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Month: November 2023

Letzte Generation

Peaceful Civil Resistance


22/11/2023

Letzte Generation is a movement that uses peaceful civil resistance to fight for a short-term phase-out of fossil fuels until 2030. While the German government plans to continue using fossil fuels as long as 2045, Letzte Generation activists continue to point out that this is far too late. Together with other members of the A22 network such as Just Stop Oil in the UK, Letzte Generation has been raising public awareness of the need for immediate action to tackle climate catastrophe for the past two years.

On Saturday 28 October, Last Generation activists, joined by activists from many other groups such as Extinction Rebellion Netherlands and Christians for Future protested on the Straße des 17. Juni, a street between the Brandenburg Gate and the Victory Column, with a mass blockade of more than 1400 protesters. This action was inspired by the success of Extinction Rebellion’s protests in the Netherlands, who have been blocking a highway every single day for more than a month with over 9000 arrests, leading to the Dutch parliament voting on a stop of fossil fuel subsidies.

The next mass occupation will take place this Saturday, 25 November, starting at 12 noon next to the Victory Column (Großer Stern). Again, climate justice groups such as Parents Against Fossil Fuels and Scientist Rebellion are calling for action. Join us!

Jin, Jiyan, Azadî as in Free Palestine

Statement signed by 250 activists connecting the Woman, Life, Freedom uprising with the struggle for liberation in Palestine.


21/11/2023

We, the undersigned, who have been pleading for Jin Jiyan Azadî in the last year, demand an end to genocide, call for immediate ceasefire, and express our solidarity with the Palestinian people and their liberation struggle.

As we witness genocide being perpetrated by the Israeli state’s occupying forces against Palestinians, overwhelmingly the people of Gaza, as well as the residents of the West Bank, we are filled with anger, pain and devastation. We are deeply troubled by the racist, dehumanising language and hate speech casually broadcast by the Western media, which has complicitly facilitated the ongoing violence. Sitting in unspeakable grief for the countless lives and voices lost during this tragic period, we recognise that mere words and statements cannot restore the lives that we mourn. We firmly believe that the present circumstances demand immediate and urgent action to halt the ongoing genocide and end the systematic oppression of the Palestinian population under settler-colonialism and apartheid.

In addition to expressing our firm support for the Palestinian people in their quest for the fundamental right to “life,” and demand for “freedom,” the purpose of our statement is to extend an invitation to our comrades in the Jin Jiyan Azadî uprising to recognise and connect our struggle to that of the Palestinian resistance in its fight for the right to land, life, and belonging, and as such, a fight for self-determination and bodily autonomy which, as feminists, we must lend our voices and support to.

i) To our Palestinian comrades, we say:

As individuals who have lived in the political geography called “Iran” and under the yoke of the patriarchal and criminal regime of the Islamic Republic, within the broader racist capitalist world order, we know violence in its multifaceted depiction, from its plain to imperceptible forms. We, especially those of us who have been labelled as the “other” and dehumanised by state repression in the Islamic Republic, are acquainted with the ways in which structural state violence renders us disabled. Those of us who have been labelled and dehumanised as the “other” in the diaspora, are familiar with the multiple and intricate forms of state repression and colonialism that govern and violate our existence. As feminists, we know that the struggle for women’s liberation is bound to the collective struggle against capitalism and imperialism, whether we are fighting from Iran, the Global North, or Palestine. We discern you as comrades and companions in our pursuit of “life” and “freedom.”

We believe that just as systems of oppression are intertwined, it is imperative that we link and unite our struggles. There is no liberation that only knows how to say “I” and there is no freedom unless it is for all of us. We have learned the lesson of resistance and solidarity against systems of oppression from those who take to the streets in Palestine under Israeli occupation, our‌ comrades in Afghanistan under Taliban rule, and our Kurdish sisters in Rojava. Generation after generation, we have learned resistance as a daily practice through the Palestinian struggle. We remember fondly that in the early days of the Jina movement, our feminist Palestinian comrades expressed their unwavering support , and recognised the Islamic Republic’s hand in exploiting the Palestinian people’s struggle for freedom. These connections remind us that solidarity is not a one-way or selective path, but a true declaration of “none of us are free until all of us are free”.

We know that the path to collective liberation is not through choosing between false dichotomies such as “global imperialism/Islamic Republic government” or “Israel colonial rule/Hamas reactionary force.” Equally, we recognise the need to avoid the synonimisation of anti-Semitism and pro-Palestine. Instead, it is about dismantling these binaries and oversimplifications altogether. For years, we have been made to believe that our only option is to choose between the “bad and worse.” Today, we say a loud and clear “no” to the false binaries presented to us, and stand against oppression and repression in all its forms. We learn the lessons of “life,” “freedom” and “humanity” from you and your resistance, and we will fight shoulder to shoulder with you until Palestine is free.

ii) To our comrades of the revolutionary Jina uprising, we say:

“Jin, Jiyan, Azadî” was our call to reclaim life through reclaiming our bodies. A roar of anger from our violated and oppressed bodies in pursuit of “life” not as it has been dictated to us. An opportunity for imagining otherwise, continuing the legacy of those freedom fighters who came before us. In the past year, we have been able to reclaim “revolution” from the rotten and patriarchal “revolutionary” discourse of the Islamic Republic. We reclaimed “revolution,” embodied it through the depths of our collective voices and redefined it through our feminist values and desires. Jina, deciphered “revolution”: Jin Jiyan Azadî.

