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The Politics of the Olympics

The Games in Milan and Cortina have again shown that geopolitics and capitalism are inherent parts of global sports

Andrei Belibou
24/02/2026

As filmmakers and actors were facing a barrage of questions in Berlin about the politics of art and cinematography, a similar debate was taking place about the politics of sports. The 25th edition of the Winter Olympic Games in Milan and Cortina ended on Sunday, on the same day as the Berlinale. As always, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) claimed to toe the line of neutrality and to keep politics out of athletics.

To some extent, it succeeded: no huge scandal broke out in the sporting world over the last few weeks, despite the promising start of a penis-enlargement investigation revealed the day before the games began. Still, as one of the world’s largest events, the Winter Olympics inevitably became a staging ground for geopolitics. Heated discussions about war, identity, and colonialism show that a spectacle with nationalism and capitalist profit motives at its core can never be apolitical.

Contested symbols

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy agrees: “Sport shouldn’t mean amnesia,” he wrote on X/Twitter, after the IOC disqualified Ukrainian skeleton athlete Vladyslav Heraskevych over his use of political symbolism. In 2022, Heraskevych had unfolded a “No War in Ukraine” sign at the Beijing Winter Olympics, less than two weeks before the start of the full-scale Russian invasion. In Milan, he chose to honor 24 athletes who had since been killed by Russian forces with a “helmet of remembrance” featuring their photographs.

Heraskevych was allowed to wear the helmet in the training runs, but was barred from wearing it during the actual event. This waffling is not new, but only the latest in a long series of conflicting and unclear decisions from the IOC. The Committee sometimes allows and sometimes bans political symbols with no discernible logic or transparent criteria.

The IOC also chose to put its foot down in the case of Haiti. The Caribbean state sent two athletes to Milan, an achievement hailed by its ambassador to Italy as “a symbol” and “a statement” against “the most dangerous form of erasing.” Erasing, however, is exactly what the IOC forced the Haitian delegation to do.

Their uniforms, designed by Stella Jean, featured a portrait of Toussaint Louverture, painted by Edouard Duval-Carrié. The image of the man who led Haiti’s revolution against French colonialism and enslavement was too much for the IOC, who banned it as a political symbol. Jean chose to have the figure painted over, leaving a potent symbol on the uniforms: a riderless horse.

The IOC’s decision to censor Haiti’s anticolonial heritage comes shortly after the celebration of a diversity win. The 2026 Winter Olympics are organized by the IOC’s first woman president and first African president: Kirsty Coventry, a white swimmer from Zimbabwe. Beyond the politics of representation, her election was, as with all other leadership decisions involving this degree of money and power, a spectacle of politicking and wealth that has little to do with the Committee’s purported lofty goals.

Who’s in and who’s out

Coventry began her tenure by diving right into one of the thorniest issues of today’s global sports. Shortly before the beginning of the Winter Olympics, she restated the IOC’s commitment to “sport as a neutral ground.” The stage so set, she then sent a clear signal that Russia would soon be readmitted to IOC competitions, echoing Gianni Infantino’s explicit promise to do so in the case of the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA).

Russia has been banned from the Olympics since 2023, following a previous ban due to a major doping scandal. The measure, however, comes with embedded workarounds, workarounds that had not been available in the case of the ban on apartheid South Africa. Both in Paris in 2024 and at this year’s Winter Olympics, Russians and Belarusians can compete as so-called Individual Neutral Athletes (AIN).

AINs do not run under their country’s flag and are individually vetted by the IOC to confirm their political correctness in relation to the invasion of Ukraine. Still, while the fig leaf stood more solid in 2024, it barely covered anything in 2026. Russia openly supported the AINs it sent to Milan, despite some high-level sporting figures in the country condemning them as “traitors.” TV commentators, in their turn, referred to AINs as Russians with few qualms about geopolitics.

One commentator who did take a political stance was Swiss RTS correspondent Stefan Renna. Covering a bobsleigh event, he chose not to provide any sporting commentary during the Israeli team’s turn. Instead, he offered a rundown of athlete Adam Edelman’s support for the Gaza genocide, questioning the fairness of his being allowed to participate. Although the moment went viral, RTS pulled the recording from its website.

Renna is far from the only one wondering why Israel is allowed at the Olympics. Milan saw numerous protests against the country’s participation, from booing to banners. Still, the IOC holds fast to its double standards. Although Israel killed over 800 Palestinian athletes and sporting officials in Gaza, the IOC claims that it has not yet crossed the same red line as Russia: it has not unilaterally absorbed any foreign sporting organizational bodies.

Save a few administrative hurdles, soon not even this will matter anymore, as both the Olympics and the FIFA World Cup will likely feature Russia and Belarus. The IOC and FIFA form a common front with regard to Israel and Gaza, as well. Israel has encountered no issues participating in football competitions, and FIFA president Gianni Infantino made a proud showing of support at the opening of Donald Trump’s “Board of Peace.”

Coventry claimed that she was not aware of Infantino’s participation in the farcical plan to “rebuild” Gaza, but lauded FIFA for its “comprehensive sport recovery investment programme.” As for the IOC, it will not lag behind: Coventry claims that its own “development vehicle,” named “Olympic Solidarity,” will be oriented toward Gaza.

