The Left Berlin News & Comment

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Berlin Peace Conference

Disarmament


24/02/2026

In the German economy, the prevailing mood is tense. The German government is spending hundreds of billions on war production while cutting social programs and healthcare. It demands that we work longer hours and robbing us of our youth. For some of us, these are friends, for others, children or grandchildrenthey all face the same fate: being prepared for war.

In times of crisis, there is no room for peace; in these times, we are supposed to tighten our belts and join the war machine.

But why should we? We gain nothing from their warmongering! We will not participate in this game of more drudgery, suffering, and destruction!

It is time for angerlet us defend peace against the threat of war.

The Berlin Peace Conference is intended to provide a forum for joint discussion, networking, and uniting our efforts for peace.

The Conference takes place between February 27th and March 1st in the City Kino Wedding. Discussion will be in German.

Bake Sale for Palestine

All donations go to Palestine


17/02/2026

The Bake Sale for Palestine is a cozy community event that pops up every few months here in Berlin. What started as a few friends baking together has turned into a heartfelt fundraiser supporting grassroots NGOs in Palestine, like the Gaza Soup Kitchen.

Each edition has its own vibe, sometimes there’s live music or art, always plenty of good company, and, of course, tables full of homemade treats. Sweet or savory, cakes or quiches, these gatherings are a delicious way to connect, chat, and contribute to a good cause.

Our next bake sale is on February 22 from 13:00-19:00 at K-Fetisch, with a special brunch edition running all afternoon. Come by, grab a bite, share a laugh, and help support people in Palestine, one slice at a time.

Palinale

Berlin’s biggest Palestine Film festival


10/02/2026

From 12–22 February 2026, Palinale takes place in Berlin: a film festival born out of the urgent need to resist the repression of Palestine solidarity in Germany and the silence and complicity of many cultural institutions in the ongoing genocide in Palestine. Following last year’s powerful edition—which presented more than 60 films from over 20 countries, 15 political and cultural panels, and numerous exhibitions and performances—Palinale returns this year with a new selection of films, exhibitions, and events amplifying women, queer filmmakers, refugees, and marginalized voices from Palestine and the Global South.

Join us for our opening night on Thursday, 12 February, at 10:00 at Akaoda (Karl-Marx-Platz 16, 12043 Berlin). The evening features the film Fertile Memory, a discussion with Iskandar Abdalla (Artistic Director of ALFILM), as well as live acts and vendors. All proceeds from the evening will be donated to Taawon UK.

You can find our entire program on our Instagram. The festival is free and donation-based to maximize accessibility. Everyone is welcome, regardless of their ability to pay. All films will be in the original language with English subtitles. In the case where a film does not have English subtitles, it will be indicated clearly in our social media communication.

Duterte Panagutin

Network of individuals and organizations in Europe campaigning to hold Rodrigo Duterte accountable for crimes against humanity


03/02/2026

On 21 March 2025, 20 organisations and 14 individuals signed the Statement of Unity on Duterte Panagutin Campaign Network to campaign for the accountability of Rodrigo Duterte for his crimes against humanity. Here is that statement.

We, the undersigned organizations and individuals, stand united in our unwavering commitment to seek truth, justice, and accountability together with the victims of human rights violations which were carried out under the administration of former President Rodrigo Duterte. The sham drug war and Duterte’s war against dissent, which claimed the lives of thousands of Filipinos and left many more orphaned and grieving, continues to haunt our nation. It has disregarded the basic tenets of human rights and justice and deepened the culture of impunity.

We are one with the families and communities that have suffered from the extrajudicial killings and other crimes of Duterte. The pain of losing a loved one to state-sponsored violence is immeasurable. The climate of impunity, made worse by the curtailment of civil liberties and the repeated failure of domestic mechanisms to deliver justice, extends to this day. We thus stand with them in their demand for justice. Their grief is our grief; their struggle, our struggle.

