THE SMALL TOWN BETWEEN EDINBURGH AND GLASGOW HAS BECOME FERTILE GROUND FOR THE FAR RIGHT FOLLOWING YEARS OF CUTS AND COLLAPSING LOCAL SERVICES ~ Scott Harris ~ Antifascists from all over Scotland gathered in Falkirk on 6 December to counter the fascist protest outside the Cladhan Hotel. The group “Save Our Futures and Our Children’s Futures” (SOF) has held weekly protests outside the hotel for months, providing space and a platform for some of Scotland’s most recognisable fascists, in a veritable “who’s who” of the Scottish far right.   Around 20 autonomous antifascists arrived at the hotel shortly before 11am, facing an already hostile crowd of roughly 50 far-right activists. Police presence at the hotel remained minimal, despite intelligence that fascists were planning to disrupt the anti-racist march organised by Stand Up To Racism (SUTR) and local group Farkirk For All (FFA). The situation escalated sharply when Aberdeen Against Illegal Migration (AAIM) arrived by the busload, swelling fascist numbers to between 150 and 200. Chants of “Send them back” and “Keep Scotland white” echoed across the police line, along with the usual abuse directed towards antifascist counter-protesters. A small group eventually broke off from the SUTR/FFA march and joined the defence of the hotel, informing autonomous antifascists that the main demo would soon follow. When SUTR finally arrived, over two hours after the far-right had gathered, the balance of numbers tipped, but the fascists also became more aggressive, throwing rocks, glass bottles, smoke bombs, and other projectiles at the counter-demo, injuring at least one person badly enough to require hospitalisation. A member of the autonomous bloc stated: “I believe this was because the fascists are well aware that Stand Up To Racism are extremely unlikely to defend themselves”. Projectiles were thrown back at the fascists, despite the protestations of SUTR/FFA, who would rather turn the other cheek and collaborate with the police than support antifascist self-defence. According to a participant, “we were able to demonstrate to the fascists that not everyone will allow themselves to be attacked without retaliation”. Additional tensions were sparked when members of the SWP attempted to sell their papers, proving that counter-protests often tend to be little more than photo opportunities for such organisations. Anarchists present focused on sharing masks among counter-protesters, to mitigate doxxing campaigns by the fascists and surveillance by the state; these efforts were successful despite protestations by SUTR, who discourage masking. SUTR and FFA dispersed at around 2:30pm, well before the advertised dispersal time of the fascists. Around 40 antifascists decided to remain, enduring another two hours of violent threats, racist chants and misogynistic abuse, but holding the line until AAIM left for their buses. The remaining antifascists departed collectively and safely as a bloc, at 4:30pm. Saturday’s mobilisation highlights both the rising confidence of the far right in Scotland, as well as the desperate need for autonomous, grassroots antifascist organising. While the far-right’s ability to gather over 200 violent protesters is nothing if not worrying, autonomous antifascists from across Scotland collaborated closely with one another, outside of collaborationist structures: “Building rapport and trust between various autonomous networks will be key to building an effective resistance to fascists across Scotland”, a comrade from Glasgow concluded. The post Scottish antifascists hold the line in Falkirk appeared first on Freedom News.

