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The sinnlose Symbolpolitik of Greta Thunberg

Greta’s activism cuts through the apathy of our political elite.


13/06/2025

A lot of my life is spent arguing with people in an exercise of vanity. Occasionally, it yields some fruitful advancement of my intellect which I hope to share with you. 

Greta Thunberg has been making waves, literally, by her participation in the naval expedition to symbolically break the siege of Gaza. A German friend, erstwhile supporter of the Green party, and I have been arguing about the Middle East and Greta’s advocacy of Palestinian humanity clashing with the German Green movement. My friend feels alienated from Greta, having started out very much as a fan while I have gone the opposite way, gradually having become a Greta stan. One point of the discussion has been stuck in my mind: my friend believes that Greta’s activism has devolved into sinnlose Symbolpolitik. 

I think this is a point worth dissecting. It gets to the heart of the disagreement between people of the more radical flank like myself and those who, despite being, in principle, in favour of the same outcomes, disagree tactically and on certain fine points of principle. I think, unlike the Trotskyist approach of denouncing people as not real *insert example of No True Scotsman Fallacy*, we have to try to get through to people who profess a sincere belief in the desirability of the same objectives. 

Fundamentally, the question is not of whether sinnlose Symbolpolitik exists–it clearly does–but rather who gets to declare something as such and on what basis. ALL politics is symbolism. Why is it Bündnis90/Die Grünen and not just Die Grünen? Why does the SPD use red rosettes and the colour red, while the CDU goes with Black and the CSU with light blue? What does it mean when Markus Söder and Friedrich Merz go to Oktoberfest and tell people in the beer tent that the people in the tent represent the “real” Germany as opposed to the people in, for example, Neukölln? Is this not a fine epitome of sinnlose Symbolpolitik? 

I don’t think my friend would disagree, but–and it’s a big but–why is it that Greta Thunberg’s participation in a life-endangering voyage to provide literal physical aid to a starving population, in clear defiance of the most militarised society on Earth’s genocidal assault on Gaza, referred to as Symbolpolitik? On the surface it is the opposite of symbolic, especially if she manages to throw even one sack of flour to a starving Gazan. It is very much a physical, material act.

Let me get blunt. Greta Thunberg is on that boat because she is an effective human shield. The simple calculation is that the Israeli state will have to murder or molest the most prominent young activist, who also happens to look like the eurocentric ideal. Her presence on that boat manages to concentrate the attention of the world on that boat so as to prevent the disastrous murder of a previous group of activists who tried to do something similar in 2010 leading to the murder of 10 activists. Here, the symbolism becomes a rich seam for us to mine. Greta Thunberg is continuing and honouring the legacy of activists who gave their lives for the cause of Palestinian liberation from Zionist barbarity. 

Her tactical role is to garner attention–a literal commodity in today’s information saturated world. She is acting as a human shield in much the same way Israel uses Palestinians but accuses Hamas of always doing. The universalist ideals of the Enlightenment have today been so thoroughly eroded that we need a 22 year-old woman, who started her climate activism before turning 15, to symbolically help break the siege of a population experiencing the worst man-made hunger crisis in modern history; a siege enacted by a state that reflexively instrumentalises the memory of the Holocaust to rationalise its perpetration of another holocaust. 

From Alex de Waal’s essay on famine in Gaza from May 2025.

There is indeed a lot of Symbolpolitik at play, none of it sinnlos. What is sinnlos is the hollow acknowledgement of wrongs that a series of German politicians are always expressing concern about, but never doing anything materially to prevent, never actually pulling the levers which they guard but never actuate. Herein, lies the true explanation of the deployment of the term.

All the acts of peaceful political resistance, all the appeals to morality and international law, which political leaders and economic elites fail to adequately respond to, fail to properly engage with, and wish to disparage as illegitimate–these are all acts of sinnlose Symbolpolitik. What is truly senseless is their apathy, their vulgar denials of wrongdoing, their reactionary accusations of bigotry levelled at people of conscience, their unwavering MATERIAL support of a regime that will sacrifice millions of innocent lives and Jewish morality itself in order to preserve the rabid fantasy of an ethno-state. 


