clerical fascism in “croatia” is on the rise. in the groups falling under this category we have identified the perhaps most imminent display of blatant fascism and the queer-hating patriarchial nature of it the last few years. there is a dominating role of the catholic church, also in the nationalistic myth that has been highlighted in the rewriting of history after the dissolution of the federal republic of yugoslavia. the catholic church has garnered significant power over the last decades, what with their corrupt symbiosis with the right-wing nationalist, conservative and traditionalist party HDZ that has largely been in power for the last 30 years, and the fact that the church has amassed a considerable amount of capital and real estate. what also generally contributes to the growth of fascism are declining economic conditions, which can be observed worldwide in this stage of capitalism and under steady dominion of neoliberal politics, to which “croatia” is no exception. thus, with a generous helping hand from clerical fascists abroad, we have seen various bizarro groups and events pop up in zagreb and countrywide over the last couple of years.
some of the specific groups of these growing fascist movements are:
the famous “kneelers” (klečavci), the praying men who call themselves the knights of the immaculate heart of mary (barf pause), who gather in multiple cities across “croatia” (and other countries), on the main square every first saturday of the month to pray for the chastity of women; against abortion; for men as authorities of the family; the natural subjugation of woman under man; and of course anti-queer; anti-abortion and much more – trying to (re)claim their right to demonise, exclude, exploit, and otherwise violently dominate others. needless to say, we have been – and will continue to – stir the pot here.
we also have the annual “walk for life” (hod za život), the “pro-life” parade gathering thousands in 15 “croatian” cities. this is the heart project of željka markić, a notorious leader of the “in the name of family” movement that first started gaining prominance during the 2013 referendum against same-sex marriage. there have also been many other anti-abortion events in the recent years, both traditionally in front of hospitals and places of worship as well as in public spaces in forms of processions and protests. we saw churches hosting transphobic events and publicizing authors such as matt walsh to promote their misogynist and bigoted agenda or the national postal service promoting anti-queer groups.
formal politics also follow suit – in the parliamentary elections held in the spring of 2024, far-right and fascist parties got record support and right-wing parties cumulatively won the election by a landslide. the runner-up right-wing party listed withdrawing from the istanbul convention as one of their main programme points, as well as waging war on “gender ideology”. on top of all of this, we see increasing numbers of young people, mostly underage, adopting neofascist values and mobilising for physical violence against “foreign” workers and leftist, anarchist, queer and trans folks.
throughout all this, the criminalisation of resistance is quite blatant. violence from the side of clerofascists is looked away from while we can’t even approach the main square of the city without being questioned, threatened, and forced to show ID. the question around prison and police abolition is still fresh on our tongues, and it feels like this sentiment isn’t going away. we are just finding ways to work through how to organize regarding these issues in our local context. here you will be refused entry to an ‘antifascist’ event if you are wearing an acab shirt and be fined for hanging a 16-big-word banner that contains a tiny 1312 in the corner – for apparent hate speech. so the acab momentum, that has so far been reserved for fascist football hooligans, is slowly being taken back by virtue that they are no longer the only ones clashing with the cops so directly. so the antifascist movement is turning explicitly anti-police, maybe a bit on accident, but we can’t say we didn’t stir that pot:P.
what a time to be alive!
THE CREATION OF VRRRANE
the conversations that laid the ground for the creation of vrrrane were never whispers, instead they were shouts and battle calls. many new people were discovering postaja squat, especially during the months following the eviction attempt in june 2023. then many (newly) radicalised queer people made their way to postaja, figuring out their understanding of anarchism, looking for a like-minded community they could identify and feel safe with, or just feeling sick of the same old mansplaining taking place in broader anarchist groups, which was – unsurprisingly – cis-male dominated. these developments, coupled with several incidents of sexual violations from so-called anarchist comrades, turned the shouts and battle calls into action. finally, after being inspired and encouraged by the amazing comrades from all over the world at the anarchaqueer feminist day 0 of the 2023 balkan anarchist bookfair in ljubljana, vrrrane was formed in the early autumn of 2023.
the physical space of the postaja squat in zagreb has been important for our community from the very beginning. without some designated and welcoming space, everything becomes more depressing: you are struggling to find somewhere where you can rest, party, organise, discuss freely, and energy drains out so much quicker. if we instead can have safer spaces, (semi-)open spaces, inviting spaces, autonomous spaces – where we can freely assemble, draft programs and events without any need to feed them back to authorities, and leave no bureaucracy traces of what we are doing – activist life becomes very different. it is suddenly marked by spontaneity and ease, giggling and planning while doing housework or chilling in between, having gathered materials and the possibility to just run out and ‘do some stuff’, decompressing by simply returning home. we feel this is key to building community, networking, educating, and key also to the more general anarchist struggle of building independence from our enemy the state.
TENDING TO THE SEED OF REBELLION
the direct actions, the repercussions for these, our community gently taking care of each other in light of these repercussions, and the increased activities of the movement in general, are bringing a conversation that has still barely been poked with a stick in the local context to the forefront. yeah, we might have found enemies among the 1st police station in zagreb and are a bit too familiar with their interior design choices, habits of smoking indoors, and baton rape threats written off as jokes; and they are definitely too familiar with our individual identities; but the so far barely precedented persecution of civil disobedience and self-organized activists has stirred quite some conversations in zagreb.
we have reached complete disillusionment with existing structures and ‘feminist’ groups, even ‘activist’ ones – from overt terfism and pride NGO’s nationalism and fascism to the trans and queer struggle being monopolized by organisations that are courting liberalism at best, and the church and the conservative state at worst, refusing to demand actual liberation policies and healthcare practices. what they are demanding not only isn’t enough, but is actively harming queer, trans, racialised people and people perceived as not-croatian. while the pride ngo is declaring the president of croatia as the ‘life partner’ of gay people, we spit on this stupid state (and not in a hot way) and deny it to enclose us into its structures. the language we use and the disrespect we show to state symbols and those that dare bring nationalist symbols to pride parades and “antifascist” gatherings won’t be tamed down. the fight has many frontiers, and it is imperative we extend our solidarity to people resisting imperialism, colonialism, corporatism and extractionism, state and capitalist war, border and passport regimes, insurrectionists, ecocentrism, speciesism and so much more; our tactics should be joined/mutually reinforcing and escalated accordingly.
through actions and the book club, people have spontaneously joined the collective, and it has been incredibly rewarding to hear people gush positive about the work vrrrane are doing. otherwise, as we know from other circles, unless there is a committed – and very fun to spend time with – group of people continuously involved, it’s very hard to stay motivated when you keep running into the system’s cement wall. on the one hand, the passive fog surrounding people here still feels very present, but on the other, it feels like more and more comrades are now looking for a struggle like this. the radicalisation process is slow, but our efforts are steady. we have found likely and unlikely comrades and are continuously thinking through ways of strengthening and spreading the antifascist movement. we have learned that nothing works better than tasting the sweet sweet anarchic freedom of being able to be your autonomous self, loved by your community, to make you want to take things into your own hands and spread the liberation process.