MORE THAN 35,000 OPPOSED THE FOUNDING CONFERENCE OF AFD YOUTH PARTY ~ Josie Ó Súileabháin ~ Tens of thousands of people arrived in Gießen, Germany as part of a united front against the formation of a far-right youth party, relaunched by the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) on 29 November. Political actions organised by the antifascist alliance Widersetzen saw multiple highways and roads in the district of Hessen blocked by activists. Photo: Wiederzetzen Around 800 people attended the launch of the youth party Generation Deutschland, an event that was postponed for more than two hours as a result of anti-fascists’ disruption. German police responded with heavy repression including pepper spray, rushing protesters with baton charges, and water cannons from police tanks, causing multiple injuries. Photo: Mouafak Mahmalji “Thank you for standing firm despite the massive police violence,” Widersetzen said after the event. “The scale is shocking and aligns with the decisions of the city of Gießen. Anyone who tries by all means to ban protest is willingly doing the dirty work for fascism.” This was the AfD’s second attempt to launch a youth party, after its predecessor Junge Alternative (JA) became uncontrollable, was classified as an extremist organisation by domestic intelligence and disbanded by its parent party last March. With Generation Deutschland, membership in the parent party is now mandatory and the AfD is hoping it can keep it in line. Photo: Wiederzetzen However, the current reboot appears to follow directly in the former youth party’s tragic fascist footsteps with the election of Jean-Pascal Hohm as chairman, himself classified as a right-wing extremist. “Germany is not lost yet,” he said after becoming the leader. “We will argue decisively, for a real migration turnaround that ensures that Germany remains the country and the homeland of the Germans.” Hohm himself has previously been part of the far-right Identitarian Movement and Pegida, as well as a proponent of conspiracy theories including ‘population exchange’ and the resistance the medical-led preventions of Covid-19. Photo: Mouafak Mahmalji The last elections in Germany saw the AfD gain 20.8% of the total vote and it is now the second largest part in Germany, gaining more than 69 seats, and surpassing the power of the former government run by Social Democrat Party (SPD) for the first time in its history. This was seen widely as a political disaster, considering the leading Christian Democrat Union (CDU) have become increasingly extreme. This was shown in January, after a lethal stabbing committed by Enamullah Omarzai, an Afghan asylum seeker with untreated schizophrenia. Before the investigation had begun, CDU and AfD joined forces for the first time to pass legislation stopping arrivals of all refugees on Germany’s borders. In contrast, those who requested to the court that Enamullah receive psychiatric support instead of imprisonment were those who survived his attack. What ‘generation Antifa’ have proved on the streets of Gießen is that the youth are not so easily manipulated to fight a cause only beneficial to billionaires. “It continues,” Widersetzen writes in the aftermath, “because today was not the first day: we struggle in everyday life and remain uncomfortable. We have the hope that the new AfD youth can count on our protests.” -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Top photo: Mouafak Mahmalji The post Clashes at “Generation Deutschland” blockades appeared first on Freedom News.

PLUS: ATTACKS ON JURY TRIALS, PALESTINE ACTION CHALLENGE AND US WITCH-HUNT ~ Andy and Simon talk about the Titanically deckchairish Reeves budget as it finally drops the child benefit cap but once again leaves the edifice of extractive capital untouched, the opening of the Filton 24 trial, Lord Jonny Harmsworth’s buyout plan for the Telegraph, and Trump’s designation of various aunti fah terror groups. The post Anarchist News Review: Our thoughts on the Budget appeared first on Freedom News.

US DESIGNATION AIMS TO NETWORK ANTI-FASCIST TRIALS IN GERMANY AND HUNGARY BY CRIMINAL ASSOCIATION ~ Josie Ó Súileabháin ~ US President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubin recently announced the long-awaited criminalisation of anti-fascism by designating “Antifa” a domestic terrorist organisation under National Security Presidential Memorandum-7 (NSPM-7) and four groups in Europe labelled by the State Department as “specially designated global terrorists” and “foreign terrorist organisations.” As part of the Trump Administration’s “initiative to disrupt self-described “anti-fascism” networks, entities and organisations,” ‘Antifa-Ost’ (Antifa-East) was named with three other European groups as an organisation that was perceived as a threat to the United States by “conspiring to undermine the foundations of western civilisation through their brutal attacks.” Despite this show of force, presidential memorandums do not hold the power to designate ‘domestic terrorist organisations’ and, as it turns out, ‘Antifa’ is not an organisation at all. However, “a foreign organisation can be designated and there is almost no due process,” says Shane Kadidical from the Centre of Constitutional Rights. “Then, you go after the U.S. groups for supposedly coordinating their political messages with the messages of foreign groups.” Perhaps intentionally missing the point that anti-fascist groups are autonomous, Antifa-East also does not exist as an organisation. The State Department is in fact referring to the political repression in Hungary and Germany of a group of autonomous anti-fascists known in the German mainstream media as the “Hammerbande” (Hammer gang), accused of assaulting neo-Nazis and fascists in Germany between 2018-2020. In 2023, Victor Orbán launched a European wide hunt for anti-fascists who he claimed attacked those who attended Budapest’s yearly gathering of neo-Nazis and paramilitaries from across Europe. The ‘Day of Honor’ is a commemoration of the final resistance of the Waffen-SS against the Soviet