The Left Berlin News & Comment

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Dalit History Month

Intersectionalities: When Caste, Class, Gender, and Religion Collide

The Left Berlin
09/04/2021

India as a nation is known to the world for its diversity, rich culture, divisions between rich and poor, and recently, it has become famous for the art of yoga. However, among all these aspects that resemble India, one reality that affects every Indian and many South Asians is Caste. Caste is a social system operating in India, which divides every person and the occupation they perform, where and how they live and are perceived by the society, by a person’s birth.

Generally, it is assumed that caste was a matter of the past! It does not exist in India today! As much as one wants to believe it, this remains untrue, as caste still adversely dominates the lives of various marginalized communities in India, especially the lower-caste communities like the Dalits. While being born as upper-caste gives an individual the social, economic, and political capital, birth as a lower-caste deters an individual from accessing even fundamental human rights. Thus, the caste-based social system created by humans to determine that some communities enjoy the privileges and those privileges remain intact only within and for these communities still structures every individual lives in India.

To keep this system intact, inhumane and brutal crimes are committed against the lower-castes, especially the Dalits and Indigenous communities. While there are constitutional provisions to protect these communities and increase their representation in the state and educational institutions, they remain dominated by the upper-castes communities. Dalits also resist the social domination practiced by the upper-castes; however, they often get more victimized in fighting for their rights and against caste dominance. But the struggles of Dalits are continuing despite the backlash.

What is Dalit History Month?

The system of “caste” is based on the premise of structural social inequality. Consequently, Dalits (formerly “Untouchables”) are relegated as inferior human beings and are ostracized socially, politically, and economically. This is not just a South Asian phenomenon; it affects approximately 260 million people worldwide. Experiences of caste-based discrimination among South Asian migrants in the UK, Europe, and North America have been surfacing within the public domain as Dalits increasingly assert themselves.

The month of April is celebrated as Dalit History Month, in honor of Dr. B. R. Ambedkar – dedicated human rights activist and founding father of modern India. We aim to bring Dalit voices to the fore through the commemoration of Dalit History Month. Our effort is to foster a discussion about the long struggle of Dalits and their discourses.

On the occasion of Dalit History Month, the South Asian Scholars and Activists Solidarity (SASAS Germany), in cooperation with the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung, are organizing a lecture series which aims to underline the various dimensions related to Caste and Dalits. We have invited five Dalit and anti-caste scholars and activists from India to share their research work and thoughts on Caste.

Dr. Rupali Bansode shall address the fundamental questions around Caste and examine the historically practiced gendered nature of sexual violence against Dalit women by the upper-caste men.
Ms. Swati Kamble shall trace the impact of Dalit women’s activism on the policy process in the Indian state of Maharashtra. In her presentation,
Ms. Christina Dhanaraj shall highlight the Dalit community’s heterogeneity by discussing the rich histories of Dalit Christians of India.
Aroh Akunth will shed a spotlight on the legacy that Dr. B.R. Ambedkar has left behind for Queer movements.
Dr. Gajendran Ayyathurai will focus on the deep history of the casteless Indians and their resistance against the Brahminical system.

ZeroCovid

For a left-wing solution to the Covid crisis

The Left Berlin
02/04/2021

2,75 million people have so far died from Covid-19. In many countries a third wave of the pandemic is rolling, incidences are rising, driven by more contagious and more dangerous mutations. At the same time, vaccinations progress far too slowly to provide an effective counterforce. Yet governments still stick to failed anti-pandemic strategies. With some shortsighted lobbyists campaigning heavily against measures intended to reduce spread, factories, offices, schools and stores are kept open at any cost, including health.

The Zero Covid strategy offers a perspective for a way out of the pandemic. By bringing down case numbers as rapidly as possible in a joint effort based on solidarity and sustaining this success, we could avoid thousands more deaths, prevent many infections and subsequent suffering from long covid or other permanent damage.

#ZeroCovid is calling for a Europe-wide shutdown with the aim of pushing the new infections down to zero, so that we can overcome the pandemic in a sustainable fashion. This is the only way that we can quickly restore personal, cultural and political liberties and activities, and fight psychological symptoms of fatigue.

The economy should be shut down as much as possible, with a comprehensive rescue package for all. This can be financed by special levies on corporate profits and very high wealth. The call of the campaign #ZeroCovid has already been signed by more that 100,000 people in Germany since 14th January 2021.