One must question who files the charge of senseless symbolic politics, from which position, and to what effect. Is it some journalist in a cushy job at Süddeutsche Zeitung writing from the comfort of their holiday home in Sylt or a politician from their podium in the Bundestag. If these charges are being advanced by people in positions of authority, people with credentials and platforms as well as the power to affect people’s lives, then it is merely a pithy insult lobbed by people with a guilty conscience. 
It is the Neubauers of the world who have chosen to take a vow of silence or disingenuous complicity – they will die in the dustbin of history – but Greta will live forever. She will live in the hearts of people like myself, in the global majority that resolutely supports Palestinians and recognises the evil of the Zionist regime. Greta chose to take a walk on part in the war while the Neubauers took the lead role in their gilded cages. In difficult moments of my life, moments that all of us will face when the environmental catastrophe unleashed by militarism finally comes home to roost, my spirit will be nourished by Greta’s bravery. Nobody will remember the cowards and the traitors who were elevated to prominence for their good deeds at one point in their lives and were then hypnotised by the allure of this very prominence into the impotence of sinnlose Symbolpolitik. Greta Thunberg has shown that though we mortals are indeed fallible and prone to the allures of glamour and adulation, there is nothing inevitable about it. Our crushing ordinariness is no impediment to the manifestation of the heroism that all human beings possess within them.

Red Flag: An angry young woman defies a naval blockade

In his weekly column, Nathaniel Flakin praises Greta Thunberg and her “PR stunt”


Greta Thunberg 2024

On Tuesday, an “angry young woman” got off a plane in Paris. That is how Donald Trump referred to Greta Thunberg. Always a match for misogynist bullies, the 22-year-old climate activist responded: “Well, I think the world needs a lot more young angry women, to be honest. Especially with everything going on right now.”

Thunberg and 11 other activists had been on the sailing ship Madleen, trying to bring humanitarian aid to Gaza, when their ship was captured in international waters, some 200 kilometers from Gaza. They were taken to Israel against their will — and for good measure, they were charged with entering the country illegally! While Thunberg and three others were deported immediately, eight remain in custody.

Western media reported that the ship had been “captured” or “intercepted.” Yet when the Houthis do the same thing off the coast of Yemen, these same media talk about “piracy” or “terrorism.” As Thunberg put it in a video, this was an act of kidnapping in international waters. After 20 months of genocide, killing well over 60,000 people with complete impunity, Israel didn’t even feel compunction about snatching a French Palestinian member of the European Parliament, Rima Hassan.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry tried to make light of the “selfie yacht” — ignoring the fact that Israeli soldiers continue to post selfies and TikToks of themselves committing war crimes. Yet they immediately attempted their own PR stunt, filming themselves handing a pastrami sandwich to a vegan. This is not just deeply offensive (one recently released prisoner of Hamas reported that he was primarily able to keep kosher) but also a sign of the deep war psychosis in much of Israeli society, who apparently perceive the sandwich photo op as a PR win.

Absolutely Nothing

But even as they accused Thunberg of seeking attention for herself, she focused on Gaza. Asked about the conditions of her detention, she said they were “absolutely nothing compared to what people are going through in Palestine and especially Gaza right now.”

A reporter asked Thunberg why “so many countries’ governments around the world are just ignoring what is happening in Gaza.” She replied:

Because of racism. That’s the simple answer. Racism and basically desperately trying to defend a destructive, deadly system that systematically puts short-term economic profit and maximizes geopolitical power over the well-being of humans and the planet.

The Israeli government points out that the amount of aid on the ship was indeed “tiny.” But this is because a previous ship organized by the Gaza Freedom Flotilla was attacked by drones near Malta last month. Israel has blocked all supplies from Gaza since March 2, deliberately starving two million people while they are bombarded and concentrated. Actual humanitarian agencies are not allowed into the besieged territory. Instead, food is being sent in via U.S. mercenaries cynically calling themselves the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. At these so-called aid sites, hundreds of Palestinians have been killed and wounded.

