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Month: October 2025

Urgent solidarity needed with militarized rural communities in the Philippines!

Friends of the Filipino People’s call to stand together with Fillipino masses in their struggle against climate imperialism.


19/10/2025

In time for Peasant month, Friends of the Filipino People (FFPS) delegates, and allied organizations and individuals from several countries from around the globe took part in an international learning and solidarity mission (ISM) from October 11-15, in a concrete effort to extend the international community’s solidarity, learn from the Filipino masses their conditions and experiences, and amplify their call to expose and oppose the crimes of the US-backed Marcos administration. 

ISM teams visited several regions emblematic of the issues faced by peasants and indigenous peoples in rural communities in the whole country who experience land-grabbing, displacement, destruction of livelihood in the name of private-and foreign-backed development projects. These communities are at the forefront of the struggle for the defense of the land and against climate imperialism in the Philippines.

Moreover, in these areas, there is clear evidence of a de-facto martial law in existence, where civilian rule has been overpowered by military rule. Farmers and community members are asked to log-in and log-out when going in and out to till their lands, and their belongings are checked. This is in line with the US-Marcos’ National Action Plan for Peace and Development (NAP-UPD) which in reality, aims to end all forms of struggle and dissent against feudalism, bureaucratic capitalism and imperialism.

Even the ISM teams were not spared. From day one, all ISM teams experienced continuous harassment, intimidation and surveillance by state forces. This clearly shows the US-Marcos regime’s attempts to thwart the documentation, which only further implicates the regime and its forces, underscoring that they have a lot to hide.

On the other hand, through the mission, international delegates saw the strength of the organized communities that are waging collective struggles against these injustices, and strengthened their resolve to broaden their solidarity to the Filipino people. 

The ISM’s on-the-ground reports clearly highlight the justness of the different forms of struggles by the Filipino peasantry in the country. And as FFPS we strongly amplify the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP)’s and its allied organization’s position that real change and a just and lasting peace—a people’s peace—can only be brought about through the people’s democratic revolution that fights for national and social liberation.

Call for global actions on October 21 – Peasant day in The Philippines

In this context, FFPS and other Philippine solidarity allies call on the international community to join in global action on the 21st of October, Peasant day in the Philippines, in support of rural communities in the Philippines, their militant mass organizations and the people’s struggles for just and lasting peace.

These solidarity actions will be important to help amplify the findings of the ISM, and the struggles and campaigns of peasants and indigenous peoples in the Philippines. At the same time these are urgent global actions to expose & oppose the US-backed Marcos regime and its crimes.

We encourage organizations and individuals, to at the very minimum, hold propaganda actions and employ other creative means to propagate and ensure media coverage of the situation and amplify the struggles of the Filipino people. For example, through graffiti actions, die-ins, street theatre, and others. At maximum, we would also encourage everyone to hold demonstrations and other protest actions in front of Philippine embassies and consulates in major cities across the world. 

In the Philippines, Peasant day will be marked by huge mobilizations by the rural poor and their class allies. The peasants, farm workers and fisherfolk comprise the majority of the Filipino people. They cultivate the land and produce the majority of the country’s food. However, most do not own the land they till. They suffer the brunt of the violence under the semicolonial and semifeudal system. They face harsh economic repression through predatory land rent demands of landlords, usury, and other forms of feudal exploitation. The landlord class dominates all aspects of society in the countryside through reactionary violence.

Peasants, revolutionary backbone of the Philippine revolution

The dire situation drives many of the rural poor to resist and join the revolutionary armed struggle. As biggest class of Philippine society, the peasants and other rural poor are the primary force of the revolution being waged in the Philippines and of its protracted peoples’ war.

Amidst heavy state repression, the peasants organize resistance and build the people’s revolutionary mass organizations that advance their aspirations for genuine change, step by step. In FFPS’ webinar “Land is Life!” the Pambansang Katipunan ng mga Magsasaka (PKM) —revolutionary mass organizations of peasants—discussed and concretized the current situation and struggles of Filipino revolutionary peasants.

“Amid the onslaught of state terrorism, peasants in the mass base never wither and persistently look for the leadership of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), are eager to recover the affected chapters of the PKM, support the New People’s Army and recover and expand guerrilla fronts in the country.”

The PKM is not just a social club or cooperative, it is a revolutionary vehicle for transforming the countryside and mobilizing the largest class in the Philippine society for revolution. As mass organization, it is built step by step at the village, municipal, district and provincial levels, with the aim to unite the peasant masses to push forward the agrarian revolution and contribute to the wider Philippine peoples’ democratic revolution.

