The Left Berlin News & Comment

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Palästina Kampagne (Palestine Campaign)

Campaign for the basic democratic rights of freedom of opinion and assembly. For Palestine Solidarity


01/11/2023


The Palästina Kampagne (PK) was first founded as Nakba75 in response to Berlin’s banning of Nakba Day commemorations in 2022, which led to a series of arrests. It has since reformed itself as a campaign to increase awareness about Palestine in Berlin, and push back against the growing state repression of Palestine-solidarity. It seeks to counteract the continued expulsion of perspectives for Palestinian liberation in Germany, both in the mainstream discourses and on the German Left.

PK has organised demonstrations, informational events, and soli events for people who have been arrested. This Saturday, it is organising the mass demonstration Free Palestine Will Not Be Cancelled.

PK is active on Instagram, Twitter, and linktree.

Women*, Life, Freedom Collective

Autonomous Feminist Grassroot Supporting Jina’s Revolution


25/10/2023

The transnational collective Women*, Life, Freedom is a group of feminists, independent citizens, artists, and activists from the diaspora with an intersectional vision. As a grassroots movement, we want to unmask racist, ethnic, religious, sexual, and gender-specific oppression and class discrimination, and to curb them through educational work.

The collective tries to uncover and fight the crimes that have been sustained for decades and are still growing – the corruption, the cronyism and the destruction of the environment. These are crimes that the Iranian dictatorship has established with violence on the back of the life and suffering of the people who live in Iran. We see our mission as supporting and strengthening the resistance in Iran, establishing transnational unity and solidarity.

From 27-29 October, the Women*, Life, Freedom Collective is holding the conference How to Revolution: A Conference on Self Organising in Berlin.

One year has passed since the murder of Jina Amini and the uprising of the people in the name of Jin* Jiyan Azadî. Today we have reached a critical point where we need to reflect and ask ourselves: how do we want to organise ourselves further?

What have we achieved, what has worked and where should we change our strategy? What kind of protests have had an impact? How did we work together and how did we deal with conflicts and weaknesses? How can we strengthen transnational solidarity, fight across borders, mobilise people and achieve our goal – revolution?

Together with other grassroots, movements and collectives around the world, we’d like to invite you to come together to discuss and share our experiences: through participatory exchange we want to learn from each other, grow together and develop new strategies together.

Speakers and initiatives joining us:

  • Ruth Wilson Gilmore (prison abolitionist scholar and organiser)
  • Meysam Al-Mehdi (Labour Organiser)
  • Krankenhausbewegung
  • Interventionistische Linke
  • Kjaar
  • Afgactivist Collective
  • CENÎ – Kurdisches Frauenbüro für Frieden (Kurdish Women’s Office for Peace)
  • Staub zu Glitzer (Dust to Glitter)
  • Bewegungschule (Movement School)
  • European Alternative
  • Bloque Latinoamericano Berlin (Latin American Block Berlin)
  • Mothers of Khavaran
  • AbanFamilies
  • Je-Cocreation

and many other groups and collectives. The conference is independent and will be financed on a donation basis to cover its own costs.

The conference is free and open to everyone. To secure your place, please register at this address.

We are setting up a solidarity fund to assist with travel and accommodation expenses for our guests. If you require financial or personal support to attend the conference in Berlin, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us!

The program will offer simultaneous translation in multiple languages. Please let us know which language(s) you require simultaneous translation for.

Help us Reunite

Help a mom reunite with her son after 4 years


17/10/2023

Hello everyone,

I hope you are well?!

This is a photo of my son and me when I was still in Cameroon.

For 4 years now, I’ve been immigrating to Germany for a better future, leaving my eldest son behind and miss each other a lot. I’ve come to ask you for financial help to buy a plane ticket for my other two children and me to have the privilege of hugging my son in my arms again. Please, I’m counting on you to make this dream of my son and me come true.