Identity geopolitics

It was the United States, and not Russia or Israel, that took up most of the political bandwidth at the Winter Olympics. Across the Atlantic, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) has been militarily occupying US cities, kidnapping people on the streets, and murdering protesters. The announcement that ICE would provide some sort of security support to the team of the Milan Olympics caused outrage in Italy and internationally, and led to a new round of boos against US Vice President JD Vance.

Athletes also did not keep quiet. Many members of the US delegation used the global platform of the Games to express political opinions and admittedly mild critiques of the American Government. Still, some of them caught flak from the highest levels. Freestyle skier Hunter Hess, who made public his “mixed feelings” caused by representing the United States, was called a “real loser” by Donald Trump himself.

The most intense discussions surrounded figure skater Alysa Liu and freestyle skier Eileen Gu (or Gu Ailing). The two have quite a lot in common: they were both born in California to one white American parent and one Chinese parent. They are both extremely accomplished athletes and 2026 gold medallists. They are both internet sweethearts. Yet, while Liu competes under the US flag, Gu has chosen to represent China.

The 2022 Winter Olympics, which took place in Beijing, already brought the geopolitics of China’s global rise to the fore. In 2026, Americans dealt with this rise by minutely analyzing and criticizing the identities and behaviors of these two young athletes. The biographies and choices of Liu and Gu quickly became two diverging models for Chinese Americans’ choices in a world marked by geopolitical rivalry.

Liu’s success made her a model of the good immigrant in the eyes of the US right. It did help that her father was a 1989 dissident who was allegedly approached by (and who rebuffed) Chinese spies before his daughter’s first trip to China for the 2022 Olympics. Even the House Republicans posted on Twitter/X celebrating her gold medal.

The fact that Liu is one of the US athletes who criticized ICE and the US administration did not faze them. Her politics, her alternative looks, and her rather individual approach to the demands of elite athleticism will not stop Republicans from claiming her as their own. As the conservative magazine National Review writes, Americans should look beyond the culture wars and embrace a good old story of hard work and success. Despite her “typical woke Gen Z girl” persona, Liu embodies “the American spirit of both self-determination and creativity.”

Gu, on the other hand, is a traitor. So says JD Vance himself, who singled her out as the ungrateful type of minority. Having benefited from American education and training, her choice to represent China comes as a defection to the enemy. Even those who do not accuse her of treason always make sure to throw in caveats. Gu has criticized US politics, but never the human rights abuses in China. Gu’s family does not have the same dissident credentials as Liu. Gu has never made it clear how she can compete for China, which does not allow double citizenship.

The first comment on the National Review article about Liu starts with a confession: “I have to Google them to know Alysa Liu from Eileen Gu.” Still, this one internet user unapologetically takes sides: “I’ll root for Alysa to win, and I’ll root for Eileen to lose….to anyone.” This is the perfect distillation of the crass identity politics playing out in these discussions. Liu and Gu are erased as individuals with complex life stories by people who see migrants or non-white Americans as interchangeable vessels for their political grievances and geopolitical anxieties.

It will only get worse

The two Chinese-American athletes were not the only sign of much larger issues at the Milan-Cortina Olympics. As with every edition of the game, in summer or in winter, the Olympics went way over the initial estimated budget. Milan spent money that it did not have on an infrastructure that disturbed its city fabric, and that will become obsolete as soon as the Paralympic Games end in March.

Jules Boykoff, who has studied the politics and economics of the Olympics, calls this “celebration capitalism.” The money that goes into events such as the one in Italy comes from the workers and the impoverished in the events’ locations and goes into the pockets of corrupt officials and multinational corporations. Even athletes do not financially benefit from the Games, as they receive much less than in other international competitions. As the bill for the Olympics gets higher, the organizers are looking more and more toward financial markets.

The next editions do not look promising, either geopolitically or economically. After the FIFA World Cup this year, the 2028 Summer Olympics will also take place in the US, in Los Angeles. Both events raise concerns about the safety of fans and athletes travelling to what becomes more of a police state every day, and about the legitimacy and reputation that this will offer the US. And, of course, Los Angeles will have to spend money that it does not have on a project that will lead to the displacement and repression of its infamously high homeless population.

The 2034 Winter Olympics will also take place in the US, in Salt Lake City, for a cost that is already estimated at $200 billion. If Kai Wegner has his way, Berlin might also have to foot a similarly high bill, as CDU pushes for the German capital to host the Games in 2036, 2040, or 2044. As campaigners against the application have pointed out, this is money that Berlin does not have in a time of budget cuts in education, social services, and culture. But it is also a huge political symbol that should raise more eyebrows than an athlete choosing to compete for China, as 2036 would be the hundredth anniversary of the Games organized by Adolf Hitler.

Why even pretend?

The prospect of a ridiculously expensive, Nazi-reminiscent edition of the Games in Berlin makes it clear that the Olympics intersect money with the politics of nationalism. This is nowhere more visible than in the organization of the Olympics, and of similar global and regional sporting events, along the lines of nation-states. Exceptions exist, some dubious, like the AINs, some more laudable, like the Refugee Olympic Team. But the vast majority of athletes have to compete under a flag.

Nationality in sports is, of course, flexible, sometimes to the extent of revealing the sham. At the 2026 Winter Games, no sport made this more obvious than figure skating. One choreographer went viral for being caught on camera hurriedly changing jackets of different national teams to keep up with all of the athletes he works with. The task was not easy, as the choreographer was on the staff of 16 athletes from 13 countries.

