The Left Berlin News & Comment

This is the archive template

Category: Campaign of the week

Berlin Insoumise

Action Group for the French abroad


01/01/2025

You might have come across us at our ‘stand du 1er mai’ on Mariannenplatz, or during one of the numerous demonstrations organised in front of the French Embassy, for instance to protest Macron’s socially unjust and unjustified pension reform in 2023, or the latest racist immigration law in 2024. Every year, the approximately 30 active members of Berlin Insoumise organise events ranging from a ‘Horrors of Capitalism’ Halloween Party to a feminist pub quiz. Rotating through Berlin’s neighbourhoods, we hold our monthly Stammtisch, to which all Berlin-based francophones are welcome. The next meeting is set for the 5th of January at 6pm, Brotfabrik, Caligariplatz 1, 13086 Berlin.

Berlin Insoumise is one of more than 5,000 Action Groups of La France Insoumise (LFI), the French movement who arrived third and gathered 22% of votes at the last presidential elections in 2022. As in the rest of Europe, France sees a dramatic rise of the far-right, and merger of the far-right and neoliberal blocks. Yet, LFI resists and gathers more and more votes from one election to the next.

LFI is organised as a network, meaning each Action Group sets its own focus and agenda, as long as it fits with the programme l’Avenir en Commun. In Berlin, our thematic focus is on climate justice, social justice, respect of democracy, the promotion of peace, and the protection of minority rights such as LGBT+ rights. Linking social and societal struggles is core to LFIs political programme: all contribute to the equality of rights and general human interest. They cannot be played out against each other, just as environmental and social struggles must go hand in hand.

Berlin Insoumise’s activity runs high even when there are no presidential or legislative elections (the French abroad are represented by 11 Members of Parliament) ahead. Indeed, the Action Group understands itself as a local political collective. It joins forces in struggles such as demonstrations in solidarity with Palestine, or to protest budget cuts for culture and education in the Berliner Haushalt. Events are organised together with German workers unions and Podemos Berlin, amongst others. Last in date, the Hiver Solidaire series was organised for the first time in December 2024 with the goal of ‘surviving together through the endless Berlin winter’, and funds collected for the Berliner Obdachlosenhilfe.

You can find all upcoming meetings and events on our social media from facebook to bluesky, under ‘Berlin Insoumise’.

Support Ukraine’s Resilient Workers

Help Us Provide Electrical Generators through their unions!


17/12/2024

Winter is coming to Ukraine, temperatures are dropping, but nearly 60% of the country’s electrical generating capacity has been knocked out by unrelenting Russian air strikes. After causing tens of thousands of civilian casualties, the Russians are bent on freezing every child, woman, and man.

The Ukraine Solidarity Network in the United States has teamed up with two Ukrainian trade unions, the Free Trade Union of Railway Workers and the Independent Trade Union of Miners of Ukraine, and an NGO called Kryla provide portable electric generators to families in need. Our initial goal is to raise $6,000 dollars for 12 portable generators for union members and their families. These brave workers and their families are in urgent need of support.  

The UN Reports that Russian attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure are impacting millions, creating serious humanitarian and public health risks, and adding hundreds of thousands to the 10 millions already displaced by the war. Other critical systems including water and education are also being severely disrupted. 

Your donation will provide essential power to some of those who need it most. Let’s show our solidarity with Ukraine’s rank-and-file workers and the vital work they do under unimaginable conditions.

Donations will be collected through GoFundMe and sent to Kryla’s bank account from where it will be transferred to the official bank accounts of the unions.

#unkürzbar

A Berlin for everyone


11/12/2024

The Senat intends to cut 10% of the city budget. Starting next year, money that had been planned for important social challenges will no longer be available. You can see a detailed overview of what money will be missing from where here. On Thursday, 19th December, the parliament has the last word. If we join forces, we can stop them.

The planned cuts are the highest in decades, with €3 Billion planned to be taken out across all areas of social life. Mobility, transport, climate protection and environment, culture and education, youth and family, city development, building and housing, science, anti-discrimination, inclusion, and healthcare. The long-term consequences will have catastrophic effects on the structure of our society.