Today, it is our obligation to walk a similar path in relation to the Palestinian struggle and to reclaim it from the discourse of the Islamic Republic. It is our duty to recognise the struggle for Palestinian liberation as part of the feminist and anti-colonial discourse and essence of the Jina uprising. Feminist solidarity and resistance with Palestine does not mean aligning with the constructed narratives of the Islamic Republic, but a rightful and necessary contemplation on the ideals of “freedom” and the fundamental right to “life.” It is a solidarity that, in opposition to the narratives crafted by states, from above, weaves us to the Palestinian people, from below. Let us not forget that the Israeli occupation of Palestine, and the Palestinian struggle for freedom, predates the Islamic Republic’s existence and hold of power in Iran. The Palestinian struggle for freedom neither begins nor is defined by the Islamic Republic. We must reject and free ourselves from the shackles of the Islamic Republic on the one hand, and the nationalist and far-right Iranian forces, especially monarchists in the diaspora, on the other, in relation to Palestine. Let us recognise our intertwined destinies and forge a path towards true transnational feminist solidarity with our dear comrades in Palestine.

We chant Jin Jiyan Azadî – in our thousands, and in our millions – for the freedom of our bodies, desires and destinies, until Palestine is free!

Note: this is a close but not literal translation of our statement in Farsi. This is because we want to acknowledge and speak to the plurality of lived experiences across languages and geographies among feminists in the Jina Revolution. Read the Farsi and translations into Arabic, German and Turkish here.

At the Gallery – Käthe Kollwitz (1867-1945) Spandauer Damm

Kollwitz’s art was for workers


20/11/2023

Whenever I return to Berlin from any long absence, I feel compelled to go to the Neue Wache on ‘Unter Den Linden’, to pay my own small homage to a great artist. There is an enlarged version of Käthe Kollwitz’s original ‘Pieta’ cast in 1937.  A mother holds her dead son, while following Michaelangelo, it remained entirely her own. 

She was a worker’s artist. Her central theme largely became the pointlessness of war, the intense grief of the parents of the fallen soldiers. This theme became ever-larger following the death of her first son, Peter, in World War 1 – only ten days after he volunteered for the front. After the late 1920s this theme became intense and generalized to the ever present ‘Death’ that stalks the working class. 

What sort of an artist was she? I believe she transcends ordinary labels and is not simply a ‘socialist realist’. Because her personalisation of ‘Death’ approximates to Symbolism, and she – as she admitted herself – dwells on the dark side of life. Her meditations such as on ‘the Peasant Wars’ mark her as a socialist realist. A complexity then, reflecting life’s mottled and contradictory nature.

I was newly struck by the theme of ‘death’ when I recently visited the new Kollwitz Gallery. This collection was previously in an old house near Savignyplatz, but has moved to Schloss Charlottenburg, perhaps an incongruous site for this great artist. However, she deserves the enlarged space it will ultimately allow, many works in the catalogue were not shown before.  (‘Kathe Kollwitz”, Zeichnung, Grafik, Plastik”; Martin Fritsch; E.A. Seemann Leipzig 1999). But this new venue also reflects an increasing respect. Previously her work was perhaps side-lined as too “committed” in the West, and too redolent of the GDR where she was an honoured artist. 

The works currently at Charlottenburg are mainly etchings (scratches on a metal plate covered with a wax-like ‘ground’ exposes metal; which being placed into acid become corroded and deeper, allowing them to hold ink); and lithographs (where a special pencil draws a design on a plate which holds onto ink for a print). Although the famous “Turm die Muetter” 1937 bronze of a famous lithograph is also there. Further rooms are in preparation for the vast holdings. 

Undoubtedly Kollwitz identified with the worker’s movement. Her father, Karl Schmidt, actively supported the defeated revolution of 1848. Karl Schmidt never gave up his socialist views, and having supported the 1848 revolution he could not practice law, and became a stone-mason. Her mother was a socialist. A family favorite reading was Freiligrath’s German translation of Thomas Hood‘s poem “The Song of the Shirt.” 

Her brother, Konrad, became an active member of the Communist Party Germany (KPD).  She married Konrad’s socialist friend, Karl Kollwitz – then a medical student. Karl set up practice in a (then) working class Berlin district of Prenzlauer Berg. 

As a child she admired etchings by William Hogarth. Young Käthe drew pictures of the Polish dock-workers in the harbour. Her father got her to The Berlin Academy of Art, the Women’s School in 1884. By 1893, she drew lines with an almost infinite degree of shading from black to white. Later under Ernst Barlach’s influence, she started wood-cuts, achieving stark clarity. Still later she began sculpture. Such were the forms she mastered. But she had long ago found her content – working people. This never changed.

By 1897 she translated Gerhart Hauptmann’s play ‘The Weavers’ into a visual drama of six scenes, depicting the 1844 rising against mill-owners. These led the famous painter Adolph Menzel to nominate her for a Gold Medal at the 1889 Berlin Art Exhibition. She was denied this by Kaiser Wilhelm II because of the class content of her work. In 1901-1908 she created 7 etchings of Wilhelm Zimmermann’s “Allgemeine Geschichte des grossen Bauernkrieges”‚ The Peasant Wars. These are on display in the Charlottenburg gallery currently. 

By 1919 she was made a member of the Prussian academy of Arts and became the first female professor of Art in Germany. 

