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Macron, Electoral Chaos, the Fascists and the Alternative

French presidential elections 2022 – Interview with John Mullen


22/11/2021

Hello John, thanks for talking to us again. Could you remind people who you are and what your relationship is to the coming French elections?

I’m a revolutionary socialist and I’ve been living in the Paris region for over thirty years. Although a bit less active than I used to be, I am a supporter of the France Insoumise, and of Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s left reformist candidacy for the presidency.

So, a new French president will be elected next April. What are the polls looking like at the moment?

Because of the two-round election system (the strongest two candidates go through to a run-off), candidates are above all aiming at getting over 22% or so in the first round. The fragmenting of the vote should mean that 22% is enough to get through to the second round, and the more people who stay at home on election day, the fewer votes will be needed to get through. In 2017 Emmanuel Macron got 24% in the first round, while far-right Marine Le Pen got 21.3%. 22% of those registered to vote stayed at home. Macron is hoping for an exact rerun, confident he can easily win again in a second round against Le Pen.

The polls continue to show the shipwreck of the traditional Socialist Party and classical Conservative options. Declared Socialist Party candidate Anne Hidalgo gets around 5% (which, given that the president before Macron was Socialist Party, remains stunningly low). The traditional right Republicans haven’t yet decided on their candidate, but the most likely, Xavier Bertrand, stands at around 13% in the polls. The Greens just chose a candidate from the right of their party, Yannick Jadot, who is on 6-9%.

Radical left Jean-Luc Mélenchon is at 7 – 10%. The Communist Party, which backed Mélenchon in 2017, is fielding its own candidate (who is at 2-3%), a rebel ex Socialist Party candidate gets 2-3% too, while various Trotskyists get 1.5 % each. Macron gets 24 -28 %. But in the latest polls the shock is the fascists, represented by two candidates – Marine Le Pen on 16-19% and Eric Zemmour on 12- 15%.

How are French people reacting to Emmanuel Macron’s presidency at the moment?

In the polls, at least 25% of those registered say they will vote for him in the first round. His “extreme centre” neoliberal support base is stable, so he certainly has a good hand of cards to get himself re-elected. The success of the vaccination campaign and of the vaccine pass (required to get into cinemas, restaurants etc) have helped his ratings (in France there are 35 deaths a day at the moment from COVID, as against 150 in Britain).

But if a quarter of voters definitely want him back in, that leaves an awful lot of unhappy and angry people, and what these people decide to do is key. We have plenty to be angry about: the Catholic charity Secours Catholique just reported that fully ten per cent of the French population had to use food banks last year. Macron has been pushing through islamophobic laws, slashing taxes for the rich and making life harder for the poor since his first day in office. Recently a new system for unemployment benefit came in, meaning you now have to work six months not four before having initial rights to unemployment benefit (this in a world where short-term contracts are everywhere). He has also been talking of clamping down on unemployed people who are “not really looking for a job”. There is no evidence that there are many of these, but politically it looks good for Macron to be loudly denouncing them.

Macron does have however a key political defeat to swallow. Millions on the streets and on strike forced him to shelve his huge flagship “reform” which would have destroyed a retirement pension scheme which has been kept intact if bruised after twenty-five years of working-class struggle. Last week in a major speech, Macron admitted (if we read between the lines) that he was too scared to relaunch this attack before next year’s elections. So as to have a new flagship project, he announced the building of a bunch of nuclear power stations.

A year ago, most people outside France had never heard of Eric Zemmour. Who is he and is he dangerous?

Zemmour is a media personality and journalist, openly claiming that France is threatened with destruction through immigration. He represents a part of fascist and hard right opinion which regrets the move towards respectability of Marine Le Pen. By throwing her father out of the organization, changing its name, no longer talking about the Holocaust, and allying herself with some small non-fascist right-wing organizations, Le Pen has been fairly successful in mainstreaming her politics (although building a rooted party structure has had limited success). Zemmour appeals to hard racists. He demands that it become illegal to give babies first names like Mohamed or Fatima. He claims that Muslims are terrorizing working-class neighbourhoods like mine. He claims that the French fascist Vichy government during World War Two tried to protect French Jews, and asks people to be reassured that most Jews sent to their deaths by Vichy were of other nationalities. At present, he is (once again) in court accused of inciting racial hatred by saying that unaccompanied minors among migrants seeking asylum are “murderers and rapists”.

