The Left Berlin News & Comment

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Month: October 2024

News from Berlin and Germany, 2nd October 2024

Weekly news round-up from Berlin and Germany


02/10/2024

NEWS FROM BERLIN

Raid on pro-Palestinian scene

Berlin police searched the homes of five men last Monday morning. The men are suspected of having made pro-Palestinian offences, police and the public prosecutor’s office announced that. A total of 125 officers executed five search warrants in the districts of Friedrichshain, Britz, Gropiusstadt, Tegel and Schöneberg on behalf of the Berlin public prosecutor’s office. Mobile phones, computers and other data carriers were seized during the searches and are now being analysed. No arrests were made. The Berlin police were also deployed on Monday due to a pro-Palestinian blockade. According to the police, around 20 people blocked the entrances to the Konrad Adenauer Foundation. Source: tagesschau

 

NEWS FROM GERMANY

Green Party leaders Ricarda Lang and Omid Nouripour resign

The Greens have suffered heavy defeats in the state elections in Thuringia, Saxony and Brandenburg. As a consequence, the party leadership has now decided to resign. ‘New faces are needed to lead the party out of the crisis,’ says Ricarda Lang. She still added, ‘Now is not the time to stick to your own chair, now is the time to take responsibility’. Until the party conference in Wiesbaden in mid-November, Nouripour and she would continue to run the business. The decision had not been easy. ‘It was a great honour to serve this party.’ Source: die Welt

BSW co-chair advocates a new approach to the AfD

The co-chair of the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW), Amira Mohamed Ali, has once again ruled out a coalition between her party and the AfD. At the same time, however, she reiterated her call for a different approach to the AfD. The BSW has always clearly stated that a coalition with the AfD is out of the question because this party is, at least in part, right-wing extremist. ‘But we have also always said that we want a different approach to the AfD than the other parties have taken over the past ten years or so,’ added Ali. Source: Spiegel

No more German passports because of the slogan ‘From the River to the Sea’?

The Federal Ministry of the Interior (BMI) sees the slogan ‘From the River to the Sea’ as a possible reason for exclusion from acquiring the German citizenship. This emerges from the BMI’s ‘provisional application notes’ on the new Citizenship Act. The new law, which came into force on 27 June 2024, is intended to enable well-integrated people to naturalise more quickly – after five years instead of the previous eight. The slogan makes reference to the area between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, which includes Israel and the Palestinian territories. Source: islamiq

‘I feel betrayed by both countries’

David Macou was 19 years old when he came to the GDR as a contract labourer from Mozambique in 1979. The promise: vocational training and money with which he could build a future back in his country. However, what he and others on the same situation didn’t know was that they were just puppets in an intergovernmental horse-trading deal between the GDR and Mozambique. There was hardly any contact with the local population. They encountered prejudice everywhere. David felt cheated by both countries: by the GDR, which withheld his wages, and by Mozambique, which had barely passed the money from Germany on to the contract workers. Source: rbb

“Lebanese and Palestinian people will free themselves with the help of us outside”

Interview with Lebanese socialist Jean-Michael Yahiya


Thanks for talking to us. Could you briefly introduce yourself?

I’m Jean-Michael. I come from Lebanon where I grew up in with kind of a Westernized mindset. I went to a school where we learned the French Baccalaureate system in parallel with the Lebanese system. I came to Germany to get my masters in robotics.

Since the seventh of October, I had a radical switch in how I look at the world in general, but especially at Europe, in particular Germany, which I thought was a country of human rights.

It’s just about a year since 7th October, but in the last weeks, Israel has extended it’s war into Lebanon

I wouldn’t say I’m surprised that it has gone in this direction, because the State of Israel is based on Zionism, and Zionism is, by nature, expansionist. But it worries me more because it touches closer to home.

Lebanon was not constantly occupied in the way that Palestine is occupied and colonized. Divisions grew after the so-called independence from the French – they managed to divide us very well. So I worry about the Israeli attacks, but I also worry about the solidarity and unity of the people to resist and fight the aggression.

A couple of days ago I read an interview with Lebanese socialist Simon Assaf, who said that the attacks of Lebanon have united Lebanon in a way that hasn’t been possible in the last few decades

I could see this. I also look at the group of friends who grew up with. A lot of people understood the nature, the background, and the history of Hezbollah, even though we, as Lebanese people, have also lived through terrible experiences with Hezbollah – not because they’re “terrorists”, but because they’re a party in power just like the other parties.

For example, during the 2019 uprising, we were repressed and oppressed by all the parties. Hezbollah were maybe the most violent because they have the tools for that.