In her married life, she saw the working class day and night – at their most vulnerable, while they confided in Karl as patients. In all this, she saw beauty in workers. Her aesthetic was different from that of the bourgeoisie:

“But my real motive for choosing my subjects almost exclusively from the life of the workers was that only such subjects gave me in a simple & unqualified way what I felt to be beautiful. For me the Koenigsberg longshoremen had beauty… the broad freedom of movement in the gestures of the common people had beauty. Middle class people had no appeal for me at all. Bourgeois life as a whole seemed to me pedantic… I have never been able to see beauty in the upper class educated person; he’s superficial; he’s not natural or true; he’s not honest, and he’s not human being in every sense of the word.”

“Käthe Kollwitz; „Tagebuchblatter und Briefe [Diary & Letters]”; Ed Hans Kollwitz; Berlin; 1948; p. 43.

But she never considered herself a politically committed “communist”. By 1921 she was writing:

“In the meantime I have been through a revolution, and I am convinced that I am no revolutionist. My childhood dream of dying on the barricades will hardly be fulfilled, because I should hardly mount a barricade now that I know what they are like in reality. And so I know now what an illusion I lived in for so many years. I thought I was a revolutionary and was only an evolutionary. Yes sometimes I do not know whether I am a socialist at all, whether I am not rather a democrat instead.”                                    

June 28th, 1921; “Diary & Letters”; Ibid; p.100

Kollwitz depicted the life of the workers, with its human pleasures – enjoying companionship and children – but she also saw its bitternesses and misery. It is such double-edged tones of Kollwitz’s work that touched some communists. But it is at variance with any ‘simplistic’ notion of any bureaucratically stilted socialist realism.  For it was not necessarily brimming with hope. Likely this was one reason the German KPD criticized her work, and even objected to her doing the Memorial of Karl Liebknecht – which the Liebknecht parents had requested of Kollwitz. Their extraordinary argument was that she was not a member of the KPD. Regrettably, such sectarianism was a characteristic strand in the KPD. Kollwitz recorded her reactions in her diary to this rebuke:

“I simply should have been left alone, in tranquillity. An artist… cannot be expected to unravel these crazily complicated relationships. As an artist I have the right to extract the emotional content out of everything, to let things work upon me and then give them outward form. And so I have the right to portray the working class’s farewell to Liebknecht, and even dedicate it to the workers, without following Liebknecht politically. Or isn’t that so? ” Diary & Letters”; Ibid; p. 98

In contrast to the sectarianism of the KPD are the non-sectarian attitudes of Marx and Engels towards the non-party poet Heinrich Heine whose art they admired and published. Or similarly  Lenin’s views of the non-party writer Tolstoy.

Apart from seeing close-up the misery of working-class life from Karl’s practice, another stimulus to the theme of death was personal. Kollwitz’s two sons Hans and Peter, both volunteered in WW1. Her eldest, Peter, despite father Karl’s beliefs, had illusions about the “concept of death for the Fatherland’ and “sacrifice”.  Some have extrapolated from Kollwitz’s diary that Kathe shared such illusions. (Regina Schulte and Pamela Selwyn; History Workshop Journal, Spring, 1996, No. 41; pp. 193-221). 

If so – she later transformed any prior illusions into condemnation. The cycle of “War’ lithographs between 1920-21 warned youth not to ‘volunteer’ and urged ”Nie wieder!” [Never again!].  

But increasingly her kernel works became more grimly focused. Death was a terroriser and reaper, but at times was a relief. The relief of an old poverty stricken mother who hears the call of death as a friend. Or the desperate relief of the old man who prepares his own noose in the “Last Resort”. This was a recognition of the grim reality of everyday life – and death – of the workers. (Two of her prints-drawings depicting death are at this web-site  http://www.uwrf.edu/history/prints/women/kollwitz.html 

Kollwitz’s personal tragedy was transmuted into art under a slogan from Goethe –

“Saatfruchte sollen nicht vermahlen werden.” [“Seed for the planting must not be ground”].

The “seed”, were the children of course. Perhaps her greatest sculptures are those at the cemetery at Roggevelde Belgium, where her son Peter lay with so many others after the inter-imperialist war of 1914-18. Two figures show herself and her husband Karl grieving. 

It remains true that despite this vortex, she continued to draw for the working class movement. Up to 1928 she drew her famous posters for aid to Russia, and against poverty in Germany. Many were requested by the international “Workers International Relief “.  On 5 February 1933, by now she was the first female director of Graphic Arts at the Prussian Academy, she and Karl took a brave stand against Hitler. Along with 33 prominent co-signators (including Albert Einstein, Henirich Mann and Arnold Zweig) – they endorsed  the “Urgent Call for Unity (Dringender Appell für die Einheit) from the International Sozialistischer Kampfbund (ISK) against the Nazis. Tragically this failed. When the Nazis came to power she was sacked and harassed with Karl. She died in Moritzburg near Dresden on April 22, 1945. 

Yet when she died, she had not given up on a better world. In February 21, 1944 she told her daughter-in-law Ottolie, that:

“Germany’s cities have become rubble heaps… every war already carries within it the war which will answer it. Every war is answered by a new war, until everything is smashed.  The devil only knows what the world, what Germany will look like then. That is why I am whole-heartedly for a radical end to this madness, and why my only hope is in a world socialism… Pacifism simply is not a matter of calmly looking on: it is work, hard work.”