Not with us – we are uncuttable. We want to build a movement that rises against the cuts, against the escalating poverty, and against the lack of hope and perspectives. At all levels of society, we want to continue to build a cosmopolitan, inclusive,  just, family-friendly, housing and environmentally friendly cultural and educational capital.

If the Senat makes small, slow changes out of fear of protest, this does not alter our solidarity with ALL affected areas. We will not let ourselves be divided and we will carry on protesting!

Many different protests have been organised throughout Berlin. Until now, the political establishment has largely ignored them. Let us therefore pull together and act together.  The #unkürzbar (uncuttable) alliance gathers all actions, protests and demonstrations organised against the cuts policy of the Senat and is taking to the streets together on Sunday, the 15th of December. For a Berlin for everyone!

We invite all people to stand up with us against the cuts, and to protest loudly and clearly. Furthermore, we call on people to show other forms of resistance and to refuse the dictatorship of cuts. You can make your own contribution through actions, rallies and protests. If the government will not listen to us and will not take us seriously, if the government votes for the cuts, they can expect further protests throughout December – until they are voted out of office!

The demo starts on 15th December at 1pm at Lustgarten on the Museum island. There will also be a rolling march (bicycles and e-rollers) from Kranoldplatz in Neukölln, which also starts at 1pm.

Racism on Trial

Reveal and resist racism in Germany’s criminal legal system


04/12/2024

Racism on Trial is a campaign initiated by Justice Collective to reveal and resist racism in Germany’s criminal legal system.

The criminal legal system fines, jails, and sentences to probation hundreds of thousands of people each year. People from racialized and migrantized groups are disproportionately punished by the system, including because they are racially profiled by police.

Punishment by the criminal legal system systemically works to keep in place our current unjust economic and social systems. Punishment serves the border regime, exploits people who are poor, and maintains racial heirarchies.

This mass criminalization is largely out of view for those not affected by it. Most people know little of the system’s day-to-day workings, including of its systemic injustices. Those who are criminalized are often alone in court, without a lawyer or solidarity.

To change this, the Racism on Trial campaign:

  • Documents racism on trial through court observations, revealing the injustices we observe in court in our case archive and findings
  • Organizes for justice, including by sharing resources for others to courtwatch as activism and materials for people impacted by these systems; and
  • Shares the perspectives of other activists and communities impacted by and resisting the systemic injustices of the criminal legal system.

Join us.

International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network

International organization of Jewish people committed to the liberation of Palestine


27/11/2024

The International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (IJAN) is an international network of Jews who are uncompromisingly committed to struggles for human survival and emancipation, of which the liberation of the Palestinian people and land is an indispensable part. We are committed to the right of return for Palestinian refugees and to ending Israeli colonization of historic Palestine, which is reinforced by US economic and military power. We support full Palestinian self-determination and the right to resist occupation. We look to the Palestinian grassroots and Palestinian-led organizations as our primary points of reference in this struggle.

The State of Israel betrays the long histories of Jewish struggles for liberation and traditions of participation in collective struggles for liberation more broadly. We protest Zionism’s exploitation and debasement of histories of Jewish persecution and genocide to justify the unjustifiable – the colonization of Palestine and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, the theft of their land and destruction of their families, communities and way of life.

IJAN is part of the international movement against Zionist militarism and repression. We have active chapters in the United States, Argentina, the UK, Spain, Canada, and France. We also organize by sector, and currently maintain labor and campus sectors. Our work is funded largely through the contributions and volunteer labor of our members and through grassroots supporters.

IJAN organizes from a Jewish location, which we understand as social and historical, but our members hold a range of relationships to the religious, spiritual, and cultural expressions of Judaism. IJAN’s members come from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds and cultural lineages (including Ashkenazi, Mizrahi and Sephardic).  We view “Jewish Anti-Zionism” as a political orientation rather than an identity, a politics which acquires meaning through practical organizing.

A core tenet of the way IJAN organizes is joint struggle — recognizing the particular stakes of different communities and sectors in the general struggle against Zionist repression, militarism, and imperialism. The stake of each movement is specific, but we share a commitment to principles of universal liberation, justice, equity, never sacrificing any aspect of one community or movement’s struggle for freedom for the sake of advancing another’s. We recognize that our struggles are bound together, and that we must find ways of organizing together that strengthen all of our movements.