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Month: June 2021

Racism and Nationalism in Sport

It’s Great That England’s Footballers Are Taking a Stand against Racism, but I Still Won’t Be Cheering Them on the Pitch


10/06/2021

The 2020 football European Championship is finally upon us, and sport is moving to the digital equivalent of the front page. It is timely, then, that two new stories have emerged which show the effect of racism on English sport.

Cricketer Suspended for Racist Tweets

First, there’s the cricket. England bowler Ollie Robinson was suspended after old tweets of his were found, including those which said: “My new Muslim friend is the bomb;”, “I wonder if Asian People put smileys like this ¦) #racist;” and “The guy next to me on the train definitely has Ebola.”

The establishment rushed to Robinson’s defence. Oliver Dowden MP, Secretary of State for Sport, called for the suspension to be lifted, saying “Ollie Robinson’s tweets were offensive and wrong. They are also a decade old and written by a teenager. The teenager is now a man and has rightly apologised. The ECB has gone over the top by suspending him and should think again.” Dowden was supported by prime Minister Boris Johnson

In contrast, my old friend, the Liberation Theologist Dr. Anthony Reddie, commented:

“Maybe I have missed something here about the Ollie Robinson situation. 1st, he was 18, not 10 or 5. 2nd, he made racist and sexist remarks; remarks that were as repugnant then as they are now, as they were when I was aged 18, a long time ago. It’s not as if he was living in an epoch that had different values and perspectives (the excuse White historians make for racist actions and statements made during the age of empire and colonialism). I find it irritating, therefore, that we are STILL talking about education for White people about racism. 9 years ago was 2012, not 1812 or even 1912…

So we continue to make excuses for White people holding views that no one has any excuse to hold at this juncture in history. We’ve had a Race Relations act in 1965, an updated act in 1968, another Race Relations act in 1976, an amended act in 2000 and an Equality Act in 2010. When are we going to stop making excuses for White people making racist statements?”

England Football Team Continues to Take the Knee

Meanwhile in football, England manager Gareth Southgate is insisting that his footballers take the knee at the beginning of games. This is despite Tory MP Brendan Clarke-Smith comparing the act to the England squad giving the Nazi salute at a 1938 game in Berlin. The main establishment paper, The Times also called taking the knee a gesture which “has become meaningless and divisive”.

Some racist fans have responded by booing England footballers when they take the knee. Black Nottingham Forest player Lyle Taylor joined the abuse, saying that he has stopped taking the knee because it means supporting the “Marxist group” Black Lives Matter. Taylor’s understanding of Marxism seems a little confused, as later in the interview his main criticism of BLM seems to be that it’s supported by “massive, massive corporations”.

Boris Johnson has refused to commit himself. His spokesman issued an ambiguous statement saying “the prime minister fully respects the right of those who choose to peacefully protest and make their feelings known … On taking the knee, specifically, the prime minister is more focused on action rather than gestures”.

One of Johnson’s MPs, Lee Anderson took a much clearer position, promising to boycott England games. He posted on Facebook: “For the first time in my life I will not be watching my beloved England team whilst they are supporting a political movement whose core principles aim to undermine our very way of life.”

Taking the Knee – Part of a Proud Tradition

Southgate is right. Taking the knee is part of a proud tradition of people in sport taking a stand against oppression from Muhammad Ali refusing to fight in Vietnam to John Carlos and Tommie Smith making the black power salute at the 1968 Olympics.

Taking the knee in sport is most identified with (American Football player) Colin Kaepernick. At a pre-season game in August 2016, Kaepernick refused to stand for the US national anthem as a protest against police racism. He justified his action by saying “I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color.”. Less than a week later, he also started taking the knee.

Kaepernick’s stance was taken up by other prominent athletes like LeBron James, Serena Williams and Megan Rapinoe. More importantly, perhaps, it crystallized a growing mood of anger against violent police racism, and when George Floyd was murdered in May 2020, sports stars taking the knee became almost ubiquitous, One could argue that this has helped normalise the righteous anger, but the visible participation of beloved sports stars has contributed to a climate in which Defund the Police has suddenly become a mainstream demand.