It is the dire conditions of the current system in the Philippines that provides the basis for why so many Filipinos take up arms in revolution. Internationalist efforts such as the ISM are critical for sharing experiences from the oppressed masses, and building solidarity for a sovereign Philippines. They highlight that the Filipino people have the right to fight back against the root problems of Philippine society, imperialism, feudalism and bureaucrat capitalism.

Join us this Peasant month October in supporting the peasantry—the primary force of the Philippine revolution! Join us in global action on the 21st of October! Amplify the findings of the ISM, support the struggles of rural communities in the Philippines and help expose the crimes of the US-Marcos regime!

Friends of the Filipino People in Struggle (FFPS) is a solidarity organization supporting the National Democratic people’s movement in the Philippines.

An alternative to tolerance, equal rights, and rule of law

How a dissatisfied Netherlands is sliding further toward authoritarian capitalism


18/10/2025

Geert Wilders with his hands spread wide as if he is describing something to the camera. He looks like a magician or scam artist.

Democracy is at a turning point worldwide. It is the same in the Netherlands. As a member of the Socialist Party (SP) I am very concerned about the outcome of the coming elections. Last time we had elections, the far-right party, Party for Freedom (PVV), of Geert Wilders won. He will probably win the coming elections as well. I sense a rise of fascism and, maybe even more dangerous, the rise of what Benjamin Netanyahu calls “authoritarian capitalism.” The rise of extremism on the right might be hard to stop due to internal political chaos on which it thrives, a growing discrepancy between the rich and the poor, and the ability to control public opinion digitally. Those factors, in combination with a growing surveillance industry, will likely hinder the creation of a more equal and democratic society across the globe.

The fall

On the third of June 2025, the coalition Schoof—consisting of the PVV, the People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD), the New Social Contract (NSC), and the Farmer-Citizen Movement (BBB)—ceased to exist due to the PVV demanding stronger asylum measures. On 2 July 2024 Dutch politicians decided on an extra-parliamentary government—a form of government which has only existed twice in Dutch history–due to objections to the PVV mainly by the NSC and fears for an endangered constitution by the same. With this extra-parliamentary form, not all members of the coalition have to give their approval for the government program. Although Wilders and his PVV had won the election, there were fundamental objections to him becoming the prime minister. He would be engaged internationally, representing the Netherlands. This was a step too far for most. After 337 days this government came to an end and new elections were necessary.

As for chance to change

The Schoof government did not create much chance to change, so to speak. Simply because it was incredibly divided about everything. The only two subjects on which they could agree were limiting asylum and the status quo on taxes.

Taxes

Taxes mainly stayed untouched with the Schoof government and still do not contribute to solving the growing discrepancy between the rich and the poor. On the contrary. There is no improvement in purchasing power(source Een vandaag.avrotros.nl). Income tax still has a higher percentage than instance wealth tax, with an average ratio of 40% to 32% (source Belastingdiens.nl). The status quo is not at all surprising, because of the political orientation of the political parties involved.

Housing

As for housing, little has changed. In the Netherlands waiting lists for social housing are up to 12 years in some cities. In the Netherlands 653.000 people are on a waiting list (2024). The minister of housing (BBB) decided to solve this by not allowing asylum seekers to be given priority any longer. She perhaps forgot that this would only result in a “surplus” of 154.000 houses, because only 7% max of social housing is used by asylum seekers. Municipalities don’t expect a decline in the length of the waiting list and they are now faced with a new problem: the law obliges them to house asylum seekers, but they can’t do it any longer by granting them social housing.

Healthcare

Healthcare is a huge issue in the Netherlands. In 2004 Hans Hoogervorst (VVD) ministry of healthcare created a new, commercial health care system. Due to market forces the costs of healthcare go up each year. Consequences of this include less people being able to pay for decent dental care. Wages in healthcare jobs remain behind in comparison to commercial jobs. Meanwhile pressure in medical jobs remains high. Ten percent of healthcare workers try to find a job elsewhere. Nothing has changed under Schoof on named subjects.

Where did the Schoof government score?

Many are still very dissatisfied with their economic situation. Except, of course, for the happy few. The often open harassment of minorities by some of the political members of the above parties has created an atmosphere that emboldens people to openly show their slumbering racism, with the sad riots of 20 September in De Hague as a result. In my opinion the utter chaos they created in politics has caused extremism on the right to grow.