The fact that he can get 1500 people in Bordeaux to his public meeting, without the support of a proper party structure, is worrying. And his new book “France Has Not Said Its Last Word” is on sale on every high street, promising the slashing of taxes and benefits and the abolition of environmental regulations, and warning against the supposed dangers of woke-ism and “gender theory”. Fortunately there have been counter-demonstrations against Zemmour’s meetings in a number of towns, including Nantes, Bordeaux and Geneva. These should be built everywhere.

Should we be pleased that Zemmour seems to be taking some voters away from Marine Le Pen’s Rassemblement National (formerly Front National)?

Some desperate people on the left feel that way, but they are wrong to do so. Zemmour is normalizing hard islamophobia and fascist ideas, and dragging much of the media debate to the hard right. On news channel CNews, Zemmour was invited to discuss whether Western Civilization had forgotten how to be proud! These bad tidings follow a year in which the far right have successfully built their support, very much helped by the context of much broader mass anti-vaccination demonstrations.

The rise of the far right has encouraged Macron to go much further in attacking Muslims, even though he himself originates in a branch of right wing thought for which islamophobia was not important. The government has recently banned several Muslim organizations that fight islamophobia, on the grounds that … they fight islamophobia! Excuses were used along the lines that outside commentators had left antisemitic comments on the Facebook pages of the now banned organizations! The Education Minister has said universities are in danger from hordes of “islamo-leftists”, while Le Figaro, a mass circulation conservative newspaper had headlines last week on the “indoctrination of our children” by “LGBT ideology” and by “antiracism”!

Many people have been inspired by France’s Yellow Vest movement. What are the Yellow Vests doing now, and have they had an impact on the elections?

The Yellow Vests were a broad, dynamic, leaderless movement of revolt which inspired millions and scared Macron. Today the movement is many times smaller, and is unlikely to produce a united response to the elections, though it could burst into action again at any time.

France has seen some large Covid demos this year, in which both left wingers and right wingers have participated. I was at a film screening recently where the director called these protests a continuation of the Yellow Vests. Is he right?

The Yellow Vest movement was always contradictory; an alliance of poor workers and very small (sometimes penniless) business people. So the anti-authority and individualist content was always strong (supporting destruction of speed radars etc). Sadly, along with much of the radical left, certain sections of the remaining Yellow Vests have mobilized on an individual freedom basis against Covid restrictions that are necessary to save lives. This led to a mass mobilization which was not hard for the far right to profit from: in Paris we have seen separate marches by anti-vax fascists, the biggest fascist marches for decades.

Who are the Left candidates for President and what do they stand for?

The mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, is standing for the Socialist Party, but it does not seem that she can revive the Socialist Party’s very sick body. Jean-Luc Mélenchon is the left candidate who really matters. Yannick Jadot is the Green candidate. The Communist Party, which supported Mélenchon in 2017, is standing Fabien Roussel, who is pitching for political space to the right of Mélenchon, loudly emphasizing his support for the police and for nuclear energy. At least three revolutionary Left candidates are hoping to stand, including Philippe Poutou for the New Anticapitalist Party.

Of the various left candidates, the one most likely to challenge for president is Jean-Luc Mélenchon. What are his chances?

