German leftist scene glossary for Ausländer*innen
Posted by anarcholatina on 2023-07-17
- * (symbol): See „Sternchen“.
- -i (suffix): A German affectionate diminutive; also the standard diminutive in many dialects. Felt to be softer, cuter, and more childlike than the Hochdeutsch standard -chen. Popular in leftist jargon; cf. Lauti, Transpi. Expect more -i coinages to pop up. Often used to affectionately denote autonomous zones: The Hambacher Forest occupation → Hambi, the Lützerath occupation → Lützi, the one in the Dannenröder → Danni, etc. Compare the English affectionate diminutive, as in grandma → grannie, Barbara → Barbie etc.
- Anti-Deutsche: A subculture within German antifa which focus on the ancestral white guilt of Germans. To the antideutsche, the Shoah is a unique singularity of evil in history, and the weight of descending from Holocaust perpetrators gives Germans a privileged, special understanding of the nature of evil in general, and of anti-semitism in particular. In my experience with German antifascists, the antideutsche are a sizeable minority and a distinct sub-scene, with their own symbology, music, slogans („Nie wieder Deutschland“ „Gegen jeden Antisemitismus“ (which see)), etc. The subculture has a reputation for rowdiness and alcohol/drug use, even for antifa standards. The rest of the leftist scene keeps a safe distance from the antideutsche due to their support for US, British and Israeli foreign policy, in particular when it comes to attacks on Arabic and Muslim folk; if you ever see antifa flying the USA flag or defending George W. Bush, now you know. The antideutsche position of “unconditional support for Israel”, in particular, has nursed latent tensions which recently exploded into hard splits after the 2023 Hamas war crimes and retaliatory IDF war crimes. The term now sees use as a general derogatory for German leftists who are gentile Zionists. See https://scrappycapydistro.info/en/publications/german-anti-antisemitism-and-zionism .
- Apo: Kurmancî for „uncle“, and in political scenes, the follower’s term for Abdullah Öcalan, the “Leader Uncle” (Rêber Apo). Committed adherents of Öcalan’s political philosophy, Democratic Confederalism, call themselves Apoists. In terms of political structure, democratic confederalism is anti-State, openly critical of Marxism, and much closer to anarchism than state communism; however, in practice Apoist activists often organise in lines similar to traditional Marxist parties, and probably because of that, tend to be close to local leftist parties and statist-communist cadres. At the same time, Apoist theory explicitly calls for solidarity with anarchists, and they are generally very motivated, fearless accomplices for action.
- autonomist: A longstanding tradition for independent action groups. Rooted in New Left intersectionalism and anarchist concepts like the affinity group and propaganda of the deed, but often divorced from anarchist theory and more devoted to punctual causes. A group professing to be “autonome” is declaring independence from parties, and rejecting centralised chains of command. See https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autonome .
- BeVöKü, Bevölkerungsküche: Same as KüFa.
- CSD: “Christopher Street Day”. Pride parades and associated events. Named after the street where the Stonewall riots took place. The actual day is June 28, but CSD events typically will be spread all over June and later, even months afterwards.
- Danni: Affectionate diminutive (see -i) for the Dannenröder forest, threatened by the Autobahn 49, and the forest occupation which protected it until the brutal eviction of 2020.
- Demo: Short for “demonstration”. A street protest, typically a peaceful march with slogans and posters. German scene demos are typically registered („angemeldet“) in advance with the police, but can also be unregistered for civil disobedience, often called „Sponti“ (for “spontaneous”).
- FLINTA, FLINTA*: Frauen, Lesben, intersexuelle, nicht-binäre, trans, und agender (women, lesbians, inter, non-binary, trans, and agender). A catch-all term trying to be basically “not cis dudes”. This term comes from a place of trying to include marginalised genders in spaces that were traditionally “women’s spaces”, but many non-binary/agender folk take issue with it, because it can often be used to erase the non-womanhood of other genders—it in practice becomes like “women and women lite”. It is nonetheless very common as of 2023. For the form with an asterisk see „Sternchen“.
- EA, EA Nummer: Short for Ermittlungsausschuss, “investigative commitee”. An anti-repression hotline provided for Demos and other forms of mobilisation. If you get detained or otherwise criminalised, you call the EA line, do not say what you or anyone did (since the cops will 100% be listening), but say where you are and that you need help. The cops will deny people their phones and personal belongings, so people will typically write the EA number on their bodies before Demos with a permanent marker (or, like some girlfriends taught me, with waterproof eyeliner).
- „Gegen jeden Antisemitismus“: “Against every antisemitism”. A laudable slogan, taken literally; especially given the persistent problem of anti-semitism within the left scene. This particular slogan is however strongly associated with the Antideutsche scene (which see), who uses it with the implication that any opposition to the Israeli state is a form of antisemitism.
- Gendersternchen: See „Sternchen“.
- „Hoch die internationale [antinationale] Solidarität“: “Uphold international solidarity”. A laudable sentiment, taken literally; and many people use it in the simple, literal meaning. However, this slogan is associated with the authoritarian communist scene, who uses it to mean the capital-I International—as in, the centralised, hierarchical command structure supposed to direct capital-C Communist Revolutions worldwide—and carry with it a meaning of Communist parties aiding one another to seize power. Because of this, you’ll notice anarchists, autonomists, and anti-authoritarians staying silent during this call in demos, or substituting „antinationale“. Authcom allies of the Apoist scene use this slogan a lot.