Surveillance industry

Since 2019 the Dutch police has been allowed to make use of a facial recognition system. The allowance was granted by minister of justice Yesilgöz  (VVD) in 2019. Before that, the police already used a system called CATCH. But this system only used facial recognition in combination with data on suspects and so called illegal aliens. The police also makes use of technology which can tap phones and extract limited information. Some of these systems are bought from Israeli firms. As yet there is no misuse at a large scale. Although it was pretty surprising to read about police visiting demonstrators to have a “serious conversation.” What will happen next when these systems are used under an elected government of outright far-right extremism?

Democracy

And that is why democracy is under threat. It can only survive when minorities are respected, the rule of law is functioning and free speech and the right to demonstrate is not under surveillance. But most importantly, the income inequality between rich and poor must be brought into balance. This has been, throughout history, the main cause for unrest, the rise of extreme power on the right, and the end of democracy. 

Further readings

  • The Palestine laboratory, Antony Loewenstein
  • Political cleavages and social inequalities, Amory Gethin, Thomas Piketty

My name is Hans Alberts. I live in the vicinity of Zwolle, the Netherlands. I finished a study in history some thirty years ago. Since than I am fascinated by repeating movements in history. My all time favorite writer is Carl von Ossietzky. My strong belief is that there is a materialistic relationship between the choice for democracy/socialism or fascism.

To whom it may concern: Men, history, and rent

Poems confronting power, gender, history, and survival in a collapsing moral and political order


17/10/2025

Poetry for Men

Microplastics are to men what Norway is to whales
#MeToo movement has been to men what ICC has been to Benjamin Netanyahu
Vatican has been to men what Vatican has been to priests
Islam has been to men what oil fields have been to comedy
Pop culture has been to men what Sears Catalog has been to pop culture
Justice has been to men what justice has been to Germany what Germany has been to literature what Germany has been to genocide
I think about Ilya Ehrenburg’s warning about the final victory of fascism
His grave warnings to men are what his idealisms have been to erudite Harvard employees focused on “Major Gifts” at the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies
The fuckers call Ehrenburg “controversial”
The fuckers called Arendt “controversial” too
I think of Joseph Stalin being a man sending the 15 year old son of Andrey Platonov to Siberian gulags
Hitler made a fool of Stalin and Stalin made everyone around him cry and now the UC Berkeley president sent your name–a holy name you chose for yourself after deciding to not kill yourself–to the IDF reserve officers stationed at the White House
You weren’t the only name
You are one of 160, one of 6 million, one of 20 million, one of 67,000 & counting
Man is to Man what Treblinka is to train stations, what Robert McNamara to rice farmer
Geography of man is scattered frozen pieces of charred bodies along Elbe River cutting through Dresden to Gaza’s Al-Basma IVF Centre
I think of Chemistry and all I see are lipstick marks on his armpits
I left them there because I’m attracted to disaster & I want to warn
Fascism is to man what power is to Vatican
Meaning is to man what man is to representations of limit experiences in the 20th century
Man is to poetry Ike to Tina
What I am to now

Rent Increase 2025

Dear Nina,
Our relationship hinges on goodwill, which is why I am asking you to pay me more whenever I ask you and because you get to look at my art every morning when you leave your bedroom to make coffee and hear Henrique’s moaning in the bathroom next to the laundry
Dear Laura,
Per a SF Tenant’s Union counselor, who is notably an old, raspy-voiced, lanky and hot lady in starched cowboy jeans, I don’t have to do anything unless I have a written notice of the rent increase from you or the landlord.
Dear Nina,
I am not comfortable providing you with a written notice of rent increase because I am perennially transparent and an incremental but self-righteous price gouger at that! Don’t you like my print art hanging out over the toilet in the hallway’s bathroom? Don’t you like the 10 square feet blurry oil on canvas of me and my friends next to a camper van hanging out on the other side of your bedroom’s wall? Abbi does not like it which makes it more interesting for you, right? wink wink
Dear Laura,
I am not an anti-Autistic or anti-Semite tenant in this household. I am just a food stamp receiver. That is to say if you don’t provide me with a written notice I would have to suck some cocks in some cars in Bayview or on Cesar Chavez dangerously close to my fave nanny reader farmer‘s apartment to cover the rent increase that you want! Is that what queer white feminism asks for on a random winter-y July day in 2025 during the reign of our most nepo mayor Daniel Lurie?
Dear Nina,
Moving forward, exclude me from these emails and settle this issue with your roommates or there will be late penalty fees. I don’t know Mayor Lurie, however my art hangs in the conference room of his non-profit, Creating Great and Everlasting Positions for Families in Pacific Heights and Beyond.
Dear Laura,
Any late penalty fee needs to be in writing per the Rent Board and I hope you don’t ask me to forge any document because I am not a Polish Jew in hiding in the basement of our sister’s house right outside of Warsaw circa Summer 1942.
Dear Nina,
I need you to move the fuck out or I will hang some more of my art in your bedroom and that’s it. Either that or I will let the lease fall.
Dear Laura,
You make $1000 per month per my estimate. Why would you let the lease fall?!!!