Ibid; p.184

Those words tell us that her concept of socialism was not perhaps, that of a Marxist view. In my view it is of no consequence. Kollwitz defies any single category of ‘Socialist Realist’, and she stands of herself – as a great artist for humanity, and for workers the world over. The Charlottenburg Galleries deserve to be visited by every socialist in Berlin – and those not yet socialists. 

Hari Kumar wrote a more detailed piece on Kollwitz in December 2000 for Alliance Marxist-Leninist. 

Fighting Gentrification is an International Issue

Berlin’s Tech Workers Coalition meets Right2TheCity


19/11/2023

On Saturday, 14.10 the Tech Workers Coalition held a conference open to tech workers across Berlin. A large proportion of the attendees were non-German, and there was a strong thematic emphasis on the importance of transnational organizing in labor as well as in housing.

Right to the City – the English speaking working group of the Deutsche Wohnen & Co. Enteignen campaign – was invited to facilitate a workshop meant to build coalitions between migrants in Berlin’s tech industry and tenant organizers.

Naturally, the two groups overlap: R2C was formed early on in the DWE campaign when it became clear that migrant tenants faced particular forms of exploitation as renters. They are often on newer contracts, and landlords routinely take advantage of their non-Germanness – charging them well above market rates and getting away with other illegal tactics. Because migrants often do not have the same level of German and lack both networks and resources, they are less able to challenge these conditions or to be aware of their systemic nature. 

This trend has a ripple effect, impacting every renter in the city. Whereas narratives abound that migrants are the gentrifiers, the workshop participants – which included non-Germans and Germans – had critical discussions about these stories. The outcome was that together they challenged the simplistic myth that migrants are the driving force of gentrification in Berlin rather than often being caught up in its effects themselves. Instead, the groups highlighted the parasitic role of the rentier class and financialization of the housing market as the underlying forces driving the housing crisis in Berlin.

Other topics discussed in the workshop included that the referendum campaign was in part stymied due to the fact that non-German citizens can’t vote. This is an important issue because it also sheds light on Germany’s democratic deficit. As it stands, nearly 25% of the city’s population holds non-German passports and therefore cannot participate in the referendum. In the workshop, participants asked what the point of R2C’s involvement in the campaign is, and we (R2C) discussed how we still have the capacity to achieve a successful outcome by organizing and by shedding light on the issue of our disenfranchisement. In fact, the latter is something that R2C has already helped bring across the German media since the formation of our working group. 

While some doubts may have arisen during the workshop, such questions also presented an opportunity for us to emphasize the agency that migrants have to shape the referendum result. We discussed strategies for coalition-building between labor and tenant organizers, whilst participants thought of ways to bring Enteignen conversations into their workplaces. Also discussed was the role of works councils – not only for negotiating rights at the office, but for encouraging involvement in DWE as well.

Ultimately, the workshop generated a lot of interest in the capacities of tech workers to use their unique skills to expand tenant rights and participate in the DWE Enteignen campaign. Tech workers are already armed with coding knowledge, data analytics skills, the capacity to provide multilingual translations. All of which are now being mobilized towards furthering current R2C initiatives, as a number of workshop participants have signed up to get involved in our org.

The sentiment at the end of this workshop was hopeful, and we’ve already seen familiar faces at R2C meetings since then. The antidote to the scourge of gentrification, labor exploitation, and discrimination against migrants is building solidarity across differences, shedding light on these concerns, and doing whatever we can to be consciously engaged in shaping the city in line with the will of everyday people who live here. These themes were prevalent throughout the broader TWC conference as well – again shedding light on the interrelatedness between tenant and labor rights.

Solidarity with the Palestinians

Open Letter from International Left Activists in Germany


17/11/2023

German, Arabic, Hebrew, Turkish and Spanish Versions follow

The German government is supporting an appalling humanitarian tragedy. Following the attacks perpetrated against the civilian population by Hamas on October 7, Israel has chosen to apply reprisals affecting the Palestinian population in the Gaza Strip as a whole. This vindictive response, carried out with the complicity of some sectors of the international community, goes further in the Israeli aggression that the Palestinian people have been enduring for 75 years. Bombardment of the civilian population, deprivation of essential resources and the expulsion of the population constitute crimes against humanity. This renewed siege of Gaza has already claimed the lives of thousands of people, a third of them children.

In Germany, voices critical of this situation are unfortunately criminalized by government institutions and the media. In this context, the already worrying restriction of the rights of assembly and expression of citizens of Palestinian origin has been aggravated. The systematic prohibition of demonstrations called by the Palestinian diaspora far exceeds the exceptional cases in which international human rights standards contemplate the restriction of this right. To this are added cases of more or less formal coercion in the field of education, for example the Berlin government’s directive to schools and institutes on 13th of October urging their staff not to allow symbols such as Palestinian flags or headscarves, even though it recognizes that they are not forbidden.

These attacks on fundamental rights also have a racist bias, since they are fundamentally aimed at the population of Palestinian origin in the first place, and at the population of Arab origin in general. The widespread practice of “racial profiling” in the context of bans on demonstrations is an expression of this phenomenon. It should also be noted that the potential for committing hate crimes or antisemitic expressions, which cannot be a basis for the a priori prohibition of all demonstrations, and has not been considered against numerous demonstrations of the extreme right or of groups opposed to vaccination against the coronavirus.

From different organizations and collectives of the organized international left in Berlin and in Germany we formulate the following appeal to German society, to the citizens who believe in democracy and especially to the German left: the right of assembly and freedom of expression are universal and fundamental rights recognized by liberal democracies and defended by the left as their own. Their restriction or suppression is unacceptable in democratic societies.