- Internationalist: In a literal sense, anyone who supports transnational cooperation between revolutionary tendencies. It is however often used in the same authcom nuance described in “Hoch die internationale Solidarität“ above. The “Internationalist Bloc” in a demo will typically be a mix of Apoists, Palestinian activists, immigrants from various Middle Eastern countries, and their white supporters from major Communist parties.
- Kapas: Kapazitäten, as in, “we don’t have the 〜”. One of several office bureaucracy jargon words that mysteriously pop up in the interminable leftist Plena, I wonder why 🤔
- KüFa: Küche für alle, “cooking for all”. Community kitchens. An event where volunteers offer free meals to all interested; or a structure dedicated to such events.
- Hambi: Affectionate diminutive (see -i) for Hambacher forest, beautiful woods in the Köln area threatened by coal mining, and the longstanding forest occupation that protects it since 2012.
- Lauti: Affectionate diminutive (see -i) for „Lautsprecherwagen“, “loudspeaker cart”, at the front of a Demo pumping music, slogans etc. Can degrade into a lowkey command structure, centralising away the spontaneity of autonomous action.
- Lützi: Affectionate diminutive (see -i) for Lützerath, a thousand-year-old village destroyed by coal mining, and the autonomous zone and occupation that protected it for two years before the brutal eviction of 2023.
- Macker: Macho guy; man who hasn’t overcome toxic masculinity.
- Mate: Yerba mate—not the original hot drink brewed from the ground herb, but as a fizzy, caffeinated soft drink product. Misteriously ubiquitous in the left scene.
- Mobi: Affectionate diminutive (see -i) for “mobilisation”, i.e. the thing the German scene confuses too much with “organisation”.
- OAT: Offenes Antifa Treffen, “open antifa meetings”. Events for the (usually secretive) antifa to interact with the public and recruit new blood.
- Plenum: “Plenary”. An assembly; a group meeting to plan and discuss actions. Often formalised, emotionless and exhausting.
- Querdenker: “Independent thinker”. COVID denialists. A right-wing subculture formed in reaction to authoritarian public health measures, composed mainly of older middle-class white folk, many of which “crystal people” (involved with New Age-type beliefs, alternative medicine, and general scepticism of science and modernity). The querdenker scene was pretty much immediately zeroed in by nazis for recruitment, and all these Wutbürger*innen are now in indistinguishable continuum with Reichsbürger*innen and actual literal nazis.
- Reichsbürger: “Citizen of the Reich” (Empire). A reactionary subculture that denies the legitimacy of the current government, the Bundesrepublik Deutschland (BRD), and claims independence from its laws, documents etc. Similar in spirit to conspiracy-theoretical tendencies like Qanon, sovereign citizens, the Queen of Canada and the like, and indeed in a sort of paralell-reality diplomatic alliance with them. Though in theory allegiance to monarchism would make them incompatible with National-Socialism, in practice neonazis are the same scene and the same people. Often fly the Reichsflagge; sometimes also the current (BRD) flag with a banana on it, symbolising contempt for the „Bananarepublik Deutschland“. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reichsbürger_movement
- Reichsflagge: The previous flag of Germany, coloured black-white-red rather than black-red-gold. Used by Reichsbürger*inen, and, very often, literal Hitlerist nazis (to evade the ban on the swastika). if you see someone flying this flag, 100% it’s a nazi and you should do violence to them.
- Repro: “reproductive labour”, i.e. work not to create products, but to keep things running (to “reproduce” conditions rather than “produce” things). The type of work traditionally undervalued, and left for women and servants: Cleaning, cooking, carework, daily planning… “These Macker talk big about communism but no one offers for repro.”
- Sternchen: “little star”, i.e. the asterisk
*sign. It is used politically in two ways: one is a general all-inclusive suffix, for example „Frauen*“ (“women and other marginalised genders”) or „jin*, jiyan, azadî“ (“women+, life, freedom”). The other is as a neogrammar to write gender-neutral words in German. The problem addressed is that the personal suffixes are binary: -er (masc.), -in (fem. sing.), -innen (fem. pl.). The convention for gender-neutral is then to use the feminine suffix preceded by the star: Schüler (m.), Schülerinnen (f.pl.), Schüler*innen (unspecified genders, pl.). The star is either unpronounced, or pronounced as a glottal stop [ʔ] („Gender-Pause“). As one might expect, fascists absolutely hate all of this. - TOPs: Tagesordnungspunkte, agenda items, as in, an ordered list of what you’re supposed to discuss in a Plenum and what people will beat you in the head with when you want to discuss something that actually matters (“yes but people have to work tomorrow and there’s still five TOPs, moving on…”).
- Transpi: Affectionate diminutive (see -i) for „Transparent“, which actually means “banner”, as in protest signs at Demos. I imagine the etymology must have to do with the old transparent slides for projectors, but Transpis aren’t actually transparent.
- VoKü, Volxküche: Same as KüFa.
- Wutbürger: “Angry citizen”. A leftist derogatory for the affluent white middle-class, when they hold bourgeois conservative sentiment. “Oh yeah sure I won’t show kink on CSD parades, let’s all appease the Wutbürger*innen”. Comparable to English sarcastic use of “concerned citizen”, or even more closely, Brazilian “cidadão de bem”.
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