Besides, this was not just a gesture on the part of Kaepernick, who has been forced to pay for his actions. Then-president Donald Trump called for National Football League owners to fire any player who takes the knee. This is effectively what has happened to Kaepernick. Despite being one of the most gifted quarterbacks of his generation, he has been frozen out of the game and has not played in well over 4 years.

Sport is Political

For those calling for politics to stay out of sport, I’m afraid that that ship has already sailed. Sport is part of the superstructure of society. This means that in a neoliberal society, the rich oligarchs and corrupt regimes who own clubs will try to make fans pay as much as possible. And in a society which is imbued with racism and nationalism, this racism and nationalism will also be found in sport.

Black England player John Barnes noted that after he scored a wonder goal in England’s 2-0 defeat of Brazil, a section of English fans around the National Front “kept saying ‘England only won 1-0 because a nigger’s goal doesn’t count’”. In 1995, a friendly between Ireland and England was abandoned after a riot by racist English fans. Although the racism and fascism that used to accompany England games is not as visible as it used to be, we still often endure the nasty odour of nationalism.

When England play Germany, England fans regularly sing “Two World Wars and One World Cup” – which Wikipedia quaintly explains as being “part of the England-Germany football rivalry.” And yet this harking back to England’s imperial past, when “we” were capable of winning both wars and football matches, smacks of a pathetic nostalgia for the days when inhabitants of other countries (and Black Britons) knew their place.

Nationalism in German Sport

Every 2 years there’s an international football competition, be this the European Championship or World Cup. Around this time, every other house or car in England seems to be festooned with the St George’s Flag, which is otherwise mainly seen at the head of a Nazi demonstrations. If this feels intimidating to me, I shudder to think how it would affect the victims of everyday racism.

When I first moved to Germany in 1995, the atmosphere was quite different. In Euro 96 — maybe the high point of laddish English nationalism — there was nary a German flag to be seen. The memory of Nazi rule made many Germans somewhat reticent to openly display too much national pride.

Then 2006 happened. Germany hosted the World Cup, fan miles were erected and suddenly flags were everywhere. Most of this was “harmless fun”, and yet there was a definite change of mood. Suddenly Germans felt able to do what the Brits had done for centuries and celebrate their nation.

In 2007, the “citizen’s movement” pro-NRW was formed as a dubious collection of Nazis and “concerned citizens”. Many of the members of pro-NRW found their way into Pegida and the AfD. Three years later, former Berlin finance minister Thilo Sarrazin (SPD) published the best-selling book Deutschland schafft sich ab, in which he raged against immigrants, Jews and Islam.

Now of course there is no causal relationship between flags at football tournaments, social democratic racism and the worrying growth of far right parties, but the removing of taboos about talking about national pride helped contribute towards a climate in which Sarrazin was lauded and openly racist parties could grow.

Nationalism after Brexit

The European Championship is England’s first tournament post-Brexit, where both sides of the main media discussion showed an unhealthy obsession with the place people happened to be born. One side championed “Great” Britain (usually used as shorthand for England), while the other cheered for Europe – the same Europe that is sending troops into Mali and treating refugees with racism and imprisonment.

This debate has been accompanied by equivalently bland political slogans. As the wealth of the ultra rich rose astronomically, David Cameron insisted “we’re all in it together”. Meanwhile, following the removal of Jeremy Corbyn, new Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has wrapped himself in the Union Flag in an attempt to push a political vision in which nation trumps class.

Supporting “our boys” in the football isn’t the worst possible sin, but it’s part of the same process of saying that I’m essentially the same as my boss, or my landlord, or my prime minister, because we’re all “English” in a way that people from ‘less civilized’ countries are not.

This is not, by the way, the same as supporting your local team – especially in an England whose history is so tied up to imperialism. I support Bradford City, the team from the industrial multi-racial city in which I grew up. The last (and only) time they won any significant trophy was the 1911 FA cup.

For a couple of years (literally two) at the turn of the Millennium, City were in the Premier League. In the first season, when they finished 17th, one place above relegation, the local paper produced a supplement called “Heaven Seventeenth”. Since then, after the Chairman ran off with most of the money, the team has spent most of its time in the third and fourth divisions.

