The Left Berlin News & Comment

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Category: Campaign of the week

Bündnis für sexuelle Selbstbestimmung

Fighting for a woman’s right to choose in Berlin and Germany


11/09/2020

On September 19, despite ongoing Corona restrictions, Christian fundamentalists will be travelling from all over to join the “March for Life” in Berlin – an anti-abortion protest was attended by several thousand participants in recent years. This year, as usual, loud and colourful counter-protests will be taking place in close proximity to the silent march.

The Bündnis für sexuelle Selbstbestimmung (Alliance for Sexual Self-Determination) is hosting a rally from 12-2pm at the Brandenburg Gate, near Pariser Platz, with a range of cultural acts and speakers on LGBTI and abortion rights in both English and German. The radical left group What the Fuck is also organising disruptive activities throughout the day.

Given that next year is not just an election year, 2021 also marks 150 years of organised resistance against the criminialisation of abortion in Germany, it’s an important moment for the burgeoning pro-choice movement, which has grown rapidly since the high-profile court case involving Kristina Hänel, a doctor who was charged 6,000 euros for providing basic information about abortion on her website. People are increasingly aware of the problems caused by the restrictive laws and are taking a stand against attempts by religious fundamentalists and far-right bigots to further restrict access to abortion and undermine LGBTI and women’s rights.

International Women Space

Defending Refugee women


04/09/2020

International Women Space was formed in December 2012 during the Refugee Movement’s occupation of the former Gerhart-Hauptmann School in Berlin-Kreuzberg. We created a Women’s Space there, which remained open until the summer of 2014. We worked to form a women’s front within the Refugee Movement that brings the fights against both racism and sexism together. After the eviction of the school, International Women Space continued working, with new members joining us. In 2017 we founded a registered association.

We are fed up with people speaking about us and not with us. Women’s resistance is often oppressed, and Women’s history hidden or ignored. We take on the responsibility to counteract this by documenting, making visible, and publicising our stories in our own words.

We organize politically to defend ourselves against the issues and attacks that we as women are facing: as refugee women, as migrant women and as non-migrant women. Sexism, racism, the violence of the asylum system and migration policies influence our lives. Our learning and our self-education is part of our emancipatory struggle. In our group, we stand in solidarity with each other and we support each other on an everyday basis.

We collaborate with feminist and anti-racist groups and have formed alliances in Berlin, in Europe, and beyond. Within our networks, we host workshops and organize demonstrations to bring our demands to the street.

Every year on the 8th of March – International Women’s Day – and on the 25th of November – International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women – we call out to join us in protest and say: every woman has the right to live a life free from violence! Every act of violence against women is an attack on our freedoms! We call for an end to isolation and deportation – and for freedom of movement for all! We welcome every woman that joins our fight. Our unity is our strength.

No woman is alone! Freedom of movement for all! Stop deportation! Freedom for all Women! Break isolation! Abolish Lagers!

Gegen Berufsverbot

Against the racist and sexist ban of the headscarf in public employment


28/08/2020

The coalition #GegenBerufsverbot (#AgainstOccupationalBan) is made up of organisations and individuals working to fight racism and sexism. It aims to educate the public about the discriminatory and unconstitutional effects Berlin’s so-called Neutrality Law has on religious and racial minorities, as well as womxn. Our ultimate goal is to overturn this law and any religious dress restrictions.

The Law on Article 29 of the Berlin Constitution came into force in 2005 and prohibits people who wear visible religious or ideological symbols or clothing from working in public schools or from being officials of the prison system or the police, and in a more moderate form from being educators in day-care centres.

Although this law is falsely dubbed the ‘neutrality’ law, it is anything but neutral. It disproportionally affects religious and racial minorities as well as womxn. They are denied access to work. Above all, it is Muslim womxn who wear a headscarf who are deprived of their free choice of profession. Men* from the Sikh community who wear a turban or from the Jewish community who wear a kippah are also affected.

Human dignity, protection against discrimination, free choice of profession and the freedom of religion are enshrined in the constitution and are human and civil rights cornerstones that Germany heralds as part and parcel of their democracy. However, the State of Berlin argues that religious minorities endanger state neutrality and – in education – school peace and must thus be banned from serving in these public sector jobs.

The law must be repealed and access to work, as well as all other areas of society, should be open to all, regardless of religion, ethnic origin, race, class, disability, sexual orientation, gender and all other backgrounds.

Izquierda Unida Berlin

Organising the Spanish left in Berlin


21/08/2020

Izquierda Unida Berlín (IU Berlín) is the basis assembly of IU in Germany’s capital. It is part of the Federation of IU Exterior (IU Abroad). As such, the main objectives of the assembly are to defend the rights of Spanish emigrants (right to vote, right to health care, rights of displaced workers), as well as to preserve the memory of the Republican exile in the GDR and of the International Brigades.Finally, IU Berlin has deep anti-fascist convictions. Thus, we join the rallies against the rise of the extreme right and its discourse of hate.

As an internationalist organisation, we believe it is important to work, cooperate and fight side by side with sister organisations in Berlin and Germany, such as Die Linke. We are also involved in social movements such as the affordable housing movement and the expropiation movement (Deutsche Wohnen & Co. Enteignen, Mietenwahnsinn), the feminist movement and the anti-imperialist movement (defending oppressed peoples such as the Palestinians and the Sahrawi people and rejection of war, arms exports and interventionism).

Our assemblies are open. Do you want to get informed?

Write to berlin@iuexterior.org or follow us on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.

Berlin for India

Fighting Modi, in India and Berlin


14/08/2020

Berlin for India came together as a network after the Indian government introduced its plan to implement a nationwide register of citizens (NRC) along with a new act which would selectively make religion the basis for citizenship (CAA). The group began by organizing demonstrations against these policies in Berlin. Its association to the Left Berlin has been one of mutual support, especially since Berlin for India is a diasporic group that has pursued economic and social justice (minority rights, rights of historically oppressed people and the rights of indigenous people), and also seeks alliances with other similar groups with connections in Berlin and the region.