The skaters themselves seem to be similarly little bound by loyalty to their countries. The sport is infamous for Russian-born athletes who participate as representatives of other national teams, but also for skaters simply shopping around for partners and funding. One athlete born in Michigan represented Lithuania in Milan, after competing under the Georgian and Israeli flags in the past. It is natural then to wonder not only whether nationalities matter, but simply why we still pretend that they do.

The political discussions about the Winter Olympics show both how the nation-state continues to structure sport, but also how it restricts events and athletes’ actions. US athletes make statements against ICE and then win medals that add to the States’ tally and celebrate with the American flag. Choices about what nationality to compete under are either accepted as normal or become the subject of geopolitical scandals. Aggressor states participate or not in the Games based on powerplays and financial interests.

The Olympics try to walk a thin line of “nationalism without politics.” Insofar as many of us still tune in to the Games and feel some joy when athletes from our country win, they succeed. But the arbitrariness of their decisions and the impact that they have on political discourses and national economies give the lie to the IOC’s ambitions. As long as nations and governments continue to be an inherent part of sport, so will politics.

Ukraine Still Stands

As Russia’s full-scale war on Ukraine enters its fifth year on February 24, the Ukraine Solidarity Network (US) calls on progressive and peace-minded people to renew their moral, political, and material support for the people of Ukraine in their resistance to Russia’s invasion and their rights to self-defense and self-determination.

Ukraine Solidarity Network US

We must remember Ukraine even as we struggle against so many other outrages that rightly demand our attention: the US-backed genocide in Gaza, US military strikes on Venezuela, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Nigeria, and small civilian boats in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean, and the Trump administration’s assault on immigrants, health, the environment, and social and democratic rights.

Massive Casualties

Russia’s war of aggression has been as deadly as any war in the world over the last four years. Since Russia’s full-scale invasion began on February 24, 2022, battlefield casualties (killed, wounded, missing) reached an estimated 1.8 million by the end of 2025, including 1.2 million Russians and 600,000 Ukrainians. The battlefield death toll alone is estimated at around 460,000 combatants – 325,000 Russians and 140,000 Ukrainians.

In addition to battlefield casualties, civilian casualties in Ukraine have reached over 53,000, including over 14,500 killed. The civilian death rate in Ukraine rose 31% in 2025 as Russia escalated its terrorist tactics of targeting civilian homes and energy infrastructure far from frontline battlefields with missile and drone strikes.

Russia’s constant offensives on the frontlines have been sending Russian soldiers to their deaths at a rate of 1,000 or more a day for the last two years. At around 30,000 per month, twice as many Russian soldiers are dying in Ukraine every month as the nearly 15,000 who died in all of Russia’s 10-year war in Afghanistan in the 1980s.

The horrors in Ukraine join the horrors of other wars and associated hunger and disease ravaging our planet over the last four years in Palestine, Sudan, Myanmar, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. People struggling for peace and democracy in all of these countries deserve our active solidarity.

A Stalemated War

Contrary to the Kremlin narrative of inevitable Russian victory, Ukraine has fought Russia to a standstill. In the first year of the war in 2022, Ukraine recovered nearly half of the land that Russia occupied in its initial offensive, pushing Russia out of the northern regions of Kyiv, Chernihiv, Sumy, and most of Kharkiv and much of Kherson in the south. Since then, the frontlines have been largely frozen. Despite enormous losses of personnel and materiel, Russia has gained only 1.5% of Ukrainian territory in the last three years.

Russia’s rulers are afflicting their people with an endless war not of their own choosing. Russia has now been attacking Ukraine longer than it took the Soviet Union to push the Hitler’s Nazi army back to Berlin in World War II.

Russia’s war finances are in trouble. Oil and gas revenues, 30% to 50% of Russian state revenues over the last decade, dropped by nearly 50% in 2025 to a five-year low. Ukrainian “kinetic sanctions” have hit Russian oil refineries, ports, and tankers, and have combined with declining global oil prices and western sanctions to begin to defund Russia’s war machine. Russia’s 2025 military budget was 40% of its national budget, which means that stronger sanctions might cripple Russia’s military.

Unspeakable War Crimes

The war crimes committed by Russia are unspeakable. In March 2023, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Commissioner for Children’s Rights, Maria Llova-Belova, for the war crime of abducting tens of thousands of Ukrainian children to Russia for Russified and militarized education. The ICC has issued further arrest warrants for four top Russian military commanders for the war crime of bombing civilians. Russian air strike terrorism on civilian homes and energy infrastructure in Ukraine has increased since these ICC arrest warrants were issued.

In an ominous escalation, Russian has been striking substations that feed power into the cooling systems of nuclear power stations since November and most recently earlier this February, risking a deadly Chornobyl-scale meltdown and radiation release.

Russia is training its drone operators on “human safaris” that target Ukrainian civilians in Kherson. One in twenty people remaining in the city of Kherson were a casualty of Russian drones in 2025.

In the occupied territories, Ukrainians are subjected to political repression and forced Russification. If they refuse to take Russian passports, they are denied access to public services and banking. Children are often taken from parents who want to remain Ukrainian and their homes and property are being confiscated. Many are subject to detention and interrogation, forced conscription into Russia’s army, torture, sexual violence, and/or summary execution.

