The Left Berlin News & Comment

This is the archive template

Category: Campaign of the week

Urban Fibers

Circularity in fashion? Local clothing donations to global pollution


26/02/2025

The studio Urban Fibers investigates and implements new paradigms for the production of sustainable and regenerative textiles. In collaboration with regional producers, they have been remanufacturing local cotton from discarded t-shirts, a valuable raw material, to produce upcycled yarns. Designed for the use in locally existing textile infrastructure of digital weaving, knitting and braiding machines, these yarns can replace virgin cotton up to 100%. The results are vibrant and sophisticated textiles that can be recycled again.

Every week, 15 million second-hand garments from the global North arrive in Accra (Ghana) to be sold at Kantamanto, a vital hub for circularity, reuse and repair. Despite the local efforts to bring these clothes back to life, 40% of them remain unsellable and are directly landfilled, polluting the waterways and the complete coastal line of Accra. To top an already unjust situation, in January 2025 a devastating fire destroyed Kantamanto and left more than 8.000 market workers without a livelihood. Urban Fibers is hosting an event on March 1st to fundraise for Kantamanto and to bring attention to the problem of waste colonialism.

Last year Urban Fibers spent two months working in Accra, Ghana, processing market discards from the global north to make upcycled products. They worked with a young Ghanaian team of designers who are making a living by using the imported waste as their material and diverting it from the landfill. Back in Berlin, Urban Fibers wants to share the story of your clothes with you. Let’s give voice to the people processing our waste behind the scenes of the fast fashion industry, one of the most polluting on earth. But also to illustrate how we are all intertwined in our fight for a more just and safer future.

At our fundraising event on 1st March, there will be a discussion with Circular Berlin about the wasteful textile industry. We will also connect live with The Or Foundation, the charity behind the fire relief fund, that has been supporting the community of Kantamanto and providing remediation efforts since 2011. They will update us about the state of rebuild and about the current challenges of the workers. There will also be Urban Fibers’ goodies on sale, interactive activities, food and drinks and a clothing exchange corner. We will end the event with live guitar music and a DJ set to keep our spirits high.

All proceeds from the event will go directly to the fire relief fund of the Or Foundation.

Fundraising event for the workers at Kantamanto in Accra, Ghana
Date: Saturday, 1st of March
Time: 16:00-23:00 h
Location: C*Space Berlin – Langhansstrasse 86, 13086 Berlin

Entrance to the event is free, donations for the fundraising will be collected at the door

Accessibility: The space is unfortunately not accessible on wheelchair

For any accessibility requests please contact hello@urbanfibers.org

Migrant Worker Solidarity Movement

Empowering migrant workers to facilitate transformational change in Berlin


19/02/2025

The Migrant Worker Solidarity Movement is an initiative that is committed to empowering migrant workers and activists in Berlin to build resilient communities, advocate for better wages, and ensure equitable representation in the workplace. By building alliances of Berlin migrant workers across low-wage and tech sectors, this project will provide training, workshops, peer-mentoring, assemblies and collective action support to equip migrant communities with the skills to organize, advocate, and lead campaigns for their rights in the workplace. We envision a Berlin where migrant workers have the power to enact systemic change!

The Migrant Worker Solidarity Movement is funded by the Bewegungsstiftung, It is now launching a Migrant Worker Needs Survey to better understand the concerns of the community.

How You Can Contribute:

  • Fill out this survey (you can also use the QR Code below)
  • Encourage fellow migrant workers and organizational members to participate in the survey. The more responses we receive, the better we can tailor our initiatives for collective needs. Share our instagram post on the survey on your story via the link below.
  • Stay engaged! In May, we will host an initial community social gathering, followed by a goal-setting workshop in June, to outline key priorities. From this point, we can begin to organize trainings, workshops, and community support initiatives to strengthen worker rights. We want to hear from you!
  • Take Action Now!