No sane City fan would call the team the best in the world. Compare and contrast with the way in which the England team is treated. Despite not having won any serious trophy in over 50 years, every tournament is preceded with hype that this is “our” year, followed by accusations of dirty foreigners and cheating referees when the team inevitably crashes out.

Such hubris is not unconnected to the way in which history is taught in British schools. “We” owned a third of the world, “we” single-handedly won two world wars, “we” ruled over an Empire in which racism and slavery were just unfortunate mistakes – or more likely, are not mentioned at all. Is it any wonder, that the English always seem convinced that “their” team is superior to all others?

“But This Time it’s Different”, isn’t it?

But is this England side different? Never one to stop flogging a dead horse, Billy Bragg claims that Southgate’s behaviour reminds us of ‘what it means to be a progressive patriot’. Recently, Bragg reposted an “evocative” statement from Southgate on Facebook.

Addressing potentially racist England fans, Southgate wrote “Regardless of your upbringing and politics, what is clear is that we are an incredible nation — relative to our size and population — that has contributed so much to the arts, science and sport. We do have a special identity and that remains a powerful motivator.”

On one level, this is so much more than the bland statements that we have come to expect from football managers. Yet it still contains many of the same flaws that show up in Bragg’s notion of “progressive patriotism”. As I have argued elsewhere, ‘why should “standing up for the traditional value of fairness’ be seen as a specifically British quality? Are Britons really more fair than Iranians or Iroquois?”

Bragg assumes that Southgate’s act of solidarity – like that of the US-American Kaepernick can somehow be attributed to his nationality, as, presumably can the Maoism of former German player Paul Breitner or the socialism of ex-Brazil captain Socrates. Yet it is just not the case that all Englishmen – or US-Americans, Germans or Brazilians – would behave in the same way. I’ve already given enough examples of Tory MPs to show that this is simply not the case.

Having said this, we do live in interesting times. Former footballers like Stan Collymore and Neville Southall and current players like Marcus Rashford have done more to challenge Boris Johnson’s neoliberal politics than the “leader” of Britain’s Labour “opposition”.

For this reason, I want Rashford to score a hat trick in every game. There is one condition, though, and this is that England lose each of these games 4-3.

Police violence isn’t a tragic outcome – it’s a tool

Violence is a way to divide demonstrators from each other, and from the wider population


07/06/2021

The police expected violence, and they wanted the demonstrators to know they were ready to retaliate. Leaving the train at Hermannplatz on May 1st was already difficult at 17:00, due to the masses on their way to the demo. Although this station is one of the busiest in Berlin and built to accommodate hordes of people moving through it, a walk up the stairs revealed the problem: police in riot gear were blocking the exit. Some demonstrators were let through while others were pulled aside, ostensibly to confiscate the glass bottles they were carrying. Confusion was the main feeling as people tried to get out of the station – I had to push past a riot cop who served me with a death glare as I tried to squeeze between her and her colleague.

This was before the protest started. It was even before most people had started walking over to the multicolored flags and banners waving next to the organizers’ rental truck. The gruff, combative attitude of the police officers was a stark contrast to the people milling around Hermannplatz, who were drinking beer or hanging out in the sun. The positive, young atmosphere of the demo, however, had serious undertones: how coronavirus has hit already marginalized groups much harder, how anger needs to be directed not at each other, but at a repressive capitalist system focused on profit over people, how the marginalized are stronger against oppression together.

Demonstrators wanted to be seen and heard, and hoped to make a strong, unified impression on the people that they passed. But peaceful, unified demonstrators with their sights set on exposing the evils of a racist and/or capitalist system are one of the most dangerous groups in the eyes of the state. And that’s any state, not just Germany.

When do the police care?

It’s something that’s not immediately obvious to most people who have heard their entire lives that the police are around to maintain order, and peace. Examples of police violence here and there can seem random and unrelated. A friend who attended an illegal rave with around 1,000 people in Hasenheide during lockdown commented to me: “It’s so weird. The police just showed up but didn’t do anything. People were allowed to leave slowly, and some even kept on dancing.” To which another replied, “Yeah, I guess gay men are way less threatening than people protesting the closure of Syndikat.”