We therefore call on those who believe in democracy to defend these rights. We especially call on the German left and the parliamentary left DIE LINKE in Berlin and Germany to stand up for these rights against the reactionary advance of the other actors of the political spectrum and the parliamentary arc, as well as to defend peace and human rights anywhere in the world, including in Palestine against the war crimes committed by the Israeli government in Gaza.

Looking the other way sets a dangerous precedent in a time of advancing conservative reaction which, in the exercise of power, will not hesitate to make extensive use of the restriction of rights and freedoms. If we do not raise our voices now, it may be too late later.

You can add your name to this letter by following this link.

First signatories (shown alphabetically):

  • Asociación Cultural Violeta Parra e.V. Berlín
  • Bloque Latinoamericano Berlín
  • Comité México en Transformación – Berlin
  • CUP Exterior
  • Izquiera Unida Berlín
  • LAG Internationals – International Working Group of DIE LINKE – Berlin
  • La Jaima de Tiris
  • Partido Comunista de España – Núcleo “Ernst Thälmann”
  • Podemos Berlín
  • Socialist Refoundation Party, Turkey (sykp)
  • Sumar Berlín
  • theleftberlin.com editorial board

 

Solidarität mit den Palästinenser:innen

Offener Brief von internationalen linken Aktivist:innen in Deutschland 

Die deutsche Regierung unterstützt aktiv eine entsetzliche humanitäre Tragödie. Nach dem von der Hamas am 7. Oktober verübten Angriff auf die Zivilbevölkerung hat Israel beschlossen, Vergeltungsmaßnahmen gegen die gesamte palästinensische Bevölkerung im Gazastreifen zu ergreifen. Diese Racheaktion, die mit Beihilfe einiger internationaler Akteur:innen durchgeführt wird, ist ein weiterer Schritt in der israelischen Aggression, die das palästinensische Volk seit 75 Jahren erdulden muss. Das Bombardieren der  Zivilbevölkerung, der Entzug der Lebensgrundlagen und die Vertreibung der Bevölkerung sind Verbrechen gegen die Menschlichkeit. Die erneute Belagerung des Gazastreifens hat bereits mehrere Tausend Menschen das Leben gekostet, ein Drittel davon sind Kinder.

In Deutschland werden Stimmen, die sich zu dieser Situation kritisch äußern, leider von staatlichen Institutionen und den Medien kriminalisiert. In diesem Zusammenhang hat sich die ohnehin schon besorgniserregende Einschränkung des Versammlungs- und Meinungsrechts von Palästinenser:innen bzw. Menschen palästinensischer Herkunft in Deutschland noch weiter verschärft. Das systematische Verbot von Demonstrationen, die von der palästinensischen Diaspora organisiert sind, übersteigt bei Weitem die Ausnahmen, für die die internationalen Menschenrechtsstandards eine Einschränkung dieses Rechts vorsehen. Dazu kommen Fälle von mehr oder weniger offiziell ausgeübtem Druck im Bildungsbereich, wie der Brief des Berliner Senats vom 13. Oktober, der die Berliner Schulleitungen anweist, Symbole wie die Kufija oder palästinensische Flaggen an ihren Schulen nicht zuzulassen, obwohl er selbst einräumt, dass diese Symbole nicht verboten sind.

Diese Angriffe auf die Grundrechte haben ganz offensichtlich eine rassistische Dimension, da sie sich in erster Linie gegen Palästinenser:innen bzw. Menschen palästinensischer Herkunft in Deutschland und allgemein gegen Menschen arabischer Herkunft richten. Ausdruck dessen ist die gängige Praxis des Racial Profilings im Rahmen dieser Demoverbote. Außerdem ist festzustellen, dass allein die Möglichkeit, dass es auf einer Demonstration zu einem Hassverbrechen oder zu antisemitischen Äußerungen kommt, keine Grundlage für ein präventives Verbot aller Demonstrationen sein darf. Solche Maßnahmen wurden gegen die zahlreichen Demonstrationen der extremen Rechten oder von Gruppen, die gegen die Coronaimpfung demonstriert haben, zum Beispiel nicht ergriffen.

Als Zusammenschluss verschiedener Organisationen und Kollektive der organisierten internationalen Linken in Berlin und in Deutschland formulieren wir den folgenden Appell an die deutsche Gesellschaft, an die Bürger:innen, die an die Demokratie glauben, und insbesondere an die deutsche Linke:

Das Versammlungsrecht und die Meinungsfreiheit sind universelle Grundrechte, die von den liberalen Demokratien anerkannt und von der Linken verteidigt werden! Diese dürfen in demokratischen Ländern nicht eingeschränkt oder unterdrückt werden.

Wir rufen deshalb alle, die an die Demokratie glauben, auf, diese Rechte zu verteidigen. Insbesondere fordern wir die deutsche Linke und ihren parlamentarischen Arm, die Partei DIE LINKE, in Berlin und Deutschland auf, für diese Rechte und gegen den Rechtsruck der anderen Akteur:innen des politischen Spektrums und des parlamentarischen Bereichs einzutreten sowie Frieden und Menschenrechte überall auf der Welt zu verteidigen – auch in Palästina, gegen die Kriegsverbrechen der israelischen Regierung in Gaza.