Thank you <3

____________________________________________

Hallo tout le monde,

J’espère que vous allez bien?!

Ici c’est une photo de mon fils et moi quand j’étais encore au Cameroun .

Depuis 4 années aujourd’hui j’ai immigré en Allemagne pour un Avenir meilleur laissant dans pays mon fils aîné dont nous nous manquons réciproquement. Je viens de ce fait vers vous solliciter une aide financière pour pourvoir me procurer un billet d’avion mes deux enfants d’ici et moi pour avoir le privilège de serrer encore mon fils dans mes Bras.SVP je compte sur vous pour que ce rêve de mon fils et moi se réalise .

Merci <3

________________________________________________

Hallo alle zusammen,

Ich hoffe, es geht dir gut?!

Dies ist ein Foto von meinem Sohn und mir, als ich noch in Kamerun gelebt habe.

Ich bin heute vor vier Jahren nach Deutschland ausgewandert, um eine bessere Zukunft zu haben, und musste dafür meinen ältesten Sohn zurückgelassen und wir vermissen uns sehr. Ich bitte dich daher um finanzielle Unterstützung, damit ich mir und meinen beiden anderen Kindern ein Flugticket kaufen kann, um meinen Sohn wieder in die Arme schließen zu können. Ich zähle auf dich, damit dieser Traum von meinem Sohn und mir wahr wird.

Danke <3

You can donate to Help us Reunite here.

El Sur Resiste

Global Action on October 12, 2023


11/10/2023

More than two thousand years ago, the war between empires for the acquisition of land, natural resources, and geostrategic trade sites was based on the conquest of territories and the creation of borders. This was always done at the expense of the destruction of cultures and the blood of indigenous peoples.

This history of genocide and plunder, has Europe at its centre, seeking to expand itself to Africa, Asia, and Oceania. Thanks to this massive plundering, the great economic and political powers emerged. They started to compete for power and hegemony in a world under construction, for its borders and trade routes.

This ambition would finance campaigns of “exploration” to all corners of the planet. One of them took place more than 500 years ago, with “the discovery of America, the clash of worlds”. This history was written by the victors, with the blood of millions of murdered indigenous people and the ethnocide of millenary cultures.

At this point in time, the plundering and looting became global, and the main commercial routes of the great capitals were established. This, together with the advance of industry and technology, made historical developments more and more violent, happening simultaneously everywhere in the world.

Here and now, when we talk about NEOCOLONIZATION, we reflect beyond the theory, discourses, and historical debt of the GLOBAL NORTH (these are issues that we must continue to work on individually and collectively). To speak of NEOCOLONIZATION is to speak of the threats and violence happening to all corners of the GLOBAL SOUTH and to MOTHER NATURE. These are destroying our PRESENT and threatening the FUTURE of all of us.

However, this is also a history of resistance. We are the insurrections against pharaohs and kings, we are the revolts against landowners and rulers, we are the guerrillas, the independences, the revolutions, the strikes, the occupations, the recovery of lands, and of course we are also Organization and Autonomy, Cultures and Traditions, Alliances, Networks and Articulations, we are our Ancestries and Territories. We are equal because we are different and among so many differences, there are more things that unite us, than those that divide us.

In order not to forget, to remember, to unite in the face of so much adversity, WE CALL on the Peoples, Communities, Organizations, Collectives, Cooperatives, and all expressions of social movements relating to Indigenous, Peasant, Popular, Anarchist, Feminist, Environmentalist, Human Rights Defenders, Free Media and other struggles, to organize and carry out actions on October 12 in a decentralized, organized and coordinated manner.