There was some confusion as to why the police would brutally arrest people protesting the eviction of a neighborhood staple that, among other things, sheltered local unhoused people, but wouldn’t break up an illegal party in clear violation of lockdown rules that endangered people through the spread of coronavirus. The conversation ended in shrugs.

But that friend, without completely realizing it, spoke a universal truth of the state: the threat to business-as-usual, to the capitalist order of the few with everything and the masses as wage laborers, to a people divided along race and class lines – is more salient and dangerous than any virus or act of terrorism, no matter how brutal, or heinous a crime. But how do you create a situation in which violent repression of justified dissent is generally accepted by the citizens of a country and the media? Enter, police violence.

Violence as a tool

At football games and Black Lives Matter protests and everything in between, the police are always responding to violence perpetrated by protestors. Reports will state that arrests were made after protestors clashed with police in riot gear, or that the situation turned violent after protestors threw bottles or erected barricades, etc. But is a glass bottle landing on the head of a riot cop encased in armor justification for brutally beating unarmed protestors with batons? How many people erect barricades to attack others?

Of course, there are people at protests who are looking for violence ­– there are people everywhere who are looking for violence, all the time. But how often do brutal brawls erupt at music festivals? The police need demonstrations to turn violent, so that people will write them off. So that those people who are watching from their windows will in the end say, “Oh those people who were demonstrating, they’re nothing like me. Look how violent they are!”

People, united, are dangerous to the state. And police violence provides an easy way to separate the “good” types of protest from the “bad”. Right-wing protestors don’t threaten the state (clearly there are exceptions to this!!), and neither do gay men partying to techno. But a multiracial, multi-generational, peaceful, anti-capitalist protest? We don’t even have enough police in Berlin for all the violence that will need to ensue!

Karl Marx famously said, “the history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.” The police are the enforcement arm of the landed class, the capitalist class, and the slave owners. Throughout history and all over the world, they have acted in the interests of these classes, and continue to do so. Police violence at protests that threaten business-as-usual is a tactic to invalidate the demonstrators and their message – to make it so that the people watching can’t relate to the cause. As I can’t say it better, I’ll end with the words of the organizers of the May 1 demo this year (translated from German):

“The actions of the police show that they never intended to allow the demonstration go all the way to Kreuzberg. They deliberately forced an escalation in Neukölln in order to discredit us before the eyes of the population and the press and to divide us. Because there is nothing the rulers fear more than our unity and our solidarity. Therefore, they want to specifically prevent us from uniting in struggle, within the left and with the population. They will not succeed. Now more than ever: Yallah class struggle!”

Aktionsbündnis A100 stoppen​

Stop the extension of the A100 motorway


04/06/2021

Aktionsbündnis A100 stoppen! (Action Group stop the A1000!) is a network of Berlin initiatives and activists who are campaigning for a sustainable, humane and ecological urban development and transport politics. The alliance is independent of political parties.

An important goal is to prevent the extension of the Berlin urban motorway, the A100.

The 16th construction phase of the A100 from Neukölln to Treptow started in May 2013. Now there are plans for a 17th phase from Treptower Park through Friedrichshain up to Storkower Straße. This would be the prelude of a new motorway ring through the East of Berlin along the Ringbahn.

The motorway plans come from wishes in the 1950s for a car-friendly city and were revisited after the fall of the Berlin wall.

On 5th June, there will be a national action day for a social and climate-friendly mobility change, where citizens initiatives, climate groups and NGOs will be taking part in bicycle demos, rallies and protest actions against the construction of motorways and trunk roads across the country.

In Berlin, the focus will be on the A100 and the demand to stop building now.

Let’s turn the future motorways into a recreation space and meeting place. Walking and cycling are still desirable.

Our demands

  • An immediate moratorium for plans and construction of the A100 between Neukölln and Storkower Straße

  • The plan for federal transport routes and the development act for building the A100 must be removed!

  • The money which is freed must be used to finance a socially just and ecological change in transport policies.

  • Enable the building of social housing on the 16th construction phase! Cycle lanes on the areas which have been sealed off until now.