The Trump-Putin Alliance

The Trump administration policy has allied with Russia against Ukraine in its actions and negotiation posture. Since the Trump administration came into office, military aid to Ukraine has been cut by 99%. It cut all humanitarian aid to Ukraine shortly after taking office for education, healthcare, shelter, heat and power, war-displaced persons, HIV drugs, mental health services for war-distressed children, families, and veterans, and other services. In December, the US restored a token $2 billion of the former $63 billion USAID budget for humanitarian aid programs that is now being spent through UN programs trying to aid Ukraine and other war-torn countries like Palestine, Syria, Yemen, Myanmar, Ethiopia, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Also immediately upon taking office, the Trump administration closed US Justice Department programs to monitor and enforce sanctions against Russian frozen assets, influence operations in the US, and other sanctions against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine. Trump defunded US programs to document Russian war crimes, including cooperation with the International Center for the Prosecution of the Crime of Aggression Against Ukraine and the Yale Humanitarian Research Lab, which had identified and documented some 35,000 Ukrainian children forcibly abducted by Russia.

After repeatedly voting for UN General Assembly resolutions since Russia’s full-scale invasion began on February 24, 2022 that affirmed Ukraine’s sovereignty and demanded that Russia halt its military operations and withdraw back to Russia, in February 2025, the US reversed course under the Trump administration on the third anniversary of Russia’s full-scale war on Ukraine. The US, and its satellites including Israel, voted with Russia against a similar resolution condemning Russia’s invasion and demanding that Russian troops withdraw.

While Trump still allows Europeans to buy weapons they can send on to Ukraine, US shipment delays have left crucial Ukrainian air defense missile launchers without missiles to fire against incoming Russian missiles in recent weeks.

Trump’s alliance with Putin is rooted in their far-right ideological affinity for a world of imperial spheres of influence, authoritarian rule, and racist, misogynistic, and homophobic “traditional values.” Grifters on both sides have been bargaining to partition Ukraine between them like a piece of real estate. The Russian side has been led by Kirill Dmitriev, a Stanford and Harvard trained veteran of McKinsey and Goldman Sachs who runs Russia’s sovereign wealth fund and 15 years ago scammed purchasers of apartments in a building development in Kyiv out of their investments. On the US side are Steve Witkoff, Jared Kushner, and Donald Trump, all long engaged in money laundering the real estate investments of Russian oligarchs and other Russia business ties.

Russia is now pitching Trump’s team on a $14 trillion business deal that is contingent on the US forcing Ukraine to accept Russia’s negotiation demands. It would involve lifting Western sanctions on Russia, joint arctic oil and gas exploitation, Russia returning to the dollar-based payments system, preferential US access to the Russian market, compensation for US corporate assets lost in Russia during the war, US aid for Russian aircraft modernization, joint mining of lithium, copper, nickel, and platinum, and cooperation on nuclear power plants to power AI data centers. All of this scheming is being conducted behind the backs of the Ukrainians.

Negotiations on the DimWit Plan

In the Trump-sponsored negotiations, the US has pressured Ukraine to capitulate to Russia under what has been dubbed the DimWit Plan (after Russian negotiator Dmitriev and US negotiator Witkoff). Russia demands that Ukraine cede occupied land in Crimea, plus land Russia does not control in partially-occupied Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson provinces. Furthermore, Russia demands deep cuts in Ukraine’s military, no international security guarantees for Ukraine, and snap elections in hopes of seating a new Ukrainian government that will become a Russian vassal.

President Zelensky has indicated a reluctant willingness to compromise on a ceasefire and freeze at the current frontlines and forgo joining NATO – but if and only if Ukraine receives credible international security guarantees against further Russian aggression. The Ukrainian public seems to agree.

Despite Ukraine’s openness to compromise and Russia’s intransigence, President Trump repeatedly says Putin wants peace and Zelensky is the obstacle. Trump’s year of negotiations has been the deadliest year yet in the war for both Ukrainian civilians and Russia’s predominantly poor and ethnic minority soldiers.

Campist Contradictions

The Trump-Putin alliance puts to rest the false proxy war narrative of those campist geopoliticians and privileged pacifists on the Western left who are far away from the Russian assault troops, missiles, and drones raining down terror on Ukraine.

The campists have claimed that Ukraine is merely a proxy force fighting Russia on behalf of Western imperialism as if the Ukrainians do not have their own reasons to fight for their right to exist. The proxy war claim was always a canard. With Trump now aligning the US with Putin, the narrative collapses on its own contractions. It is more absurd than ever.

As Artem Chapeye, the Ukrainian writer, progressive activist, and now soldier explained to an American audience last August, “If this is a proxy war between Russia and US, why are the Ukrainians still fighting after the Trump-Putin alliance?”

Ukrainian Self-Determination

The Ukraine Solidarity Network totally supports the Ukrainian struggle for self-defense, security, and self-determination – as do most American people by a strong two to one margin in recent polling. It is up to the Ukrainians to democratically decide what is an acceptable peace. We will not stand by while Russian and American oligarchs try to sell out Ukraine and divide it between them for their own profits and far-right ideological objectives.

We will continue our material aid and public education in coordination with trade unions and progressive organizations in Ukraine.