There are several anti-Macron candidates on the Left very broadly defined. Mélenchon is the only one who could win, because he is the only one who might be able to run an insurgent campaign and persuade millions who were going to stay home to go and vote. This is how he got 19% and seven million votes last time, the highest ever vote for the radical Left, with 24% of blue-collar voters and 22% of white-collar working class voters choosing him. His programme of raising the minimum wage, retirement at 60, a hundred percent renewable energy, huge investment against violence against women, generalization of free health care, and many dozens of other radical reforms, pulls the political debate leftwards. It opens up spaces for mass discussion on crucial questions, on which we Marxists have things to say to other class fighters. And he has been loudly defending Muslims against islamophobia for years now, improving on his previous positions on islamophobia. [1]

His organization, the France Insoumise (FI), is running a dynamic campaign. The Youtube channel has 600 000 followers, and the plan is to knock on a million doors over the next few months, although door-to-door canvassing is not a traditional tool in French elections. Mélenchon is an extraordinary orator and his mass meetings will be huge. The FI calls for a “citizens’ revolution”. The tiny Trotskyist candidates reply “that would be the wrong kind of revolution”. They are kind of correct in the abstract, that is, the question of overthrowing the capitalist state cannot be avoided, but the differences between a citizens’ revolution and other kinds of revolution are sadly unknown to 99% of French workers. Given that Mélenchon’s campaign and movement is not a membership organization with strict rules to limit what activists can do, it seems to me obvious that revolutionaries can and should work within it, rather than chase after getting 1% of votes based on distinctions invisible to the working class in general. Marxists who work in the campaign for Mélenchon’s election have plenty of space for fraternal debate about reformism and the state, and to politically oppose other sets of ideas like the deep green degrowth ideas, identity politics or animal rights ideas, which all have considerable influence.

Mélenchon is a left reformist candidate, and I could amuse myself by listing twenty-seven disagreements I have with him, but this would be unproductive. He is at present facing a major smear campaign which will accelerate as the months go by (we will hear that he is a megalomaniac, racist, antisemitic friend of Putin’s, etc etc). The lessons of Corbyn in Britain must be learned. Mélenchon is under attack because he says neoliberalism is not inevitable, and that another world is possible in which human needs are put first. Those sections of the radical left who are tempted to bay with the hounds are doing our class a great disservice.

Whoever wins the presidency, social struggles will continue. What is on the horizon?

If Macron wins, he will try again for his juggernaut anti-pension reform, and there will be mass revolt. If Mélenchon should win (which is possible if it turns out he is in the run-off against Le Pen), the ruling class will pull out all the stops to prevent him from applying his programme, and mass movements are also likely. However, my crystal ball is rather hazy today, so watch this space.

John Mullen’s political website can be found here.

Footnotes

1 See this article for an analysis from a few years back on the nature of Mélenchon’s movement 

“Everything changes the world – little by little”

Interview with Anastasia Klevets, organiser of an exhibition about violence against LGBT people in Russia


21/11/2021

Hello Anastasia, thanks for agreeing to talk to us. Could you start by introducing yourself.

Hi. My name is Anastasia, I am the organizer of the Veshchdok exhibition. By profession I am a historian and guide, an activist of Quarteera – an organization that unites Russian-speaking LGBT+ people in Germany.

Why should people go to the exhibition “Veschdok”?

To feel that violence against queer people is not something distant and special. And that this violence has a very usual character, we have objects that surround us in everyday life. And violence can happen at any time, it does not require special preparation and special time. And then you can feel this constant background fear of LGBT+ people in Russia, who know that violence against them can happen at any moment.

The exhibition shows sketches of different tools which have been used to violently attack and kill LGBT people in Russia – from axes and broken bottles to forks and a pair of socks. Should art be beautiful and comfortable?

Quite the opposite I believe. Nowadays, after all, art doesn’t have to meet any expectations. But I would say the art leaves a trace when it takes you out of your comfort zone – it expands your understanding of the world, adds new facets and changes perspective. I doubt that nice and comfy art is able to do that.

What is the current state of LGBT rights in Russia today? What has been the effect of the 2013 law criminalising “propaganda for non-traditional sexual relationships between minors”?

The adoption of this law showed that discrimination against LGBT+ people is becoming a state policy. Because under this law you can attack anything – from a simple hand-holding and telling about yourself – to the release of educational brochures. LGBT+ people are persecuted by activists of radical right groups,. These groups seek the dismissal of LGBT+ people, and threaten to take away their children. The number of attacks on queer people is constantly growing, and the police virtually do not react, very rarely do they even start an investigation. And thanks to the law LGBT+ people are second-class people, and the use of hate speech against them is justified – even at the official level.

