The Left Berlin News & Comment

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Bündnis Neukölln

Together for democracy, respect and diversity

The Left Berlin
13/01/2022

For years, civil society in Neukölln has been rocked by a series of right wing attacks. These attacks focus on people from Neukölln who are viewed as migrants, and on people who are politically active for a diverse and democratic society. The people who make Neukölln what it is, who every day defend democratic and peaceful cohabitation in our district are made to feel fear and horror. The long-term failure of police investigations into the acts has led to anger and incomprehension among those affected any many people who live in Neukölln.

The Bündnis Neukölln – Together for democracy, respect and diversity is a platform of information and action from engaged people of Neukölln, who see themselves as being together against exclusion and racism. The alliance consists of a broad network of civil organisations. As well as many engaged individuals, trade unions, social organisations, parties, churches and anti-fascist initiatives are all part of the group.

For more than a decade we have fought against the right-wing threat with diverse activities and meetings. As well as numerous demonstrations and rallies – like the traditional rally on the International Day against Racism on 21st March at the Rudower Spinne – in non-pandemic times we organise among other things public meetings, talks and “cleaning strolls” against Nazi propaganda. Here we work actively together with the victims of right-wing attacks, show our solidarity, and support their demands with our actions and public outreach.

We always welcome new supporters! As well as our monthly meeting there are regular meetings of the action group “Aufstehen gegen Rassismus” ad well as the team which organises the “Offenes Neukölln” festival. Our working group “house hunting” is fighting for living space for refugees. Interested people are always welcome.

Bündnis Neukölln, c/o Offenes Neukölln e.V., Postfach 93 02 11, 12053 Berlin

info@buendnis-neukoelln.de
www.buendnis-neukoelln.de

Offenes Neukölln e.V.
IBAN: DE27 1005 0000 0190 9783 09
BIC: BELADEBE (Landesbank Berlin – Berliner Sparkasse)

Radio Berlin International

International political radio from Berlin

The Left Berlin
07/01/2022

Radio Berlin International is a fortnightly broadcast in English on reboot.fm 88.4 MHz in Berlin, 90.7 MHz in Potsdam and streaming online at http://reboot.fm.

Every two weeks, the program introduces listeners in Berlin and elsewhere to the people in our city fighting for a better world.

Produced by the editorial collective behind TheLeftBerlin.com, Radio Berlin International welcomes everyone with an interest in grassroots activism to get involved, whether by taking a turn at presenting the show, nominating an interview guest, or recording a field report.

Tune in every other Sunday at 7pm Berlin time to hear live interviews with activists, field reports from protests and exhibitions, and radical music. You can also hear past broadcasts on our website. For more information about getting involved, write to radio@theleftberlin.com

Justice Collective

Challenging policing, punishment and prisons

The Left Berlin
15/12/2021

Justice Collective is a Berlin-based project that acts:

To reveal how governments punish, including in ways that target people experiencing poverty and inequality, people of racialized groups, and people making a life for themselves in new places;
To build and connect international and internationalist movements — because while local contexts may differ, people in different places confront similar causes of carcerality; and;
To end societies’ increasing reliance on policing, punishment, and prisons. To build communities that choose justice over jails; care over carcerality.

Justice Collective is a project coordinated by Mitali Nagrecha, and is the result of collective work with people and initiatives across Europe. Mitali is a lawyer and advocate originally from the US. You can learn more here.

Tools: Education, Organising, Action

Topics: Punishment & Inequality, Punishment & Racism, Punishment in Europe

Antifascist Music Alliance

Loose group of people who are fighting fascism, far right activity and white supremacy in music

The Left Berlin
09/12/2021

Information recently surfaced showing that Dominick Fernow aka Vatican Shadow, Prurient, Rainforest Spiritual Enslavement and his label Hospital Productions are affiliated with white supremacists. After this information came to light, little acknowledgment was made by the publications that covered his work over the years or by the agencies and labels that have released his music. We contacted Pitchfork, Resident Advisor, and his booking agency Ostgut in August 2021 directly with our asks (below). Ostgut has quietly removed Vatican Shadow from their booking agency listings, but no other actions have been taken by any of the organizations.

What’s the deal?

Fernow was pictured in a Pitchfork interview by Brandon Stosuy with Mikko Aspa, his frequent collaborator. Aspa makes National Socialist music and spreads neo-fascist music and literature through his record store in Finland. In the same interview, Fernow mentions other Nazis like the band Absurd, whose singer Hendrik Möbus sieg heiled at a concert, posed with Nazi flags at Auschwitz, and “publicly mocked” the 15-year-old that he and his bandmates strangled to death in 1993. Fernow’s label Hospital has released music by Montreal National Socialist Black Metal band Akitsa. With Fernow’s black metal projects, his lyrics have also been sexually violent. This is just a short list of his ties and actions. Dominick Fernow has been very open and proud about his ties to white supremacists. The journalists, platforms, and agencies that have supported him and those who have collaborated with him must have been aware of these ties.