We will continue to work with progressive Ukrainians and Russians and support their demands:

Full and complete withdrawal of Russian troops from all of Ukraine..
International support for the armed and unarmed resistance of Ukrainians against the Russian invasion.
International economic sanctions against Russia’s war machinery, including its political, military, and economic elite, its access to the international financial system, its imports of weapons-related technology, and its exports of fossil fuels that fund and fuel Russia’s war machine.*
Return to Ukraine of tens of thousands of Ukrainian children forcibly transferred to Russia and Belarus.
Freedom for the tens of thousands of Ukrainian civilians in Russian-occupied territories incarcerated for opposition to the occupation and resistance to genocidal Russification.
Freedom for all Russians incarcerated for war resistance and political dissent.
Asylum in countries abroad for Ukrainians, Russians, Belorussians, Palestinians, Sudanese, Haitians, Venezuelans, Afghans, and all people seeking refuge from political repression and war.
No amnesty for Russian war criminals.
Cancellation of Ukraine’s foreign debts.
Confiscation of Russian assets abroad to be used to support Ukraine’s military self-defense, social services, and post-war reconstruction.
Reparations from Russia to help fund a full post-war reconstruction of Ukraine.
An end to the Western imperialist policy of imposing a neoliberal program of privatization, deregulation, debt dependence, exploitative mineral extraction, and cuts to public services and labor rights on Ukraine today and for its post-war reconstruction.

* The question of sanctions is complicated and controversial among activists committed to Ukraine’s struggle. It’s especially important in the US that we do not accept the predatory politics of the imperialist US state. The Ukraine Solidarity Network will be discussing these issues with our Ukrainian comrades whose lives and national freedom are on the line.

Cold weather aid in Berlin NOW

Translation of a statement by Unterschlupf e.V.

Unterschlupf e.V.
23/02/2026

Kältehilfe in Berlin JETZT, image of a tent on the street in Berlin

To: the Senate of Berlin, Bürgermeister Kai Wegner and Senatorin Cansel Kiziltepe

Cold weather aid in Berlin NOW

Started by Unterschlupf e.V.

For weeks now Berlin has been experiencing extreme sub-zero temperatures as low as –15 °C. For many people, these temperatures are an inconvenience—for unhoused people, they are life-threatening.

Welfare organisations and voluntary initiatives are stretched thin, but their current capacity is nowhere near sufficient. Currently, there are only around 1,300 emergency overnight accommodations for more than 6,000 unhoused people in Berlin. Many people are left vulnerable on the streets where freezing to death is a real danger.

Our demands:

Immediate urgent assistance, especially in cases of subzero temperatures. This includes, among other things:

City-wide expansion of shelter capacity and warm spaces (in gym halls, vacant buildings, etc.) which are low-threshold and open round-the-clock
Massive expansion of mobile assistance services (Wärmebusse, medical care, blankets, warm meals), that are available 24/7*
Free public transport tickets for unhoused people during periods of extreme temperatures
A central emergency call and coordination centre for cold weather aid, available 24/7

Development of a mandatory emergency strategy for extreme weather. We cannot rely on short-term measures, because there will be other extreme winters and heatwaves in the future. We demand the development of a clear mandatory emergency strategy for freezing temperatures and other extreme weather conditions. This strategy must:

Automatically take effect when the temperature reaches a predetermined limit
Guarantee adequate shelters and assistance, and finance these in the long-term
Be developed in collaboration with social services and aid organisations

Berlin needs a solid crisis plan—we cannot continue improvising

*Current mobile assistance is only available between midnight and 2am, even though help is crucially needed in the early morning hours.

Initial signatories:

Schlafplatzorga Berlin
Human Love Helfer*innen
Kali feminists

Why is this important?

In Berlin it is estimated that there are currently several thousand people with no fixed address, around 6,000 of which are officially unhoused—often without secure access to shelters or regular accommodation. This number only includes official recorded cases; the real numbers are higher, because many people experience “hidden homelessness” or are excluded from official numbers.

As a daytime shelter for unhoused women*, every day at Unterschlupf we witness the existential effects of the cold on our guests/visitors/service users. Refuges like ours, but also emergency shelters like Berliner Kältehilfe (Berlin Cold Weather Aid), warm centers, and mobile warm buses save lives. The risk of dying from the cold increases dramatically without aid like this—extreme freezing temperatures can lead to life-threatening hypothermia within hours.

Local solidarity is essential, but it is not a substitute for the government organising and funding effective safety nets for the people. In a press release in January 2026, Senatorin Kiziltepe promised that “whoever needs a bed will be provided with one”. We are taking her at her word, and we call on the Berlin Senate to finally take definitive political measures to guarantee immediate, comprehensive, and low-threshhold care for unhoused people in Berlin. For this to work, the Senate must have a structured, proactive plan to prepare for future extreme weather events.

At the same time, we must be clear that homelessness doesn’t happen by accident—it is a political choice. The fact that people are at risk of freezing to death in an affluent city like Berlin is a result of policy. In recent decades, housing and social policy such as cuts to social housing, surging rents, ongoing housing speculation, and inadequate rent controls, have led to a considerable increase in the number of unhoused people in Berlin. This number is predicted to rise by tens of thousands by 2029 if no structural measures are put into place.

Our petition calls for immediate safeguards and the development of a mandatory emergency strategy. Both are crucial components of urban policy, which also guarantees affordable housing and social security for all.

