Hello everyone,

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT FOR YOUR CALENDARS: On Friday, 26th January, we’ll be organising an Eye Witness Report from Gaza with Duha Almusaddar, Project Manger of the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung in Gaza. Duha recently left Gaza and will talk about the situation on ground. The meeting starts at 7pm, and will be taking place in Oyoun, Lucy Lameck-Straße 32. Please note that after the Berliner Senat evicted the Oyoun building, no chairs will be available, so we will make ourselves comfortable on the floor. We want to organise a second event with Duha in February, with proper seating and translation into German.

The Muslim Futures weekend starts today in the ACUD Gallery and Club and lasts until Sunday 21st. With Muslim Futures, an empowering and disruptive space is created together with Muslim futurists from art, culture and political education, who translate, exhibit and discuss their imaginations in various installations, interventions and forms of expression. The futurists make use of literary, artistic, documentary, musical and many other perspectives and focus in part on different sensual experiences in imaginative processes. Come, and enter the world of Muslim Futures and to radically imagine more just and inclusive futures with us. Muslim Futures is one of two Campaigns of the Week.

Today also is the start of Views on Israel – a series of films about Israel organised by members of the Judische Stimme. Tonight’s film is Two Blue Lines. Shot over a period of 25 years, Two Blue Lines examines the human and political situation of Palestinian people from the years prior to the creation of Israel to the present day. By primarily featuring the narratives of Israelis whose positions run counter to their country’s official policy, the documentary provides a portrait of the ongoing conflict not often depicted in mainstream media. It starts at 7pm at Café MadaMe, Mehringplatz 10 (venue of last night’s meeting on Apartheid Israel).

Our Regular Palestine Reading Group continues on Friday with a discussion on Why do the US and Europe fund Israel? Follow the link to register and access the suggested reading. Following feedback that some people are not available on Fridays, the Reading Group will now take place on alternate Fridays and Sundays. Next week’s Group will meet  on Sunday, 28th January to discuss Post-colonialism, colonialism and settler colonialism. As ever, the meeting is in the AGIT offices, Nansenstraße 2. If you would like to join the discussion about what we read in the future, you can join our Telegram group here.

On Saturday at 10.30am, buses will be leaving Ostbahnhof to take people to a demonstration in Hamburg against state repression. Six and a half years after the G20 summit in Hamburg, the public prosecutor still has a strong intention to persecute. In the so-called Rondenbarg trial, the court case against six affected comrades begins this year. Together we want to travel to Hamburg on the 20th of January 2024 by Solibus and fight with you against the state and repression. The buses are being organised by Gemeinschaftlicher Widerstand (Community resistance), who are our second Campaign of the Week.

On Sunday, 21^st January we are organising a Walking Tour about Rosa Luxemburg’s Berlin. “Berlin has made the most unfavorable impression on me.” It is 1898 and Rosa Luxemburg has just arrived in the capital of the German Empire. She describes it in a letter as: “cold, tasteless, massive — a real barracks; and the dear Prussians with their arrogance, as though every one of them had the stick up their ass with which they had once been beaten…” Fair to say it isn’t love at first sight, but Luxemburg stays here until the bitter end. Berlin is her home for the next two decades. The tour will start at 2pm at Mehringplatz, not far from Café MadaMe, and finish around 4.30pm near U-Bahn Friedenau. Participation is free, but we recommend a €10 donation to the tour guide.

There is much more going on in Berlin. To find out what’s happening, go to our Events page. You can also see a shorter, but more detailed list of events in which we are directly involved in here.

The LINKE Berlin Internationals are organising their annual Summer Camp on 29th-30th June in the Naturfreundehaus Hermsdorf, near Berlin. There will be keynote meetings from Ferat Kocak and activists from Italy and Poland on the rise of the far right in Europe, and Hossam el-Hamalawy and others on Palestine, the Arab States and the Arab Street. We are now deciding which workshops to organise. You can vote for the workshops that you want to see here. The survey ends on January 31st. Survey results will be used to make a decision at the next LINKE Internationals open meeting on 5th February.

In News from Berlin, the Rosa Luxemburg Conference shows solidarity for Palestine, and thousands of farmers demonstrate once more in Berlin.

