The Left Berlin News & Comment

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Bizim Kiez

For lively neighbourhoods and a city of solidarity

The Left Berlin
24/03/2022

Bizim means “Our” in Turkish”. So “Bizim Kiez” means “Our Kiez”. Bizim Kiez was formed in 2015 by disgusted neighbours as a protest against the termination of the family fruit and vegetable shop “Bizim Bakkal” in Wrangelkiez in Kreuzberg. Since then, we campaign as a neighbourhood action group against evictions and for the preservation of living Kiezes.

We experience it everyday: rent rises, terminations, conversions of rentals into private property, evictions, luxury modernisations, psycho terror – our neighbourhoods are nothing else but objects of profit for those people who may be called “investors”, but only want to cash up.

We are making pressure against this sell off of the city: with research and public outreach, with practical help and self-help in conflicts with politics, in cooperation with other initiatives, and of course with diverse political activities on the street.

Strengthen neighbourhoods: we support neighbours who have been threatened with eviction, make joint pressure on owners, bring their machinations and methods into the open, support housing communities, for example with questions about pre-purchase rights, share knowledge and experiences with each other. We don’t just discuss, we also design joint materials for actions, cook for our rallies, text songs, or develop ideas with artists. This is how quite different people come together, get to know each other, and see how they can rely on each other.

Make housing politics for renters: We work on the political level, bring in expertise and have already caused public officials and parties to take measures against the speculative real estate industry and the devastation that it causes. Among other things, we demand a ban on converting rented into private property, real higher limits for rent, the removal of the modernisation allocation according to law §559 BGB, measures against speculation in land and property, remunicipalising homes into “new apartments”, and the promotion of management concepts based on the common good.

We therefore also support initiatives to expropriate the big players, such as Deutsche Wohnen AG and others. To solve the housing crisis we need vehement protection of tenants, sustainably financed building of new properties based on need and public welfare, and a radical social reorientation of communal housing companies.

Defend small shops and social institutions: Whether bakers, tailors or Spätis – small shops do not just guarantee the livelihood of many families and thus provide for the neighbourhood. They also give the Kiez its look and give us all meeting places. Tradespeople, and in particular social institutions with commercial leases, like Kitas or clubs for seniors, have been surrendered to the profit-driven arbitrariness of the real industry without protection. This is why, together with others, we are building networks of solidarity for support. We are fighting together for more tenants’ rights, also for small businesses, trades, social and culture.

But we fundamentally reject corporations and chains (Google, Zalando, Factory, wework or Hotels), which just see our Kiezes as a colourful background for their businesses and want to heat up the dynamic of rising prices. This also means the rising commercialisation and touristification with gastro-monoinfrastructure and holiday homes.

Shape the city with solidarity: The city of solidarity of the many is the social alternative to neoliberal madness, which only understands the city as an area for profit. We want more togetherness and more collective decisions. We stand for social justice for all and against racism. We are part of alliances, networks and projects for a democratic development of the city based on human need.

Join us! We are an open initiative with the character of a platform, and working groups based on subjects and projects, in which everyone can get involved in a variety of ways. If your are interested, you are warmly invited to meet us at our monthly meetings.

Meetings: bizim-kiez.de/events
Newsletter: bizim-kiez.de/newsletter
E-Mail: internet@bizim-kiez.de
Facebook: facebook.com/bizimkiez
Twitter: @bizimkiez
Telephone: 030 61789066

Fridays for Future Berlin

25th March Global Climate Strike #PeopleNotProfit

The Left Berlin
17/03/2022

For the tenth time, Fridays for Future Berlin is calling for a global strike. This is while war has broken out in Ukraine. Once more, the situation in Europe shows us that wars and conflicts are financed and fuelled by the use of coal, oil and gas.

As well as an end to the war and taking in refugees, we need an immediate exit from fossil energy sources, along with am exit from energy dependency! Instead of oil and coal from Russia, we must not import the fossil equivalent from other regions of the world. When it comes to human rights abuse, land grabbing and environmental destruction, it doesn’t matter whether gas comes from a Russian pipeline or is fracked in other countries and transported over the ocean. Anywhere where coal, oil and gas is demanded, it ruins livelihoods and doesn’t just plunge our climate into crises!