So, Hezbollah is not a socialist organisation and it played a terrible role in Syria. But they are now under attack from Israel. What attitude should socialists take towards Hezbollah?

We should be aware of the history of Hezbollah. It grew up as a movement from below, because the Shia community was very much isolated and oppressed during the Civil War. They were heavily affected when the Israelis invaded.

But as Hezbollah grew into a political party and integrated into the political class in Lebanon, its radical stances got diluted. They definitely played a terrible role in Syria that could not align with our values as internationalists.

But at the moment, they are the resistance, and as socialists, I think we should stand behind them, not because they are Hezbollah but because we should stand behind the resistance.

Some people, especially in Germany, are saying that Israel’s attack on Hezbollah and the killing of Nasrallah are legitimate because of their links with Iran.

There were always some exchanges of fire between Hezbollah and Israel whenever either the government in Israel or the party in Lebanon started to lose popularity, just to remind the people why they are there.

But you can’t carpetbomb the middle of a city just because Hezbollah exists there. I think the reaction of Hezbollah to the genocidal escalation on Gaza was legitimate as they did not attack Israel in its so called territories, but in the Sheba’a – the occupied Lebanese territories controlled by Israel. It is a totally valid approach to wake up resistance there.

It was very clear that Israel’s plan was to make the so-called buffer zones unliveable. They started by burning trees and using phosphorous bombs, to make the land uncultivable. People who make a living from the land by selling oil, olives, or soap now cannot live from it. They will be pushed away. I believe that the Zionists would then want to step in and colonize part of the Lebanese territories.

What’s everyday like life in Lebanon at the moment?

1 million people are already internally displaced. People from the South came to Beirut, thinking Beirut would be safe. But now the Israelis are sending messages to stay away from any property of Hezbollah without people knowing what that means.

They’ve been sending messages on Twitter at 3am where people are sleeping, saying that people should get out of their area. I’ve seen images of people on the streets and public places, with none of their belongings. The situation is quite ridiculous.

This is on top of the divisions I was talking about earlier. For example, refugees from Syria and Palestine are not receiving the same aid and support as the Lebanese people, because the organizations on the ground discriminate in favour of people from Lebanon.

All this is where Hezbollah is part of the government. Why are they seen as speaking for the resistance? Is the Lebanese Left not able to provide an alternative leadership?

In the Lebanese uprising, I don’t remember any concrete Left forming. People were very niched in support for the sectarian parties that came out of the Civil War. The result was groups of militias fighting against each other.

There’s no organised Left which is able to offer an alternative. But people are coming together, trying to help each other in every way they can, which is really nice. They are showing solidarity, and are hopefully getting more aware about the situation with Hezbollah.

At the same time, there’s the elitist mindset that still looks up to Europe. The people who emerged from the Fascist movement in the Civil War – the Phalanges – still have the same very racist mindset, thinking that Lebanon should be purely Lebanese. And they look to Europe for civilization.

But I think people are waking up and realizing that the heavy silence from the people in power and the media about Palestine is very similar when it comes to Lebanon. People who at first could not sympathize with the Palestinians are now realizing that it was not about Hamas.

During the Civil War, some Lebanese experienced attacks by the PLO, who have not always made the best decisions within the Lebanese community. But now they realize it’s not about the Palestinian people. It’s more about us as Arabs, as Lebanese and Palestinians and Syrians. We’re all put in the same box and our blood is not seen to matter as much as that of people of Europe and the US.

Why do you think Israel is attacking Lebanon? Don’t they have too much on their hands already with Gaza?

In Gaza, they have failed to reach any of their objectives. It was always clear that it was not about the hostages or even about 7th October. Those were excuses to carry out the genocide and to make Gaza unliveable.

We see a similar parallel in Lebanon, where they say it’s about Hezbollah. Now that they have taken down Nasrallah, they’re still striking very heavily at Beirut, but also at the Beqaa valley. We should not forget about the Beqaa, even though it’s spoken about less.

The attack on Lebanon is meant to distract, while Israel carries on with its genocidal campaign in Gaza, and escalates in the West Bank. It is an example both of Israel’s failures and also of its ongoing colonization of Palestine.

There’s a theory that Israel attacked Lebanon to try and bring the US more actively into the war.

Yeah. Israel has lost a lot of legitimacy with its allies, who are starting to realise that they cannot support them as much as they did in the beginning. So it’s in Israel’s advantage to go into a bigger war by escalating towards Lebanon, and maybe hoping that Iran gets involved. This could win them more support from the US and the European countries.