Both sides realized that if the ship had reached Gaza, the blockade would have been impossible to maintain. That’s why thousands are trying to break the siege by land right now.

The Connections

Just about the only supporters of Israeli piracy were the Trump Administration and especially German media, who denounced Thunberg’s “staged event.”

The liberal media loved the young activist just five years ago when she called for serious action against climate change — remember Person of the Year in 2019? However, these same elites felt betrayed when she started drawing connections, showing how environmental destruction is caused by capitalism. Since she began speaking up about the genocide in Gaza, liberals have viciously attacked her.

Thunberg speaks for a generation of people who are radicalizing. In the rebellion against Gestapo-style ICE raids in Los Angeles, young people are waving not only Mexican but also Palestinian flags. They realize that ICE and the IDF train together, two groups of armed thugs in defense of global capitalism.

Seven years ago, Thunberg launched a global youth movement called Fridays for Future. Some of its leading activists have launched lucrative careers as Green Party politicians and professional NGO “activists.” But many others are serious about saving the planet from climate apocalypse — and this means fighting against capitalism rather than trying to change it from the inside.

Just a few years ago, Thunberg approvingly quoted the idea that “Ending fossil capitalism doesn’t mean we have to implement socialism,” referring to the battle of systems as an “unimaginative 20th-century debate.” In the meantime, she has clearly realized that capitalism remains our main enemy in the 21st century, and a radical break with this system is necessary.

Israel has given yet another display of its depravity, mobilizing military forces to stop a young woman transporting rice, baby formula, and hygiene products to starving people. This is what it does to citizens of imperialist countries with the world watching — the brutality against poor people in Gaza defies the imagination. Thunberg will continue to be a face of youth radicalization, inspiring many more angry young women.

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

Declaration of Self-Indictment for Views Relevant to Secret Service Observation

Statement in solidarity with the Jewish Voice for a Just Peace in the Middle East and Palestine Speaks and all BDS supporters


11/06/2025

The German government just released the Verfassungsschutzbericht 2024 (report from the Office for the Protection of the Constitution) which contained the following passage:

“BDS-affiliated groups or groups that support the movement and its demands often took part in anti-Israel gatherings. They also intensified their demands for an end to the alleged ‘Israeli apartheid’ as well as their calls for a boycott of companies and goods related to Israel. Some of these groups are now assessed as confirmed extremist efforts. This is the result and conclusion of the previous examination of the BDS movement as a suspected case.

To be named here are ‘BDS-Berlin’ and ‘BDS-Bonn’ as well as the group ‘Jewish Voice for a Just Peace in the Middle East e.V.’ (‘Jewish Voice’). Jewish Voice is a section of the federation European Jews for a Just Peace (EJJP) and has existed in Germany since 2007…

The same applies to the group ‘Palestine Speaks’ which was founded in Berlin following the resolution ‘Resolutely confront the BDS movement––[to] fight antisemitism’ adopted by the German Bundestag on 17th May, 2019.”

In summary, the German state has declared that BDS groups, the Jewish Voice for a Just Peace and Palestine Speaks are now being considered as “confirmed extremist efforts.” As a response, an alliance calling itself “the people” issued the following statement.

source

Photo Gallery – That was Summer Camp 2025

Haus des Wandels Steinhöfel, 7th – 8th June 2025


Stop ReArm Europe campaign

An internationalist convergence


10/06/2025

On June 21st in The Hague the heads of government of the NATO countries will meet to decide in detail how much to spend on weapons production and with what money. 

The EU has already invited the states to “develop educational and awareness-raising programs, especially for young people, aimed at improving knowledge and facilitating debates on security, defence and the importance of the armed forces …”. The meeting most likely will set the tone for the Atlantic allies’ war mongering plans, specifically to reallocate these immense resources through draconian social budget cuts. 