The new IPPC report once more clearly shows that we need an end to all fossil energies! Our earth is at its limit, the residual budget of CO2 for a maximal global warming of 1.5°C in 7 years has been used up, and the political ambition does not adequately meet what is required. If we carry on like this, the earth will have heated up by 3°-5°C by 2100 and that has terrible consequences. Social crises will be accompanied by further natural catastrophes and regions of the earth will be uninhabitable.

If we want peace and climate justice, our system must therefore change: away from the illusions of permanent green growth and towards a democratic production method which is orientated on planetary limits and human needs. To do this, we must start with ourselves.

We need systemic solutions and this means not just saving energy on our own heating but at Rheinmetall, Heckler&Koch and Vokswagen. We must make socially burdensome, exploitative corporations accountable, as they must respect democracy, justice and planetary limits. The needs of individual profit-orientated corporations must no longer take priority, but the welfare of all people of the world!

For this reason, climate justice activists throughout the world are calling for a global climate strike on 25th March. In Berlin, we are marching from Invalidenpark to the Brandenburger Tor with the demand #PeoplenotProfit! Come along!

Demokratie für Alle (Democracy for All)

Voting rights from 16 and for people without a German passport

The Left Berlin
10/03/2022

Many people are not allowed to vote: they have no German passport, although they have lived in the country for years, or they are under 18. We want to change this – with voting rights from 16 and for everyone.

For many people, access to democratic participation in Berlin is closed. They are not yet 18 years old, or they have no German passport although they’ve lived in the country for years. Participation in referendums is also difficult for many, for example people with mobility impairments.

Our demands

1. Voting age of 16: immediate reduction of the active voting age from 18 to 16 for elections to the Berlin parliament and referendums

Article 39, Paragraph 3 of the Berlin constitution contains the following wording:

“Eligible to vote are all Germans, who on the day of the election have completed the 16^th year of their life and have been living in Berlin for at least three months.”

Young people build the society of tomorrow. Many Berliners are already politically active at 16 years old. But they must still wait until they are 18 before they can vote for the Berlin parliament. In the local elections 2021, many of the larger parties demanded voting rights from 16 in their election programmes. These parties account for 71% of the seats in parliament – enough to write voting age from 16 into the constitution now. Therefore: A voting of age 16 must come immediately, without further delays. Now is the time. Let’s deal with it!

2. Election rights for all: Bundesrat initiative for voting rights for people without German citizenship

Parliament is urged to stand up for a Bundesrat initiative for full active and passive voting rights for all people who have lived in Germany for at least 3 years, on a local, regional and national level and for EU elections .

Over 600,000 people are denied voting rights at local and national elections, as they have no German passport – that is 1 in 5. Berliners without German nationality are also not allowed to support referendums with their signature. The voices of these people must count! We therefore demand voting rights for all people who have lived in Germany for at least 3 years. Democratic participation must not be dependent on nationality.

3. Digital Democracy: Introduction of an electronic voting option for referendums as a supplement to street collections

A regulation should be added to the voting law in which public initiatives and referendums (including the request for a referendum) should include the option of electronic voting in addition to the existing options.

The Corona pandemic has shown that democracy, participation and engagement also take place a thousandfold online! Public initiatives and referendums are an important democratic element of which Berlin is proud. While digitalisation has simplified more procedures in Berlin administration, digital democracy is still exclusively carried out with pen and paper. We say: Democratic participation must also be possible online! A digital signature will never replace registration on paper, but it allows the vote for people who cannot or do not want to sign in the street. For this reason we demand digital signatures for public initiatives and referendums.

The public initiative Demokratie für Alle consist of a broad alliance of civic initiatives and organisation. The public initiative is supported among others by Deutsche Wohnen & Co. enteignen, Expedition Grundeinkommen, Klimaneustart Berlin, Berlin autofrei, Mehr Demokratie e.V., Nicht Ohne uns 14%, Change.org e.V. / innn.it and openPetition.