Israel is also not doing well economically. They need economic support from the US to keep the whole project living and to keep colonizing more and more of Palestine.

We have elections coming up in the US and Kamala Harris has made a turn. She’s now expressing sympathy for Palestinians at the same time as continuing to support sending weapons to Israel. What is Harris’s attitude towards Lebanon and Lebanese people?

They want a ceasefire to pacify the movement against Harris and the Democrats. But at the same time they’re sending more money. Similarly, they call for a ceasefire in Lebanon and say they don’t want any sort of escalation. But again, they’ve sent $8.7 billion in military aid to Israel.

They’re still doing the same thing that they did when there was the huge massacre in Dahieh. They dropped ten 2000 pound bombs, reducing six apartment buildings to ashes. This was reported live on television. The US said they were still assessing the situation, and were not aware of exactly what was happening. They said that they could not directly trust what was being reported. This is wild, but it’s also what they have been doing with Gaza and the West Bank from the start. They’re always assessing the situation.

Israel is carrying out a genocide in Gaza and is threatening another genocide in Lebanon. Can they be stopped?

I think the BDS movement and the world community should be, and could be, a big factor in strangling the economic flow of aid towards Israel. Israel always survived because of external economical and military aid. Not from within its colony as it cannot sustain itself without external backing.

Israel can be stopped if the settlers living there suffer economically, and they see that there is no alternative to keep going this way. Maybe there will be a civil war. Maybe not, I don’t know, but this is something very long term. It’s hard to imagine how things will turn out at this point, but I really hope for a total arms embargo, a total ceasefire, and justice for Palestine, justice for Lebanon.

I think that the Lebanese people and the Palestinian people will be able to free themselves and take care of the situation, with the support of us, the people outside.

You’re living in Freiburg in Germany, where we feel a long way away from a mass boycott campaign or an embargo. What is the next step for Palestine and Lebanon Solidarity in Germany?

We should never stop talking about Palestine and now Lebanon. Some German people have probably more sympathy towards the Lebanese people for, well, racist reasons.

In parallel, the Lebanese people are also realizing that what’s happening in Lebanon is very heavily tied to Palestine. They’re also starting to learn, so hopefully the movement will grow. The masks have dropped, and people are starting to realize what’s happening.

Here in Germany, there’s the spectre of fascists being on the rise, and people are realizing that it’s not a coincidence. Racism is allowed, normalized and tolerated in this society which is very apparent as it is being blatantly used right now against the Palestine Solidarity movement.

We’re trying our best to keep mobilizing, informing people, talking about the importance of BDS and also about the importance of talking about Palestine and the history of Palestine.

Are you optimistic or pessimistic at the moment?

I’m optimistic and hopeful, because I look at the resistance in Palestine, in Lebanon, and also worldwide. It’s not just armed resistance. We’re all contributing to resisting the violence of the colonial and imperial system.

It’s very painful to know what’s happening to our people back home, whether in Lebanon or Palestine. It is beyond words. I really hope for a total end to our suffering, not just by a ceasefire, but also by reaching justice for the people.

Is there anything else you’d like to say that we’re not covered?

Keep talking about Palestine. Keep talking about Lebanon. History is very important to look at and to learn from. And get organized to fight racism and the systems that allow such violence to happen.

THE BIG CHILL

One-Day Symposium


THE BIG CHILL, One-Day Symposium, Spore Initiative, Berlin-Neukölln, 5 October 2024, 11h00 – 18h00

At the invitation of Candice Breitz, symposium guests Michael Barenboim, Daniel Bax, Yasmeen Daher, Alexander Gorski, Pauline Jäckels, Nadezda Krasniqi, Jerzy Montag, Michael Rothberg, Nahed Samour and Charlotte Wiedemann will discuss the modes of silence and array of silencing mechanisms that constitute the chilling effect that has settled over German public discourse in the wake of the horrific atrocities of 7 October 2023 and the unspeakably grotesque and disproportionate violence that Palestinians have been subject to both leading up to and since that date.

Since 7 October, despite the International Court of Justice having ruled that it is plausible that Israel has committed acts that violate the Genocide Convention, much of German civil society has opted for silence in relation to the catastrophic death toll in the occupied Palestinian territories, a silence that to some extent betrays the fear of being branded antisemitic under the vague logic of German Staatsräson and/or the IHRA’s working definition of antisemitism. Parallel to this broad display of anticipatory obedience, Palestinians, progressive Jews and their allies have been muted, de-platformed, stigmatized (and at times even criminalized) with voracious frequency. A series of anti-democratic measures have been applied (or are currently being drafted) to the ends of curbing and censuring non-violent opinions that lie well within constitutional parameters yet run counter to the increasingly dogmatic discourse that has been perpetuated by Germany’s political class (and reproduced, with ominous consistency, across much of its press landscape).