In einer Zeit des immer reaktionäreren Konservatismus – der selbst nicht zögern wird, Rechte und Freiheiten in noch größerem Umfang einzuschränken – stellt das Wegschauen angesichts des Vorgehens Israels im Gazastreifen einen gefährlichen Präzedenzfall dar. Wenn wir unsere Stimmen jetzt nicht  erheben, ist es später vielleicht zu spät.

 

تضامن مع الفلسطينيين

رسالة مفتوحة من الناشطين اليساريين الدوليين في ألمانيا

الحكومة الألمانية تدعم كارثة إنسانية مروعة. تبعا للهجمات المرتكبة بحق المدنيين في السابع من تشرين الأول على يد حماس، اختارت إسرائيل تطبيق أعمال إنتقامية تؤثر على كامل سكان قطاع غزة. هذا الرد الإنتقامي، المنجز مع تواطؤ بعض القطاعات من المجتمعات الدولية، يتجاوز العدوان الإسرائيلي الذي يتكبده الفلسطينيين منذ ٧٥ سنة. إن قصف المدنيين، حرمانهم من موارد أساسية وترحيل السكان يشكل جريمة بحق الإنسانية. هذا الحصار المتجدد على غزة قد حصد أرواح الآلاف من الأشخاص، ثلثهم أطفال.

في ألمانيا، يتم للأسف تجريم الأصوات الناقدة للوضع الحالي من قبل مؤسسات حكومية ووسائل الإعلام. في هذا السياق، تفاقمت التقييدات المقلقة الموجودة بالفعل على حقوق المواطنين من أصل فلسطيني في التجمع والتعبير. إن الحظرالممنهج للمظاهرات الذي دعا إليها فلسطينيو الشتات يتجاوز بكثير الحالات الاستثنائية التي تجيز فيها المعايير الدولية لحقوق الإنسان تقييد هذا الحق. وتضاف إلى ذلك حالات القمع الرسمي إلى حد ما في مجال التعليم، على سبيل المثال، تعليمات حكومة برلين إلى المدارس والمعاهد في الثالث عشر من تشرين الأول الذي يحث موظفيها على عدم السماح برموز مثل الأعلام الفلسطينية أو الحجاب، على الرغم من أنها تعترف بأن هذه الرموز ليست ممنوعة.

هذه الاعتداءات على الحقوق الأساسية تحمل أيضًا تحيزًا عنصريًا، لأنها تستهدف بشكل أساسي السكان من أصل فلسطيني بشكل خاص، والسكان من أصل عربي بشكل عام. وتشكل ممارسة “التنميط العنصري” المنتشرة على نطاق واسع في سياق حظر المظاهرات تعبيراً عن هذه الظاهرة. تجدر الإشارة أيضًا إلى أن احتمال ارتكاب جرائم كراهية أو تعبيرات معادية للسامية، والذي لا يمكن أن يكون أساسًا للحظر المسبق لجميع المظاهرات، لم يتم أخذه في عين الاعتبار ضد العديد من مظاهرات اليمين المتطرف.

من مختلف المنظمات والتجمعات لليسار الدولي المنظم في برلين وألمانيا، نقوم بصياغة الالتماس الآتي للمجتمع الألماني، وإلى المواطنين الذين يؤمنون بالديمقراطية وخاصة اليسار الألماني: إن حق التجمع وحرية التعبير أمران عالميان ومن الحقوق الأساسية التي تعترف بها الديمقراطيات الليبرالية ويدافع عنها اليسار باعتبارها حقوقها الخاصة. إن تقييدها أو قمعها أمر غير مقبول في المجتمعات الديمقراطية.

ولذلك فإننا ندعو أولئك الذين يؤمنون بالديمقراطية إلى الدفاع عن هذه الحقوق. نحن ندعو بشكل خاص اليسار الألماني واليسار البرلماني DIE LINKE في برلين وألمانيا إلى الدفاع عن هذه الحقوق ضد التقدم الرجعي للعناصر الفاعلة في الطيف السياسي والقوس البرلماني، وكذلك الدفاع عن السلام وحقوق الإنسان في أي مكان في العالم، أيضًا في فلسطين ضد جرائم الحرب التي ترتكبها الحكومة الإسرائيلية في غزة.

إن التغاضي عما يحصل يمثل سابقة خطيرة في وقت تتقدم فيه الردود المحافظة التي، في ممارستها للسلطة، لن تتردد في الاستخدام الواسع النطاق لتقييد الحقوق والحريات. وإذا لم نرفع أصواتنا الآن، فقد يكون أنه فات الأوان لاحقا.

إن كنت/ي أنت أو منظمتك تريد/ين توقيع هـذه الرسالة المفتوحة، الرجاء إرسال التفاصيل إلى solidaritypalestineberlin@gmail.com شارك/ي هذه الرسالة فقط مع اشخاص تعرفهم حتى نشرالموقعون الأوائل.

סולידריות עם הפלסטינים

מכתב גלוי מהפעילים השמאלנים הבינלאומיים בגרמניה

ממשלת גרמניה תומכת בטרגדיה הומניטרית מחרידה. בעקבות ההתקפות שבוצעו נגד האוכלוסייה האזרחית על ידי חמאס ב-7 באוקטובר, ישראל בחרה להפעיל פעולות תגמול המשפיעות על כלל האוכלוסייה הפלסטינית ברצועת עזה. תגובה נקמנית זו, שבוצעה בשותפות של חלק מהמגזרים בקהילה הבינלאומית, הולכת רחוק יותר מאגרסיה הישראלית שהעם הפלסטיני סובל מזה 75 שנה. הפצצת אוכלוסייה אזרחית, מניעה של משאבים חיוניים וגירוש האוכלוסייה מהווים פשעים נגד האנושות. המצור המחודש הזה על עזה כבר גבה את חייהם של אלפי אנשים, שליש מהם ילדים.

