German anti-fascists claimed a major victory last Saturday.

Up to 15,000 people successfully blockaded a march of roughly 6,000 Nazis in the town of Dresden. The biggest Nazi march in Europe couldn’t take place.

The success was the result of a anti-Nazi mobilisation and discussion about strategy that took place over the course of last year.

The Nazis have marched in Dresden for the last 12 years. They are abusing the commemoration for the victims of the aerial bombardment of Dresden on the 13-15 February of 1945 for their Nazi propaganda.

Last year the Nazis had their biggest march so far, with 7,000 fascists from all over Europe participating.

They were able to do this because the forces that wanted to block the Nazis were too small—and a bigger demonstration headed by the main parties was far away from the route of the Nazis.

As a result of the defeat of the anti-fascists in 2009, different political forces ranging from the autonomist left, Die Linke, some trade unions, Greens and SPD came together to work out a strategy to halt the Nazis in 2010.

The coalition “Dresden Nazifrei”(Dresden Nazi free) was formed and over a string of conferences settled for a strategy of peaceful mass blockades to stop the Nazi march.

The anti-fascists were massively criminalised. The placards of “Dresden Nazifrei” (Dresden Nazi free) were ruled illegal, because it called for “illegal“ blockade action. The plot backfired, as the anti-fascist mobilisation really took off afterwards.

In the early morning hours of the 13 February thousands braved freezing temperatures to take positions on the blockade points.

By 11am the four blockade points were held by between 10,000 and 15,000 people—the Nazis had nowhere to go and were told so by the police.

At 5pm the Nazis began to leave Dresden, having only marched between their buses and back. The mood of the deep-frozen anti-fascists on the blockades was jubilant—they won a major victory.