january: despite violence from clerofascist praying men and their “security”, anarchaqueers managed to postpone and heavily disrupt their kneeling and mumblin
february: hooligan mobilisation, police leaking information to the media, general witchhunt on demonstrators, threat of lawsuits and doxxing as attempt of escalation of violence between fascists and anarchaqueers
the “knights of the immaculate heart of mary”, referred to here as the “kneelers”, as their form of protesting consists of making a cis-male-only area on the main square, where they proceed to kneel and mumble prayers for women’s subjugation, anti-queer, anti-abortion, anti everything that entails liberation and existence in peace for others than the dominant cis-man. this religious fundamentalist propaganda masked as prayer is becoming way too prominent and comfortable in public space all across “croatia”, as these clerical fascists are recruiting ever more people and are now gathering on the main squares of 22 cities for their monthly “recitation of the rosary”, organised by the association called “be manly”.
after a few months of taking a break from organising direct action against the kneelers, on the first saturday of the new year, many of us fed up with public propaganda of conservative values and of anti-abortion, anti-queer lobbying took to the streets to show our dissent in numbers higher than ever before.
before dawn we arrived to the main square, vulvarija (our vulva mary portrait) heavy on our shoulders, our guiding star her glowing clitoris. at the time the square was empty, save for some passers by and the first cops who arrived approximately at the same time. soon enough the first kneelers – praying men that spend most of their time in a kneeling position – started arriving to the square carrying their props, such as banners that they use for enclosing the space in which they kneel, speakers, a statue of holy mary and what looked like an ai-generated photo of mary to which they pray to.
in a city largely deprived of a will for almost any radical resistance or non-passive demonstration (something the state doesn’t necessarily give its blessing to), let alone disruption or direct action, we managed to briefly occupy the square, postpone the beginning of the praying ceremony and cause particular dismay from inside their banner-fence. the kneelers, who often portray themselves as peaceful men concerned with the downfall of traditional family values and the catholic national state of croatia, this time proved they are also willing to use physical violence, alongside their usual salt-sprinkling and satan-name-calling, to uphold these fascist and patriarchal structures. after hurling insults and intrusive nagging which made their dehumanizing attitude towards us obvious, they grew in numbers quickly and, even though we occupied the whole area of the square that wasn’t covered in consumerist advent decorations, they decided to set up their plastic shit around us. after playing a bit of cat and mouse with them, they quickly grew frustrated as they realized they won’t be able to take up public space for their clerical fascism in peace and decided to push us out of their cis-dick-circle. we were dragged around, kicked to the ground, stepped and spat on, grabbed by the hair, boypussy, tits and neck, punched in the head, kicked while on the floor – all while the cops calmly stood by only to form the separation line after the dirty work of removing us from inside their banner-borders was done for them. this didn’t deter us, as they could barely clutch their rosaries and focus on their mantra under the steady beat of the drums and shouts of death to fascism, death to patriarchy, a-anti-anticlerofascista and mary the lesbian. as their prayer was dying down, our chants and whistles grew louder, and as they disassembled and dispersed in their shame we ended up, dancing to the beat of the protest drum, taking over the square again with a formation of our own banner circle, loud and proud, moving towards the registered antiprotest where we knew we had comrades drumming and chanting – bouncing off each other’s energy and fuelling the love and rage. we left the square embodying the power which we can wield when we are united and organised.
in the weeks following this – for zagreb measures – successful action, the kneelers escalated their witchhunt and we were appauled to a week or so later come across an instagram post where footage from us being pushed around during the protest was mixed together with footage of hooligan violence, with the message calling hooligans from zagreb to come and “defend their motherland” on the next first saturday (february).
needless to say, we went into a mode of intense deliberations between us and trying to ensure everyones’ safety, including the registered anti-protesters. we decided to lay low with direct action for the month of february, but to try to support and ensure the safety of the legal protest only in order to be able to provide solidarity and support in case of an escalation of violence and confrontation with the professional fighters which are associated with the hooligans that the kneelers were trying to mobilise.
several days before the action, the facebook page of the initiative “be mainly” published a post in which they listed the nationalities of the actionists who participated in the january action against the kneelers, showing their cooperation with the police who obviously disclosed that information. in an attempt to further scare the actionists and to make them recognisable to local fascist thugs, the day before the february gathering, far-right media portals (narod.hr, xpress.hr and others) published multiple articles that included full names and photos (some taken at the actions, but some also taken from the web and private social media) of some of the protesters who are often involved in actions against local clerical fascism. the articles also outlined the laws based on which the notorious and politically powerful clerical fascist željka markić and heir association “in the name of family” (famous for organising the 2013 referendum against gay marriage and adoption and anti-abortion marches called “walk for life”) are pressing criminal charges against these actionists. at the time of writing there is no notice of criminal lawsuit against them as the charges have not yet been approved by the state attorney. what is troubling is that also some mainstream media reported on the same incriminating article and included the full names of the persons involved/being sued, despite the fact that this may endanger their safety. this was a clear attempt at doxxing and forcefully escalating confrontations between us and the fascists.
we should not deny the fact that we were scared at this point: we have already experienced fascists organising to physically confront us after our actions and as mentioned, the antifascist movement in zagreb is not very active or experienced in defense/resistance, while the enemy is an entangled network of some of the strongest groups on the ground: the church, the state, the police, the news, the hooligans. thankfully, we are writing on the days after the february kneeling, and there was no violent escalation this month – apparently the kneelers had overestimated the hooligans dedication to their “motherland”, or maybe merely their will to get up at dawn on a saturday – but the doxxing and the threat of fascist violence at our throats remains very real. so this is partially an update for the balkan anarchist community, and partially an attempt at describing our local struggle to also be able to build more effective solidarity networks of anarcha freaks to be able to mobilise resistance throughout our localities and build networks <3
we are so thankful to all of the comrades that came from close and far to demonstrate and live transnational solidarity in fighting fascism of all kinds – fascism that is purposefully replicated in all of our localities, masked under the thin veil of concern and peace but that really, truly wants us dead. we can’t shy away from resistance to such blatant fascism, and in the fight for liberation we remain unrelenting and unapologetic – the media calls us dirty and we say – yes we are!! we remain dedicated to living and breathing useful disruptive resistance and we hope to be able to bring along more freaks next time to show all these fascists from the cops to the kneelers that the streets are ours!
love and rage
anarcha and antifaqueers in zagreb
PS: on <https://vrrrane1312.noblogs.org/post/2025/01/10/anarchaqueers-take-over-zagreb-main-square-in-protest-of-clerofascism/> you can find the blog post from january with video footage from the action