  • Keep the clubs on the planned route!

A hygiene concept will be in force throughout the whole action, We will be protesting with masks and social distancing.

News from Berlin and Germany: 5th June 2021

Weekly news roundup from Berlin and Germany


Compiled by Ana Ferreira

 

NEWS FROM BERLIN

Demonstration for cyclists’ rights

The Berlin branch of the Allgemeiner Deutscher Fahrrad-Club (ADFC) has called for a rally next Sunday. The aim is to demonstrate for a quick traffic turnaround in which the concerns of cyclists are given more attention. A total of 16 routes are planned across all districts, all with the Große Stern in Mitte as their destination. Afterwards, there will be a joint ride to the Brandenburg Gate, where a final rally will take place. For some of the routes, the city motorway 100 as well as the Avus stretch on the A115 will be closed in the meantime. Source: rbb

NEWS FROM GERMANY

Collaboration between CDU and AfD

The election of Max Otte as chairman of the CDU-affiliated Werteunion has met strong criticism in many quarters. In the past, Otte drew attention to himself with AfD-friendly statements. In 2017, for example, he announced in an interview he intended to vote for the AfD in that year’s Bundestag elections. But it is not only the election of Max Otte as the new Werteunion chairman that is causing a stir regarding the relationship between the CDU and the AfD. In the run-up to the election in Saxony-Anhalt, where the AfD could replace the CDU as the strongest force, the local CDU’s dealings with the AfD are under criticism. Source: fr

Solidarity with the junge Welt

The orders in the last three weeks have shown it: around 400 people have recognised the scandalous process and supported junge Welt quite practically with a subscription. One would like to think that German media would be just as prudent and recognise the harassment of the daily newspaper junge Welt as a possible gateway for tighter control of all media in this country. Many vehicles of the international media showed support to jW. For no one knows who will be harassed tomorrow by the German domestic secret service because of a disagreeable attitude in reporting. Source: jW

Teachers give out books containing racist language

The short story “A Beautiful Relationship” was given to a pupil in a German school. The story is from the 1980s, and contains the N-word. The pupil confronted the teacher about the text: “It’s 2021 now, why can’t school texts just use the politically correct term for Black people?”. There was nothing she could do about it and it was not her responsibility, replied the teacher. The choice of words in the assignment is not the only thing the pupil finds problematic, however. “I would have preferred my teacher to take me seriously and acknowledge that the text is hurtful to me.” Source; taz

German cities are too dirty

The EU Commission sued Germany because the annual and hourly limits for nitrogen dioxide have been exceeded in numerous areas since 2010. Germany is thus systematically violating the EU Air Quality Directive. However, air quality in German cities has improved recently, partly because of the Corona crisis. Deutsche Umwelthilfe (DUH) already stated the judgement from Luxembourg had “fundamental and far-reaching significance in the fight for clean air”. However, the association regretted the ruling came more than ten years after the limit values came into force. Since 2011, DUH has pushed through measures such as improvement of public transport, as well as speed limits of 30 km/h. Source: taz

Climate movement mobilises against motorways

The protest about the construction of the A14 is flaring up again. The climate movement plans to demonstrate in Wittenberge on Saturday. Activists want to travel to the bridge by boat or bicycle and there will be a demonstration from the train station in Wittenberge. For a long time, it was quiet about the A14, but after the BUND regional associations of Brandenburg and Saxony-Anhalt agreed to a settlement in 2019 and stopped further lawsuits, the motorway construction is considered to have been pushed through and the alternative concept – an expansion of the existing federal roads instead of building a new motorway route – to have failed politically. Source: taz

Food and political discussion for all

Why the Berlin LINKE Internationals are starting a monthly Küfa event


03/06/2021

Interview with Hanna Grzeskiewicz

 

Hi Hanna. Before we start, could you briefly introduce yourself? Who are you, and where are you politically active?

I’ve been active in various political contexts in Berlin, but I have two main political homes: I am one of the two speakers of Berlin LINKE Internationals, and I’m also part of a Polish queer-feminist collective, CoLiberation.

Earlier this year, you were elected joint speaker of the Berlin LINKE Internationals. Why did you join the group, and how has it changed since you became a member?