Union in Budapest at the end of the second world war. Despite the event is banned by Hungarian authorities, the far-right continue to meet on February 11. Neo*Nazi march in Berlin, 1998 By weaponising the European Arrest Warrant, Orbán attempted to extradite multiple anti-fascists from Italy and Germany to face trial in Hungary for ‘criminal association’ as defined under Hungarian law (article 459) as “a group that consists of at least three persons, is established for a longer period of time… and operates in a conspiratorial manner to commit international criminal offences.” While most of the conditions for this law, including “organised hierarchically” do not apply to these anti-fascists, the only problem for Orbán was the “longer period of time” aspect which could not be proven based on the events of February 11. Fortunately for this dictator, he could always fall back on the authoritarian repression of a European federal republic. In the same year that Orbán launched his hunt for anti-fascists, a German court sentenced Lina E. and three other co-defendants to five years in prison each for assault and membership of a criminal gang. The attacks took place in Saxony and Thuringia in east Germany, and involved assaults on Enrico Böhm, a publisher and distributor of far-right literature and Leon R., a barkeeper of the far-right bar Bull’s Eye. After Hungary issued a European Arrest Warrant for Maja T. to face trial, Germany followed with a national arrest warrant. Now Orbán had his ‘evidence’ for criminal organisation based on the required “longer period of time” clause, as he could refer to the ‘Dresden left extremist trials’ to network anti-fascists across Europe. Maja was extradited to Hungary and went on hunger strike for 40 days in custody, where they remain in solitary confinement. Zaid is one of the only defendants to be released on bail in Nuremberg, although he has to report to a police station three times a week. As Zaid is Syrian and holds no citizenship in Germany, he faces the threat of deportation. Six more defendants were named by the prosecutor in Dusseldorf for charges like “attempted murder” and “membership in a criminal organisation.” Those who Orbán accuses of being part of a criminal organisation that “slapped peaceful people in the streets of Budapest with iron bars” are identified because they were in the crowd of anti-fascists, rather than specifically committing a crime. “All such investigate activity is absolutely absent in the trial file,” says Eugonio Losco, an Italian defense lawyer for one of the accused. “So there is an association because in Germany there were some similar events, and in Hungary there were some Germans. There is not much more,” Losco says. On December 13, Lina E was alleged to have stolen two hammers in a Leipzig hardware store. On the same night, Leon claims he was attacked for the second time as he was driving home from the Bull’s Eye bar. He told police that the assailants used hammers and that one of them had a female voice. It is on the testimony of a fascist that Lina E was sentenced to more than five years in prison.  “This spiral of radicalization and violence must not be allowed to continue,” former German interior minister Nancy Fraeser said, following the court verdict of Lina E. Yet both Leon R and Enrico Böhm have since been convicted of criminal association to the right-wing groups they belong to. Like in Hungary, the state is using far-right criminals to maintain its monopoly on violence. Alongside the seemingly arbitrary rounding up of political opponents are show trials and media narratives that seek to portray anti-fascism as a “left-wing extremism” and a threat to society. The role of intelligence agencies in confirming this ‘threat’ should not be understated.  Following the sentencing of Lina E, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) claimed that left-wing violence had risen from 700 to 10,300 incidents between 2020-21, contradicting Federal Police (BKA) statistics that have shown a drop of 31% in violence attributed to the left. In contrast, right-wing extremism rose by 16% between 2021-22. When debating the use of violence in our resistance to the far-right, we remember those who have been killed on the streets for confronting fascism, like the east German printer Silvio Meier. On Friday, anti-fascists marched down Silvio-Meier-Straße in Berlin for the memory of the Silvio, stabbed in the chest by 17-year-old youth fascist Sandro S. after a confrontation. He died of his injuries on an u-Bahn platform 33 years ago. Victims of fascist violence. Public domain Is the recent designation of anti-fascism a ‘strategy of tension’ where state actors and the far-right work together to protect their interests and oppose common enemies? What has become known as the Budapest Complex is perfect for a US Administration seeking control over the wide-spread domestic grassroots resistance against it’s own far-right policies. Like all ‘anti-terrorism’ state legislation, the state maintains power through the ‘crime of association’. Where will this authoritarian repression lead? In 1969, the anarchist Giuseppe Pinelli was thrown out of a police station window in Milan and died from his injuries. He was interrogated on his role in the Piazza Fontana bombings that at the time were falsely attributed to Italian anarchists. In 2004, it was proven to be the fascist paramilitary organisation Ordine Nuovo found responsible for the attack.  The threat of far-right violence is ever present in both our communities and in the decaying halls of power. Its popularity is rising among the youth in Germany with the Deutsche Jugend Voran (DJV) and ‘Generation Deutschland’, the second attempt of the populist far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) in creating a youth party. Never mind the blundering of ageing fascist tyrants, it is this future we must confront. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Top photo: White House, 7 November 2025   The post ‘Terror’ as a strategy of tension appeared first on Freedom News.