About Unterschlupf e.V.: a shelter for all women*

Unterschlupf (https://unterschlupf-kreuzberg.de/) is a day shelter in Berlin-Kreuzberg, that offers more than 40 women* the opportunity to find peace and quiet after a night on the street; to shower, to change into fresh clothes, to eat something and to be with others. Our shelter is a place where women* can feel safe, beyond the precarity of the streets. Unterschlupf is essential to those who visit it—it is a home for them.

Translated by Ciara Bowen

Far-right fascist offensive across France

The Right’s response to the death of a young fascist and the need for a counter-attack

John Mullen

After the regrettable death of a young fascist, Quentin Deranque, in a street fight in Lyon, the Right is hoping to use the situation to destroy the France Insoumise (France in Revolt, FI), the main organization of the radical Left, even if that means giving a huge boost to the fascists.

On Saturday 21 February, in the city of Lyon, three thousand fascist activists from across France marched “in honour of” their martyr, Deranque, after a commemorative mass. At the front was the “feminist-nationalist” group, Némésis, as well as well-known leaders of banned Nazi organizations, such as the openly antisemitic Oeuvre française (The French Cause). “Wake up, white people!” they chanted. Black passers-by were insulted, and Nazi salutes were performed. The government authorized the march despite the request of the ecologist mayor of the town to have it banned. A few anti-fascists gathered in the town centre behind a banner “Love is stronger than hate: stop fascism”, while mainstream conservative leader, Laurent Wauquiez, a well-known islamophobe, had a huge portrait of Deranque displayed on the front of the regional government headquarters.

Elsewhere, in Bordeaux, upwards of a hundred neo-Nazis congregated behind the banner of a Celtic cross, while, in Rennes, a counterdemonstration behind a banner, “We shed no tears for Nazis,” aimed to disrupt a planned fascist gathering of around a hundred people.

The death of 23-year-old Quentin Deranque—experienced streetfighter and leading member of multiple local fascist and antisemitic organizations—has been the catalyst for a surge of far-right attacks nationwide. Deranque succumbed to injuries sustained during street fighting between neo-Nazi and anti-fascist gangs on 12 February. These clashes were premeditated by the fascists, who arrived armed with pepper spray, motorcycle helmets and metal crutches. They were accompanying a provocative demonstration from the “feminist nationalist” network, Némésis, which was protesting against a university lecture on Palestine by France Insoumise Member of Parliament Rima Hassan.

The lecture took place a few hundred yards from the fighting. Although there was no contact between the fascists and the FI stewards, the Right has blamed the France Insoumise for the death. One of the parliamentary assistants of an FI MP, who was present, has been charged with “encouraging” the killing.

In the following week, FI offices were vandalized by fascists in Paris, Lyon, Lille, Metz, Rouen, Castres, Bordeaux, Toulouse and Montpellier. A mosque in Lyon, a Communist Party office in Saint-Pierre-des-Corps and several trade union and immigration association premises were also attacked. Slogans and Celtic crosses were painted, and windows broken. FI activists everywhere have been told not to travel to leaflettings or meetings on their own.

This far-right violence is an intensification of an existing trend. In recent years, attacks by the far right have been reported every month. In Lyon recently, a radical bookshop was vandalized for organizing a talk on Palestine, and lesbian pride meetings were attacked. Last week in Paris, six fascists stormed the offices of a Turkish workers’ organization, while Celtic crosses were daubed around the University of Tours.

Le Pen’s party, the National Rally (RN), is determined to capitalize on the situation. Its president, Jordan Bardella, claims the party has no links whatsoever with the neo-Nazi groups, and told RN members to stay away from this week’s demonstrations. RN leaders are invited on all the news channels to “explain” that the threat to democracy today comes from the Left. RN member of parliament, Laurent Jacobelli, declared, “the far Left is the new fascism”, while one RN parliamentary assistant posted on social media that he “was dreaming of four deaths”, naming leading figures of the France Insoumise.

Macron’s government, far more worried about the radical Left than about fascism, organized a minute’s silence in parliament for Deranque, and is encouraging the campaign against the FI. Bruno Retailleau, hard-right Macronist, demanded that the FI expel the MP who had employed the activist accused of involvement in the violence. Other mainstream conservative MPs have demanded that all parties, including the far-right, unite against the FI at election time. As readers can imagine, these politicians, shocked to the core by the violence in Lyon, are practically all enthusiastic supporters of genocide in Gaza.

The Left

The Socialist Party (PS) is divided on how to react. Many PS leaders are exploiting the situation to justify having propped up Macron’s austerity government for the last 18 months, arguing that any alliance with the France Insoumise would threaten the peace of the nation. One PS leader insisted that the FI was “morally responsible” for the death of Deranque.

The situation has served as a wake-up call, though, for much of the radical and revolutionary left, which has not generally been quick to defend the France Insoumise from the huge smear campaigns against it. The three most influential groups (New Anticapitalist Party, NPA-A and NPA-R, and Lutte Ouvrière) all put out statements in support of the FI. Locally, even some sections of the Socialist Party expressed solidarity, though the national bureau of the Communist Party expressed no such support.

Municipal elections

The local elections in France take place in two rounds on 15 and 22 March. Despite having 118 MPs, the National Rally—with its fascist core—holds a majority on only two local councils among the 279 towns with a population of over 30 000, and they have only 840 local councillors nationwide. This is partly because local elections depend on solid local activist and cultural networks, where the RN remains weak. Additionally, the rather complex two-round system relies heavily on forming alliances for the second round. While most of the traditional Right has not wanted to openly ally with the fascists, the section that is happy to do so is growing rapidly. The RN is hoping for big gains in these elections.