On that same week and specifically on June 21st in all the capitals, networks of associations, committees, pacifist and political groups converge together to protest against it. The Stop Rearm EU European campaign will soon launch the dates of June 21st to the 29th as a week of agitation all over the continent. An international converging date is planned at The Hague on June 21st with a counter international forum.

Stop ReArm Europe is an international campaign started by various civil society and political groups which so far in Italy and Spain alone counts more than 600 associations, groups and political parties. Focused on anti militarism and the European commission politics of rearming and war, the campaign is autonomously organised in each city, place, country and it’s a great chance to converge under a main common issue.

The Concept for the Deterrence and Defense of the Euro Atlantic (DDA), conceived and implemented by the North American think tank The Heritage Foundation, serves as a guideline for the Nato allies’ capabilities to operate in peace, crisis and war. The relative peace dividend of the EU countries which went into social and civil infrastructure is down to about zero thanks to the U.S.A. and allies’ plans. “Confronting a deteriorating security environment” is the main propeller for such national, international and abroad plans. 

Such claims translate into locally locking into the discipline, the order, and the authority of the ruling classes over the rest of society. 

In the words of Simon Weil on deterrence: “What is defined as national security is a chimerical condition: in which a country would preserve the possibility of making war by denying it to all others” (Reflections On War, 1933-1943).

Authoritarianism and warmongering clearly go hand in hand, as we can see in Italy with the DL Sicurezza a securitarian law that heavily criminalises social conflict in any shape and form, and which just passed by a process of pre-imposed trusting votes by the government, while not been discussed at all in the parliament.

Similarly, we witness in Germany various dubious resolutions aimed at ethnically discriminating and repressing specific members of the population. The current chancellor is implementing the militarisation of the locomotive industry as for the Rheinmetall case. The remilitarisation of German society is felt in the abnormous violent repression against the peaceful pro Palestine movement as well as towards the dissent for the ruling class from the radical left. Meanwhile dissent expressed by the radical right and nazis is often left untouched.

In Italy and Spain, it is clear to the participants and supporters of the campaign that to be for peace is to be anti-militarist, anti-NATO, anti-fascist, anti-colonial, and anti-genocide. In the North of Europe especially in Germany these intersectional and internationalist issues don’t always go together.

The recently organised national dissent campaign No DL Sicurezza in Italy has brought together different generations and a variety of groups rarely seen in the last 5 years. Old school 70+ years old internationalists, whether feminists or autonomous insurgents, are sharing knowledge and organisational practices. 50+ years old people from the ‘no global’ movement at the turn of the millennia are sharing tactics with the 20+ and 30+ year olds of the XR and LGBT+ movements, supporting the 40+ years old workers of the GKN factory worker’s strike in Campo Bisenzio, and updating language and awareness with the massive NUDM transfeminist movement.

Berlin has an even richer chance to converge to include the many international struggles and experiences of the Palestinian, Kurdish and Syrian diaspora, the Arab Spring and Occupy assemblies of the 2010s, the recent and traditional Latin American grassroots movements, dissident Israelis, the former Yugoslavian Non Alignment heritage of the Balkans and so on.

Any form of fascism, capitalism and patriarchy supporting a genocide will generate more domination, violence, repression and censorship based politics everywhere, unless it is opposed, delegitimised and stopped. It is crucial to include the issues of freedom for Palestine, and the responsibilities for the genocide happening in Gaza, the wars in Sudan and in Congo, in the core of these bottom up European based movements to internationally organise and coordinate resistance based on anti militarisation, anti-fascism and freedom from war, exploitation and colonisation economies. 

Most importantly, we must remember that war itself is the exact opposite of solidarity, sustainability, equality and the growth of civil and social rights towards the commons, which define societies living in just peace and foster liberation for all.

Stop ReArm EU and the dates around June 21st are a great opportunity to organise and converge in Berlin to continue and expand the antimilitarist protests that started (again) with the Welfare not Weapons demo at Gesundbrunnen last May.