Symposium participants will consider how perceived and/or actual restrictions on freedom of speech, freedom of political opinion, freedom of assembly and academic freedom have led to the normalisation of repressive attitudes and policies towards a range of racialised minorities that are too often cast as ‘other’ to white Germany—as well as towards intellectuals, artists, activists, journalists and students.

Silence can signify in a variety of ways. It can be imposed or self-chosen. It can be a consequence of social, ideological or legal coercion. It can betray deep apathy or cloak deep empathy. It can be a necessary tool of self-preservation. To what extent have silencing mechanisms and related discourses of exclusion gained support under the cover of political initiatives that promise to afford greater safety to Jewish life in Germany and beyond? To what extent have communities that are already deeply impacted by prejudice, become increasingly vulnerable as heated discourse pertaining to Israel-Palestine continues to polarize the public sphere? How can we collectively work towards the breaking of repressive silences?

‘The Big Chill’ is curated by Candice Breitz. The symposium is funded by the Hochschule für Bildende Künste Braunschweig, with immensely generous support from Spore Initiative.

Anti-Muslim racism as diversion from social crises

The currently pervasive racism against asylum seekers and Musilms is a simple diversion from the budget crisis and increasing capitalist competition.


01/10/2024

After the incident in Solingen, in which four people lost their lives in a knife attack, the standard answer from the whole political landscape was tougher migration politics and rabble rousing against refugees and people seeking asylum. Solingen is being used above all to create an atmosphere of racist scapegoats – above all in the heated election period in Eastern Germany in September.

The extent to which this narrative will be repeated after Olaf Scholz’s statement “We have to deport more people and faster” remains to be seen. But since the knife attack, we have heard uninterrupted insinuations by politicians from all large parties that the most dangerous people using knives are all Islamists.

In the Bundestag, a Green politician said “the poison of Islam does not just reach the heads of people abroad – it also reaches people here”. Later she claimed that this was a slip of the tongue, and she meant to say “Islamism”. Nonetheless, this is what she said.

In the mainstream media and the state courts, it seems that the terms Islam and Islamism are being used as synonyms, as we can see in the coverage of the closure of the Blue Mosque in Hamburg and of a cultural centre in Frankfurt-Main.

Mass deportations as an answer to Solingen and Mannheim

The German government’s answer to individual acts of violence in Solingen and Mannheim serves to present German migration and asylum politics as both the cause of and the solution for individual violence. The “traffic light coalition” is carrying out a brutal shift to the right in its migration legislation.

Originally, they did this together with the CDU whose demands on migration are barely distinguishable from those of the essentially Fascist AfD. But now the CDU has withdrawn from talks on migration because they say that the proposals by the coalition parties are not severe enough.

CDU chairman Friedrich Merz posted “Es reicht” (enough), and is now demanding a complete suspension of the right to asylum for people fleeing Afghanistan and Syria. Meanwhile, Sahra Wagenknecht demanded the Chancellor should send a stop signal to the world – ‘the Willkommenskultur (culture of welcome) is over, we can’t manage it, don’t even start’.

In talks with the SPD which by-passed the government, Merz called for no more taboos, and said that everything must be considered. He would use the “national emergency” to carry out changes to the German constitution. Dual citizenship should be banned. This would make it practically impossible for many people to gain German citizenship, as some countries do not allow you to give up your original citizenship.

Racism hides the question of distribution

Above all the CDU is blaming the coalition’s current migration politics for the knife attacks. And yet shortly after the Solingen killings, a German woman carried out a similar knife attack in a bus in Siegen. The only reason that there were no deaths was because three Muslim women overpowered the attacker. There was no need here to call a national emergency.

Merz also claims that people seeking asylum are the only reason why the situation in and around nurseries, schools, universities, medical practises and the housing market is more catastrophic than ever before. It is clear that this is racist agitation and scapegoat propaganda by a politician who, as a former board member and lobbyist for Blackrock – the largest asset manager in the world – is not really interested in a society of solidarity.

It is not asylum seekers who make decisions about investments, wages, and public centre work contracts, but the state. It is not asylum seekers who decide how high rents are in cities, and how high the land prices are in the countryside, but a profit-seeking market of competing large companies and investment funds. It is not asylum seekers who overload hospitals, medical practices and the health system, but the government’s dismantling of critical infrastructure and comprehensive healthcare provision.