LABOUR’S WEAPONISATION OF XENOPHOBIC POLITICS NORMALISES CRUELTY AND ENABLES DIVISION OF WORKERS  ~ Simon and Uri talk about the government’s asylum policy abomination, the Pally Action hunger strike, mountains of waste in Oxfordshire, the recent Bristol “Patriots” March, and Maoist violence against Athens anarchists. The post Anarchist News Review: Asylum abomination and Pally hunger strike appeared first on Freedom News.

POLICING WAS HIGHLY POLITICAL, FOCUSING ALMOST ENTIRELY ON CONTAINING OPPOSITION TO THE FAR RIGHT ~ Scott Harris ~ Saturday 15 November saw another humiliation for the far-right “Bristol Patriots” in the face of overwhelming anti-fascist opposition Their demonstration was aimed at the Mercure hotel in the Redcliffe area of the city, which houses asylum seekers and had been the target of attempted attacks during the anti-immigration riots in August 2024. Despite inviting a range of other groups in a bid to swell their numbers, including UKIP’s Nick Tenconi, Bristol Patriots only managed to draw between 40 and 75 supporters and were opposed by approximately 400 lively anti-fascists. The police battled to contain roaming groups of anti-fascists seeking to engage in full and frank debate with the assorted fascists, conspiracists, and allegedly apolitical ‘concerned citizens’, while others stood, chanted and played music at the doors of the hotel in solidarity with the people housed inside. In one particularly touching moment, one of the younger residents held up a sign to the window reading: “Thank you for protecting us, we love you”. Police reported one police officer going to hospital for minor injuries from a scuffle, but did not mentioning a number of significant injuries – including head injuries – to anti-fascist activists from the blows of police batons. Inevitably, policing was highly political, focusing almost all their energies on containing anti-fascists, ending up making several arrests. Meanwhile, Bristol Patriots let off flares and various far-right streamers were allowed to bravely shout abuse at antifas from behind the safety of police lines. Bristol has become a target for far-right activity recently, with repeated efforts to encroach on ‘enemy territory’. This has been aggravated by a recent case in which a number of brown men in Bristol have been arrested on child sexual exploitation charges. Large numbers of Union Flags and St George’s Crosses have been attached to lamp-posts in working class, white-majority neighbourhoods, such as Withywood, Hartcliffe and Lawrence Weston. These areas are being targeted after decades of state neglect and stigma have led residents to feel rightly angered by a status quo that only works for the rich and powerful. According to participants, anti-fascists may have won the battle in Redcliffe and so far all recent demonstrations, but a much bigger war needs to be fought for hearts and minds across the city, to ensure that the far-right don’t become the de facto anti-establishment voices in some neighbourhoods. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Top photo: Fields of Light Photography. We apologise for the previous lack of credit. The post Antifascists humiliate “Bristol Patriots” appeared first on Freedom News.

