The Left Berlin News & Comment

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Freedom Flotilla Coalition

We sail until Palestine is free

The Left Berlin
04/06/2025

This week, the Gaza Freedom Flotilla set sail from Sicily, with a number of activists including Greta Thunberg. The Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC) is a grassroots people-to-people solidarity movement composed of campaigns and initiatives from different parts of the world, working together to end the illegal Israeli blockade of Gaza.

Our goals are:

To break Israel’s more than 17-year illegal and inhumane blockade of the Gaza Strip, which has not only created an ongoing humanitarian crisis but has deprived Palestinians in Gaza of their right to health, safety, and freedom of movement, among other fundamental human rights.
To educate people around the world about the blockade of Gaza, the unlivable conditions it enforces, and the fact that this colossal human suffering is not a natural catastrophe, but created by political and military choices.
To condemn and publicize the complicity of other governments and global actors in enabling the blockade. Most notably, the US government has underwritten Israel’s violence against Palestinians for decades, funding Israel’s military at the rate of approximately 4 billion dollars every year and using most of its vetos in the UN Security Council in the last three decades to protect Israel from condemnation for its humanitarian crimes and violations of international law.
To respond to the cry from Palestinians and Palestinian organizations in Gaza for solidarity in breaking the blockade. We want to show the people in Gaza that people and organizations around the world stand for and support their struggle for dignity and freedom.

The Freedom Flotilla Coalition came into being in 2010 and guides its work in accordance with the explicit goals and plans of the people in Gaza. Our direct action missions support the dignity and humanity of Palestinians, working with civil society partners, rather than any party, faction or government. Our actions against the blockade are always governed by the principles of non-violence and non-violent resistance.

We respect everyone’s human rights regardless of race, gender, tribe, religion, ethnicity, nationality, citizenship, disability, sexual orientation, or language. Because we respect everyone’s human rights, we stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people in their quest for freedom, equality, and human rights.

There is extensive information about previous Freedom Flotillas here. Previous Freedom Flotilla missions have included: Ship to Gaza Greece, the European Campaign to End the Siege of Gaza, and Miles of Smiles.

In partnership with Forensic Architecture, the FFC has equipped the ship Madleen with a live tracker to ensure safety, accountability, and global solidarity. As she sails to break Israel’s illegal blockade of Gaza, the risk of attack is real. The tracker broadcasts her position in real time, deterring violence, exposing any aggression, and allowing the world to witness this mission of resistance.

Through this collaboration, we are not only increasing transparency, we are building a framework for justice. The tracker transforms a solitary vessel into a globally witnessed journey, making it harder for any violations to occur unnoticed or unchallenged. Follow Madleen. Stay alert. Stand with Palestine. You can follow Madleen in real time here.

The Left Berlin Film Club

Monthly film and discussion – now in a larger venue

The Left Berlin
28/05/2025

The Left Berlin Film Club aims to foster community connections through the collective viewing and critical engagement with political films.

Once a month, we invite a filmmaker for an extended dialogue, or curate a film program that resonates with ongoing concerns and topics of collective inquiry. Our goal is to activate alternative forms of a critical pedagogy and to contribute to an evolving ecology of practices that, as a whole, help us better understand and reflect on our sociopolitical realities.

In this sense, the TLB Film Club is not just another cultural event or a typical art-space screening. Rather, it is a space for engaged learning and for sparking complex dialogues —conversations that have been sidelined, abandoned, or cancelled in mainstream venues.

By embracing the power of images and cinematic forms, we seek to foster a collective critical consciousness from which we can think, imagine, process, and propose together alternative ways of world-making.

Starting in May, The Left Berlin Film Club is moving to a larger venue—Panke Culture in Wedding. The first Event, on Friday 30th May, will include a discussion with a film maker in the West Bank, and show film taken there.

Perma Future

A project of self-sufficiency

The Left Berlin
20/05/2025

Perma Future began because of the necessity to make a life that would have little impact on our Planet: we wanted to fulfill our primary desires for luxury and comforts, only when those were matched with respect and renovation of resources for future generations.

Nowadays we are experts in all-year-round vegetable and fruit growth and preservation, we work the land without using any machinery, and we can feed 100+ families with organic, super tasty, fresh food.

Open, free event for life-passionate people

160+ vegetables don’t plant themselves!

Thanks to @berlinleft we are gathering forces of all people who love nature and need to connect to with it. 🙂

Our farm will open its gates on Saturday, 24th May, and make a collective day full of light-hearted fun, sincere community and humble grounding.