Budget crisis comes to a head

In 2022, Germany shifted €60 billion of unused credit from the Corona emergency fund into a new “climate and transformation fund”. Here the Bundestag, with the votes of the coalition parties, retrospectively passed a supplementary budget for the financial year 2021. The CDU/CSU voted against.

The Federal Constitutional Court ruled that this behaviour of the traffic light coalition had violated the constitution. They based their verdict in particular on the evasion of the so-called Schuldenbremse (debt brake).

The hole in the 2025 budget amounted to a figure in the tens of millions, and led to a redistribution from below to above. Instead of cutting social spending, the state guaranteed tax relief to the rich and big business.

The quarrel in the traffic light coalition about how the missing money can be raised ultimately hangs on the question of the extent to which the state can put the burden upon working people. There is no discussion about taxing the rich. Instead further repression against welfare recipients will be used to fill the hole in the budget.

Racism divides in the face of overwhelming conditions

The racism which is currently rampant is a clear strategy of diversion from the real causes of social worries and fears. It diverts the working class from the real cause of a lack of investment in the social sector. The political parties are counting on racism, and hounding marginalised and vulnerable people to drive a wedge between working people. They want to divide parts of the public who produce all social and private wealth – wealth which is not produced by Friedrich Merz, Olaf Scholz or the Nazi Björn Höcke.

The increasing impoverishment of broad parts of society is leading to enormous fears of social decline. The dismantling of the social sector is increasing the gap between poor and rich even further. The latest so-called “Mitte-Studie” (study of the middle class) calls this phenomenon “Marktförmigkeit” (market-formedness), and says that this is “released” by the massive insecurity in “times of crisis”. According to this study, it is exactly these insecure “market-formed people” who are open to right wing propaganda.

For Marxists this is nothing new, and we won’t get tired of insisting that the political and material relationships in which people find themselves form their consciousness about the political system. Racist slogans, a Fascist leadership cult, and even extermination fantasies take effect as a drastic alternative in the light of the inability of all mainstream and left parties to handle the crises of the capitalist economy. The absence of a socialist opposition to the capitalist and parliamentary system combined with scaremongering and division paves the way to a further shift to the right.

Capitalism cannot be social

The planned cuts in social spending lead to a critical and life-threatening situation for large parts of the population. The rising cost of living is rising while people’s consumption is being transported directly into the pockets of rich bosses and shareholders.

The current racist insinuations against asylum seekers, our neighbours and colleagues, as promoted by Blackrock lobbyists like Friedrich Merz are not based in fact. It is not true that lower social spending will be solved by the full removal of the right of asylum, nor that the money “released” will flow into necessary public sector structures and dilapidated infrastructure. Neither will it result in the expropriation of housing companies like Deutsche Wohnen, the nationalisation of energy companies and the consequent dependence on the market.

Racism in general, and anti-Muslim racism in particular are in the sharpest sword used in the 21st century by capitalists and their mainstream politicians to divide the working class and weaken their organisations.

The racism of the mainstream parties only serves to further intensify the crisis of the capitalist economic system. The livelihood of the middle class and small entrepreneurs, in the form of young apprentices, is increasingly deported and taken away, Through increased competition, the existential fears of many more will grow, and Fascism will seem an attractive answer for many of these isolated middle classes as a way of apparently overcoming the crises.

Anti-racist workers’ struggles more necessary than ever

Workers’ struggles which have already been announced at Volkswagen, in the 2025 public sector bargaining round, at nurseries, schools, Universities and Deutsche Bahn must be carried out in a consistent anti-racist manner.

Growing and expanding social movements were always a point of attraction for working people. It is our task as anti-racists and as socialists to provide answers to the crises and their causes. We must consistently oppose wars, weapon delivery and rearmament. We must consistently oppose anti-Muslim racism and antisemitism. We must build broad alliances to confront the far right and to reduce – then fully prevent – their influence on society.

All this combined with a radical criticism of capitalism can cut the ground from beneath the far right – ground which for weeks the mainstream parties have been making fruitful for Fascist organisations. The racist basis for incipient Fascism is currently being channeled into wider society. .This basis can still be opposed and its foundation can be destroyed. To do this, our anti-racism and our solidarity in the fight against oppression and underpayment must be indivisible.

This article first appeared in German on the Sozialismus von Unten website. Translation: Phil Butland. Reproduced with permission.