The Left Berlin News & Comment

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Category: Campaign of the week

Mad and Disability Pride

Celebrate the disabled and mad


06/09/2023

It’s already 10 years of Mad and Disability Pride in Berlin! This year we’ll take to the streets again on September 9, 2023, starting at 3pm from Hermannplatz. We’ll finish with a stage at Südblock at Kottbusser Tor, Admiralstraße 1-2, 10999 Berlin. Spoken contributions will be held in German spoken language and translated to German Sign Language.

The “Disabled and Mad Celebrate” Pride Parade was first organised in 2013 on the initiative of the ak moB and the AK Psychiatriekritik. The current planning plenum is made up of individuals, some of whom are active in the supporting organisations. We aim to ensure that a significant number of the people preparing the parade describe themselves as disabled or mad, or are treated as such. We are self-organised, work without pay, and make decisions together.

We often discuss the question of inclusion in the group. We can start with the premise of organising society so that no one is excluded or faces discrimination. This means that society must change fundamentally. The way in which the word “inclusion” is currently used has little to do with what we mean by it. We reject this superficial inclusion. You can find some more thoughts about this in our 2015 statement

We do not use the word “disabled” as a denigratory term. “Disabled” means that people are excluded, disadvantaged, disabled through social relations. Here are a couple of examples: there are still too few ramps and lifts, too little money for sign-language interpreters, virtually no texts in braille or simple language.

Everyone who recognises themselves in what we are saying is invited to the parade, as is everyone who supports the parade’s statements. Above all, people who are, or feel themselves to be “disabled” or “mad”. As are their supporters, companions and friends.

The route of the Pride Parade 2023 is available as a PDF. On September 9, we start at 15:00 at Hermannplatz. The route is about 1.7 km long, and ends outside Südblock, near Kotbusser Tor.

The parade will take place outdoors, where the likelihood of infecting each other with Corona or other diseases is lower than indoors. Nevertheless, there will be a particularly large number of people from at-risk groups at the parade. Therefore, and in general, IF YOU HAVE SYMPTOMS OF AN AIRBORNE INFECTIOUS DISEASE, PLEASE DO NOT COME TO THE PARADE.

More information is available from our Website.

Sonic Tomorrow

Querying the place and performance of political action and activism within discourses and practices of the sonic arts.


30/08/2023

SONIC TOMORROW is a collective of artists, curators, researchers, and activists seeking to query the place and performance of political action and activism within discourses and practices of sonic arts and experimental musics. Guided by gentle gestures, sensory narratives, and poetic storytelling, the collective centres its practice on collective and participatory listening and sounding experiences that are envisaged as spaces for gathering and reflection.

The collective curates experimental discourse formats, leads workshops, produces work for radio, develops sound installations, and dives into artistic research projects.

On 1st-3rd September 2023, Sonic Tomorrow is organising the event SITUATED ECOLOGIES – sounding ecological entanglements in urban environments. Situated Ecologies weaves together ecology, art and activism, focusing in on the locality of Berlin. Taking place at the Floating University, it aims to become a space for reflection on climate justice and ecological entanglements in urban environments.

Featuring workshops, soundwalks, performances, and collective meals, Situated Ecologies invites artistic and collective constellations to open the space for exchange, storytelling and listening. Focusing on migrant and marginalised perspectives, the three-day festival is envisaged as a gathering of artistic practices and community experiences. Through listening with and sounding urban ecologies, it hopes to expand individual practices into a collective ecosystem, cross-pollinating across diverse communities and spaces.

Register by sending an e-mail to sonictomorrowcollective[at]gmail[dot]com, For latest updates, follow our Instagram @sonictomorrow and click here for event descriptions

Sudan Solidarity Festival for Freedom, Peace and Justice

Music, Dialogue & Support for Sudan. Together for peace!


23/08/2023

Sudan Solidarity Festival for Freedom, Peace and Justice is organized by a group of individuals and associations in solidarity with Sudan, under the patronage of the association “My body belongs to me” (Mein Körper gehört mir e.V.).  

A devastating war has been raging in Sudan since April of this year. Thousands of people have been killed and millions have fled. And that after people overthrew a dictatorship in 2019 in a peaceful revolution under the slogan “Freedom, Peace and Justice”.  

Sudan Solidarity Fest wants to set an example for peace in Sudan by bringing people together and encouraging mutual exchange! With live acts by solidarity musicians from Sudan and Germany, we want to celebrate the courage of the Sudanese who have been opposing the oppressive military for years. Through music, Sudanese food and an arts exhibition, we say it out loud: Stop the war!  

Most importantly, we seek to collect donations on site and through the entrance to support the work of neighborhood initiatives such as resistance committees and grassroots feminist organizations in Sudan.  

Every donation and every visitor counts. If you can’t be there, invite a friend or donate an amount that you can give. Thanks for your support.

Sudan Solidarity Fest for Freedom, Peace and Justice

Saturday, 26. August 2023, 6pm

Festsaal Kreuzberg Am Flutgraben 2

Liefern am Limit

Lieferando – Stalling Tactics? No thanks!


16/08/2023

On 17 August 2023 at 3 pm, the trade union Nahrung-Genuss-Gaststätten (NGG) is calling for a strike at Lieferando in Berlin as part of the Strikers’ Day. Lieferando workers from all over Germany are expected to join the demonstration in front of the Lieferando headquarters in Berlin.

“We asked Lieferando in February for bargaining on a collective agreement. Since then, Lieferando has refused to talk to us. We think that they are just waiting until the public attention dies down. So the couriers take the protest to a place where Lieferando can’t miss it: Directly in front of the headquarters in Berlin,” explains Mark Baumeister, head of the hospitality department at the NGG trade union.

Since 2016 the couriers fight for better working conditions, they demand at least guaranteed 15 €/h, bonus für evening shifts as well as on Sunday and public holiday and 0,50 €/km (net) allowances for drivers and more. 

„Liefern am Limit“ consists of hundreds of drivers and HUB workers at Lieferando, who have joined forces in the trade union NGG.

We want more money and better working conditions for all employees at Lieferando. We  work 365 days a year regardless of the wind or weather conditions, we are always under pressure. Our jobs on the streets are dangerous and hard. But we love our jobs and we deserve respect!  

 You can find out more about the Liefern am Limit campaign in the following places

#liefernamlimit

Cafe Karanfil

Not just a Café. Also a Community meeting place with music, art and culture


09/08/2023

Karanfil means “carnation” in Turkish. In different social contexts, the carnation is a symbol of political resistance and the solidarity of people who rebel together against injustice.

Café Karanfil is a political home, and an idealistic meeting places. It is solidarity with each other.

Here is how you can support Café Karanfil:

  • Regularly visit us with your friends and organisations
  • Visit our public meetings
  • Are you interested in organising a public meeting in our space? (eg concerts, birthday parties, political meetings, readings etc.) Talk to us or write us a message.
  • If you have a couple of extra Euro free, make a monthly donation
  • Advertise us amongst your friends and organisations.

Karanfil was always a meeting place, a safer space for resistances. We hope that our carnation will bloom for you for a long time.

We all need these rooms to meet, to feel safe being politically active, to have fun, and to share our experience.

Where you can find us

Soli fest

We are meeting on Saturday, 10.08.2023 from 7pm in „filmArche e.V.“ for our solidarity party “Karanfil Solifest”!

We want our Karanfil to be the free space for artists and activists as it’s always been. Therefore we invite you to show Solidarity with our Café Karanfil

Concerts, DJs and cold drinks will be waiting for you.

filmArche e.V.

Lahnstraße 25,

12055 Berlin