One thing we should always remember about fascists is that they are opportunists, they will jump on any bandwagon that will give them publicity, and a hope of control in pushing their agenda, sadly so many people will jump on the fascist bandwagon, seeing it as a vent for their anger, without realising the true agenda of the various fascist groups.
The following is an extract from an article on Enough is Enough:
------This leads directly to the next serious problem. In light of the obvious far-right wing connections this march had, there was a much smaller, but dedicated counter-protest. Chanting anti-fascist and anti-capitalist slogans, the counter demonstration was accompanied by massive police presence. After speeches by various activists concerning the failure of this government to act in a humane way to this situation, and calling for a response to the pandemic that values human lives over profits – all while being continuously heckled by Covid deniers – a plan formed to blockade the Ringstraße in Vienna, along which the “sceptic march” intended to parade. What happened then was that within minutes there were hundreds of riot police with dogs at the meeting point who then chased the activists through a snowy park and eventually kettled a group of activists for multiple hours. The fact that this mean that it was made impossible to maintain a safe distance to each other during a pandemic, or that the temperature was below zero degrees seemed to be irrelevant to the officers that formed a tight circle around the activists. Every now and again you could see officers forcefully drag protesters from the kettle towards the vans. According to a statement issued by the police directory Vienna, everyone within the kettle was charged. All this happened in order to ensure the safe passage of a group of 10 000 people, who were actively breaking the law by not wearing facemasks to a demonstration. This very clearly goes to show that the state was more concerned with cracking down on any form of left-wing resistance than they were about a rise in prominence of fascism. On the Sunday following the protests, the government held a press conference to announce the next extension of a complete lockdown of the country. The minister for the interior did not attend.
As much as it is portrayed as such, nobody is claiming that what we saw was a march of 10 000 right-wing activists on Saturday. What we saw was a mass event of thousands of people during a pandemic that had been co-opted by the fascist right. And that in itself is almost more worrying. Because it is important to remember that history has shown us that no matter where you look, the fascists were never the majority, but they do understand very well how to use anger. Fascists do not want to hold governmental power so much as they want to be able to wield governmental power to break down any resistance against them. So while the police may claim to have tried to “keep the peace” by making sure active fighting did not break out between anti-fascists and corona sceptics, the overwhelming disparity of numbers and force between the two demonstrations clearly showed that left-wing positions are not welcome in a neo-liberal state. Hardened fascists will never outnumber their resistance, but the events on January 16 have shown that there is a vast amount of people who do not mind backing fascists if they agree on a topic they are angry about, and those people in turn are happily backed by the executive arm of the law. Make no mistake, what we saw was not a demonstration of middle-class anger, what we saw was the largest fascist march in Austria in a long time, not because all of them were fascist, but because enough people don’t mind marching with fascists.
