Hello everyone,
On Saturday at 2pm, there’s a woodland walk against the Tesla factory in Grünheide, which the electric car company run by Elon Musk wants to expand. Not on our watch, say the organisers. The factory already uses as much water as a city of 40,000 people — at a time when climate change is making water in Brandenburg and Berlin increasingly scarce. Meanwhile, the extraction of raw materials for Tesla car batteries is destroying livelihoods in South America. The walk starts and ends at Fangschleuse station, and is organised by the Bürgerinitiative Grünheide, who are our Campaign of the Week.
Also on Saturday is the Anarchist CSD queer pride march. The big commercial CSD has barely anything to do with queer struggles any more. It’s become an advertising platform for firms and political parties, without any militant content. We won’t put up with this! The demo starts at 6.30pm at Arnswalder Platz in Prenzlauer Berg.
On Sunday, Ararat Berlin is organising its next Kiezkantine and fundraiser for the people of Artsakh. Since December, 120,000 people in Artsakh have been under siege from the Azerbaijani dictatorship: deprived of food, fuel, medications, and cut off from trade, livelihood and family. The evening of food and discussion starts at 5pm at Cafe Arakil, Hermannstrasse 86, Neukölln.
On Monday at 6pm, there is a colourful grill party against the AfD. For the third time this year, the AfD is visiting Teltow-Kleinmachnow-Stahnsdorf southwest of Berlin – this time bringing their fascist parliament member Sebastian Münzenmaier. Münzenmaier used to be a member of the extreme-right islamophobic party Die Freiheit. He has already been convicted for violence and has been responsible for racist hatred against refugees. The Netzwerk Tolerantes Teltow-Kleinmachnow-Stahnsdorf (NTTKS) is therefore organising a protest barbeque and demonstration at Teltow Marktplatz. Please bring flags, banners and placards to show him that Teltow is colourful and diverse and will stay that way! 🏳️🌈
Also on Monday evening, there’ll be the next planning meeting of the Die Linke Berlin Internationals. If you want to meet other international socialists in Berlin and would like to help plan future activities, please come along. From this month, the meetings will have a different format – as well as the networking and planning, there will be a political discussion. This month, Jaime Martinez Porro from Izquierda Unida Berlin will introduce a discussion on the recent Spanish elections and the state of the European far right. Jaime has also written about the election for TheLeftBerlin.com. It all takes place in Ferat Kocak’s office at Schierker Straße 26, Neukölln. The meeting starts at 7pm, and the discussion should start around 7.30pm.
There are many more activities this week in Berlin, which are listed on our Events page. You can also see a shorter, but more detailed, list of events which we are directly involved in here.
In News from Berlin, Shelby Lynn will continue to pursue Rammstein for sexual attacks on her, environmental concerns about Tesla’s factory in Grünheide, and the Berliner Senat announces a new culture fund worth nearly €1 billion.
In News from Germany, DGB boss attacks corporate profits, the AfD proudly moves even further to the right, Chancellor Scholz wants more women soldiers, and the amount of social housing in Germany falls again.
Read all about it in this week’s News from Berlin and Germany.
This week on theleftberlin.com, Israeli academic and activist Shir Hever explains why the German teachers’ union banned him from speaking about child labour, Jaime Martinez Porro looks at the recent Spanish elections and sees no breakthrough for the right but problems for the left, Ali Khan celebrates the new Barbie film, Hari Kumar argues that the Warsaw uprising was a brave but misguided act, and Phil Butland says both Barbie and Oppenheimer were ok films, but we should expect much better.
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Keep on fighting
The Left Berlin Editorial Board