On the Day Of Action, Zero Covid groups from around the world will make their voices heard. We would be very happy if you participate in this day with your own organizations, actions, and slogans. The actions can take place on- or offline. Some example include:

Rallies in front of central political actors (e.g. federal or state ministries for health, education, labor, social affairs)
Marking the mentioned actors, e.g. by projecting slogans/graphics on their facades
Flash mobs, demonstrations and other offline actions
Disseminating the posters, online, or on walls, signs, etc.
Online postings/mass mailings to specific state or federal politicians, etc.-

Our ZeroCovid Campaign will simultaneously host an online demonstration with international participants on that day, and we offer and would love to give additional visibility to your local actions during this event, as well as on all our social media and other channels.

If you would like to speak during our online event, live stream from your local event, or send us photos, videos, and/or texts to be presented there, please contact us at zerocovid@gmx.net.

Palestine Digital Activism Forum

Discussing the challenges and possibilities of Palestinian Digital Rights

The Left Berlin
26/03/2021

7amleh — the Arab Center for the Advancement of Social Media, is preparing to host the Palestine Digital Activism Forum in its fifth and digital edition, which will begin in 29 March and last until 1 April. PDAF 2021 brings Palestinians together from all over the world to discuss the challenges and possibilities of Palestinian digital rights. The forum has wide universal, global, regional and local participation, which will open the space for people from all over the world to share their different experiences in the digital world.

The theme of the forum will be “Palestinian Digital Rights during and after the Coronavirus Pandemic.” The forum will host more than 35 digital events, including political discussions and digital talks that engage issues relating to digital rights. It will also host multiple workshops and trainings, that aim to develop and advance the practical skills of participants in different areas. This year’s forum will also host a number of exclusive talks and workshops which will be the first of their kind in Palestine and the Arab world, such as Twitter’s session on Social Change, a Q&A with Facebook on content moderation policies, and a session with Instagram on Social Good. In addition, we will host a very important conversation about the Palestinian elections in the digital era and the age of social media.

80 speakers will join our events from all over the world, such as the inaugural Director of Human Rights Product Policy at Facebook, Miranda Sissons, who will speak in the Facebook Q&A, and the Head of Public Policy, Government & Philanthropy for the Middle East and Afghanistan and Pakistan at Twitter, George Salama. Further, in the first day of the forum, the deputy manager of the Norwegian Institute for Public Health will join us to talk about the protection of medical data, which will give us the opportunity to discuss the questions and privacy concerns that were raised recently in this regard.

We will also be joined by the chief of the section of Freedom of Expression and Safety of Journalists at UNESCO, Guilherme Canela, as well as Juri Schnoller who will join us in a workshop on the best practices in political campaigns and communication. Further, in the first and second days of the forum, we will have Palestinian inspirational speakers, including the Palestinian-American comedian Amer Zahr, and the youngest journalist in the world Janna Jehad, in addition to other experts and activists who will share their different experiences with us at the forum.

These activities will be organized in partnership with 70 local, regional and global partners, such as UNESCO, Amnesty International, UN Women, Access Now, United Nations Population Fund, as well as some of the largest social media companies, such as Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.

We hope that this year’s forum will transcend barriers and borders, and offer a safe and common space for the different groups of people who are interested in the digital world and in Palestinian digital rights, as well as a space that brings Palestinians together from all over the world.

Free Ahmed Samir

Campaigning for the release of the political prisoner in Egypt

The Left Berlin
19/03/2021

Free Ahmed Samir advocates for the release of Ahmed Samir Santawy, a master student in Central European University in Vienna who has been arbitrarily detained in Egypt on trumped-up charges since 1 February. He was denied access to legal representation and contact to his family

Ahmed is studying anthropology at the Central European University (CEU) in Vienna, doing research primarily on women’s rights and the history of reproductive rights in Egypt. After Ahmed left for his family in Egypt for the semester break, he was summoned by the police in Cairo. On February 1, 2021, officers arrested him. Ahmed was detained and interrogated for five days without any contact with his family or legal counsel.

Ahmed was formally charged with “joining a terrorist organization”, “deliberately spreading false news and data”, and “use of a private account on the Internet to spread false news or data”. These charges are based on screenshots from a Facebook account which allegedly belongs to him. His pre trial detention has already been extended 3 times without a hearing or lawyers. This prolonged pre-trial detention is often used in Egypt to arbitrarily detain human rights activists, journalists, lawyers and opposition politicians.