TO RESIST NORMALISATION, WE NEED ENDURING GROUNDWORK WITH ATTACKED COMMUNITIES—AND SPACES FOR OPEN STRATEGISING ~ Blade Runner ~ On Saturday 13 September, between 110,000 and 150,000 turned out in response to Tommy Robinson’s call, a mobilisation framed as a defence of “free speech” but saturated with white nationalist, Islamophobic and anti-migrant rhetoric. It is said to be the largest far-right protest in history. At the rally he was joined by international supporters: Elon Musk appeared by video link, calling for the government to be removed and parliament dissolved. Éric Zemmour, the French far-right politician, invoked the “great replacement” myth in openly Islamophobic terms. The crowds marched from the South Bank and Westminster Bridge towards Whitehall, but numbers quickly overflowed. Thousands remained on the bridge and in Parliament Square, while others spilled into Trafalgar Square. Police spent much of the day funnelling and dispersing the mass. Chants targeted migrants and Keir Starmer—Seven Nation Army was repurposed to sing “Keir Starmer’s a wanker” alongside with the co-opted slogan “Whose street? Our street”. Union Jacks and St George’s crosses were everywhere, along with American and Israeli flags. This mobilisation follows a summer of racist outrage, coordinated online, amplified by Labour politicians in particular, and legitimised by media coverage. Already in June, London hosted a mass rally under the “Football Lads Against Grooming Gangs / For Our Children” banner—another openly racist march where a small antifascist block was kettled “for its own protection”. Saturday’s counter-protest, around 20,000 people organised by local trade unions and grassroots groups marched after a rally at Russell Square and ended behind the far-right stage. They were surrounded and effectively kettled for hours, with hostile crowds pressing on police lines. A small black bloc was at one point stuck behind far-right lines before withdrawing to the left bloc. Beer bottles and other projectiles were thrown at the anti-fascist side. The sheer scale, fuelled by trains and coaches, initially took the police by surprise. By the end of the day, the Met reported 26 officers injured, four seriously, and at least 25 arrests for assault and violent disorder, mostly against far-right attendees trying to break cordons. Anti-fascist blocks were eventually escorted out through narrow corridors in the middle of hostile crowds. While much of the left hides behind its routines, single-issue campaigns and cycles of electoral hope, defeat and disillusionment, anarchists and anti-authoritarians continue to mobilise—but without the structures needed to strategise and build resilience. Open assemblies are rare. Too often disconnected from the non-white and marginalised communities we should be rooted in, we show up as external actors. We cannot afford to just react. The far right is being normalised as part of a wider domestic counter-insurgency strategy. Brexit and the myth of ‘invasion’ are offered from above as the answer to the growing gulf between the excluded and zones of consumer comfort. It is not strength but fear: a ruling class haunted by past revolts as it scrambles to pre-empt system collapse with repression at home and war abroad. In this situation, our task is to build bonds of trust with the communities most under attack, and to carve out spaces of refusal where we can strategise openly and disagree without splintering. We need local defence and mutual aid structures that endure beyond news cycles, rooted in everyday life rather than just spectacle. And we need the courage to confront not only fascism in the streets but the wider system that breeds it. Without this groundwork the far right will continue to dominate public space and the streets. With it, the next rupture may open the chance to strike at the roots of the system itself. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Photos: Peter Marshall on Facebook, Blade Runner The post Facing down the flagshaggers appeared first on Freedom News.