Altogether with regenerative food and a warm sauna… sounds like a good plan? 🙂

DM us or @berlinleft for all details 🙂

See you numerous and happy on Saturday!

Benny and MaVie

Zeit zu reden

Series of talks on political aspects of the Israel-Palestine conflict which demand constructive discussion

The Left Berlin
14/05/2025

Zeit zu reden is a series of discussions on political topics that emerged in response to a public debate that, since October 7, 2023, has been marked by a lack of openness, fear, misinformation, and, at times, defamation and hate speech—whether in politics, the media, or on the streets.

Given a debate culture increasingly shaped by populism and hostility, the goal is to foster knowledge-sharing and nuanced discussions. Sensitive and emotionally charged topics are examined from all angles, but always within a human rights framework.

Despite differing viewpoints, participants share a commitment to the rule of law, democracy, and open dialogue. Zeit zu reden brings together scholars, intellectuals, and experts from diverse backgrounds for in-depth discussions on issues that are difficult to address in the German public sphere. Their expertise helps broaden and deepen the debate, challenging entrenched perspectives while encouraging recognition of alternative viewpoints.

This May marks 80 years since the end of the Second World War. Our focus this month is on Memory Culture, with two upcoming events that explore its meaning and impact today.

May 16 – Zeit zu reden Memory Culture (1): Gaza and German Memory Politics in a Global Context
with Mishra Pankaj & Daniel Marwecki
May 23 – Zeit zu reden Memory Culture (2): What does “Never again is now” mean? featuring Wolfgang Benz, Asal Dardan, Sarah El Bulbeisi & Gerhard Hanloser

Both events are moderated by Kristin Helberg

Location: Hermannstraße 86, 12051 Berlin-Neukölln
Time: 19:00 – 22:00
No registration required—just come early to secure your spot!

Subscribe to our YouTube channel

Disrupt Now

Bike tour: Agriculture in movement

The Left Berlin
07/05/2025

At the end of 2023, when thousands of farmers took to the streets in Germany to protest against cuts to agricultural subsidies, increasing bureaucratisation and pressure from free trade agreements, the focus shifted to an issue that had long been in the background: food and agriculture.

For progressive left-wing movements, this was a moment for reconsideration: should they get involved in this discussion? But the positions of those involved were too different and the topic, which many had previously only known from the supermarket, seemed too complex.

In the background, however, it became clear that increasing deregulation and market exploitation, coupled with a policy based on the Green New Deal and at the same time propaganda from the right against sustainable agricultural changes, puts us in a dilemma. Issues such as food and agriculture seem almost irrelevant in the face of global crises, the rise of the right and the expansion of power by oligarchs such as Trump and Musk. But it is precisely in this situation that the question of a fair and sustainable food system is more urgent than ever.

The Disrupt. initiative is an alliance of anti-capitalist groups who are convinced that there can only be a good life for all beyond the logic of profit and exploitation. Instead of fighting the shift to the right in isolation and later focussing on other issues, Disrupt. sees food as a central element of capitalist crisis management.

The agricultural industry and EU agricultural policy are at the centre of the criticism. They not only promote the exploitation of people and resources, but also exacerbate social and ecological crises. We need a food revolution that puts people first, not profit. At Disrupt. we agree that the current agricultural policy and existing conservative and right-wing structures are a dead end. They support a system of overcrowded animal factories, depleted soils, poisoned water and poor wages. At the expense of the environment, justice and the future.

Bike tour with many questions

But what could a “food revolution” and a sustainable and fair food system look like in concrete terms?

From 7 to 23 May, 2025 we will cycle 1,000 km across Germany. We want to learn, network and find answers. We will visit places of destruction of today and sustainable projects of tomorrow. The tour ends at the “Wesercamp’ in Brake near Bremen, where people are fighting against the expansion of a huge feed import harbour that imports mainly soya from Brazil – another example of the destructive logic of industrial agriculture.

Taking part

On 9 May, the bike tour will be in Berlin. With a project visit to Weltacker e.V., a rally in front of the BMEL and a panel discussion on “Farming Today & Utopias of Tomorrow.”

Information on the route & programme here:

What’s next

The bike tour is just the beginning: ahead of the climate conference in Brazil, we are organising days of action near Bremen from 7 to 13 October as part of an alliance of groups worldwide! We are protesting against global supply chains that exploit people and nature here and worldwide and invite you to join us as we resolutely oppose the agricultural system.