At this critical juncture, we are committed to galvanizing efforts to ensure the prosecution of those responsible for these heinous crimes—no less than former President Rodrigo Roa Duterte himself, and ensuring that justice is rendered to the victims and their families. This fight for justice is a fight for the very future of human rights and democracy in our beloved country.

We call on the government of President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. to take the necessary steps to ensure accountability. We call on the International Criminal Court (ICC) and other international bodies to pursue and expedite their investigations into the extrajudicial killings under the Duterte regime. We demand that the perpetrators face prosecution for their crimes against humanity and violations of international law.

We call upon all Filipinos, especially those who believe in the principles of justice and human dignity, to join us in this fight. The truth cannot be silenced, and justice should not be delayed. Together, we will hold those responsible to account and work toward healing the wounds of our nation.

As one, we demand: Duterte, Panagutin!

Poland Not Safe

No systemic flaws”??? The aftermath of Dublin transfers to Poland


28/01/2026

The long awaited report “No systemic flaws”??? The aftermath of Dublin transfers to Poland will be launched on 29th January 2026, with participation of Polish asylum lawyers and in the presence of survivors of border violence along the Belarus-Poland-Germany flight route (the very chain of violence).

The report exposes systemic flaws in the Polish asylum system focusing on the situation of persons subjected to Dublin “transfers” (deportations) to Poland by Germany. It highlights Poland’s complete suspension of access to asylum for those arriving via Belarus, as well as the systematic and arbitrary detention of asylum-seeking unaccompanied minors of 15+ years old, families with children, pregnant women, persons with disabilities, persons in psychiatric crisis, and other vulnerable groups.

The report has been born out of the stark contrast between the grim asylum reality in Poland for especially the non-European, non-white, non-Christian, and the complete denial of this reality by the German authorities. Poland has been violating fundamental rights of asylum seekers for years, especially since the opening of Belarus-Poland-Germany route in the summer of 2021, while Germany has been playing oblivious to it.

The violence perpetrated by Polish authorities takes place not only at the external EU border with Belarus, causing death and life-long injury to brown- and black-bodied migrants, but also across the country through arbitrary and systematic detention and bureaucratic barbarity that keeps the same people out of asylum procedure thus in a legal limbo and at a direct risk of deportation to the countries they had fled.

Contrary to what had been expected by the civil societies in Poland and Germany, the change of government in Warsaw to a “liberal” one in December 2023 brought only drastic deterioration of the situation for non-European, non-white, non-Christian asylum seekers. In the atmosphere of warmongering against Russia and massive military buildup especially at its border with Belarus, Polandas of 27th March 2025has barred those arriving through this border from access to asylum in the name of countering “instrumentalisation.”

Germany has all the indisputable reasons not to ignore the part of Dublin III Regulation that obliges it not to transfer asylum seekers “to the Member State primarily designated as responsible [when] there are substantial grounds for believing that there are systemic flaws in the asylum procedure and in the reception conditions for applicants in that Member State, resulting in a risk of inhuman or degrading treatment within the meaning of Article 4 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union.” It chooses not to see them.

In fact, Germany’s quiet complicity in Poland’s war on migrants has turned into a full-on participation with the introduction of German pushbacks on the Oder or Zurückweisungen in October 2023. The government in Berlin has become a link in the chain of violence against the people on the move. It was best evidenced when, in July last year, Alexander Dobrindt visited Poland’s border area with Belarus to be shown by his then/at-the-time counterpartTomasz Simoniakhow well Poland has been fortifying this border and protecting itself, Fortress Germany and Fortress Europe from those fleeing conflicts, wars and the genocide elsewhere“the wretched of the earth.”

The launch eventin Englishtakes place on 29th January 2026, 14:00-17:00, at the premises of the Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung, Straße der Pariser Kommune 8A, 10243 Berlin and online. The event contains presentations and discussion on the Suspension of access to asylum & “instrumentalisation“ and on Other systemic flaws and their impact on vulnerable groups.