At this evening’s Q&A, artist Polina Zaaslavskia spoke of her problems with the term “Queer-Feminist Art”. Can art be feminist? Should it be?

Art can be classified by different criteria – by style, period, or by the themes that a piece raises. Therefore, technically something can be called queer-fem art, if it’s more convenient, of course. But good art is universal. Doesn’t violence concern everyone? And discrimination? After all, we do not know what can cause violence; with what ideas one can try to justify dividing people into groups and declaring that some group is worse than another and should be punished.

Do you think that art can change the world?

I would like to believe that yes! Everything changes the world – little by little, not always immediately noticeable. But the subtlest elements come together and become the driving force that transforms the world. One reed may not stand up, but there are a huge number of reeds in the world who dream of the same. The main thing is for us to unite.

How and when can people view the exhibition?

The exhibition is open daily from 12:00 to 17:00, admission is free, 3G rule. And you very welcome to the finissage of the exhibition on November 25 when we will be talking with the authors of the study that inspired the artist for her series of works.

Do you have any projects planned after this?

For now we are closing our projects for this year. But stay tuned for the events starting from January.

You can see the Veschdok exhibition at the BAS CS Gallery, Soldinerstr. 103.

Expropriate Now! Open Letter in Support of Deutsche Wohnen & Co Enteignen

Fridays for Future, teachers’ union and others call for quick implementation of housing referendum


20/11/2021

Regarding the Coalition talks around rent, the Initiative Deutsche Wohnen & Co Enteignen calls on the Green Party leader Bettina Jarasch to take the vote of more than one million Berliners seriously – and to make implementation of the referendum a condition of any coalition agreement.

Frau Jarasch must be clear: socialization is no ultima ratio, but a binding decision by more than a million voters. The Green party basis has a clear position on this. Jarasch must now show which side she is on: for a democratic, quick implementation of the referendum – or for an undemocratic politics of delay on behalf of the real estate lobby”, said Moheb Shafaqyar, speaker for the initiative.

The breadth of the social support for the socialisation of housing space is seen in an open letter from Berlin’s civil society. In the open letter Fridays for future, the teachers’ union GEW and over40 more organisations call for the implementation of the referendum.

This open letter first appeared in German on the Deutsche Wohnen & Co Enteignen website. Here is an English translation. Organisations and individuals who want to sign the petition should send an e-mail to aufruf@volksentscheid-umsetzen.de. DWE would appreciate it if you can circulate the call in your networks.

Deutsche Wohnen & Co Enteignen Open Letter

The result of the referendum on September 26th was clear: more than 1 million Berliners voted YES in favor of the expropriation of property owned by the biggest profit-oriented real estate companies.

We call on all democratic parties in the Berlin parliament to participate constructively in writing a draft law for this expropriation, based on article 15 of our constitution.

We call on the parties forming the government to include the following binding phrases in the coalition treaty:

The coalition will do everything possible to implement the referendum in the coming legislative period. A working group will be established in the first or second quarter of 2022 in order to draft a law regulating the transformation of real estate into common property. The working group will consist of representatives of the initiative “Deutsche Wohnen und Co. enteignen”, other organizations focused on the rent crisis (“mietenpolitische Initiativen”), organizations of tenants, experts from politics, unions and science, as well as other representatives of the Berlin population (“Stadtgesellschaft”). The law will encompass the following main points:

1. Private profit-oriented real estate companies owning more than 3000 apartments in Berlin will be expropriated based on article 15 of the constitution, in order to transform their real estate property into common property. Cooperatives will not be expropriated.

2. The companies in question will be compensated well below market value.

3. A public-law institution will be founded for the administration of the real estate property. The statute will include a passage prohibiting the privatization of institutions of the real estate property.

4. The public-law institution will administer the real estate property based on the democratic participation of the Berlin population, the tenants, the employees and the Berlin government.