In 2018, Resident Advisor published a long, positive profile about Fernow written by Andrew Ryce. Resident Advisor also published many reviews and news pieces, for his work and for his label. Many of Fernow’s events have been listed on Resident Advisor’s ticketing platform, thus financing his activities. His booking agency Ostgut, is of course also responsible for backing him financially and reputationally.

These entities support Fernow as an artist, but have remained silent on his actions. This is very serious. Propagating and normalizing National Socialist ideology is dangerous for non-white people, Jewish people, Roma/Sinti people, queer people, leftists, and others. Because Resident Advisor, Ostgut Booking and Pitchfork’s support was public-facing, public-facing actions should be taken.

What can we do?

We can join together as promoters, artists, labels, clubs, music journalists and, of course, fans and listeners to demand that Pitchfork, Ostgut Booking and Resident Advisor take public-facing actions against fascism in electronic music.

Call to action

Sign our open letter in the form here
Encourage any organizations or individuals in your network to sign
Post about the open letter on your own channels: hashtag to use #AntifaMusicAlliance

We post regular updates on Twitter

The list of signatures is visible here

You can contact us at antifascistmusicalliance@protonmail.com

Asufit

Independent publication by Jewish Israelis revealing critical perspectives on Zionism

The Left Berlin
02/12/2021

The Asufit (Gatherer) is a collection of stories, images and articles which reveal our personal critical perspectives as Jewish Israelis.

The project was born out of our joint work within the artistic research project „School for Unlearning Zionism“, an artistic space for critical learning in which the Zionist narratives in which we were raised are explored.

The first Asufit issue, which will be published in a bilingual edition (English and Hebrew), deals with different layers of hegemonic Zionist narratives, whether these layers are visible, covert or imaginary. By looking at the multilayered Israeli reality and at specific moments and places in it, we interrupt and reflect on power structures as they exist within it.

We invite you to enter the Asufit, a space which documents processes and creates opportunities of and for shared learning as a decolonial act.

Six contributions will be published within this first issue of the Asufit:

Grandpa and Me / Na’ama Landau
Looking for Ariel / Lia Tarachansky
Hold Your Nose and Keep Driving – Hiriya / Yehudit Yinhar
Antiprolog for my Grandmother / Adi Liraz
Where is Here / Daphna Westerman
Hearing an Image and Seeing Beyond / Livnat Konopny Decleve

The Asufit is created independently. For us to maintain its political and artistic integrity we ask for your help in covering the costs of bringing it into the world.
With your support, we will cover the expenses of the linguistic editing, graphic design, translation, printing, manual binding and distribution of the first Asufit issue.
The Asufit Team thanks you for any contributions!

Support the crowd funding campaign for Asufit here.

אסופית

האסופית היא חוברת אוסף של סיפורים, תמונות ומאמרים החושפים נקודות מבט אישיות ביקורתיות שלנו כיהודיות ישראליות. הפרויקט נולד מתוך עבודתנו המשותפת בפרויקט המחקר האמנותי ׳ביה״ס לאנלרנינג .ציונות׳, מרחב לימוד ויצירה ביקורתי בו אנחנו חוקרות את הנרטיב הציוני עליו גדלנו

גיליון בכורה זה, שייצא במהדורה דו-לשונית (אנגלית ועברית), עוסק בשכבות שונות של הנרטיב הציוני ההגמוני, בין אם אלו שכבותיו הגלויות, הסמויות או המדומות. דרך הפניית המבט אל הרב שכבתיות של המציאות הישראלית ואל רגעים ומקומות ספציפיים בה, אנו מנסות לערער את ולהרהר במבני הכוח הקיימים

אנו מזמינות אתכן.ם להיכנס איתנו למרחב האסופית, מרחב המתעד תהליך ויוצר הזדמנויות ללמידה משותפת כאקט דה־קולוניאלי

באסופית הראשונה יופיעו שש עבודות:
אני והסבא / נעמה לנדאו
לחפש את אריאל / ליאה טרשצ׳נסקי
לסתום את האף ולהמשיך לנסוע – חירייה / יהודית ינהר
אנטיפרולוג לסבתא שלי / עדי לירז
איפה זה כאן / דפנה וסטרמן
לשמוע תמונה ולראות מעבר / לבנת קונופני דקלב

מכיוון שאנחנו יוצרות את האסופית באופן עצמאי וחשוב לנו לשמור על האופי הבלתי תלוי של העבודה שלנו אנו פונות אליכן.ם על מנת לבקש תמיכה כלכלית שתאפשר לנו לכסות את ההוצאה לאור של גיליון האסופית הראשון. באמצעות תמיכתכן.ם נוכל לכסות את עלויות העריכה הלשונית, העיצוב הגרפי, התרגום, ההדפסה, הכריכה הידנית וההפצה של החוברת

חברות האסופית מודות לכן על כל תרומה!

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