Hello everyone,
This evening sees the opening night of the exhibition Wir Weben! Wir Weben! is a site-specific mural created by Hussein Mitha. The mural celebrates the multiple, contradictory and varied labour and social movement histories of Berlin. A single ‘red thread’ at the centre of the piece weaves together historical movements, from the German Revolution to the solidarity campaigns of the DDR, to squatting, and political print production in 1970s West Berlin, to contemporary housing movements. The exhibition is at Nansenstraße 2, and can be seen on Fridays and Sundays throughout April. The organisers, AGIT, are our Campaign of the Week.
On Saturday, at 1pm, the FAU union is organising a rally Happy Easter, You’re Still Fired. After promises in November 2022 of safe jobs, functional bikes, and new working facilities, the workers at ecoCARRIER AG and Velocarrier GmbH began 2023 with a rude surprise: a mass termination. The workers’ demands are simple: Management must pay for the promises they made to workers. Their failures should not be the burden of workers. Severance pay is the least they can do. The rally to support their demands starts at 1pm in front of REWE, Rollbergstr. 59 (Neukölln). It will be followed by a picnic at Tempelhofer Feld.
Saturday is also International Roma Day which remembers the worldwide emancipation of Roma* which started in 1971. The day is also intended as a counterweight to the abuses, oppression end the exclusion of Roma people from society. The 52nd ROMADAY will focus above all on the global consequences of environmental racism. To celebrate the day, there will be a Romaday Parade, which starts at 3pm at the Denkmal für die im Nationalsozialismus ermordeten Sinti und Roma Europas near Brandenburger Tor.
Tuesday sees the start of LiMA, the Left media academy. LiMA is an independent, non-profit educational association based in Berlin. They organise meetings and seminars, which since the pandemic have been increasingly online. Their aim is the promotion of critical, emancipatory perspectives in the media, and enabling media competence in social engagement, non-profit activity and journalism. As well as the online meetings, there will also be live events at the Neues Deutschland building at Franz-Mehring Platz 1.
On Thursday, there’s a party in solidarity with Greece, organised by ATTAC and Greek organisations. SoliOli organises an economy of solidarity. Once a year, it offers olive products from Greek cooperatives with the aim of supporting political and social projects in Greece. The evening will be in three parts – first an introduction to the organisation, then a sale of culinary components, and finally live music and dancing. It all takes place in the Regenbogenfabrik, Lausitzer Straße 21a.
This week is full of activities in Berlin, so make sure you find out what else is going on by looking at our Events page. You can see a shorter, but more detailed, list of Events which we are directly involved in here.
Looking further into the future, on Saturday, 15th April, the Berlin LINKE Internationals are organising a Küfa where international activists can cook, eat, and talk with each other, while we raise money for an important cause. This month, money is being raised to provide a reception at the coming meeting 75 Years Nakba: Anti-Palestinian Racism and Repression in Berlin. The day after the Küfa. Sunday, 16th April, it will be the next LINKE Internationals Walking Tour – this time on Riots in Kreuzberg.
Remember that on 10th-11th June, the LINKE Internationals are holding their annual Summer Camp on the outskirts of Berlin. The programme will be available soon. And on 17th June, there’ll be a showing of Still the Enemy Within, a film about the British Miners’ Strike, followed by a Q&A with the film’s producer Mike Simons.
In News from Berlin, complaints about discrimination in Berlin increase, Berlin’s new SPD-CDU government wants to introduce compulsory religious education in schools, and the area around Häckescher Markt is to become a pedestrianized Zone.
In News from Germany, survey by the police union records racism, misanthropy, and prejudice against refugees, finance minister Christian Lindner opposes increases in child benefits, the shortage of skilled workers in Germany is increasing, and left wing politicians criticise the reception of King Charles in the Bundestag.
Read all about this week’s News from Berlin and Germany here.
New on theleftberlin this week, Jeroen van der Starre reports from the Netherlands about recent electoral gains for the right wing, both John Mullen and Colin Falconer report from Paris on the ongoing strikes and demonstrations, we interview the makers of a new guide to filming the police and a new organisation for cultural intervention in Berlin, and Negro Matapacos reports the unhealthy alliance between the Berlin Ostermarsch with the far right.
In this week’s Podcast of the Week, in the second episode of Delivery Charge, host Aju John looks at the Works’ Councils (Betriebsrat) elections at Flink and Lieferando. You can also listen to Rob and Mo, who were pivotal in the campaigns to establish the Betriebsrats at these companies. In doing so, we will learn a bit more about the institution of the Betriebsrat in German labour law, with some help from Dr. Eva Kocher, a professor of law at Centre for Interdisciplinary Labour Law Studies at the European University in Frankfurt (Oder).
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Keep on fighting
The Left Berlin Editorial Board
