Unlike Germany’s numerous amorphous groups from the autonomous tradition, however, Rote Hilfe operates as a legal organization in compliance with federal law. It is registered as an association, has an official HQ, and maintains an elected federal executive committee as well as local chapters and activities in the public sphere. Although it is regularly attacked by Germany’s ruling Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and features prominently in reports by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, it is not a banned organization. This makes the repression it is currently facing all the more astonishing.
Every legal resident in an EU country is entitled to open a “basic payment account”. Banks cannot refuse your application for a basic payment account just because you don’t live in the country where the bank is established.
Rote Hilfe is registered in Germany. What the article does not say is that they openly support, among others, the Red Army Faction (RAF). The RAF was engaged in a series of bombings, assassinations, kidnappings, bank robberies particularly in the 1970s and 1980s. The Rote Hilfe has never distanced itself from the RAF and its criminal activities, and have reportedly even openly supported the few RAF members still wanted by authorities.
That should be added if such an article is published. I am personally not very happy with media outlets like this Jacobin. Not being far-right is not enough. If you read such media, you now exactly what narratives you get before you even click the link.
So? That isn’t illegal.
This is.
Moreover, the article mentions that it’s one of multiple organizations debanked in a row, preceeded by ABC-Dresden, which is one of the loudest grassroots voices for international solidarity with Ukrainian anti-authoritarians fighting against the invasion. While Rote Hilfe has a different position (amplifying refugees and deserters, which IMO is also important despite not being treated as politically correct), they don’t seem to be debanked because of their specific connections, but because of a blanket ban on anything leftist and radical.
Shit. Germany really isn’t in a good place right now. Going the same route as so many other countries (normal conservative parties pandering to far-right populism), with the added historical baggage…
The article frames the Rote Hilfe as a charity that is in the world only for the good of humanity. It doesn’t even mention that the organization also supports the RAF and its members, including those who have committed the worst crimes such as assassinations. This is not independent information.
There is a lot wrong in Germany, but it is among the better places to live in if we compare it globally. The countries where minorities and their governments’ political opponents are suppressed are elsewhere, and these are often states that claim to be ‘left-wing’ or ‘socialist’ (exactly the ideologies the Jacobin magazine hails so much). If an organization in Russia or China has a different opinion, then people are not ‘debanked’ but they fall out of a window or disappear in some prison (and if someone criticizes the government in an article, the writer shares the same fate).
The “charity” is providing legal support. Furthermore the RAF have not existed as an entity for almost 30 Years, and even if they still existed not sure that should equal being denied Legal support.
You’re explaining to two Ukrainians that Russia does human rights abuses. We know that. I don’t think it’s an excuse for other countries to make it difficult to support prisoners through legal means. Including those jailed for violent crimes. I’m more interested in ABC-Dresden than Rote Hilfe tbh, I’m not a fan of Jacobin of their branch of politics.
They don’t just support prisoners through legal means, they openly embrace their violence.
From what I’ve just found in archives, Rote Hilfe has also once advocated for Borotba, a left-conservative pro-Russian group. That was… stupid of them, or at least disingenuous. https://web.archive.org/web/20150227230349/https://www.nihilist.li/2014/12/16/nam-ne-potribna-vasha-pidtrimka-wir-brauchen-diese-unterstutzung-nicht/
Still, they stopped doing that, and they’re not alone being debanked (their leftist opponents are, too), and not for that reason. There seems to be crackdown on leftist organizations in progress. Which is a very upsetting trend. https://thefinalstrawradio.noblogs.org/post/2026/04/05/abc-dresden-on-debanking-and-us-anti-antifascist-pressure/
There may or may not be such a crackdown (against left-wing and right-wing organizations). In 2024, for example, the Rote Hilfe openly criticized the state upon the arrest of Daniela Klette as she was arrested the year before, and embraced her actions (you’ll find ample evidence on the web). Wikipedia says about Klette:
The Rote Hilfe has been embracing her violence. And this is just an example of what they do.
As I said earlier on, there is no difference between the left-wing and right-wing organizations if and when they intend to topple the democratic state, particularly by violence. This is unacceptable and intolerable imo.