  • We demand the end of the dispossession, plunder and destruction of nature and territories by big global capital and corporate states!
  • Stop racism, fascism and imposition of new military and industrial borders, migration is not a crime!
  • Stop violence and repression against social movements, organizations, communities, and peoples defending nature, the future and life itself on the planet!
  • Stop the war of extermination against the ZAPATIST, Kurdish, PALESTINIAN peoples and all the peoples of the GLOBAL SOUTH, who struggle and resist for a dignified human life!
  • Enough of trans-feminicide violence, respect for diversity and gender dissidence!
  • We demand Truth and Justice for those who were disappeared and murdered!
  • Freedom for political prisoners!
  • For housing and a dignified life, stop gentrification and predatory tourism!
  • If they touch one of us, they touch us all!
  • For an anti-patriarchal, anti-capitalist, anti-colonial, anti-racist, anti-racist and anti-imperialist struggle, another system is possible!

THE SOUTH RESISTS! in every corner of the GLOBAL SOUTH!

We call you to stay tuned for information and future communications through the website www.elsurresiste.org.

Harvesting Resilience: Foraging and Guerilla Gardening

A workshop series by Zeren Oruc


04/10/2023


This workshop series gives you the opportunity to rethink your relationship with nature, food, and consumption. You will be able to connect with different people in an exchange of skills, knowledge, and thoughts.

What is this workshop about?

The Harvesting Resilience workshop series is part of a long-term research project focusing on the food-land-culture relationship to examine the impact of our food production and consumption habits on the environment, land degradation, and forms of exploitation. Curated by Zeren Oruc, the project looks at how we eat our land, our cultural and emotional connection to food based on where it’s grown, and less extractivist practices such as the disappearing knowledge of foraging, food banks, gardens, and more.

By using foraging and guerilla gardening in “community gardens” as one of the artistic and curatorial methodologies, the workshops intend to decolonize and reclaim urban landscapes and ecological narratives through the lens of BIPOC and people with migration backgrounds. While tackling mainstream Western environmentalism that dismisses indigenous and migrant knowledge, we want to relearn and share our knowledge in relation to the plant world and form new connections where we feel safe in nature. To facilitate the generation of this intergenerational and intercultural knowledge, we invite participants to join us, along with their elders*, in remapping Berlin’s foraging paths and sharing their experiences.

The workshops will be guided by curator Zeren Oruc, who is revisiting her place in gardening and foraging after relocating to Berlin, and horticulturist, forager, herbalist, and kochende Gärtnerin Lea Nassim Tajbakhsh. On the first day of the workshop, we will go on a guided foraging tour where we get to know each other and share our knowledge. On the second day, we will meet at Oyoun’s community garden for an intimate discussion about food and belonging in nature, and revisit the idea of community gardens through guerilla gardening principles.

*The term “elders” here refers to older individuals who possess wisdom and knowledge to share and are not limited to family. You are welcome to join us with a neighbour or someone you might want to learn from. If you don’t know such a person, join us anyway, maybe you will connect with someone.

Dates:

Saturday, 7th October: 13:00 – 15:00 h (Treptower Park)

Sunday, 8th October: 11:00 h – 14:00 h (Oyoun Garden)

Language: English

Ticket: FREE ADMISSION!

The workshops are open to those who self-identify as BIPOC, and are limited to 10 people. For any questions or inquiries, please contact the curator at zerenoruc(at)gmail.com

Please come prepared for any type of weather conditions with warm/water-resistant shoes and raincoats.

Programme:

DAY 1: Harvesting Resilience: Waving stories through foraging

A guided workshop about the fundamental principles of foraging, local plants, their use, and sharing knowledge and stories. We will meet at Oyoun’s garden for a warm-up conversation and have a foraging walk.

Please come prepared for any type of weather conditions with warm/water-resistant shoes and raincoats. If you would like to collect plants and herbs on the go, we recommend bringing a pair of scissors and a canvas bag or a small container.

DAY 2: Harvesting Resilience: About the gardener

A discussion-based gardening workshop about our rights to green spaces, gardening communities, food, and more. We will meet at Oyoun and use a portion of the garden. Please come prepared for any type of weather conditions with warm/water-resistant shoes and raincoats.