German rightwing rock fans tricked in anti-extremist T-shirt stunt

Started by tiny_tove, August 11, 2011, 10:50:49 AM

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tiny_tove

German rightwing rock fans tricked in anti-extremist T-shirt stunt

Nationalist message on T-shirt changes to call for tolerance when taken home and washed



    Helen Pidd, Berlin
    guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 10 August 2011 18.05 BST
    Article history

Nazis-boots
German neo-Nazi rock fans were tricked into accepting T-shirts with an anti-extremist message. Photograph: Roland Weihrauch/AP

Rightwing rock fans at a nationalist music festival in eastern Germany were taken by surprise when souvenir T-shirts they were given were emblazoned with a secret anti-extremist message.

The slogan on the shirts first read "hardcore rebels" along with a skull and nationalist flags. But once the T-shirts were washed, the tagline turned into a message from a group offering to help far-right extremists break away from the neo-Nazi scene.

"If your T-shirt can do it, you can do it too – we'll help you get away from right-wing extremism," reads the slogan on the shirts after their first washing.

The shirts were handed to 250 people at a "Rock for Germany" festival in Gera by organisers after they had been donated anonymously. They were provided by Exit, a group which helps people disassociate themselves from the far-right.

Exit claimed to have pulled off the stunt after contacting festival organisers in the eastern state of Thuringia using a false name, saying they wanted to support the scene while retaining their anonymity. The T-shirts were in lieu of a donation, they claimed.

The organisers accepted and dished out the freebies at the festival on Saturday.

Twenty-four hours later a warning message was sent from the organisers via Facebook and SMS warning festival-goers that the T-shirts were not all they seemed. "Exit has wasted several thousand [euros] of tax payers' money," said the missive.

But Bernd Wagner, founder of Exit, insisted that no state funds had been used in the initiative. "It was all paid for by private money – not one cent came from taxpayers," he said in a phone interview.

He said a supporter had approached Exit with the idea, saying he had developed a special fabric ink for concealing hidden messages. "It had never been done before. It was completely new. We had to experiment with it a lot to make sure it worked, to ensure the top layer would not wash away in rain, for example," he said.

Gordon Richter, a member of the far-right NPD party who organised the festival, said the stunt was a waste of money.

But Wagner said the stunt went better than they ever dared hope.

"We wanted to raise awareness about our programme, especially among the young and less committed," he said. "There were so many points along the way where our plan could have failed, but it all went perfectly."

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tisbor

all germans should be firebranded a swastika on their forehead at birth, it's the only way to make them happy and not complain about nazi stuff anymore.

FreakAnimalFinland

This was also in Finnish news (god knows how THIS is news that makes to daily papers!?!? As if not something important currently happening around the world?).
I don't know who benefit from this? People got shirts free of charge. So it was probably some tax payers money that got lost. I'm sure the organization is funded? 250 shirt straight into garbage, that environmentally great anti-nazi move.
Lets hear how many converted and then we can see who was tricked by who?

Not sure should it be mentioned in 1% topic or this, but in Finland there's long been the bikers for veterans campaigns. Legendary KIITOS paita for example. Money collected for war veterans. Same was done by skinheads with fund raising football matches.

Where is the money spent by antiracists...? Organizing some cozy street party for sake of diversity? Plastering some swastika crushing stickers around the city as if these underground street team battles would matter to someone? As if some member of minority would feel better seeing there might be few antifascist punks lurking in streets of city at the night time... hmm.
One would expect political organizations would have good things to do. To help out those in need or to campaign on things that matter. One would think 250 shirts like this, it's budget of 1000+ euros. One couldn't think better thing to do with the money? Maybe it simply wouldn't buy them this kind of european wide PR.
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ARKHE

No cost is too much for a good prank & publicity stunt. Apparently, the money for it came from private donors, rich antiracists I suppose. Supposedly, this kind of fake print hasn't been done before, so it probably cost a lot more than just printing 250 ordinary tees.

Ashley Choke

If you ask me this is rather funny. But the other way around would have been even better. A giant swassi appearing on a AFA shirt, imagine!

ARKHE

They'd have to kill themselves for being in possession of a swastika. Guilty by association.

UGRA

Maybe it´s not effective for changing political beliefs, but it is certainly effective to give EXIT some publicity.
And it´s kind of funny too.

heretogo

Quote from: FreakAnimalFinland on August 11, 2011, 07:14:39 PM
Where is the money spent by antiracists...?

Oh yeah, the bikers and boneheads are the ones in dire need of goverment funding. I'm sure the money wouldn't be spent on whores, guns, drugs & steroids... Anyway, the street-level anti-fascists (& related) don't generally get much public funding for their activities (beyond their personal social security, hah!). Sometimes the city might be "generous" with the squatted spaces but that's about it. Mostly the money comes from private individuals, rich & not-so-rich. And it's often spent on oh-so-sexy things as helping Romani gypsies get medicalcare. It's maybe not something you agree with but you might be surprised by what's actually being done.

tiny_tove

Maybe where you live.
In Italy (and UK), there are several organisation/trusts that get funded by the state through taxes, national lottery, national funding or, worse, European funds for "young" social enterprises, etc.
Get a social conscious cause, make a few important friends, find yourself some foes, and you will get money.