Statement by Ramsis Kilani

The appeal against Ramsis Kilani’s expulsion from Die Linke has been postponed. Here is his personal statement


15/10/2025

The decision of Die Linke’s Federal Arbitration Commission in the appeal proceedings against my expulsion from the party by the Berlin State Arbitration Commission has been postponed until the end of November 2025.

The reason for the delay in the decision was a document submitted at short notice the day before today’s hearing by Katina Schubert and Martin Schirdewan, who had requested my exclusion.

Here is my statement:

Die Linke is postponing the decision at a time when an effective, loud, and internationalist Left is urgently needed. 

Even if the current ceasefire offers the population of Gaza a sigh of relief, Trump’s 20-point plan cannot resolve the root causes of violence in Palestine. Occupation, settlement expansion, apartheid, and oppression continue, as does German support for them. Die Linke will have to continue to confront this reality.

The last-minute introduction of a document containing further allegations into my appeal proceedings, which were supposed to concern my right to fair and statutory treatment, has shifted the focus of the matter under discussion.

Voices in solidarity with Palestine

Although the Federal Arbitration Commission made it clear at the beginning of the hearing that this document could not serve as the basis for the negotiations, I was repeatedly questioned about the new allegations.

In contrast, my response to the reasons for exclusion given by the Berlin State Arbitration Commission, which I objected to, played a subordinate role.

This confirms my impression from the proceedings so far that Katina Schubert and Martin Schirdewan, as members of the reformist wing, will use any means to silence voices of solidarity with Palestine.

First response to new allegations

I will comment in detail on the allegations made, but I’ll say this upfront: Unlike the Berlin State Arbitration Commission, which explicitly did not accuse me of antisemitism, Schubert and Schirdewan are once again attempting to imply that I am antisemitic. I categorically reject this.

Schubert and Schirdewan deny me any solidarity within the party. This is particularly absurd because Katina Schubert had already denied me any solidarity within the party before the trial and attacked me in the press.

Furthermore, Schubert and Schirdewan accuse me of not advocating peaceful conflict resolution and non-violence. This, too, is beyond misleading. Of course, as a socialist, I strive for non-violent conditions in every respect. At the same time, as a leftist, I have a responsibility to identify the structural violence and conditions of oppression that underlie the events of October 7 and the genocide in Gaza. In doing so, I do not fall short of international law, which, in a context of violent occupation and oppression, grants the oppressed the right to resist. This applies to the Palestinians as well as to the Kurds and other oppressed people, even if they do not share my socialist principles. 

The fact that Katina Schubert herself does not stand firmly on the ground of complete non-violence and—in contradiction to the party line—supports arms deliveries to Ukraine, demonstrates the double standards of those who support my expulsion.

Equal rights for all

The real issue is the debate about whether it is possible in a pluralist left-wing party to advocate for a democratic one-state solution that enables equal rights for Jewish and Palestinian people. This is important because I am by no means the only one in the party who shares this position.

I am overwhelmed by the solidarity from broad sections of the party. The demonstration we organized together on September 27 was a milestone in making active solidarity with the Palestinians visible in Germany and exposing the federal government’s unwavering support for the genocide. Ines Schwerdtner’s recognition of the genocide played an important role in this. Let us continue to stand together in solidarity with Palestine.

Berlin, October 11, 2025

This statement originally appeared in German on the Sozialismus von Unten website

Red Flag: A haunted house in support of genocide

In his weekly column, Nathaniel Flakin reports from the Nova festival exhibition at the former Tempelhof Airport.


Photo: Wikimedia Commons, CC licensing, Oleg Yunakov, Nova Festival Exhibit in New York City

It takes a long time to enter the exhibition at the former Tempelhof Airport, even though it’s quite empty just two days after opening. The square in front of the huge Nazi building is fenced off. You have to pass by police officers, security guards, and Hebrew-speaking men in trench coats. Online tickets and photo IDs must be checked before a meticulous screening with a metal detector.

And you still haven’t made it into “Oct 7 06:29am, The Moment the Music Stood Still, The Nova Music Festival Exhibition.” That is the full name of the traveling show that Berlin mayor Kai Wegner (CDU) brought to Berlin for 1.4 million euros. Before entering, you have to watch a five-minute film about the dance festival near the Gaza border, with young people recounting their euphoria. As the sun rises on October 7, the DJ suddenly turns off the music and shouts “Red alarm!”