Representatives:

Samira Ghandour, speaker, Fridays for Future Berlin
Berta Del Ben, activist for Deutsche Wohnen & Co. Enteignen
Raúl Aguayo-Krauthausen, human rights activist and moderator
Miguel Gongóra, former school spokesperson, Berlin
Nora Circosta, Vorständin Change.org e.V. / innn.it

In addition, the following spokespersons have veen elected

Regine Laroche, executive member, Mehr Demokratie Berlin-Brandenburg
Anna Weckert, school student and activist at Klimaneustart Berlin
Sanaz Azimipour, activist, author and co-founder of MigLoom e.V. and the campaign “Nicht ohne Uns 14 Prozent“

Deadline for signatures: 25^th March, 2022

Sharing leads to more signatures.

Inform your family and friends. This helps us collect more signatures!

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Enter your e-mail address here to receive petitions with which you can collect signatures.

Press contact: Mark Appoh presse@demokratiefueralle.de

Demokratie für Alle! Homepage

Host Ukrainians

Finding accommodation for people from the Ukraine fleeing to Germany

The Left Berlin
03/03/2022

It is to be expected that because of the war in Ukraine, many people will leave the country.

For this reason we, Ukrainian Leftists in Germany are trying to find sleeping facilities for them.

If you are prepared to put someone up, please fill out this form. Please also pass it on to people you know.

The data will be saved in a Google form with 2-step authorization. We will only share the contact date for the host (the person who is offering accommodation) with the guest (the person who needs accommodation). In one month after making contact between the host and the guest, we will inform the host that his or data will be removed and ask them to fill in the form again.

The host can withdraw his or her data any time and this request will be met within a week.

If you have further questions, please contact host.ukrainians@gmail.com,

African/Black Community (ABC)

Network of Africans /Black people in Germany

The Left Berlin
24/02/2022

The ABC is a German-wide Afrocentric and Pan-African network of Organisations and individual activists. It is run under the auspices of exclusively African and/or Blacks people with African genealogical roots (hence, the name African/Black Community) whose objectives are stipulated in its Code of Conduct (CoC) and Policy Paper (PP).

Aims/Objectives

Although the main idea of an ABC sprang up at the Black Community Congress held from the 18^th to 20^th October 2002 in Löhne-Gohfeld and subsequent meetings in 2004 in Berlin, the first practical consultation meeting called for by African activists within „The VOICE Refugee Forum” however took place in 2005 in Göttingen. The objective was to bring together again diverse African/Black activists from different Organisations, with the aims of networking and of a collective development of activities, galvanized and inspired by our Struggle for JUSTICE for Oury Jalloh and all other Sisters and Brothers killed by the German State terror, through structural and institutional racism, in short Systemic Racism.

The main objective of these meetings and other consultative engagements that later continued until 2011 was to breach the conflictual understanding of “Identity representation, class and privileges” within the Community. From 2013, the impulse was reignited by new activists and networks from within the Community, with help from those who followed up the previous processes since 2005. And here we are today.

How did the name ABC come about and is it the same as BC (Black Community)?

The name came about after a long deliberation about our objectives, which were to bring together again diverse African/Black activists from different Organisations, with the aims of networking and of a collective development of activities that would strengthen our independence (or reduce our dependence on) from the White majority society in which we find ourselves. It is the same as the Black Community (BC) in many levels and ways, but some of the differences are expressed in our conviction that uplifting Africa (through different liberation struggles, engagements and achievements) is at the centre of all our engagements. We follow the principle of self-organisation and intra-supportive community mechanisms and processes.

That said, it would not be a genuine process to talk about the history of the ABC just by recounting our experiences and Community engagements since the first Black Community Congress in 2001. While acknowledging the roles played by individual activists and Networks in the process of establishing and recording this rich history, a rather legitimate appraisal would be to formulate questions that can be used to express the background and documentation of the process of founding the ABC, the African / Black Community in Germany. This would enable the participation of many, in documenting our history of the foundation of the network.

Tel: 0152 159 286 58

Email: abcberlin19@gmail.com