This money is often given to people who do nothing apart from spreading lies regarding political opponents (even when not necessarily extreme). They need to create a "danger" in order to have these funds justified.
So you get all these "professional" experts.

Think about Searchlight magazine. Despite what you think about racism, they have been spreading lies about people who had no links with the extreme right, exposing personal details of privates who were no connected with that world, claiming they were part of conspiracies.
In Italy there are hundreds of similar groups who get money, sponsorships, etc, etc.

I am not against public funding for cultural association (some of them, like the ARCI, do excellent things and manage important spaces open to almost everyone, so do some semi-legal squats that gets public fundings by constituting "associations"), but when I see money wasted for stupid things, especially by groups that pretend to be socially conscious I ask where my taxes money go. This not related to the shirts, which sounded like a funny prank to me and a fine example of social hacking. I was not thinking about the money when I posted it.

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heretogo

Quote from: tiny_tove on August 16, 2011, 10:12:13 AM
Maybe where you live.

Yes, I was commenting on the situation in Finland (like Mikko). And I was specifically talking about "street-level" anti-fascists, anarchists, autonomes etc. Also here there are of course groups that get public funding but they generally have nothing to do with "street parties or anti-fascist punks". Sometimes there are successful "infiltrations" to official groups and little funding gained this way but that's not the norm. My main point was that what you see in the media (stupid young people wasting their time) ain't necessarily the whole truth.

tiny_tove

I totally agree on that!
There are always different levels of understanding of events, you must consider backgorunds and media/state/corporation strumentalisation of everything.
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Strömkarlen

In a way these organisation works like the military in the US. When the enemy is gone, you have to find a new one. After the cold war/the wall came down there was an interesting time because no one seemed to know who the enemy was. Action films from America had all these different super villians before settling for the middle east muslin nut stereotype. (He was a hero a couple of years before.)
The same thing with Searchlight and their like. Street gangs of skinheads aren't around anymore. Shit, what should we talk about know to rally up support? Something evil have to exists out there?
Let's face it we are talking about people who made a living out of going after what they consider fascists. If they are successful they are out of jobs.


Goat93

In Germany the Social Sector "Left Winged" is massive paid from State and Official Distributions, like Culture Venture or University. Its also just easy to get Money for the Fight "against Right Winged, Racism and Intolerance" since this "Fight" is just Newspaper News. They want to be against but they have no intention to Change something. So they throw the Money out of the Window for really Nice and Silly Actions, but don't consider that some of them are Intolerant and Racisistic in its own. So they featured much Social Street Work and paid for Sprayer, Hip Hop Events and all such stuff, till they recognize, that from this pops up a nice and funny Intolerant and Racistic "Against Germans and Government" Issue with same kind of recklessness like the bad Nazis.

Otherwise there is no "closed" Picture of Nazi/Right Winged, so on the one Side its normal to pray antisemitic Issues and be "Anti Nazi", on the other Side you are a Nazi if you wear a wrong Shirt (if you pull out the Shirt you are no nazi anymore btw. thats the real Fun at this matter).

Ahh, Political Stuff like Communism and such is banned also. I'm not sure but i heared that more Left Winged Political Propaganda Books are banned in Germany as Right Winged. I don't mean Landser CD Booklets or Supernazi Comix, real Books...

XE

Quote from: heretogo on August 16, 2011, 08:16:17 AM
Quote from: FreakAnimalFinland on August 11, 2011, 07:14:39 PM
Where is the money spent by antiracists...?

Oh yeah, the bikers and boneheads are the ones in dire need of goverment funding. I'm sure the money wouldn't be spent on whores, guns, drugs & steroids... Anyway, the street-level anti-fascists (& related) don't generally get much public funding for their activities (beyond their personal social security, hah!). Sometimes the city might be "generous" with the squatted spaces but that's about it. Mostly the money comes from private individuals, rich & not-so-rich. And it's often spent on oh-so-sexy things as helping Romani gypsies get medicalcare. It's maybe not something you agree with but you might be surprised by what's actually being done.

Slightly off topic, but these oh-so-sexy things are allways my cup of tea. I heard about case where Romani Gypsy cunt was begging on street. One gentleman made a business proposal. Show me your tits and get a few coins type of deal. Tits out and few cents to mug.
Same idea has came to my mind at local mall when kids have asked me to get some cigarettes/beer to em.











GEWALTMONOPOL

Quote from: XE on August 16, 2011, 09:56:55 PM
Slightly off topic, but these oh-so-sexy things are allways my cup of tea. I heard about case where Romani Gypsy cunt was begging on street. One gentleman made a business proposal. Show me your tits and get a few coins type of deal. Tits out and few cents to mug.
Same idea has came to my mind at local mall when kids have asked me to get some cigarettes/beer to em.

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