Rallies in support of US protests over the death of George Floyd reverberated across Europe, including in Vilnius. About a thousand people participated in the march last Friday, although the event had its detractors.
In the run-up to the event, some insisted on social media that the peaceful march from Katedros Square to the US embassy in Vilnius would be a riot and was organised by the international left-wing movement Antifa. LRT FACTS spoke with the actual organisers of the event.
Read more: ‘We are all human beings’. People in Vilnius march in support of US protests
The usual suspects
“Dear President Nausėda, I hope that state security will stop the riot organised by the terrorist organisation Antifa in Vilnius,” Marius Gabrilavičius, who runs the minfo.lt website and is better known online as Maksimalietis, posted on Facebook on the eve of Friday's event.
He shared a screenshot, showing that the Antifa Lietuva page was inviting followers to join the March for Black Lives Matter in Vilnius. Subsequently, several people did march under the Antifa flag in the protest.
Lithuanian conspiracy theorists and social media fake news groups have been regularly linking the anti-racism protests in the US with the international anti-fascist movement. Antifa, according to them, is behind the looting and violence that followed some of the protests.
Friday's march in Vilnius was met by a small group of anti-protesters, one of whom held a banner saying “Stop Soros's terrorist Antifa”.
Solidarity
The organisers of the march, which attracted about a thousand participants, say that they did not work with Antifa or any other movement.
“I did not know what Antifa was until everyone started talking about it a few years ago,” said Marija Gevorkjan, who created the Facebook event page for the rally.
The singer-songwriter said her own experience motivated her to organise the event. Half-Armenian, Gevorkjan said that she and her family had been attacked for looking and acting different.
Moreover, she has been living in the US for the last couple of years, witnessing race relations in that country from up close.
Read more: #Voices – Lithuanians should care about US protests
“I had to return [to Lithuania] due to the coronavirus, but if I were still there, I'd join the protests,” Gevorkjan said. “I have black friends and have seen police brutality myself. It's bad, the entire system has to change.”
What gave her the idea to organise a support rally in Vilnius was a discussion she started on the social media app TikTok where she has many followers.
“Many wrote to me: if you make a protest, we will come. They asked me to inform them if there was one. I've nothing to lose, I thought.”
There were also many hateful comments under Gevorkjan's messages. The comments mostly came from older people, she said, and many of them were accusing the rally of sowing division.
“We just want to show solidarity with people who are now protesting for human rights,” according to Gevorkjan.
Peaceful action
Previously, the Lithuanian Centre for Human Rights (LCHR) organised another action to support US protesters, inviting people to leave flowers, candles and signs outside the US embassy in Vilnius.
However, the signs were torn off one night by Astra Astrauskaitė, an activist who previously led an anti-LGBT+ protest and smeared red paint on a monument.
“It is strange that some try to link expressions of solidarity with violence and rioting,” said LCHR spokesperson Jūratė Juškaitė.
The LCHR action was “very peaceful”, she added, finding it hard to take seriously attempts to involve Antifa.
“It seems that people who are making these links are simply repeating clichés they read on foreign fake news websites and trying to stretch them to suit the Lithuanian context,” she said. “You can't take seriously these people trying to link the Lithuanian Centre for Human Rights with Antifa.”
Read more: Lithuanians lay flowers by US embassy in Vilnius in solidarity with Floyd protests
VERDICT
Disinformation. The rally in Vilnius was not organised by Antifa. The main organiser says she was motivated by her personal experience and the aim was to express solidarity, not sow division.
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