despite violence from clerofascist praying men and their “security”, anarchaqueers managed to postpone and heavily disrupt their kneeling and mumblin
trigger warning: fascist violence
on the first saturday of the new year all 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 “knights of the immaculate heart of mary”, 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.
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.
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. 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”.
we too can’t shy away from resistance to such blatant fascism, and as we are working towards radicalizing local queerfeminist movements, in the fight for liberation we remain unrelenting and unapologetic – the media calls us dirty and we say – yes we are!! and we vouch to bring along more freaks next time to show all these fascists from the cops to the kneelers that the streets are ours and we shall fuck and fuck them up until they fuck off!! so stay tuned for the next friendly invite;) xoxo
