Not one step back!

As many of you will have heard, the Autonomes Zentrum Aachen was stormed by the police in the night of Sunday to Monday, 7 September, following a spontaneous antifascist demonstration. The demonstration was prompted by the AfD’s election victory in Saxony-Anhalt. The day after the raid, our premises were seized and searched by the police. We have already set out our assessment of the operation as the AZ in two press releases.

It sends a clear message when the Aachen police criminalise antifascists and storm a left-wing cultural space on the very day that a fascist party wins a state election in Germany.

For more than 30 years the AZ has been a place for autonomous, alternative and non-commercial subculture, and a place where antifascists can meet and organise. Many people — not only in Aachen — have a special connection to the AZ: it is the place where people first become politicised, a place for the collective experience of parties, concerts and evenings at the bar. We are a space for social and political exchange, and also a place of retreat that takes a clear stand against various forms of oppression. At a time when far-right parties like the AfD are reaching for power and an enormous social coldness is spreading, spaces like these are indispensable. Clearly, they are also particularly under threat: in Saxony-Anhalt, left-wing youth centres are being torched by fascists; in Aachen, they are attacked by the police.

We do not intend to let this attack on our spaces go unanswered. That is why we are calling on everyone to take to the streets with us this coming Sunday, 13 September, and to show that we will not be intimidated. When fascists win elections, what is needed is an antifascist presence on the streets and spaces that take a clear position. Whether you are from Aachen or have to travel, join us and let’s show our strength together.

We meet at 2 p.m. in front of the AZ Aachen, Hackländerstraße 5.

AZ Aachen is here to stay!