Friday 9 October 2009

Antifascism at Edelman's Funeral

Today was the funeral of Marek Edelman. At the funeral was an antifascist placard in English and Polish reading "Make Antisemitism History. Enough Fascism and NeoNazism. No Pasaran 11.11 in Warsaw" with a black flag. The reference was to the fascist march planned for Nov. 11 in Warsaw which will be blocked.

Marek Edelman was the last surviving leader of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and an outspoken opponent of fascist and neonazi groups in Poland. He died last week.

His public funeral was attended by over 2000 people, including many dignitaries.  The antifascist placard, which was left at the monument to the heros of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, drew lots of attention as it is not typical to manifest any ideas at a funeral. Many people were happy to see it but some people demanded it be put away because  they claimed that a funeral is "no place to manifest politics".  A few people claimed that Edelman would have supported the saying and defended it.

The planned action Nov. 11 will probably be much bigger than last year . Although last year the action was repressed and the court cases (for about 200 people) are just starting now, the action was very successful in the sense that it was very much discussed and gained a lot of sympathy.

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