Musik

In closed messaging groups and through small-scale concerts, the Croatian branch of Blood and Honour is networking with other neo-Nazis in Europe. Patrik denies being a member of Blood and Honour, but the symbols he displays on his clothes show he shares its neo-Nazi principles.  Blood and Honour has been banned in Germany and Spain and declared a terrorist organisation in Canada, but that does not stop Patrik from proudly sporting a hoodie bearing its name at a café in the northern Croatian port city of Rijeka. (…) The organisation meets in secrecy, nurturing ties with affiliates in other countries and discussing ideology behind hidden profiles on social media and closed channels on messaging apps. They call for a “clean Croatia” and promote hatred towards migrants.  But this summer, two men, visitors to Rijeka, briefly lifted the veil of secrecy when they posed for a photo on Kantrida beach, bare-chested and showing off tattoos of swastikas, the SS Totenkopf death head and, on one of the men, the face of Adolf Hitler. Anti-fascist activists identified one of the men as a guitarist affiliated with the Hungarian branch of Blood and Honour, and in doing so managed to name a member of the Croatian branch too. (…) Patrik declined to tell BIRN his surname, and said he had bought the Blood and Honour hoodie not from the organisation’s Croatian branch but online and only because he is fond of such symbols. On the front of the hoodie were the words, ‘Maks Kvaternik Patriotic Shop.’ An Internet search turned up a page under the same name on the Russian social network VKontakte. Among the page’s followers is ‘Patrik Vidmar’. Vidmar’s Facebook profile was recently deleted, but BIRN found him tagged in a photo on Facebook showing a group of men on their way to a right-wing concert in Italy. In the photo, Vidmar is sitting beneath flags of Blood and Honour and ‘Skinheads Croatia’. Concerts are a key means of networking for far-right organisations in Europe. When photos of the tattooed Hungarian men appeared in Croatian media, the portal Anti-Fascist Courier identified one of them as a guitarist of the band Feher Vihar, whose photo can be found on the website of the Hungarian Blood and Honour branch. The report linked their visit to Rijeka with this year’s ‘Despa Memorial’ concert, an annual concert held in memory of Goran ‘Despa’ Despic, a man Blood and Honour Croatia described as their “brother” and who died in a motorcycle accident in 2014.  Cooperation between the Hungarian and Croatian branches of Blood and Honour is particularly strong, with Hungary under right-wing Prime Minister Viktor Orban a frequent venue for far-right gatherings.

via balkan insight: Music Mobilisation: The Concerts Connecting Neo-Nazis in Croatia

Hundreds of neo-Nazis showed up to a secret concert in Mexico City last month, flashing swastika tattoos and yelling out hate messages, according to a press report. Many of the concert’s attendees—most of them men with shaved heads—made the Nazi salute popularized by Adolf Hitler during the concert, El Pais reported, while others had tattoos of the German dictator. One musician declared, “Fucking f***ts who litter my city, hang them, and burn them.” In total, some 300 people attended the October 29 event, billed as “The Empire Strikes Back.” All were vetted to ensure they weren’t antifascists and had to show identification and a QR code at the door. A reporter with El Pais managed to gain access to the concert, the location of which was kept secret until one day beforehand, and recorded video.  Mexican bands SunCity Skins, Last Chance. and Royal Aces Convicted played at the concert, according to the publication. The Spanish band Batallón de Castigo, or Punishment Battalion, was the headliner. In 2020, its lead singer was sentenced to a year in prison for promoting white supremacist ideology. The concert was held at Salón Pentatlón, an event space in Mexico City. A representative for Salón Pentatlón told VICE World News in a text message that the space vets people and groups who rent from them. Still, the representative said, “we have nothing to do with the movements or ideologies” of the people behind the October 29 concert.

via theyucatantimes: Hundreds of neo-Nazis celebrate a wild clandestine concert in CDMX

siehe auch: The Empire Strikes Back: Inside a clandestine neo-Nazi concert in Mexico City Swastikas, Nazi salutes and Hitler tattoos were all the rage at the event where Mexican and Spanish bands performed ‘hard and nationalist’ music. On October 29, Sergio Vázquez (his name has been altered to protect his identity), a 33-year-old lawyer from Monterrey, Mexico, traveled more than 500 miles to attend a concert in Mexico City. He had purchased his ticket more than three months in advance. This was no ordinary event; it was one that matched his neo-fascist ideology. El Imperio Contraataca (The Empire Strikes Back), a clandestine concert featuring five bands – two from Spain, three from Mexico – brought together more than 300 people where hate slogans were chanted and Nazism was glorified. Although it was not the first time that far-right groups have organized an event like this in Mexico, it was probably the one with the highest attendance so far. To avoid any setbacks involving the authorities, the location was kept a secret until a day before the event. All attendees had to pass through a rigorous security filter to enter; their identity was verified with a QR code, official photographic ID and checked against a long list containing over 300 names. Once inside the venue, hundreds of men (mostly with shaved heads) and fewer than 20 women congregated in the 90 square feet of Salón Pentatlón, an events hall in the Santa María la Ribera neighborhood. (…) The first three bands on the stage were SunCity Skins, Last Chance and Royal Aces Convicted, from Mexico. They announced themselves with the promise of “hard and nationalist” music. Their opening songs criticized the modern world: “The new times are shit, where is the old school that didn’t hesitate to fight?” Then, they moved on to other, more aggressive and discriminatory numbers: “Fucking faggots dirtying my city, hang them and burn them!” (…) The concert was organized by a company called Desperados División. Each of the people who paid 1,580 pesos (around $80) for a ticket was contacted via WhatsApp and registered on an access list. The day before the event, they received details of the location and a QR code. Initially, they had expected around 150 people, but the high demand made Desperados División look for a venue that could accommodate twice that number.