בגרמניה, קולות ביקורתיים על מצב זה מופללים למרבה הצער על ידי מוסדות ממשלתיים וכלי התקשורת. בהקשר זה, הוחמרה ההגבלה המדאיגה ממילא של זכויות ההתכנסות והביטוי של אזרחים ממוצא פלסטיני. האיסור השיטתי של הפגנות שיזמה הפזורה הפלסטינית חורג בהרבה מהמקרים החריגים שבהם תקני זכויות אדם בינלאומיים שוקלים את הגבלת זכות זו. לכך מתווספים מקרים של כפייה שהיא פחות או יותר רשמית בתחום החינוך, למשל הנחיית ממשלת ברלין לבתי ספר ולמכונים ב-13 באוקטובר הקוראת לצוותיהם לא לאפשר סמלים כמו דגלי פלסטין או כיסויי ראש, למרות שהיא מכירה בכך שהם אינם אסורים.

למתקפות אלו על זכויות יסוד יש גם הטיה גזענית, שכן הן מכוונות ביסודן לאוכלוסייה ממוצא פלסטיני בפרט ולאוכלוסייה ממוצא ערבי בכלל. הנוהג הנרחב של “אפיון גזעי” בהקשר של איסורים על הפגנות הוא ביטוי לתופעה זו. כמו כן, יש לציין כי הפוטנציאל לביצוע פשעי שנאה או ביטויים אנטישמיים, שאינו יכול להוות בסיס לאיסור קודם על כל הפגנות, ולא נשקל מול הפגנות רבות של הימין הקיצוני.

מארגונים וקולקטיבים שונים של השמאל הבינלאומי המאורגן בברלין ובגרמניה אנו מנסחים את הפנייה הבאה לחברה הגרמנית, לאזרחים המאמינים בדמוקרטיה ובעיקר לשמאל הגרמני: חופש ההתאספות והביטוי הם אוניברסליים וזכויות יסוד המוכרות על ידי הדמוקרטיות הליברליות ומוגנת על ידי השמאל כמו שלהם. ההגבלה או הדיכוי שלהם אינם מקובלים בחברות דמוקרטיות.

לכן אנו קוראים לאלו המאמינים בדמוקרטיה להגן על הזכויות הללו. אנו קוראים במיוחד לשמאל הגרמני ולשמאל הפרלמנטרי DIE LINKE בברלין ובגרמניה לעמוד על הזכויות הללו נגד התקדמות הריאקציונרית של שאר השחקנים של הקשת הפוליטית והפרלמנטרית, כמו גם להגן על שלום וזכויות אדם בכל מקום בעולם, גם בפלסטין נגד פשעי המלחמה שביצעה ממשלת ישראל בעזה.

העלמת עין יוצרת תקדים מסוכן בתקופה של תגובה שמרנית מתקדמת, אשר בהפעלת סמכות, לא תהסס לעשות שימוש נרחב בהגבלת הזכויות והחירויות. אם לא נרים את קולותינו כעת, ייתכן כי מאוחר יותר יהיה מאוחר מדי.

אם אתם/ן או הארגון שלכם/ן רוצה לחתום על המכתב הגלוי הזה, נא לשלוח פרטים ל

Filistinlilerle Dayanışma – Almanya’daki Uluslararası Sol Aktivistlerden Açık Mektup

Bu mektubu imzalamak istiyorsanız, lütfen aşağıdaki formu doldurun

Alman hükümeti korkunç bir insani trajediyi destekliyor. Hamas’ın 7 Ekim’de sivil halka yönelik gerçekleştirdiği saldırıların ardından İsrail, bu sefer Filistin halkını genel olarak etkileyen bir misilleme yapmaya karar verdi. Uluslararası toplumun bazı kesimlerinin işbirliğiyle verilen bu intikamcı tepki, Filistin halkının 75 yıldır maruz kaldığı İsrail saldırısını daha da ileri boyuta taşımaktadır. Sivil nüfusa yönelik bombardıman, temel kaynakların kısıtlanması ve nüfusun sürülmesi, insanlık suçlarıdır. Bu yeniden başlayan Gazze kuşatması, şimdiden binlerce kişinin hayatına mal oldu ve bunların üçte birini çocuklar oluşturuyor.

Almanya’da, bu duruma eleştirel yaklaşan sesler ne yazık ki hükümet kurumları ve medya tarafından suçlu ilan ediliyor. Bu bağlamda, Filistin kökenli vatandaşların toplanma ve ifade haklarının zaten endişe verici bir şekilde kısıtlanmış olması durumu daha da kötüleşiyor. Filistin diasporası tarafından düzenlenen gösterilerin sistematik olarak yasaklanması, uluslararası insan hakları standartlarının bu hakkın kısıtlanmasını öngörebildiği istisnai durumları dahi fazlasıyla aşıyor. Buna, eğitim alanında getirilen kısmen resmi zorlama örnekleri de eklendi. Buna yakın zamandan bir örnekse Berlin hükümetinin 13 Ekim’de okullar ve enstitülerdeki personeline Filistin bayrağı veya başörtüsü gibi simgelere izin vermemeleri yönünde verdiği direktif (bunların yasaklı olmadığını kabul etmesine rağmen).

