The Left Berlin News & Comment

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Category: Campaign of the week

Remembering means Fighting

19th January. Day of solidarity with antifascists in Russia, Ukraine and other post-Soviet republics


15/01/2025

January 19, 2009 – the day our anti-fascist comrades Stanislav Markelov and Anastasia Baburova were murdered in cold blood by Nazis in the center of Moscow. This date has become memorable and symbolic for all those fighting fascism in Russia, Ukraine, and other former Soviet republics.

Today, we, Russian-speaking migrant anti-fascists, are witnessing in Germany the problems we know well: the rise of anti-immigrant sentiment, right-wing violence, and the fascization of public life. Even according to official data, 2024 was a record year in terms of right-wing, radically motivated crimes in Germany, more than a thousand of which were violent. The tragedy in Hanau on February 19, 2020, when racism motivated the murder of nine people, vividly demonstrates what ignoring such threats can lead to.

Right-wing resentment has contributed to the acceptance of an imperialist war against Ukraine in Russian society. This war, in turn, influences the legitimization of violence both outside and inside the country, as well as the rise of right-wing sentiment and militarism around the world.

We believe that our experience in the anti-fascist struggle can be important for our German comrades!
On January 19th, we will honor the memory of Anastasia, Stanislav, and all comrades who died in Russia at the hands of right-wing extremists: Timur Kacharava, Alexander Ryukhin, Ilya Borodaenko, Alexei Krylov, Fyodor Filatov, Ilya Dzhaparidze, and Ivan Khutorsky. We will also remember victims of far-right anti-migrant violence, such as Shamil Adamanov and Khursheda Soltonova.

Our action will take place on a street named after Silvio Mayer, an anti-fascist killed by right-wing militants in Friedrichshain in the early 90s. In St. Petersburg, the city where musician and anti-fascist Timur Kacharava was killed in 2005, an action in 2011 symbolically renamed a street in his honor. We hope that someday this gesture will also become a reality.

The procession along the street named after Silvio Mayer will be a reminder of all victims of right-wing terror and a call for international solidarity in the fight against fascism in all its forms.

To remember means to fight!

The struggle continues. ¡No pasarán!

Demo in Berlin. 19th January 2025, 1pm, Silvio-Meier-Straße (near U-Bahn Samaratinerstraße)

The Wall

Browser plugin to help you boycott Israel


08/01/2025

The Wall is a browser plugin to detect and block more than 19,000 Israeli-related websites and their social accounts. Privately, automatically and on all browsers! They hold Palestinians behind walls, so let’s put their economy behind our own walls!

Install once, works forever

All you have to do is Install the Addon and anytime you open a website of an Israeli-connected company you will see “the wall” instead.

Works everywhere!

Works on Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Brave, Opera and soon Safari. It also works on mobile browsers like Firefox mobile and Kiwi browser!

Smart detection

Detects websites and also their related LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook accounts. More platforms coming soon!

Trusted data

The main source of the data is the latest Crunchbase list of companies with headquarters in Israel. Also companies with a founder or investor from Israel. More data, like the BDS list, will be added soon. The addon will show the reason for the block.

Click here to download for Chrome

Click here to download for Firefox

Click here to join our Telegram channel for updates

Berlin Insoumise

Action Group for the French abroad


01/01/2025

You might have come across us at our ‘stand du 1er mai’ on Mariannenplatz, or during one of the numerous demonstrations organised in front of the French Embassy, for instance to protest Macron’s socially unjust and unjustified pension reform in 2023, or the latest racist immigration law in 2024. Every year, the approximately 30 active members of Berlin Insoumise organise events ranging from a ‘Horrors of Capitalism’ Halloween Party to a feminist pub quiz. Rotating through Berlin’s neighbourhoods, we hold our monthly Stammtisch, to which all Berlin-based francophones are welcome. The next meeting is set for the 5th of January at 6pm, Brotfabrik, Caligariplatz 1, 13086 Berlin.

Berlin Insoumise is one of more than 5,000 Action Groups of La France Insoumise (LFI), the French movement who arrived third and gathered 22% of votes at the last presidential elections in 2022. As in the rest of Europe, France sees a dramatic rise of the far-right, and merger of the far-right and neoliberal blocks. Yet, LFI resists and gathers more and more votes from one election to the next.