In News from Germany, secret meeting of AfD and CDU politicians and neo-Nazis planning mass deportations exposed, thousands demonstrate against the AfD, new government in Hessen is younger but has few female faces, and Namibia accuses Germany of not having learned from its past genocides.

Read all about it in this week’s News from Berlin and Germany.

New on theleftberlin, Nathaniel Flakin accuses German élites of instrumentalising antisemitism to cover up for their own rotten histories, Patrick Bond exposes the corrupt side of German footballer and manager Franz Beckenbauer who died recently, and we publish an open letter to the UN criticizing Germany’s crackdown on cultural freedom.

Our Videos of the Week show scenes of the police attacking the Palestine block of last Sunday’s Luxemburg-Liebknecht demo, which resulted in 15 demonstrators being hospitalised.

You can follow us on the following social media:

• Instagram
• Twitter
• We also support the Berlin LINKE Internationals facebook page.

If you would like to contribute any articles or have any questions or criticisms about our work, please contact us at team@theleftberlin.com. And please do encourage your friends to subscribe to this Newsletter.

Keep on fighting,

The Left Berlin Editorial Board

Hello everyone,

Our Palestine Reading Group continues tomorrow (Friday). This week, we’ll be trying to answer the question: Who are the Agents who can bring about change? So far, our discussions have been focused on what changes we would like to see in Israel/Palestine, and our vision of what the region could look like at the future. This week we want to be more concrete and ask how we can enforce change. With Palestinians excluded from the Israeli economy and the rulers of the Global North (and elsewhere) actively or passively supporting Israel, how can people who want justice become strong enough to liberate Palestine? As usual, it’s at 7pm in Nansenstraße 2. Follow the link above to find the recommended reading and to register (which helps us know how many people we should expect).

oyoun lives (for now). Tomorrow morning (Friday) at 10pm, there will be a live broadcast in Lucy-Lameck-Str. 32 of South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice. At 2pm, Israelis for Peace have called a demonstration Stop the War at the German foreign ministry, Werdescher Markt 1. At 3pm, students at the FU are live screening a Conversation with Ilan Pappe, at Mosaic Center, Grünewaldstraße 87. And at 7pm there’ll be an mass sit-in for Gaza in Berlin Hauptbahnhof. On Saturday, at 2pm, there’s a demonstration Solidarity with Palestine. Join us and stand up for Palestine! The demo starts at Neptunenbrunnen by Alexanderplatz. On Monday there’s another demonstration Strike is Resistance! Stop the Genocide in Gaza!Join us at the events to help give out leaflets for our coming meeting on Apartheid Israel (see below).

On Saturday, it’s the Rosa Luxemburg Conference, which is held under the motto “Who owns the World?”. This question will reflect the fundamental change in the global balance of power, the upheaval in international relations caused by the rise of the global South – above all the People’s Republic of China as the second largest economic power. It is a shift of hegemony that the previous masters of the world, the US-led NATO states, are trying to counter with increased militarism, the drumming up of war and the instrumentalization of fascism Speakers include Jeremy Corbyn, Mumia Abu-Jamal, and Julia Wright. This year’s conference will be in the larger venue of Berlin’s Tempodrom.

On Sunday morning, it’s the annual Luxemburg.Liebknecht Demo against war and crisis, and for peace and solidarity! Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht were murdered in Berlin on 15th January 1919 by right-wing Freikorps with the approval of the Noskes and Scheidemanns. This is the 105th anniversary of their death. Their fight obliges us to stand up against war and rearmament, against exploitation and social impoverishment. Upholding the legacy of Rosa and Karl – standing up for peace, social justice, the protection of the environment, for internationalism and solidarity – we, leftists of different currents, will jointly and peacefully express our positions and demands on 14th January 2024. The demo starts at 10am at Frankfurter Tor.