Only then do you pass through a black curtain into a cavernous, darkened hall full of party lights—the atmosphere is less like a memorial and more like “the Haunted Mansion ride at Disney World,” in the words of Emily Colucci.

A neon sign saying “Restaurant” is barely visible—this was once an airport. But now the space is full of objects that were left behind when fighters from Hamas and other Palestinian groups attacked the festival: tents, Christmas lights, clothing, burned-out cars, and sand on the ground. During the attack, 378 Israelis were killed, including 344 civilians, and 44 were taken prisoner.

Among the curated debris, screens show gruesome scenes captured in shaky cell phone videos. In the darkness—didn’t this all happen in the morning?—there is a cacophony, with people screaming over the techno hit “Glue” by Bicep. Some people were mowed down while cowering in bunkers. How many of them were killed by the Israeli army has not been established, as the Netanyahu government continues to block any independent investigation.

Many of these video and audio clips are well known from traditional and online media. A bulldozer tears down a barbed wire fence as people cheer. Who built this fence, and for what purpose? Who was trapped here? The exhibition not only ignores the context, but actively hides it.

A map shows where dead bodies were found, but a region marked in red on the map has no name. An introductory text refers to the armed fighters as “angels of death,” but there is no attempt to explain what they were fighting and murdering for. As the author Naomi Klein put it, the exhibition, which has already been in several Israeli and U.S. cities, tells a “simple fable of good and evil.” Immersive techniques help visitors slip into the role of victims. As Colucci put it, it’s a “macabre nightmare version of an Instagram museum.”

For Klein, this form of commemoration, which aims to overwhelm rather than provoke reflection, cannot be separated from Israeli politics. Shoes from the Nova festival are laid out on a table—a clear callback to the Auschwitz memorial cannot be missed. If the massacre were indeed a repeat of the Holocaust, then absolutely any reaction would be justified. But was it?

Klein proposes a completely different analogy: “History is crowded with chapters in which Indigenous peoples, starved and immiserated by colonial oppressions, finally rebel, with those rebellions at times including atrocities.”

The attack of October 7 could be compared to the uprising by the Herero in German South-West Africa in 1904, which began when Herero fighters massacred more than 100 German settlers, including women and children. The German government used this to justify the genocide of the Herero and Nama peoples. Any attempt to commemorate these settlers or the German soldiers without mentioning the context, as a politician from the far-right AfD did in Swakopmund, would look suspiciously like genocide denial. 

In an interview in the magazine The Diasporist, Ben Ratskoff, professor of critical theory in Los Angeles, drew attention to a particular difficulty in a German context: “non-Jewish Germans—the beneficiaries of Nazism and the Holocaust—can, through experiencing the exhibition, in fact imagine themselves as a Jewish victim.”

Two politicians from the CDU’s far-right fringe, Wegner and Culture Minister Wolfram Weimer, were present at the opening. Their party was built by Nazi war criminals like Hans Globke. With the help of technology, even they can slip into the role of victims. Thus, responsibility for Antisemitism no longer lies with the Nazi billionaires who fill the CDU’s coffers, but rather with foreign barbarians. Even the Nazi airport can thus be symbolically whitewashed.

The exhibition could have stopped on the afternoon of October 7. But it becomes grotesque when it shows the survivors getting sports therapy and benefit concerts. 

We see the effects of the attack on them—were there no other effects worth mentioning? The Nova festival has been used to justify countless Israeli war crimes, including killing at least 70,000 Palestinians and wounding hundreds of thousands more.

As is always the case with Germany’s Staatsräson, empathy is only offered for certain lives. A wall, stretching for dozens of meters, shows the faces of 378 dead Israelis. How long would a wall need to be to show the faces of over 1,000 Palestinian babies under one year old who have been murdered? How long would a wall for all the victims of the genocide have to be?

The state plans no exhibitions to commemorate Palestinians who have been killed. Quite the opposite: on the day the exhibition opened, Wegner’s police were beating up pro-Palestinian demonstrators. The heavily armed men in black uniforms, brutally assaulting young people, seem almost like “angels of death.” But everything has a political context.

This text was first published in German in nd. It was translated by the author, who made numerous small additions. Nathaniel is currently among the freelancers on strike at The Berliner magazine due to management’s decisions to run ads for the Nova festival exhibition.

Red Flag is a weekly opinion column on Berlin politics that Nathaniel has been writing since 2020. After moving through different homes, it now appears at The Left Berlin.