I joined the group probably for a reason that’s similar to many people – at some point there came a point in my life where I thought I need to do something. I couldn’t sit back and watch the world burn without trying to change it, at least in a small way, for the better.

Since I joined, the group has definitely grown and been through some significant transformations. The website theleftberlin.com has grown into its own entity, our community has been steadily growing too, and we are – at least I’d like to think so – becoming a good first stop for people (mostly migrants) to come to if they are interested in getting involved politically in the city.

Of course, we want people to stay active with us too, but we are always ready to make connections, to create a platform for groups to talk about their struggles, and to facilitate discussions.

This Friday, you’re organising an event which is advertised as being the “first monthly Küfa for activists”. For those who haven’t come across the concept, what on earth is a Küfa?

A KüFA is basically a free dinner! This is only slightly a joke, a KüFA is a ‘Küche für Alle’, i.e. a kitchen for all. It means everyone is welcome to come and have a meal for free.

What has been the reaction to Friday’s event so far?

So far it’s been very positive! The idea for the KüFA came out of our Summer Camp last year. After some difficult months in lockdown, it was really wonderful to be together for two days, to talk and eat in a relaxed setting, and I wanted to bring that back as a more regular event.

We are all missing a sense of community, and what the Summer Camp does is bring a lot of different people together to exchange and make connections. But if it’s just once a year, it’s sometimes hard to maintain these. So why not try to do something more regularly where people can get together?

The Küfa is free. But there will be a collection for Palästina Spricht. Of all the international groups which are active in Berlin, why is Palästina Spricht so important?

I imagine most people living in Berlin will know how difficult conversations about Palestine are in this country. Palästina Spricht has organised a lot of events in recent weeks, and sometimes people don’t realise that demonstrations and actions cost money to organise. So we thought we would use this chance to support them.

At least 22% of people in Berlin don’t have German passports. Many have political experience and are members of exile organisations, from Unidos Podemos to Brazilian tenants groups. How can the German Left learn from their experience?

I think they can learn a lot! We can all learn from each other, and it’s important to keep in touch and have each other on our radars. When we constantly repeat the same formats, we become stagnant, and it’s important to keep learning and questioning how we do things to make sure we are doing it the best way we can.

What is the specific role of the Berlin LINKE Internationals in international networking?

Since we are affiliated and, through our history, tightly linked with the Left Berlin – the boundaries are sometimes blurred since they came out of initially one group – we tend to be the first port of call for many people looking for leftist news and events in the city.

We also publish (predominantly) in English, and all of us are international in some sense. We see our role as people who inform, facilitate connection, community and discussion – and through the LAG (the group which is directly linked with DIE LINKE), also to facilitate links with the party and its various institutions.

For example, we have been instrumental in connecting groups like Berlin for India and Sudan Uprising with MPs and the rosa luxemburg stiftung so that their issues are raised and discussed inside German politics.

We also try to represent the views and realities of migrants in Berlin within party processes, as we believe that if we are to have policies that support migrants in the city, then migrants need to be part of the discussion.

What comes next? What can we expect from future Küfas?

If the first one goes well, we plan to theme the subsequent ones to allow people to get together when they are interested in a particular topic, and to simultaneously support groups who are active in those particular areas. We haven’t decided what they will be yet, and we are open for suggestions – and for new cooks!

Is the LINKE Internationals Summer Camp still on this year? What will that be like?

The Summer Camp is a great space to get to know different people and groups involved in the Berlin scene. As people are starting to get vaccinated, it looks like this year’s Camp will be taking place on 4th-5th September as planned.

Over the last two years we have fine-tuned our format: we run several parallel workshop sessions that cover local and internationalist struggles, as well as inviting some keynote speakers. We also cook and eat together, there is also some entertainment (a film, a reading, a bonfire) and generally time to chat and think and meet new people.

You can register for Summer Camp here.

The first monthly Küfa for activists will be taking place this Friday, 4th June from 6pm. As long as the weather is good, it will be on Oranienplatz. In bad weather, you can find us at Bilgisaray, Oranienstraße 45

Questions from Phil Butland