We are pleased to announce a third speaker for our meeting on Apartheid Israel. Barbara Schreiner, Executive Director of the Water Integrity Network. Barbara recently reported on visiting Occupied Palestine.  Barbara will be joined by South African activist and academic Patrick Bond, and Palestinian lawyer Nadija Samour. South Africa’s current case against Israel in the International Court of Justice makes the meeting all the more relevant. The meeting is at Café MadaMe, on Mehringplatz 10, just next to U-Bahn Hallesches Tor. It is on Wednesday, 17^th January at 7pm. After Barbara, Patrick and Nadija speak, there will be plenty of time for debate. For those of you who can’t make it to the meeting, we will be livestreaming the event at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBGFvXUUuaY.

There is much more going on in Berlin. To find out what’s happening, go to our Events page. You can also see a shorter, but more detailed list of events in which we are directly involved in here.

This week’s Campaign Of The Week, Arts and Culture Alliance Berlin (ACAB) organised a demonstration this week outside the Berlin Abgeordnetehaus protesting against the Berliner Senat’s decision to refuse funding to any artist who does not support the problematic AHRA definition of antisemitism. This effectively means that any artist in Berlin who criticises Israel risks losing all state funding. ACAB unites artists and their supporters against the recent escalations in the censoring, silencing, defaming, and deplatforming in Germany of those standing up for Palestinian liberation and human rights

In News from Berlin, Berliner Senat denies funding to artists which it accuses of “extremism”, subsidies for Berlin transport are cut because of inadequate service, the state of Berlin uses celebrities to call on people to vote … for a third time, and Berlin teacher fined for comparing COVID shots to the Holocaust.

In News from Germany, Germany’s carbon emissions drop, but experts are cautious, the union for train drivers announces further strikes, large farmers’ demonstration expected in Berlin next Monday, and farmers say that right wingers are not welcome on their demos,

Read all about it in this week’s News from Berlin and Germany.

New on theleftberlin, an interview with former MP Christine Buchholz about the current state of Die LINKE, Phil Butland reports a row of cases of racism in the German Art Scene, we look at the most viewed articles on theleftberlin last year, retired doctor John Puntis defends the NHS, we talk to Majed Abusalama from Palästina Spricht about strategies to build the Palestine solidarity movement in Germany, and we publish a speech by Maria Cofalka from Right2TheCity / Deutsche Wohnen & Co Enteignen from the recent Anmledung für Alle conference.

Last Saturday, the Palestine Museum in the USA had a first screening of the film Germany’s Palestine Problem. Our Video of the Week is the post-screening discussion withe film director Jad Salfiti and a panel of Anna Younes, Sami Khatib, and Maria Fatafta.

You can follow us on the following social media:

• Instagram
• Twitter
• We also support the Berlin LINKE Internationals facebook page.

If you would like to contribute any articles or have any questions or criticisms about our work, please contact us at team@theleftberlin.com. And please do encourage your friends to subscribe to this Newsletter.

Keep on fighting,

The Left Berlin Editorial Board

Hello everyone,

Happy New Year, and welcome to the first theleftberlin Newsletter since our Winter break. There are a number of demonstrations for Palestine this week, starting this afternoon:

• Thursday, 4th January, 3pm, Stop the War! Stop the Aggression! at the Bundeskanzleramt, Willy-Brandt-Straße
• Friday, 5th January, 4pm, Candlelight vigil for Gaza’s Children, Alexanderplatz 9
• Sunday 7th January, from 1pm Motorcade, Siegessäule RI Brandenburger Tor

Our weekly Palestine Reading Group continues on Friday at 7pm. In The Arab States and the Arab Street we will be talking about the role of the Arab governments and of the Arab masses for the liberation of Palestine. As usual, the meeting will be in the AGIT rooms at Nansenstraße 2, 5-10 minutes’ walk from Hermannplatz. Please try to read the recommended reading in advance, and register so we know how many people we should expect (you can find both recommended and supplementary reading and registration details here).

We have also announced the topics for the next few reading groups (all at 7pm in AGIT, recommended reading to follow):

• Friday, 12th January: Who are the Agents who can bring about change?
• Friday, 19th January: Why do the US and Europe fund Israel?
• Sunday, 28th January: Post-colonialism, colonialism and settler colonialism
• Friday, 3rd February: Countering common narratives

On Saturday, at 11am, there is a demonstration Jin jîyan Azadî. 11 years ago, Sara, Rojbin und Ronahî were murdered by the Turkish secret services in Paris, This was deliberate femicide with a clear message: the Turkish state sees organised revolutionary woman as a particular threat. Last year, on 23rd December, 3 more comrades were murdered in Paris: Evîn Goyî, Mîr Perwer and Abdurrahman Kizil. These massacres are not just an attack on the Kurdish Freedom Movement, but on all people world wide who are fighting for a free life. Come to Hermannplatz to demand justice and stand against the fascist massacre.