ACTIVIST’S FATHER WALKING TO BERLIN WITH 100,000 SIGNATURES TO “DEMAND JUSTICE FOR HIS CHILD” JAILED IN BUDAPEST ~ Alisa-Ece Tohumcu ~ Solidarity actions have been taking place over the last days with Maja T, a non-binary anti-fascist activist and one of the accused in the Budapest case. Maja, who has been on hunger strike since June 5, was transferred Tuesday to a prison hospital near the Romanian border in critical condition. According to relatives, they have lost around twelve kilograms of weight. Their 2024 extradition from Germany to Hungary was ruled unlawful by the Federal Constitutional Court in April, but Maja remains in pre-trial detention under what supporters describe as “white torture”: solitary confinement, 24-hour surveillance, denial of hormone therapy, and restricted communication. Demonstrations have been held in Berlin, Dresden, Vienna, Düsseldorf, Jena, and beyond. On June 25, members of the Free Maja support network disrupted the Saxon State Parliament, demanding that Minister President Michael Kretschmer (CDU) act on the court ruling. He later dismissed the protest, saying his policies were “for the middle class.” Daily noise demonstrations followed outside the Saxon State Chancellery on July 1 and 2. “We’ll keep going until Maja is back with us,” declared the Antifascist Solidarity Committee Dresden. Activists blame Kretschmer’s government for enabling the extradition and maintaining ties with Hungary’s ruling Fidesz party. Maja is one of several anti-fascists charged in connection with an attack on Budapest’s February 2023 “Day of Honour,” an annual neo-Nazi gathering. They were arrested in Berlin in December 2023 and extradited the following July—before their legal appeal concluded—which critics say violates both German constitutional standards and the European Convention on Human Rights. Maja’s father, Wolfram Jarosch, has begun walking over 300 kilometres from Jena to Berlin. He is carrying a petition with 100,000 signatures, demanding intervention from the German Foreign Ministry. “Every day in prison is a risk to my child’s life,” he said. “Political inaction puts Maja in direct danger.” Demonstration in Chemnitz for Maja T In Schwelm, activists damaged a Deutsche Bank branch on June 22, citing the bank’s role in global arms funding. On July 2, militants sprayed graffiti the CDU’s Hamburg headquarters, blaming the party for enabling Maja’s detention. “We won’t rest until Maja is back with us”. they wrote. Maja’s own words, shared in a smuggled letter, have been cited widely: “Solidarity gives me the strength to continue fighting, not only for better prison conditions in Hungary, but for the freedom of all political prisoners”. Further demonstrations and organising meetings are planned, including a public event in Dresden on July 7. The post Solidarity actions with hunger-striking antifascist Maja T appeared first on Freedom News.

FOLLOWING A RECENT TOURNEY, ONE MEMBER FROM A PARTICIPATING GYM TALKS ABOUT THE NEED FOR AND INCREASING NUMBER OF EXPLICITLY POLITICAL SELF-DEFENCE SPACES. ~ Anon ~ Give us a bit of context. I’m part of a London red gym that’s been organising regular Muay Thai and self defence sessions for more than two years. Last month we travelled up North to take part in a red gym interclub organised by a Leeds club called Mutiny Athletic, which brought together anti-fascist, anti-racist and queer gyms from across the country. What’s a red gym? A red gym is a grassroots anti-fascist martial arts and fitness group which allows participants in a broad range of liberatory social movements to train together, build skills and fitness and strengthen ties. Some gyms in Europe have their own spaces and are run like regular clubs. In the UK we generally aren’t as developed due to a number of factors including extremely high commercial rents and property prices. What sort of places were represented and what political mix do you get? There were clubs from London, Bristol, Leeds and Bradford. There were boxing, BJJ, Muay Thai and kickboxing bouts. Mutiny put on a cracking event, there were around 150 spectators, the venue was packed out and there were over 20 bouts! In a our gym we have a broad mix of political persuasions, but we are all on the left and are all anti-fascist. Some of us are involved in social movements, anti-imperialist struggles, Palestine solidarity and anti-fascism. How do ‘red gyms’ differ from regular ones in eg. how they interact with communities? We have community values, we are non profit and volunteer run. We see ourselves as part of anti-fascist and liberatory struggles, it’s a political project ultimately. What takeaways have you had in terms of learning to organise and run them? The main point for organisers is to turn up week after week and set up and run regular sessions. If there isn’t a regular schedule then people will drop away over time. We shouldn’t wait for other people to orgainse stuff for us, we need to do it ourselves. Most of us had no experience of teaching when we started, we just stuck to what we knew and got better over time. We also need to be open to members taking on work/ stepping up. Organising is for everyone who wants to put in a shift and we shouldn’t gatekeep that. What similarities and differences did you see among the gyms that came along, any lessons you took away? Clubs brought fighters of different skill levels but everyone was up for it and the fights were solid. There was an atmosphere of support and solidarity between clubs and fighters. I think our main lesson was these kind of country wide events need to happen more often. Fascists are organising in the UK but they’re unevenly spread. It’s only by coming together that we can build solidarity and power in or near areas were fascists are strong. How do you reckon the concept – and implementation – of red gyms plays out? I think we’re building power in a few different ways. One is developing physical skills and capacities, and with that confidence to act in the world. Defending our organising doesn’t mean some macho one on one display of prowess, it means acting together as movements to further our wider liberatory goals. Connections built between members, and between clubs are just as, or even more important. Training spaces are known, perhaps unfairly, for having a strict master student model. How can (does) this break down in more horizontal ways? There is some benefit to deferring to expertise in martial arts. Learning incorrect technique can mean someone ends up spinning their wheels or getting themselves injured. That being said, teaching, coaching and organising can be done by anyone and anyone in the club could step up and do things. In that way we break down some of those distinctions. Was the interclub a success? How do you feel about the potential and importance of such spaces? The interclub was a massive success, big crowd, high energy, fighters and clubs coming from all over. Massive props to Mutiny for putting it on. It’s been ages since one of these things happened in the North and it showed how there’s loads of shit going on outside of the capital. Fascism is weak in London and stronger in the north, we need to build and support stuff there. We’ve heard Mutiny is putting on another one later in the year so it looks like things are picking up! We’re definitely going to be at the next one. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This article first appeared in the Summer 2025 issue of Freedom Journal. The post Red gyms: You’ll get a kick out of this appeared first on Freedom News.

