police cars were standing blocking all routes that the marchers could possibly take.

A couple of hundred demonstrators were surrounded from both sides by a tight police cordon. On either side aggressive neo-nazis were gathering. Nobody was let inside. After unsuccessful attempts to break the cordon, the demonstrators started to march in a circle.

The police chose to ignore eggs thrown at the demonstration by fascists, and proceeded to check the IDs of demonstrators. The slogan "Freedom will not die, fascist pigs" were chanted.

After an hour police started to pull individuals out of the crowd and arrest people. In reaction to that about 40 people sat on the ground holding a grip on each other. The police proceeded to attack the sitting by dragging people by their hair and dragging them face down on the pavement.

After 20 minutes the police pulled back because they didn't have any more space in the police vans. Over 60 people were arrested.

Immediately after the arrests a picket was organized at one of the police stations with a banner "Enough repressions for freedom of opinions". Three people were arrested for participating in that picket.

All the arrested have been let out on the same day. The arrested were activists of various groups, actors and random persons.

A gallery of the Equality Parade in Poznan and related demonstrations can be seen here:

http://www.foto.rozbrat.org/ main.php?g2_view=core.ShowItem&g2_itemId70&g2_page=1 Alter-EE mailing list Check out archives, maps and resources on the Alter-EE web site: http://www.alter.most.org.pl/ fa 22.11.2005

LPA-EN