In November 2023, the international police organization Interpol will hold a General Assembly in Vienna to mark its 100th anniversary. Police and government leaders from 195 member states – a total of over 1,500 representatives – want to celebrate this anniversary. For us – a broad alliance of civil society and left-wing organizations and groups – however, this is no reason to celebrate, quite the contrary.
Already united in anti-communism, anti-Semitism, anti-gypsyism and racism in 1923, the agency continued to exist under the leadership of the Austrofascist regime. Under Nazism, Interpol sat in the house of the later Wannsee Conference; the agency was presided over by Reinhard Heydrich, Arthur Nebe, and Ernst Kaltenbrunner, all high-ranking Nazi war criminals. Even after the end of World War II, Interpol was still led by former Nazis. Today, Interpol -officially an association that has never been ratified by a parliament, an association that receives millions in funding from organizations such as FIFA, the tobacco company Philip Morris, and a host of pharmaceutical companies- is at the forefront of international repression. Interpol assists national police forces in prosecuting political activists. Many countries rely on the agency to prosecute political opponents: Turkey against Kurdish structures, Bahrain against investigative journalists, but also Austria, Germany other European countries against left-wing activists.
We want a completely different world. We want to discuss and reflect on alternatives to Interpol and the police in general. We want to fight for this completely different world with events, lectures, rallies and demonstrations about security in public space, the authoritarian character of the police, about harassment and violence against homeless people, about increasing repression against climate activists, about a feminist critique of the institution police and much more. More info -on events and everything else- soon at: https://linktr.ee/abolish_police
