May 8, 2025 – 80th Anniversary of the Liberation from Fascism – From “Workers Future”
Photo by Yevgeny Khaldei (1917–1997); a Soviet Red Army naval officer and photographer. This shows a Soviet soldier raising a flag over the Reichstag in Berlin, the capital of the defeated Nazi Germany, at the end of the war. Other images can also be found in “Witness to History: The Photographs of Yevgeny Khaldei Hardcover” Aperture Press; Denville NJ; 1997.
As explained at Wikipedia: ” The celebrated image is a re-enactment of an earlier flag-raising of which no photograph was taken, as it happened at 10:40 p.m. on 30 April 1945 while the building was actually still held by German troops. A group of four Soviet soldiers fought their way to the roof, where 23-year-old private Mikhail Minin climbed up on an equestrian statue representing Germany, to fasten an improvised flagpole to its crown. As that occurred at night and under fire, no photo could be taken. The next day German snipers shot down the flag. The surrender of the Reichstag came on 2 May 1945, and only after that did Khaldei scale the building along with the three soldiers which he had picked up randomly on his way. He was carrying with him a large flag sewn from a red tablecloth by his Jewish friend in Moscow for this very purpose.”
May 8, 2025 – 80th Anniversary of the Liberation from Fascism:
Introduction: This photography makes a historic day, when the Soviet Army liberated Berlin on April 30, 1945 – after having first liberated most of Eastern Europe. The USSR had waited long before the British and American troops began a Second Front in the West. By design the Western Allies had delayed this to maximise the Hitlerite carnage inside the USSR. But following victory at Stalingrad, the USSR ploughed on Westwards. This following short note is from ‘Arbeit Zukunft” – ‘Workers Future” – in Germany. The day May 8th marks the official end of the war in Europe – or VE Day.
Never again fascism! Never again war!
80 years after the liberation from fascism, anti-fascist and anti-militarist commemoration is more relevant than ever in light of the rise of the AfD, the rightward shift in politics as a whole, and the greatest rearmament since World War II.
How far have militarization and the shift to the right progressed?
We are not yet on the brink of fascism. But the rightward shift and militarization are progressing rapidly. Even where, as in Italy and Austria, right-wing, partly fascist parties are part of the government, the bourgeois-democratic state has not been
eliminated. Rather, the right-wing, fascist parties are currently being integrated into the bourgeois state apparatus. This was also evident in the joint vote by the CDU/CSU and AfD against migrants in the Bundestag. There are many overlaps, e.g., in the call for a “strong Germany” and the incitement against migrants.
Today we see that the attacks by the ruling class on working and living conditions are becoming increasingly blatant, and that more and more people are affected by poverty due to the crises of recent years. Right-wing and fascist forces fulfilled the same function in 1933 as they do today: distracting from the real causes and finding scapegoats.
Be it Friedrich Merz, who claims that refugees are getting their teeth fixed and that German citizens are therefore unable to get doctor’s appointments, or the AfD, which is extremely fueling social division and hatred. But we cannot say that a fascist restructuring of the state is immediately necessary for the attacks by the ruling class, be they the drastic cuts, the mass layoffs, or even the largest rearmament since World War II.
is – after all, resistance to it is still low. But we see how the shift to the right and militarization are advancing at a rapid pace. €500 billion for infrastructure projects (which will primarily serve the military) and unlimited debt for the rearmament of the Bundeswehr, the gradual introduction of conscription – these are the current threats! Democratic rights are increasingly restricted. Support for the rights of the Palestinian people is suppressed by the police and prosecuted by the courts. “Solidarity with Israel” – even with its violations of international law and crimes – is declared a matter of state. Yet the State of Israel has now openly declared the annexation of Gaza and the expulsion of the Palestinians as its goal. In the Ukraine war, anyone who advocates for a peaceful solution is defamed as a “Putin sympathizer.” Yet we know that Putin and Russia are also pursuing imperialist power politics. But everything is being turned around with the slogan “Never again,” and sometimes explicitly used by the ruling politicians to justify wars in the here and now. It was Green Party politician Joschka Fischer who justified Germany’s first participation in war since World War II with the slogan “Never again Auschwitz.” This is not anti-fascism, as is claimed, but the opposite – the justification of imperialist wars and power politics.
To a broad front against militarization and the shift to the right!
Learning from history doesn’t mean twisting and distorting everything to justify today’s wars, incitement against migrants, social cuts, and austerity measures at the expense of working people! Learning from history means a consistent fight against
armament and wars, against the erosion of democratic rights, against racism and incitement against migrants! Learning from history means a ban on all fascist organizations, including the AfD! Learning from history means a joint fight of all
truly democratic and anti-fascist forces in one front!
The motto is: “We don’t ask about organizations and parties, you are just honestly involved in the fight!”
No more fascism!
No more war!
Kontakt: https://www.arbeit-zukunft.de/