On Saturday evening, the Palestine Museum in the USA is organising an online screening of the short film Germany’s Palestine Problem, followed by a Q&A discussion with film director Jad Salfiti and post-colonial scholar Anna-Esther Younes. ‘Germany’s Palestine Problem’ – a micro-documentary for The New Arab (@thenewaab) – uncovers the underlying causes of the frightening status quo. The film won the best use of video prize at the WAN-IFRA Digital Media Awards Middle East 2023. The film was commissioned for The New Arab website. The film starts at 6pm CET. Participation is free, but you should register online in advance.

On Monday, at 7pm it’s the kick-off meeting for the annual Berlin LINKE Internationals Summer Camp. Summer Camp will take place in the Naturfreundehaus Hermsdorf on the edge of Berlin on 29th-30th June. On Monday, after a short organisational section, you can join the discussion about Keynote Speakers (on After the EU Elections: What kind of Left do we want? and The role of Palestine in the neighbouring Arab countries), Workshops, Culture Programme, and Financing. Please note: because the usual meeting place is not available, this meeting will be in room 205 of Karl Liebknecht Haus on Rosa Luxemburg Platz.

One for your calendars – on Wednesday, 17th January veteran campaigner against Apartheid in South Africa Patrick Bond, and Palestinian lawyer Nadija Samour will be speaking about Apartheid Israel. 7pm in Café MadaMe. More information in next week’s Newsletter.

There is much more going on in Berlin. To find out what’s happening, go to our Events page. You can also see a shorter, but more detailed list of events in which we are directly involved in here.

For this week’s Campaign Of The Week, people have been asking us where they can send money to Gaza where the fundraising is organised by, locals, not Western NGOs. The NoI collective in Ramallah recommends The One Body Initiative for Gaza. Your donation to this fund will go towards the purchase and distribution of medicine, blankets, sleeping bags, diapers, food and building tents to those who have been left in need in the wake of this genocide. It costs 200$ to build a tent and provide a mattress and pillows, these fees include transporting the materials and labor.

In News from Berlin, Berlin police fail to process 10 cases of bodily harm and grievous bodily harm resulting from racist violence, and employment stagnates in Berlin and falls in Brandenberg.

In News from Germany, predicted AfD success in 3 State elections in Eastern Germany this year, the German economy shrunk in 2023 and doesn’t look much better in 2024, and has the online shopping boom burst?

Read all about it in this week’s News from Berlin and Germany.

Published on theleftberlin since the last Newsletter, Sanaz Azimipour explains why she refused to let the Böll Stiftung publish her article on feminist resistance in Iran after they withdrew support from Masha Gessen, Liad Hussein Kantorowicz celebrates the few Berlin cultural institutions which provide a home for Palestinian voices, Nathaniel Flakin argues that Olaf Scholz’s measures “against antisemitism” are actually hurting Jews, FU students protest against censorship on Palestine, Qian Sun gives a Chinese journalist’s analysis of the Palestine debate in Germany, we publish statements from both oyoun and the Jüdische Stimme about the closure of the multicultural culture centre, Nathaniel Flakin sheds no tears for Wolfgang Schäuble, who recently died, a New Year’s cartoon from Hari Kumar, Phil Butland remembers when Yannis Varoufakis visited Berlin on 7th October, and Nathaniel Flakin looks at the racism behind the debate around New Years Eve in Berlin.

You can follow us on the following social media:

• Instagram
• Twitter
• We also support the Berlin LINKE Internationals facebook page.

If you would like to contribute any articles or have any questions or criticisms about our work, please contact us at team@theleftberlin.com. And please do encourage your friends to subscribe to this Newsletter.