First Signatories:

100% Tempelhofer Feld

#200Häuser

23 Häuser sagen NEIN!

AG Gesetz Mietenvolksentscheid

Areal Ratiborstr. 14 e.V.

Aufstehen Berlin – AG Wohnen

Autofreier Wrangelkiez Berlin

Bauhütte Kreuzberg e.V.

Berlin vs. Amazon (No Amazon Tower)

Berliner Obdachlosenhilfe

Bizim Kiez

Bucht für Alle

BUND Jugend Berlin

Bündnis kommunal und selbstverwaltet Wohnen (kusWo)

Bündnis Mieterprotest Kosmosviertel

Bürgerinitiative Stuttgarter Platz

BVV-Fraktion von Bündnis 90/Die Grünen Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg

Democratic Socialists of America Berlin

DIDF – Föderation Demokratischer Arbeitervereine e.V.

Eine für Alle eG

Fridays for Future Berlin

GEW Berlin

GloReiche Nachbarschaft

GRÜNE JUGEND Berlin-Ost

Initiative Haus der Statistik

Initiative Hermannplatz

Initiative Schwarze Menschen in Deutschland (ISD) Berlin

Initiative Volksentscheid Berlin autofrei

Izquierda Unida Berlín

KIEZconnect

KIGE Kiezgewerbe UG

Kotti & Co

Koreaverband

Kulturhof Koloniestr. 10 e.V. i.G.

Lause bleibt!

MieterWerkStadt Charlottenburg

Netzwerk Berliner Mietshäusersyndikats-Initiativen

openBerlin e.V.

OraNostra

Republikanischer Anwältinnen- und Anwälteverein e.V. (RAV)

S-Bahn für alle

Sozialbündnis Alt-Treptow

Stadt von Unten

The LINKE Berlin LAG Internationals

Transformation Haus & Feld

Trans*Sexworks

Volksbegehren Berlin 2030 klimaneutral

Wohnungslosen_Stiftung

ZUsammenKUNFT eG

An identity in exile

Why Western Sahara matters. Experiences from Africa’s last colony


18/11/2021

My name is Emma Lehbib, I am nineteen years old and grew up in Germany. I study International and European Law at the University of Groningen. Currently, I am member of the Sahrawi Diaspora in Germany which was founded after the war broke out. In this one year, we have organized three demonstrations and several online events, run Social Media as well as a Youtube Channel, done charity work and are ambitious to do more in the future. Besides this, I am involved in other work related to the Sahrawi cause.

I am the daughter of Sahrawi parents. Sahrawis are indigenous to the territory of Western Sahara, Africa‘s last colony. Until 1975, Western Sahara was a Spanish colony. During that rule, the liberation movement led by The Polisario Front was active against the colonizers. However, when Spain withdrew, it made an illegal accord with Morocco and Mauritania splitting our country between these two states. This led to war between the Polisario and the two invading powers. Hundreds of thousands fled to a desert near Tindouf, Algeria. In 1976, Mauritania was quickly defeated and in the same year, the Polisario declared the establishment of the Sahrawi Arabic Democratic Republic (SADR). The war against Morocco continued until a ceasefire was mediated in 1991. The condition for that ceasefire was the holding of a referendum, in which the Sahrawi people decide upon their destiny. Thirty years later, the referendum has not been held. Last year, the Polisario restarted the armed struggle after Morocco’s violation of the ceasefire.

Today one part of my family lives in the occupied zone, another part in the refugee camps in Algeria and another part in the diaspora.

The refugee camps

Since I can remember, we always visited my grandmother, aunts and cousins in the refugee camps situated in the West of Algeria. The camps are in a desert. The Sahrawi live in mud houses and tents called Kheima. Now, some have been building brick houses after heavy rains in the past years destroyed the dwellings, to adapt to the extreme weather conditions caused by climate change. Only a minority is able to afford this. The changing climate results in many issues and the situation is worsening. During the summer time, the temperature may rise up to 50 degrees Celsius. At night, temperatures can drop to 0 degrees Celsius. Agriculture is close to impossible. The refugees depend on imports and international help. Despite the difficult circumstances in the desert, the Polisario was able to organize a society there. They have developed an infrastructure providing, for example, good education, health services and electricity for all.