On our side, the France Insoumise is only ten years old. At the last municipal elections, in 2020, it won fewer than a dozen mayorships, and a couple of thousand council seats. We hope to move forward significantly this year—the second-round agreements with other sections of the Left will be a key, and controversial, factor.

Increasing political polarization, and crumbling support for the social-liberal PS, Macron, and the traditional right, mean that the FI and the RN are becoming the central poles of French politics.

It is important to keep a cool head. We are not in 1934, when tens of thousands of members of fascist leagues tried to storm the French parliament and overthrow the Third Republic. Le Pen’s organization did not dare to allow its leaders to attend the fascist rallies this week, and they are still concentrating on the electoral path.

The counterattack

The broadest left coalition for anti-fascist action is required to counter the strengthening of fascism. Small groups of young men fighting neo-Nazi gangs in the streets are not the solution, and can easily do more harm than good. We are certainly opposed to killing political enemies in street fights.

In this new context, the already planned march “against racism, against fascism and against state violence” on 14 March, coordinated by the Marche des solidarités, a broad coalition of left and migrant groups, and supported by the France Insoumise, is more important than ever.

But much more is needed. Mobilizations against the National Rally are common in France, but they are usually local and sometimes short-lived; though supported by the radical and revolutionary Left, they are rarely made a top priority. Recent actions show the potential: a debate with RN candidates at Amiens university last November was cancelled after an antifascist picket; in December, we saw rallies against neo-Nazi Headquarters in Bar-le Duc; and recent pickets have targeted the RN in Niort. On 22 February, there was a rally and concert against the far right in Marseille. What is really needed is a national mass campaign specifically focussed on stopping the RN from building, through consistent campaigning and harassment.

If 2025 saw state-sponsored militia conducting anti-migrant pogroms in Minneapolis, but not in Marseille or Bordeaux, it is largely because of the magnificent anti-fascist mobilization during the 2024 parliamentary election campaign in France. While opinion polls predicted a fascist government, the RN were pushed back into third place in numbers of MPs won. Nevertheless, this was only a tactical victory; Le Pen’s organization is more dangerous each year.

“We are antifascists and we are proud to be so. No-one will make us bow our heads,” declared Mathilde Panot, leader of the FI parliamentary group this weekend. The fight against fascism must be ramped up very considerably in the next few months.

John Mullen is a Marxist activist in the Paris region and is on the France Insoumise slate for the local elections. His website is randombolshevik.org

A report on a humanitarian trip in Pavlohrad and Sumy, Ukraine

Notes from a small group of activists from Dresden during a solidarity trip to Ukraine – Part One

Anarchist Network Dresden
22/02/2026

Van driving down an empty highway. The road signs have been painted over.

At the end of October 2025, a small group of activists from Dresden—members of Anarchist Black Cross, malobeo, FAU and Queer Pride—set out on a solidarity trip to Ukraine. We packed a van full of materials collected in Dresden and hit the road, not just to deliver supplies, but to connect with people and collectives who, in their own ways, are resisting the Russian full-scale invasion. Our goal was also to learn and to listen to those living through the war, to exchange stories and experiences, and to weave stronger networks of solidarity.

On a weekend, we left Kyiv at 6 a.m. in a convoy to head to the humanitarian trip we planned to support. It is organized by Oksana from Solidarity Collectives. She is responsible for the humanitarian work of the organization. She is nearly permanently on the road, establishing contacts to grassroot initiatives in the regions near the frontline or evacuating animals from abandoned villages and towns. The perfectly renovated motorway stops after some hours of driving, roads get bumpier, smaller. We drive through villages and towns with high apartment blocks, pass Dnipro to come to Pavlohrad, a town of about 100,000 inhabitants, shaped by its omnipresent mining sector. The trip takes about nine hours.

We arrive at a small house with an outdoor toilet and a few people standing around the yard—displaced families, some fleeing war for the second time, many of them coming from Dobropillia or other mining towns in Donetsk region. Olha, the woman who is organizing humanitarian aid here in town, opens her yard and garage for organizing support.

We unload the cars—duvets, pillows, mini ovens, microwaves, kettles, pet food, toys, power banks, kitchen utensils, electric heaters—things we gathered in Dresden or bought in Kyiv. People from the area come to help, and soon a human chain forms; everyone is willing to take part. Afterward, people line up to collect what they need while Olha and others organize the distribution. She kneels on the ground, dividing dog and cat food from large sacks into the small bags people have brought with them.

Woman kneeling by large dog food bags, seen through the open door of a shed

A group of people wait at the door the shed for supplies.

Olha has been volunteering since 2014, originally supporting soldiers on the front line. After the beginning of the full-scale invasion, her work shifted towards the support of refugees. In Dobropillia, she had an office and worked together with different initiatives, among them Solidarity Collectives. But as the Russian army started to heavily hit the town with guided bombs in August 2025, she had to flee herself. She took refuge in Pavlohrad where her husband got offered a job at the local mine. They rented and renovated a small house on their own cost, as she emphasizes, even though their only source of income is the husband’s salary. Meanwhile, she tries to adapt to the changed conditions and continue her voluntary work.

Two people stand by a small table covered in snacks and refreshments.