During the February-6 hearing, Ahmed reported that he had been subjected to beating, and ill-treatment by the National Security Agency during his interrogation on February 1, 2021. He was reportedly slapped on the face and severely beaten during the three-hour interrogation, in order to force him to confess crimes he did not commit. He was blindfolded and handcuffed for prolonged periods of time in the days following the interrogation. His lawyers requested his referral of to the forensics in order to verify the allegations of ill-treatment, but the prosecution did not order it and no investigation has been opened into these allegations.

Ahmed’s detention is the latest case in a series of imprisonments of falsely-accused international students and researchers. The actions against Ahmed coincide with the one-year anniversary of University of Bologna postgraduate student Patrick George Zaki’s illegal imprisonment, and echo the cases of PhD students Walid al-Shobaky and Giulio Regeni.

The targeting of scholars and students by the Egyptian security apparatus is part of a larger agenda to silence open discussion and intellectual production. Ahmed’s academic work deals with the history of family planning in Egypt, and advocates safe and legal access to healthcare procedures for women. His work is an example of the critical importance of scholarship for the present that we all inhabit. We refuse to stand for the Egyptian state’s attack on academic freedom, in Ahmed’s case in particular, and the cases of all persecuted scholars, in general.

Ahmed Samir Santawy is a prisoner of conscience. He is innocently in custody and must be released immediately. He was arrested for doing research, for pursuing knowledge and being curious. Academic freedom and the ability to pursue knowledge is vital to keep us progressing, Ahmed should not be in prison, he needs to be free. Free Ahmed!

On Saturday 20th March, there will be a protest in Berlin for Ahmed’s freedom. It will take place at 3pm at the Rathaus Neukölln. Please go down to show your support.

Here is how you can also support the campaign:

Sign the petition for Amnesty
Follow the campaign on social media Free Ahmed Samir
If you have any media/political/NGO contacts, please contact us at freeahmedsamir@gmail.com

#free_ahmed_samir

United Against Turkish Fascism

Armenians, Kurds, Yazidi and Turkish people united against ethnic cleansing and cultural genocide

The Left Berlin
12/03/2021

We have come together as members of the Armenian, Kurdish, Yazidi, Assyrian, and Turkish communities to fight the Turkish state and fascist movement by advancing mutual solidarity and common self-defense. The dire need to recognize and connect each other’s struggles has only increased in recent years, but it was the war on
Arzach/Karabakh which killed over 5,000 Armenians and ethnically cleansed over 40,000 over 44 days last Fall that was the shock which caused our group to form.

Unfortunately, many Armenians have felt a false sense of security within the borders of their state. The genocide in Shengal and attack on Kobane by ISIS in 2014 with Turkey’s logistical support, followed by the block-by-block destruction in 2016 of Kurdish cities like Sur, Cizre, and Nusaybin, among others, and then the invasion and brutal ethnic cleansing of Afrin and Serekaniye in 2018 and 2019 made it clear which shape and trajectory the expansionist and fascist elements in Turkey were taking. Some in our group were involved in solidarity with the resistors at the time, but we could say that the majority of Armenian society was sleeping at the time for various reasons we will not get into here.

But it is not just in our homelands that our communities are threatened by Turkish fascism. In Germany, the largest and most organized rightwing extremist group are not Nazis, according to the Federal Agency for Civic Education, but the Grey Wolves (Ülkücü), with an estimated 18,000 members. We have met many Armenian, Yazidi, and Kurdish migrants who have hidden their identity due to fears of racist targeting, including both physical attacks and psychological attacks, such as genocide denialism.

This brings us to a central point: A perpetrator that does not recognize and account for a crime will usually continue that crime. There has been a huge mistake in promoting the idea that recognition of the Armenian Genocide is in any way a historical issue. Truly recognizing the genocide as a genocide entails acknowledging why it occurred: that it was part of an overarching project of Turkification of former Ottoman territories, which had planned the annihilation of Christian minorities and assimilation of the Kurds.

Assimilation took the form of the denial of the existence of Kurds, instead categorizing them as “Mountain Turks”, criminalizing the language and banning any political representation. The greater project of Turkification or Turanism has never been rescinded and continues as a National project to this day. That is the real reason the genocide cannot be recognized.

Therefore, among our demands as a group is the immediate recognition of, and accountability for, the Genocide by both Turkey and Germany, which played a huge role as a military ally to Turkey both 100 years ago, as well as during the depredations and ethnic cleansings of the last years. All wars and attacks on our peoples must cease
immediately.

It is in that sense that we decided to organize our next demo in honor of Soghomon Tehlirian. Come out on the streets with us to show our numbers against Turkish Fascism!