Because we have no extended family in Germany, being in the camps was, and still is, the most treasured of memories. Being there as a child, I absolutely loved it: running in the endless desert, feeding my grandma’s goats, playing with my cousins, drinking Sahrawi tea, listening to my aunt’s storytelling, praying with my great-grandmother. I still love being there but as I grew older, I became aware how unjust the situation is. How it is contrary to our people’s right to self-determination. How they were abandoned by the international community. How difficult the living conditions are – especially knowing the potential and richness of our own homeland.

Visiting my grandmother in the camps deepened my appreciation of my privileges in Europe and especially in Germany. It is my obligation to be active and somehow contribute to the solution of our issue.

Since the outbreak of the pandemic, we could not visit our family there. Thankfully, they were not extremely affected and many are vaccinated by now. Hopefully, we will travel there this or next year.

The occupied zone of Western Sahara

In 2008, my family and I visited for the first and last time the occupied part of Western Sahara. We drove from Northern Germany down to Spain and then took a ship to Morocco. From there, we continued our drive south to the biggest city in Western Sahara, Laayoune – also referred to as SADR’s capital city. I was just six years old but it is a memory that has always stayed with me to this day.

I remember the amazing food: sweets, couscous, fresh vegetables and fish.

I remember the incredible landscapes: deserts, cliffs, Atlantic sea.

I remember the beautiful moments: seeing family members for the first time, Sahrawi tea at the beach, surfing with tourists, playing with cousins and so much more.

For me the time there was precious. Yet I never felt completely safe. Everywhere, I saw Moroccan flags, never SADR’s. I knew that we should watch what we say. That there can always be some kind of surveillance by Moroccan forces or locals. My task was to not attract any unwanted attention. Being there was also sad because I could see everything that my cousins in the camps have never been able to witness. All that our homeland has to offer but our people have been denied.

This trip remains the last one to the occupied zone. Now it would be either impossible or dangerous to go there. It could be that Morocco denies me to enter my home country or if they let me in, anything could happen during that stay. The Moroccan authorities observe and spy on Sahrawi activists. I can only go back home again once we have have held our referendum and gained our independence as recognized by international law.

Life in exile

The reason it hard for us to travel there again, is the activism of my parents. When we moved to Bremen in that same year, my parents started to network with solidarity groups, supporters of Sahrawi cause and experts here. Shortly after, the association “Freiheit für die Westsahara” was established. In that context, a thanks goes out to all of our supporters who have helped and continue to do so throughout, especially to our family friend Gunther Hilliges. On weekends, events were organized. My siblings and I were always brought to the them, and we would see our parents passionately talking about the Sahrawi cause and being interviewed by newspapers or a local TV channel.

At home the topic was always present. On evenings, there were bad quality Skype video calls with family members living thousands of kilometers away. Due to the Moroccan occupation, there are some family members I have only seen once in my life and that was in 2008, when I was only six years old. Others I could only meet outside Western Sahara, for example in Spain. This is the reality of the Sahrawi people. We live divided, a reality that many Germans can comprehend. Just that we continue to live this through every single day for decades. Further, I remember my father always watching the news regarding the issue – every day and night. It is one of the first things he would do after coming back from work. When I would google “Western Sahara” or look onto the computer of my father as he was researching, I saw endless images of Sahrawi adults and children with bruises, black eyes, marks of torture and more. It was devastating to look at but it is the cruel reality of our people in the occupied Western Sahara.

I remember the day when the best known Sahrawi human rights activist, Aminatou Haidar, visited us to receive the Bremen Solidarity Prize in 2013. Her incredible persona was honored by, inter alia, the Right Livelihood Award in 2019. During an evening, she came by to have dinner and tea with us. I must have been 11 years old and was sitting next to my mother. I had heard about her life story. Haidar was just talking, and my mother and I suddenly had tears in our eyes.