OTHER EUROPEAN GOVERNMENTS HAVE REFUSED TO HONOUR EXTRADITION REQUESTS FROM HUNGARY FOR ANTIFASCIST ACTIVISTS, CITING CONCERNS FOR THEIR SAFETY AND WELLBEING ~ punkacademic ~ Antifascist Maja T today began a hunger strike protesting their treatment by Hungarian judicial authorities since their extradition from Germany last year. Whilst in custody in Hungary, Maja, who identifies as non-binary, has been subjected to inhumane conditions, including several months of constant video surveillance, persistent solitary confinement, and ‘intimate searches’ during which they have been forced to undress. Visits have been sporadic, food has been inadequate, and their cell is plagued with bedbugs and cockroaches. Maja has been in pretrial detention in Hungary since June 2024. In a statement released by the Budapest Antifascist Solidarity Committee they stated they are “no longer prepared to endure this intolerable situation and wait for a decisions from a justice system that has systematically violated my rights over last few months”. Maja was due to receive a judicial ruling on Wednesday (4th June) as to whether their pretrial detention would be converted to house arrest, only for the hearing to be postponed until the 20th, triggering the decision to go on hunger strike. Maja’s extradition was based on a European Arrest Warrant issued by Hungarian authorities for an alleged attack on neo-Nazis at the far-right ‘Day of Honour’ commemoration in Budapest in 2023. The event is an annual commemoration of an attempt by members of the Waffen-SS and Hungarian collaborators to break a Red Army siege towards the conclusion of the Second World War. Maja was extradited despite the intervention of the German Federal Constitutional Court, which had concerns with regard to Maja’s potential treatment. The extradition was initially ruled on by the Berlin regional court, with the German authorities expediting Maja’s transfer before the Federal Constitutional Court was able to rule on an injunction. In January, Maja was offered a plea deal carrying a fourteen year jail sentence. As it stands, they face up to twenty-four years in prison. Maja’s arrest, extradition, and current plight exist in a context of a clampdown on antifascist action in Germany, particularly in the East. Maja was pursued by the SoKo LinX taskforce of the Saxon Criminal Police, and transferred in the middle of the night despite a pending injunction, with the attendance of riot police and counter-terrorism officers despite (as the Saxon authorities later admitted) no credible threat. Other European governments have refused to honour extradition requests from Hungary for antifascist activists, citing concerns for their safety and wellbeing. Hungary’s persecution of the LGBTQ+ community was today condemned by a senior legal scholar at the European Court of Justice. Hungary in 2022 was downgraded by the EU Parliament from a democracy to an authoritarian state, but continues to have access to the European Arrest Warrant system. These wider concerns are echoed by Maja, who in their declaration concluded that “no more people should be extradited to Hungary”. A further activist, Zaid from Nuremberg, remains under threat of extradition. The post Antifascist Maja T. on hunger strike to protest “inhumane” prison conditions appeared first on Freedom News.