LFI is organised as a network, meaning each Action Group sets its own focus and agenda, as long as it fits with the programme l’Avenir en Commun. In Berlin, our thematic focus is on climate justice, social justice, respect of democracy, the promotion of peace, and the protection of minority rights such as LGBT+ rights. Linking social and societal struggles is core to LFIs political programme: all contribute to the equality of rights and general human interest. They cannot be played out against each other, just as environmental and social struggles must go hand in hand.

Berlin Insoumise’s activity runs high even when there are no presidential or legislative elections (the French abroad are represented by 11 Members of Parliament) ahead. Indeed, the Action Group understands itself as a local political collective. It joins forces in struggles such as demonstrations in solidarity with Palestine, or to protest budget cuts for culture and education in the Berliner Haushalt. Events are organised together with German workers unions and Podemos Berlin, amongst others. Last in date, the Hiver Solidaire series was organised for the first time in December 2024 with the goal of ‘surviving together through the endless Berlin winter’, and funds collected for the Berliner Obdachlosenhilfe.

You can find all upcoming meetings and events on our social media from facebook to bluesky, under ‘Berlin Insoumise’.

Support Ukraine’s Resilient Workers

Help Us Provide Electrical Generators through their unions!


17/12/2024

Winter is coming to Ukraine, temperatures are dropping, but nearly 60% of the country’s electrical generating capacity has been knocked out by unrelenting Russian air strikes. After causing tens of thousands of civilian casualties, the Russians are bent on freezing every child, woman, and man.

The Ukraine Solidarity Network in the United States has teamed up with two Ukrainian trade unions, the Free Trade Union of Railway Workers and the Independent Trade Union of Miners of Ukraine, and an NGO called Kryla provide portable electric generators to families in need. Our initial goal is to raise $6,000 dollars for 12 portable generators for union members and their families. These brave workers and their families are in urgent need of support.  

The UN Reports that Russian attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure are impacting millions, creating serious humanitarian and public health risks, and adding hundreds of thousands to the 10 millions already displaced by the war. Other critical systems including water and education are also being severely disrupted. 

Your donation will provide essential power to some of those who need it most. Let’s show our solidarity with Ukraine’s rank-and-file workers and the vital work they do under unimaginable conditions.

Donations will be collected through GoFundMe and sent to Kryla’s bank account from where it will be transferred to the official bank accounts of the unions.

#unkürzbar

A Berlin for everyone


11/12/2024

The Senat intends to cut 10% of the city budget. Starting next year, money that had been planned for important social challenges will no longer be available. You can see a detailed overview of what money will be missing from where here. On Thursday, 19th December, the parliament has the last word. If we join forces, we can stop them.

The planned cuts are the highest in decades, with €3 Billion planned to be taken out across all areas of social life. Mobility, transport, climate protection and environment, culture and education, youth and family, city development, building and housing, science, anti-discrimination, inclusion, and healthcare. The long-term consequences will have catastrophic effects on the structure of our society.

Not with us – we are uncuttable. We want to build a movement that rises against the cuts, against the escalating poverty, and against the lack of hope and perspectives. At all levels of society, we want to continue to build a cosmopolitan, inclusive,  just, family-friendly, housing and environmentally friendly cultural and educational capital.

If the Senat makes small, slow changes out of fear of protest, this does not alter our solidarity with ALL affected areas. We will not let ourselves be divided and we will carry on protesting!

Many different protests have been organised throughout Berlin. Until now, the political establishment has largely ignored them. Let us therefore pull together and act together.  The #unkürzbar (uncuttable) alliance gathers all actions, protests and demonstrations organised against the cuts policy of the Senat and is taking to the streets together on Sunday, the 15th of December. For a Berlin for everyone!

We invite all people to stand up with us against the cuts, and to protest loudly and clearly. Furthermore, we call on people to show other forms of resistance and to refuse the dictatorship of cuts. You can make your own contribution through actions, rallies and protests. If the government will not listen to us and will not take us seriously, if the government votes for the cuts, they can expect further protests throughout December – until they are voted out of office!

The demo starts on 15th December at 1pm at Lustgarten on the Museum island. There will also be a rolling march (bicycles and e-rollers) from Kranoldplatz in Neukölln, which also starts at 1pm.