hundreds of thousands of people once again took to the streets against the Alternative for Germany (AfD) and the shift to the right in official politics up to 300,000 demonstrated in front of the Bundestag (federal parliament) so that the protest flooded the entire government district from the Brandenburg Gate to the Chancellery and beyond rallies were held in many hundreds of cities there were around 30,000 participants in Augsburg and Dresden; 20,000 in Bremen; 15,000 in Krefeld and 10,000 each in Hanover and Kassel Some 4,000 took part in counter-protests in Simmern where AfD leader Alice Weidel appeared at a “citizens’ dialogue.” The wave of protests continues unabated into its fourth week The fact that millions of people keep taking to the streets shows how hated the far right is and that they only see their anger articulated through ongoing demonstrations This demonstrates how deeply rooted the opposition to fascism and war is in the consciousness of the masses the protests are therefore not only directed against the AfD but against the right-wing policies of all the parties in the Bundestag that are putting the AfD’s programme into practice In addition to numerous handmade banners against the AfD or slogans such as “Human rights instead of right-wing people,” the government’s deportation policy and the general shift to the right were also repeatedly denounced with slogans such as “Organised misanthropy has many faces” and “All together against the shift to the right.” The organisers often consisted of pro-government organisations that have attempted to put a stop to the protests and suppress criticism of the coalition government’s pro-war and mass deportation policies the speakers at the rallies were representatives of the establishment parties or their youth organisations They invoked “democracy” and “anti-fascism” but remained silent about the role being played by the government—a coalition of the Social Democrats (SPD) Liberal Democrats (FDP) and Greens—and the growth of outrageous social inequality in Germany which is no longer compatible with democratic conditions a total of 30,000 gathered on Theaterplatz in front of the Semper Opera House several speakers tried to distract attention from the capitalist reality with fine words about democracy and tolerance they made clear what sort of reactionary programme they support chairman of the Executive Board of the Silicon Saxony industry association called for more job and social cuts in the name of “democracy.” He said: “Unfortunately politicians often lack the courage to tell the truth: that it will not be easy that there cannot be compensation from the state for every loss and that we will have to continue to work hard in the future to earn our prosperity.” Röhrborn also summed up the organisers’ consensus on militarism and armament: “So what does the economy need it needs investors who invest billions here and it needs planning security.” This trust was not only based on “democracy,” he said and the freedom that we enjoy as part of Europe.” the slogan “We are the firewall” and the human chain around the Bundestag were designed to fuel illusions in the same bourgeois parliament and the same parties that are implementing the AfD’s policies It was only on January 18 that the Bundestag passed the so-called “Repatriation Improvement Act,” which makes it possible to tear people who have been living in Germany for years out of their beds at night without warning SPD leader Lars Klingbeil called for the planned mass deportations to be carried out more quickly All parties in the Bundestag are supporting the genocide in Gaza in order to enforce Germany’s great power interests in the region Numerous bourgeois and government politicians mingled with the crowd in Berlin Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) and Federal Minister for Family Affairs Lisa Paus (Greens) and were interviewed by the bourgeois media The contradiction became clear to many participants when Reporters Without Borders and several representatives of immigrant and anti-fascist initiatives also had their say in addition to the speeches by the Protestant Church the Left Party parliamentarian Ferat Koçak and the Green politician Luisa Neubauer These included the Association of the Persecuted of the Nazi Regime–Federation of Antifascists (VVN-BdA) and the 19th February Initiative which was founded after the racist murders in Hanau four years ago These speakers received special applause and attention A contribution that condemned the war crimes of the Netanyahu government in the Gaza Strip and made it clear that such criticism has nothing to do with antisemitism participants agreed that the fight against the AfD must also be a fight against the government which is increasingly embracing AfD policies One demonstrator remarked that the deportation policy is constantly being tightened “And that’s complete rubbish.” There needs to be “a class struggle like there hasn’t been for a long time.” Another declared that she would immediately support “a class struggle against capitalism.” Many of those taking to the streets against the AfD understood the social dimensions of this struggle answered the question of how the ground was being prepared for the right: “Through a very anti-social society The distribution of wealth is simply so unfair,” Tanja said They reported that they had just seen another young homeless person under an archway: “There are so many issues that we need to tackle and I think we can only do that if we take at least a little bit away from the super-rich.” Many people also saw the connection between the fight against fascism and the fight against the genocide in Gaza when it comes to the issue of Palestine One young woman carried a sign that read: “Jews against the AfD and Zionism: for a free Palestine,” while another read: “Israel is an ultra-right-wing government And that’s why it’s so important for me to speak out in favour of Palestine!” The Sozialistische Gleichheitspartei (Socialist Equality Party SGP) also participated in the demonstrations with its own placards against the genocide in Gaza and explained how the fight against fascism could only succeed as an international movement of the working class against capitalism The SGP members and supporters were able to collect hundreds of signatures in favour of the party’s participation in the European elections in June The SGP statement, “How can the AfD be defeated?“ reads: “The AfD is not a foreign body in an otherwise healthy organism but the worst symptom of a thoroughly sick system the deepening capitalist crisis is once again leading to fascism and war.” This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks The action you just performed triggered the security solution There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page Jordan and Julian Dalton won gold medals at the International German Taekwon do Championship in Simmern who have connections with Tralee Taekwon-Do Centre won gold medals at the International German Championships in Simmern The event hosted by the World Kickboxing Association (WKA) is regarded as the ideal warm up for the world kickboxing championships in Florida next September From a massive 1,100 entry from ten countries the boys are associated with Tralee and Millstreet clubs in North Cork the Kerry roots in Julian (age 9) and Jordan (13 years) are evident for their dad the well known international instructor Master Don Dalton hails from Ballymullen Master Dalton has been teaching Taekwon-Do in Tralee since 1986 with numerous honours collected by members "Both Jordan and Julian have been training since the age of four They were a part of a 15 person team to travel to Germany and were the only members to win gold It was Jordan's first time winning a major event in the under 17s section He has previously won two gold medals in both full contact and continuous sparring at the last two world championships in the under 12s category," said Master Dalton Jordan faced a Belgian opponent in the final who had also won gold in the previous world championships Jordan won by a unanimous but close decision "Julian had a total of six fights on his way to winning gold Two of his opponents were pulled out by their coaches but to the high level of the young Irish boy," said a proud dad the two brothers won gold in the Scottish Open Championships "The next twelve months will be a very important period for the brothers with the Kickboxing worlds in the USA this September and the Taekwon-Do world championships in Seoul The Tralee Taekwon-Do club host classes every Wednesday and Saturday in the club's state of the art training facilities in Monavalley South KerryKillarney Soroptimists honour Kerry woman with club’s most prestigious awardIt’s been a wonderful week for local Killarney woman Bridget Delaney after she was recently named as the Killarney Soroptimists' Person of the Year in recognition of her exceptional dedication and voluntary service with the Killarney Cardiac …