The Left Berlin News & Comment

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Category: Campaign of the week

Korea Verband

Representing Koreans in Berlin


23/11/2020

The Korea Verband is an open, politically independent and German-speaking information and cooperation platform for all who are interested in the history and culture of Korea as well as the latest developments on the Korean Peninsula and would like to get involved in this area. With roots in the democratization movement among South Korean immigrants to Germany and their links to churches and academics, it is working across genders and age groups. It is a traditionally critical watchdog focused on developments on the Korean peninsula within its East Asian context from the time of the Japanese occupation until today, through a postcolonial lens. Being steeped in Korean migrant history in Germany, it also communicates transnational insights on topics like immigration and identity.

One of the main issues the Korea Verband works on through its Action Group “Comfort Women” (AG “Trostfrauen”) is the question of the so-called comfort women and their fight for recognition of the crimes committed to them to restore their dignity. The Korea Verband runs a museum dedicated to this history and cause, and recently erected a Statue of Peace commemorating the courage of the survivors to speak out. Our work on this issue, however, has always transcended the historical context in East Asia, calling upon the international community to find ways to abolish sexualized violence of any kind and to call into question patriarchal structures and toxic masculinity.

Stop Heimstaden

Fighting the sell off of homes in Berlin


13/11/2020

“Stop Heimstaden” is a grassroots tenants’ initiative, which was formed on 21 October 2020 as a reaction to the sale of over 130 houses in Berlin to Heimstaden with the support of the Mieter:innengewerkschaft (tenants’ trade union), the IniForum Berlin and further tenants’ initiatives. We are connecting tenants within each house, as well as networking districts by forming local groups.

The initiative consists of tenants of the houses which are being sold. In the last few months, Heimstaden Bostad AB with the help of its contracted investment company Skjerven Group has bought at least 130 apartment buildings in Berlin with 3902 flats at the cost of around 830 million Euros. In total they have probably bought nearly 150 houses and over 4000 flats.

The initiative demands that the right of refusal for the buying of houses in a Milieuschutz (social environment) be granted to a third party which is orientated on public welfare, so that developed neighbourhood structures can be maintained. The sale must be based on the socially acceptable value of the houses and not on current speculation prices.

Further central demands include a political solution for houses taken out of the Milieuschutz and the deployment of active protection for tenants against Heimstaden. We demand that politicians in parliament, and in particular the Berlin senate administration for finance and urban development make more financial resources available for the necessary subsidies for a sale by a socially acceptable company or cooperative.

We demand basically affordable living spaces, the development of a social living culture and the introduction of strong protection for tenants, including small businesses. We demand the end of the sale of the city to investors and speculators like Heimstaden. We are many, we are loud, and we’re sticking together.

Summary of our demands:

  • Affordable living space for all – through the building of more social housing and systematically reconverting of private to public housing

  • A universal ban of converting public housing to private condominiums

  • A universal ban of leaving properties empty, leading to appropriation where appropriate

  • Right to decide for all tenants through tenants’ councils

  • Protection and support of threatened cultural and social projects

  • Implementation of the right to live as a human right

Ciocia Basia

Providing abortion help in Berlin for Polish women


06/11/2020

Every day we respond to emails, Facebook inquiries and phone calls from people asking about the possibility of having an abortion in neighboring Germany, which permits terminations up to 14 weeks. We are activists of Ciocia Basia (Aunt Barbara), an informal, Berlin-based feminist collective which helps people with unwanted pregnancies access safe and legal procedures in the country. We provide information on abortion options, make appointments at the clinics, offer translation services, find accommodation at volunteers’ homes, and help financially. Over the last five years, virtually every week several Polish women and other people come to Berlin to terminate pregnancies, having found us on the internet.

The outbreak of the pandemic made access to abortion abroad more difficult but not impossible. It taught us how to collectively practice creative problem solving: looking for exemptions for border crossers (abortion as medical procedure that cannot be postponed counts as one of them), inventing and often reinventing ways to avoid mandatory quarantine in the country of departure and arrival, and finding the safest travel routes.

When the borders closed, Ciocia Basa continued its work. In fact, we have never been so busy, seeing a dramatic increase in calls for support from people affected economically by the crisis, anxious about the future or scared by parliamentary debates on abortion. The recent developments in Poland will translate into even more work. But We are ready to accommodate all people with unwanted pregnancies affected the decision of the “Constitutional Tribunal” in Poland.

And we are not alone in this. Ciocia Basia is but one of many abortion support groups of this kind active in Europe that offer help to people from countries where abortion is barely possible. In the Netherlands, where abortion on demand is accessible up to 22 weeks, the Abortion Network Amsterdam is in existence. In the UK, which allows termination up to 24 weeks, one can turn to the registered charity Abortion Support Network and be sure to receive all possible help. No questions asked, our only objective is to provide access to abortions for people who need them.

In December 2019, all groups joined ranks with the Polish collectives Kobiety w Sieci and Abortion Dream Team, and the online medical service Women Help Women, to form the first pan-European initiative called Abortion Without Borders that comprehensively responds to demands from women in unwanted pregnancies in Poland and beyond. In recent weeks new support groups began to emerge: Ciocia Wienia in Austria, or Ciocia Czesia in Czech Republic.

The networks of support structured around reproductive justice for people in Poland make sure that in spite of the anti-abortion laws, termination of pregnancy is and will be an option. It is not the law but practical activism and solidarity that create the reality of abortion in Poland.

You can support Ciocia Basia by making a donation here

Aequa​

Community Centre in Wedding


30/10/2020

The aequa Community Centre is in danger of closing. Please help save this vital community space by donating or by sharing our campaign.

aequa is a community of people united by our shared vision of a world in which everyone can thrive. Despite diverse experiences and perspectives, we are brought together by our desire to learn, and to share what we have learned on our individual journeys. We exist to build and support movements that meet people’s material and emotional needs. We do this through collective education and by creating alternative support systems based on interpersonal exchange. Together, we explore both our individual potential and our collective power.

Much of that work happens at aequa Community Centre in Wedding — a space we took over in March 2020. Finally, we had a space of our own — for workshops, community organising, film screenings, a library, a garden, marketplaces, open mics, late night studies, early morning conversations and so much more. The timing was challenging, but we have seen so much grow here already, and we are not deterred from our mission!

If this resonates with you, we’d appreciate your support! Stay connected, support each other and stay well this winter.

Support the Aequa financial appeal here.

Sudan Uprising

Taking the Sudanese revolution further


16/10/2020

Our group, SudanUprising Germany was founded in January 2019 to support the Sudanese revolution. Next week we are launching a new initiative, the #EndJanjaweed campaign. Through it, we aim to end Germany and the EU’s immoral support for migration control and externalized borders in Sudan, and by extension, its complicity in the rise of the Janjaweed militia, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

The word “Janjaweed” is from the Darfur region of Sudan. It refers to militias that are accused by Darfurians and human rights groups of committing genocide, war crimes and mass rape. The RSF has terrorized IDPs, women, migrants, and protestors around the country.

EU policy, led by Germany, has been a key factor since 2015 in the violation of refugee and migrants’ rights in the Horn of Africa. The EU channels its money through a “cooperation framework” called The Khartoum Process. The RSF were tasked by then dictator Omar al-Bashir of intercepting refugees and migrants at the borders. Though al-Bashir is gone, there is evidence that the Khartoum Process not only remains but may be expanding.

SudanUprising Germany’s new website (live from 18/10 on) is the best way to stay informed about the campaign and how to support it.