Bu temel haklara yönelik saldırılar aynı zamanda ırkçı önyargılar da taşıyor, çünkü saldırılar temel olarak Filistin kökenli nüfusa ve genel olarak Arap kökenli nüfusa yönelik. Gösteri yasakları bağlamında “ırk profilleme”nin yaygın uygulanması, bu fenomenin bir ifadesi. Ayrıca, antisemitik ifadelerin veya nefret suçlarının işlenme potansiyeli, tüm gösterilerin a priori olarak yasaklanmasının temeli olamaz, ve bunlar ayrıca aşırı sağ veya koronavirüs aşılarına karşı olan grupların birçok gösterisine karşı da düşünülmedi.

Berlin ve Almanya’daki örgütlü uluslararası solun farklı örgütleri ve kolektiflerinden, Alman toplumuna, demokrasiye inanan vatandaşlara ve özellikle Alman soluna şu çağrıyı yapıyoruz: toplantı ve ifade özgürlüğü liberal demokrasiler tarafından tanınan evrensel ve temel haklardır ve sol tarafından kendi hakları olarak savunulmaktadır. Bu hakların kısıtlanması veya ortadan kaldırılması demokratik toplumlarda kabul edilemez.

Bu nedenle, demokrasiye inanan herkesi bu hakları savunmaya çağırıyoruz. Özellikle Alman solunu ve Berlin’deki ve Almanya’daki DIE LINKE parlamento solunu bu hakları savunmaya, diğer politik spektrumun ve parlamentonun gerici ilerleyişine karşı durmaya, aynı zamanda İsrail hükümetinin Gazze’de işlediği savaş suçlarına karşı dünyanın her yerinde barışı ve insan haklarını savunmaya çağırıyoruz.

İktidar gücünü kullanırken hak ve özgürlüklerin kısıtlanmasından geniş ölçüde yararlanmaktan çekinmeyen muhafazakar gericiliğin ilerlediği böyle bir dönemde, bu durumu göz ardı etmek tehlikeli bir teamül oluşturuyor. Şimdi sesimizi yükseltmezsek, ileride çok geç olabilir.

Solidaridad con los palestinos

Carta abierta de activistas de la izquierda internacional en Alemania

El gobierno alemán está apoyando una tragedia humanitaria espantosa. Tras los ataques perpetrados contra la población civil por Hamás el 7 de octubre, Israel ha optado por aplicar represalias que afectan a toda la población palestina de la Franja de Gaza. Esta respuesta vengativa, llevada a cabo con la complicidad de algunos sectores de la comunidad internacional, va más allá en la agresión israelí que el pueblo palestino lleva soportando desde hace 75 años. El bombardeo de la población civil, la privación de recursos esenciales y la expulsión de la población constituyen crímenes contra la humanidad. Este nuevo asedio a Gaza ya se ha cobrado la vida de miles de personas, un tercio de ellas niños.

En Alemania, las voces críticas con esta situación son lamentablemente criminalizadas por las instituciones gubernamentales y los medios de comunicación. En este contexto, se ha agravado la ya preocupante restricción de los derechos de reunión y expresión de los ciudadanos de origen palestino. La prohibición sistemática de las manifestaciones convocadas por la diáspora palestina supera con creces los casos excepcionales en los que las normas internacionales de derechos humanos contemplan la restricción de este derecho. A esto se añaden casos de coacción más o menos formal en el ámbito de la educación, como por ejemplo la directiva del gobierno de Berlín a escuelas e institutos el 13 de octubre instando a su personal a no permitir símbolos como banderas palestinas o pañuelos en la cabeza, aun reconociendo que no están prohibidos.

Estos ataques a los derechos fundamentales tienen además un sesgo racista, ya que se dirigen fundamentalmente a la población de origen palestino en primer lugar, y a la población de origen árabe en general. La práctica generalizada del “perfil racial” en el contexto de las prohibiciones de manifestaciones es una expresión de este fenómeno.  Cabe también destacar que la potencialidad de comisión de delitos de odio o de expresiones antisemitas, que ya en sí no puede ser fundamento para la prohibición a priori de toda manifestación, no ha sido causa de prohibición en numerosas manifestaciones de la extrema derecha.

Desde diferentes organizaciones y colectivos de la izquierda internacional organizada en Berlín y en Alemania formulamos el siguiente llamamiento a la sociedad alemana, a los ciudadanos que creen en la democracia y especialmente a la izquierda alemana: el derecho de reunión y la libertad de expresión son derechos universales y fundamentales reconocidos por las democracias liberales y defendidos por la izquierda como propios. Su restricción o supresión es inaceptable en las sociedades democráticas.

Por ello, hacemos un llamamiento a quienes creen en la democracia para que defiendan estos derechos. Pedimos especialmente a la izquierda alemana y a la izquierda parlamentaria DIE LINKE en Berlín y Alemania que defiendan estos derechos frente al avance reaccionario de los demás actores del espectro político y del arco parlamentario, así como que defiendan la paz y los derechos humanos en cualquier parte del mundo, también en Palestina frente a los crímenes de guerra cometidos por el gobierno israelí en Gaza.

Mirar hacia otro lado sienta un peligroso precedente en una época de avance de la reacción conservadora que, en el ejercicio del poder, no dudará en hacer un amplio uso de la restricción de derechos y libertades. Si no alzamos la voz ahora, puede que después sea demasiado tarde.