When I was 12 years old, I hosted a little activity in the framework of an African Day at a Museum in Bremen. I held a presentation on the Refugee Camps for other children and showed them the games I knew from my time in the camps. We had brought sand, stones and sticks to play with.

Whenever someone asks about my origins, most of the time I don’t simply say “I am from Western Sahara”. It is always followed by a two minute lecture on the situation. I am used to being unknown to people – at least in Germany. As if we dont exist, as if our cause does not exist. Despite the fact that there are German companies such as Siemens or HeidelbergCement pursuing economic activities in the occupied zone, even though they neither have the consent of the Sahrawis nor has Morocco the sovereignty over the territory there. Feeling invisible is frustrating but the problem lies with mass media outlets that don’t cover the situation enough. It just shows that there is a lot of work to be done in Germany. We need to work together with other solidarity groups and movements and thereby, uplift each other.

It is these impressions, experiences and my family that make me Sahrawi, even though I am forced to live in exile. I know we will one day return to our homeland. My grandmother will see her home town again. Families will be reunited. Our children will grow up there. So even though most of us have never seen our home country, we fight for it as much as our parents, grandparents and their parents did and still do. An essential part of the Sahrawi identity is the struggle for freedom. It makes every Sahrawi a representative for our cause.

This story I am writing is the reality of the Sahrawi youth in exile. It is probably a story that many people of diaspora groups can tell you.

This is why I believe our cause, the Sahrawi cause, is the world’s cause.

Because we can never be free until each and every one of us is free.

Silvio Meier Rally

Remembering the activist murdered by neo-Nazis in 1992

On 21st November 1992, the squatter and anti-fascist Silvio Meier was killed by a group of neo-Nazis in the U-Bahn Samariterstraße. Since then there have been annual actions, demos, rallies, to remember both Silvio and the other fatal victims of neo-Nazi violence.

21st November 2021 is the 29th anniversary of the murder of Silvio Meier. This day fills us with sorrow, shock and anger – and reminds us how high the price can be for anti-fascist engagement. Friends and relatives lost a close friend, a father and a political activist, who never tolerated neo-Nazis.

Since then, the anger has grown, as neo-Nazi murders are still on the agenda, and the trivialisation of neo-Nazi violence is still not a rare occurrence. Countless attacks on refugees, on Jewish life in Germany, the NSU terror, the murder of Walter Lübke, the attacks in Halle and Hanau are only the best known examples, which give a rough insight into the dimension of right wing terrorism.

They, and all others who have been murdered by neo-Nazis remind us not to lose sight of an important fight. Anti-fascism was and remains self-evident. Anti-fascism is lived solidarity.

Come to the vigil and rally in Friedrichshain #Hanau #Halle #Baseballschlaegerjahre

A friend of Silvio’s who witnessed the event will report his experiences. Other speakers include Ferat Kocak, the initiative “Dieter Eich” and the young Antifa Prenzlauer Berg, There will be music from Christoph who has dedicated a song to Silvio.

Bring candles and flowers – and your friends!

Sunday, 21st November 3pm. Silvio-Meier-Straße (U-Bhf Samariter Straße)

Who was Silvio Meier?

Silvio Meier (*1965 in Quedlinburg) was already engaged in left-wing groups outside the State in the DDR. On the evangelical church day 1987 he was one of the founders of “Church from Below” (Kirche von unten, KvU). Left groups gathered in the “environmental library” around the Zionskirche in Prenzlaier Berg, Silvio Meier was one of the people who printed illegal “environment leaflets” in the church cellar. This is the same Zionskirche where the first open assault by neo-Nazi skinheads on left oppositionists took place. Two years later, he produced the opposition paper “Morning Star”.

In the “Wendezeit” when the Berlin fall fell, Silvio Meier and other Berlin-Friedrichshainer from the KvU formed the “Happy Friedrichshainer peace friends”. This group squatted one of the first houses in East Berlin in December 1989 – Schreinerstraße 47 in North Friedrichshain. Silvio Meier and some other squatters from Schreinerstraße worked in an alternative print shop.