When you walk through the streets of Vienna, it’s hard to believe your eyes: countless walls are smeared with racist slogans. And often they stay there for months, even years. Some streets are literally plastered with these slogans. Racists want to mark “their” territory with them. This confrontation at the sign level is a symbolic battle for the prerogative to interpret public space. And how does the general public respond to their surroundings being marked with racist slogans? With tolerance or resistance?

The campaign Rassismus streichen (“strike racism”) exposes the full scope of these racist markings on the city, encourages resistance at the sign level and urges the politically responsible to act. Strike Racism is the fitting response to a deadlock in which responsibility is shoved back and forth between the private owners of buildings and the City of Vienna. Moreover, all those who are not willing to stand by and do nothing are usually in danger of coming into conflict with the law for damaging property.

When a slogan is found, “racism paparazzi” stick our campaign pictogram on it, photograph it with a digicam or mobile phone and then post it via MMS or e-mail on the campaign’s website. Everything posted (by March 2007: approx. 800!!) is then entered into the interactive antiracist map of the city.

In other words, everyone who participates in neutralizing and documenting racist slogans contributes to revealing this social problem. By transferring it from a real environment to a digital one, the problem even becomes visible to those who have not been sensitized to it. The campaign addresses everyone who is willing and able to document racist slogans in Vienna using mobile devices. Practice has shown that most of those participating have had previous contact with antiracist organizations or have heard about our campaign through online communities and promotion in the media.