Keep on fighting,

The Left Berlin Editorial Board

Hello everyone,

This evening (Thursday) at 7pm, it’s the first of a series of films organised by the Jüdische Stimme. Shot over 25 years, Two Blue Lines examines the human and political situation of Palestinian people from years prior to the creation of Israel, to the present day. By primarily featuring the narratives of Israelis whose positions run counter to their country’s official policy, the documentary provides a portrait of the ongoing conflict which is not usually depicted in the mainstream media. The film starts at 7pm in Café MadaMe near Hallesches Tor. Further films will be shown on 21st December and in January.

Today also sees the start of the 3 day Threads of Resilience festival. Given the current situation and urgency to express, oyoun has decided to co-organise a community-led and collectively curated XNUMX-day festival. The festival includes a press conference, bazaar, panels, film screening, talks, exhibition, workshops, concerts, healing session, theater, puppet show for children, and parties. Admission is based on free donation (nobody will be denied entry if they cannot donate). All proceeds will be given to organizations in support of victims of racially motivated police violence and to organizations providing legal support to people threatened with deportation.

Friday sees the latest discussion in our Palestine Reading Group. This week, we will be talking about The One and Two States Solutions. You can register and find the suggested reading here. Please try and read at least the main texts before you go to the Event. This is the last Reading Group before the holidays. We will use the break to ask you on which day(s) of the week we should meet in the New Year, and which subjects we should discuss. You can join the debate by joining our Telegram group.

On Saturday, marks the fifth anniversary of the Sudanese revolution, six Sudanese organizations* have joined forces in Berlin to organize For Sudan, a day of solidarity, visibility and fundraising. Since April, Sudan has been experiencing a devastating war that has left tens of thousands dead or injured and 6 million displaced. The conflict is not only destroying countless livelihoods, but is also threatening the progress made by five years of revolutionary struggle under the slogan “Peace, Freedom, Justice.” The event takes place in Moosdorfstrasse 7-9 from 4pm till 10pm. United for Sudan is our Campaign of the Week.

On Sunday, it’s the latest  Berlin LINKE Internationals political walking tour postponed from last week to allow people to join the demonstration for Palestine. Red Wedding on the March visits Wedding, which was once Berlin’s most left-wing district. In the German elections of November 6, 1932, 47.1% of Weddingers voted for the communists. Wedding had tenements and terrible poverty, but also reform schools, socialist art, and a proud proletarian culture. Our tour will be meeting at 2pm at Badstraße 38, right where Badstraße crosses the Panke, near U-Bhf Pankstraße. The U8 is currently not running between Alexanderplatz and Osloerstraße, however there is a replacement bus service–but it does require extra travel time. Please plan accordingly. If you register (follow the link above), you will receive a E-mail on Saturday with more detailed information. The tour will finish near S-Bahn Humboldthain between 4pm and 4.30pm.

There is much more going on in Berlin, it’s another very busy week. To find out what’s happening, go to our Events page. You can also see a shorter, but more detailed list of events in which we are directly involved in here.

This is our last Newsletter of the year, but we will still be posting occasional new articles and Events on theleftberlin.com- Enjoy your holiday. The next Newsletter will be sent on Thursday. 4th January.

In News from Berlin, Berlin misses its target of building new flats, and builds fewer than last year.

In News from Germany, Interior Minister Faeser (SPD) considers making the questioning of Israel’s right to exist a criminal offence, wage rises do not compensate for cuts in recent years, Hamburg court rules that spontaneous demonstrations for Palestine are not illegal, far right in Gera protests against refugee homes, and after 5 year delay, trial of right wing extremists starts in Chemnitz.

Read all about it in this week’s News from Berlin and Germany.

This week on theleftberlin, Tareekh Yaadgar looks at the racialisation of Arab men, Phil Butland reports from the first few Palestine Reading Groups, and we look at the current state of oyoun cultural centre’s fight against victimisation by the Berliner Senat.

You can follow us on the following social media:

• Instagram
• Twitter
• We also support the Berlin LINKE Internationals facebook page.

If you would like to contribute any articles or have any questions or criticisms about our work, please contact us at team@theleftberlin.com. And please do encourage your friends to subscribe to this Newsletter.

Keep on fighting,

The Left Berlin Editorial Board