Reports on protests against the murder of 14 year old Florian

Wednesday: Protests against the murder of 14 year old Florian

On wednesday, REVOLUTION groups in Austria, Germany and Sweden took action against police violence after the murdering of 14 year old Florian. Read about the protests below.

Vienna:
Around 130 people gathered on Wednesday in Vienna to protest against the murder of 14 year old Florian by Austrian police. REVOLUTION participated with a contingent of about 25 people, produced a leaflet and held a speech in which we stated that the murder of Florian was just one example of the brutal policy of police forces in the last years.

Also in Krems - the place where the murder happened - dozens of people, under them lots of youth, gathered to protest against the killing of Florian.

REVOLUTION carried a banner on which we raised the question whether profits of a supermarket are more important than the life of a 14-year-old and which called the police murderers.

In the speech we also questioned the facts around Florians case. While Roland - Florians friend - was immediately questioned and arrested after they broke into the supermarket, the two policemen who shot Florian and injured Roland were not immediately questioned because of a "psychological shock". It is obvious that they had some time to arrange a testimony beforehand. Moreover police didn't answer the question why Florian was shot in the back. As Roland testified they were about to flee as police shot.

The demonstration ended with police blocking the street and libertarian forces attacking the police forces. While REVOLUTION didn't support this actions it was clear that police didn't only go for libertarian forces but also targeted socialist groups like REVOLUTION. When we left the demonstration police followed us, stopped us for nearly half an hour and wanted to make passport controls of anybody who participated at the demonstration. Also if we were successful in refusing this repressive demand, it clearly showed that the police and the capitalist state as a whole will not accept any criticism on its structures. It also showed that the police is an instrument of the capitalist state itself which can't be reformed but which has to be smashed.

REVOLUTION will now call for a united front against repression by the state as also just this week several animal-rights-activists were impeached under §278a which accuses them to have founded a criminal organisation. This paragraph is designed to criminalise any political activists who are in opposition to capitalism and it's state.

REVOLUTION also called for a disarmament of police forces. Why should they have the right to carry guns without any democratic legitimacy? In fact this would undermine the whole idea behind the armed apparatus of capitalism which can only work if it is disconnected from the majority of the people - workers and youth - and is bound to the rich minority.

We will continue to protest, especially because it is foreseeable that the state doesn't have any interest to really clear up the case but will protect police. We therefore call for an independent commission of representatives of the workers and the youth movement to investigate the case as we don't have any trust in the capitalist state. Minister of interior, Maria Fekter, already announced that she will "defend her team".

Obviously: Justice is not given, it has to be fought for!

No justice, no peace!
One solution - REVOLUTION!

Berlin:
Members of REVOLUTION Berlin gathered together with comrades of Arbeitermacht (German section of the League for the Fifth International) outside the Austrian embassy. Even though the embassy is situated in a place that is not so well traficed, the comrades made a noisy intervention when calling for solidarity with our Austrian comrades and condemning the police violence.

Stockholm:
A group of REVOLUTION-members gathered at Sergels torg to hand out leaflets informing about the Austrian police's murder of 14 year old Florian. The responce was generally good, lots of young people took the leaflet and many stopped by to talk to us. In the leaflet, we also raised the issue of Johan Liljeqvist, a 24 year old young man who died after being beaten up by police in the back of a police van in april. The need to fight police repression is everywhere - an international issue indeed.

After a while the group of comrades went to Kungsträdgården, where a youth festival was held and a lot of suburbian youth where hanging out. Also there the responce was very good, and tomorrow (saturday) a REVO-stall will be organised there where we will distribute our remaining leaflets and invite those interested to a meeting next week where we will discuss the question of police repression, and the role of police in capitalist society.