You can contact the Migrant Worker Solidarity Movement via the following channels:

Falastin Cinema Week

A week of film screenings, talks, art and more.


12/02/2025

Running parallel to the Berlinale this February, Refuge Worldwide will host Falastin Cinema Week: five days of film screenings, talks, and art exploring Palestinian histories and decolonial narratives. The events will take place at Refuge’s Niemetzstraße community space in Berlin and at Spore Initiative.

Together with AL.Berlin, Jewish Bund, Diaspora Rising, Spore Initiative, Jüdische Stimme, Irish Bloc Berlin, Rawy Films, SPACE OF URGENCY, Palinale, Amal Abu Hanna, House Of Base, and more, Falastin Cinema Week is scheduled to run daily from Monday 17th February to Friday 21st February.

Although a tentative ceasefire is in place, February 2025 will mark the 77th year of the occupation. We call for an end to the apartheid regime, the right to return, sovereignty, and self-determination for all Indigenous Palestinian and Levantine people. We stand in solidarity with the Palestinian liberation movement and with all interconnected decolonial struggles.

The full programme and tickets are available on the Refuge Worldwide website.

The artwork visual is a film still from O, Persecuted, courtesy of Basma al-Sharif. Commissioned by the Palestine Film Foundation to make a film in response to Kassem Hawal’s 1974 Our Small Houses, O, Persecuted uses the act of restoration to force the burden of history onto an unforeseen future. Graphics are by Bianca Mocan.

Access Info

Refuge Worldwide’s community space is located at Niemetzstraße 1, 12055 Berlin. All the rooms used for the event are step-free and located on the ground floor. There is a gender-neutral step-free toilet that’s accessible for wheelchair users.

There will be a variety of seating options: chairs and beanbags.

We encourage guests to do COVID-19 tests before coming and will also have some tests available at the door.

No one will be turned away due to lack of funds.

If you have any access requests, please email nicky@refugeworldwide.com

Alerta Antifascista Berlin

None of us is free until everyone is free.


05/02/2025

Neo-fascism is spreading its international authoritarian web, and we need to connect. Alerta Antifascista Berlin fights all forms of oppression, from Berlin to Gaza. We’re here to learn from and support each other. We analyse the methods used by repressive states in different countries. Our goal is to spread this knowledge far and wide, so that all comrades can benefit from it.

We organise events, screenings and book presentations, and we keep an eye on the reactionary International to stay ahead and counteract. We will fight them on social media and on the streets, across all continents.

On Sunday, 9th February, we are showing the documentary Infiltrados (Infiltrators) in the Media Space k18 (Kreutzigerstr 18). This documentary analyses the tactics used by infiltrators to get in and out of social movements and some of their mistakes. It gives a voice to their victims, who describe how they were used by people with whom they had sexual and emotional relationships.

We plan further film showings, book presentations and other events in the coming months. For more information, contact us at alertaantifascistaberlin@proton.me.

Association of Palestinian and Jewish Academics

Countering the Repressive Discourse on Palestine/Israel


29/01/2025

We are Palestinian and Jewish academics with personal, professional, and institutional ties to Germany and other German-speaking countries. We are organized to counter the development of repressive discourses, policies, and actions related to Palestine/Israel. Our association includes scholars of the histories, religions, laws, cultures and politics of the region, as well as of Palestinian and Jewish diasporic cultures. Our collaboration is built upon our lived experiences, professional expertise, and ethical commitments. Please see our statement for a full explanation of our principles.

We came together in early 2024 with a commitment to building a sustainable organizational structure within which we could foster critical academic research, teaching and advocacy in a climate of increased threats to academic freedom, particularly in relation to Palestine solidarity. Inspired by student campus activism both in Germany and internationally and disturbed by the silences and limited interventions of colleagues, we committed ourselves to working in solidarity with each other at bringing Palestinian and critical Jewish academic voices to bear on scholarly and public debates.