It’s getting dark. In the garden, they’ve set a table with biscuits, fruits, tea, and coffee. We stand around chatting. Some speak Russian, others Ukrainian. A few words in English. Nodding. Many people here are organized with the Independent Miner’s Union of Ukraine. They tell us about how the work in the mines has changed due to the war, how they continue to fight for higher wages and better working conditions but also how they collect donations for union members fighting right now on the front line. One man, a local miner, helps displaced people to find work at the local mines. Another shows us a still from the film 20 Days in Mariupol, pointing at the building which is just hit by artillery: “That was my balcony,” he says quietly. He lost everything and doubts that he will get any kind of compensation, even if the war ends. He wears a headlamp, and we can see only the light and our shadows on the ground as we stand in the backyard, sipping tea.

Another man’s phone plays the sound of running water—it’s his notification tone for air alerts. He starts calling somebody, obviously getting nervous. In the distance, we hear Shahed drones. Someone says they sound like motorcycles from afar. Then comes a deep, booming bass from the air defense system. The drone is shot down.

We drive to Poltava, where we booked hotel rooms for the night, but halfway there, the Solidarity Collective’s car hits a deep pothole and destroys two tires. We spend hours searching for someone to carry the car to a garage which could get it fixed before next morning. After dozens of phone calls and asking around we are successful. Shortly before the curfew starts, we arrive at our hotel.

In the morning, we continue to Sumy, a city of about 250,000, only thirty kilometers from the front line. We pass through areas which were occupied during the first months of the war. Road signs are sprayed over—to confuse the Russians, someone says. Billboards hang torn or replaced with army recruitment posters and food advertisement.

At a gas station several kilometers before Sumy, our Ukrainian friends remind us to keep two tourniquets each in case of bleeding. “If you see a Shahed drone, park under a tree,” one says. “And if you see us running—run too.” With a weird feeling in our bellies, we pass by destroyed bridges, newly-built trenches and checkpoints to finally reach Sumy.

We’re met by Anja, who helps us find a parking spot and leads us through a small alley. A woman in a stylish jacket passes by with two little warmly dressed dogs. We end up in a café, full of spider and spiderweb decorations and scary jack-o-lantern pumpkins. The time slows down. It’s her café, she took it over from people who decided to leave the city. She invites us in for a free coffee. Thirty kilometers from the front line, she offers plant-based milk and cream, and she serves us a Halloween-themed drink called a Spooky. In this café, they offer free coffee for soldiers. Visitors can donate the cost of a drink and leave a post-it note with a message to lift the soldiers’ spirits

Woman stands behind the counter of a coffee shop

Anja pulls out her phone and shows us photos of herself and other women from Sumy at shooting practice. They receive training in tactical medical aid and how to use a gun from a former army officer. During the day, she also works as a doctor. She keeps herself busy and helps her community in every way she can.

We deliver the donations to a former student’s dormitory now housing elderly refugees from the east. In the common room, pink and white balloons scatter around the floor like a birthday party has just taken place there. People move slowly, some with walkers. Some invite us into their rooms to tell their stories. Most of the people come from small villages near the Russian border which got completely destroyed. Many have already lived in the dormitory for over a year.

We talk to an elderly couple, Volodymyr and Tamara, whose daughter was killed in a shelling attack. Tamara did heavy work all her live, working in a mine and loading and unloading freight trains, in order to provide a home for her children. But all of that is gone now. They say that they are already old and probably won’t live long enough to see the end of the war, and they only hope to not die under shelling or while hiding from bombing in a basement.

Svetlana tells us about how she made it out of Mariupol. After the beginning of the invasion, she had to spend one month in the city, in a hell on earth, as she puts it. There was permanent bombing and shelling, apart from one hour a day, maybe the lunchtime of the Russian soldiers. She saw how quarters which Russian soldiers previously directed them to for evacuation were bombed. In her flat, the doors and kitchen were destroyed by shelling. She and her mother-in-law survived by hiding near the elevator shaft. As she moved through the city to find a way out, she saw corpses lying behind partition walls which read to the front russkiy mir—the Russian world. “Yes,” she says, “that’s the Russian world, only blood, death, and corpses.” After making it to Berdyansk, an occupied city west of Mariupol, she finally got evacuated by the Red Cross. On the way the bus passed 34 checkpoints and one each of them all men were searched and got their telephones checked. Svetlana tells us how, during the time in Mariupol, her brain switched on some kind of protective mechanism. How she used to stare for days at the wall not moving. How she started crying for days just after being rescued and fell into a deep depression, unsure if she wants to continue to live or not.

In these stories, the horror of the war hits us hard, we find it hard to leave our new acquaintances behind, but we have to leave before it gets evening and another night of aerial attacks begins. While the sun settles in a red and dramatic sunset, we drive back to Kyiv.

These were long and short days at once, full of contradictions. Moments when people say, “Everything’s fine,” even as exhaustion shows on their faces, and moments when you sip a Halloween coffee latte while worrying about drones suddenly appearing over your head. Times when you feel intensively the proximity of war and times when you almost forget about it. Listening to the stories of displaced people, hearing about their murdered relatives and friends, and seeing the material consequences this war has caused, it’s hard to not feel enraged at how moralizing and judgmental some Western leftists can be. Our full solidarity goes to everyone living through this war and to the ones who continue to resist.

For their protection, we have changed people’s names. Part 2 of this article will be published on TheLeftBerlin.com soon.