Tonight (Thursday), experience the electrifying synergy where ART intertwines with MUSIC, and EUROPE converges with the ARAB REGION. KÄF unites talents from both regions to celebrate diversity & foster unity through shared passions. The event offers culture feating world-jazz trio NOON & cognitive installations and paintings by STUDIO APELBAUM. Doors open at 6 PM, show starts at 7:30 PM. Tickets are available at the door, cash only. KÄF takes place at Panke Culture, Hof V, Gerichtstraße 23 in Wedding, and is curated by Asper Casper, one of the performers at the recent Palivision concert.
Tomorrow (Friday) there’s a School and Uni Strike for Gaza and against Repression. The strike has the following demands:
- Stop the falsification of history in the news and educationals institutions.
- Stop the restriction of our rights.
- Stop the repression against school students and students.
There will be a demonstration at Sophie-Scholl-Schule, Elßholzstraße 34-37, at 10am.
Friday evening alse sees our next Palestine Reading Group. This week we will be asking Palestine and Climate Change. You can find the recommended reading here. The Palestine Reading Group takes place every week on either Friday or Sunday. Check the page of Events we organise for the coming dates and discussion topics. If you’d like to get more involved in the group you can join our Telegram group and follow the channel Reading group. The Reading Group starts at 7pm, and there is a meeting for Moderators at 6.30pm open to everyone who’s interested.
We recently had a poll on future subjects to be discussed at the Palestine Reading Group, and decided on the following:
- Friday 7th June – Saeed the PessOptimist, Books 2 and 3
- Friday 14th June – Effect of the Collapse of the USSR on Palestine
- Sunday 23rd June – Antisemitism: Definitions and pitfalls
- Sunday 30th June – Mental Health as a Colonial tool
- Friday 5th July – Economics of the Israel-Palestine conflict
- Sunday 14th July – Pan-Arabism
On Saturday, there’s a demonstration for better education. Education crisis meets democracy crisis. 15 million people experience the German education system every day – a system that is suffering from considerable deficiencies across the board. There is a lack of 10,000 educators and teachers as well as hundreds of thousands of kita places. 50,000 young people leave school every year without any qualifications. Urgently needed investments in the ramshackle system are skimped everywhere. The education crisis affects us all and we say “enough”. The demo starts at 11am at Dorothea-Schlegel-Platz.
Also on Saturday, there’s a demonstration: The Rent is too high! Rents and other housing costs are exploding. Wages are stagnating. Every day people are being evicted from their home. Rented accomoation is being transformed into private property. People are being evicted because of “Eigenbedarf” (personal need of the landlord). Homelessness is massively rising. Whole neighbourhoods are being destroyed. Social centres and small businesses cannot find affordable space. Second homes and holiday apartments are changing whole districts into ghosts towns. If you want to stop this happening, join the demo at Potsdamer Platz at 2pm.
All day on Saturday, which is International Children’s Day, you can join the vigil organised by Honouring the Children of Gaza. The vigil is in memory of over 14,000 children who have been killed in Gaza by reading out their names. Many more children have been injured, orphaned, or are suffering starvation. The action will be accompanied by the display of some 10,000 children’s shoes, aiming to materialise the shocking numbers of innocent victims. The action will be taking place between 9am and midnight at the Neue Wache, Unter den Linden 4. Honouring the Children of Gaza is our Campaign of the Week.
On Monday at 7pm, it’s the next coordinating meeting of theleftberlin. This month, we will be hearing report backs from recent Events, like the 1st May and Palivision, making the last preparations for Events we have already planned, like the film “Jews Like Me“, discussing future activities for Palestine and against the AfD, and deciding what we want to organise in the future. At the end of the meeting we will be electing a new coordinating committee and decide on future financial projects like t-shirts, stickers, and a banner. These meetings are open to anyone who is interested and take place in Ferat Kocak’s office, Schierker Straße 26.
There is much more going on in Berlin this week. To find out what’s happening, go to our Events page. You can also see a shorter, but more detailed list of events in which we are directly involved here.
If you are looking for Resources on Palestine, we have set up a page with useful links. We will be continually updating the page, so if you would like to recommend other links, please contact us on team@theleftberlin.com. You can also find all the reading from our Palestine Reading Groups here. You can also visit the Palestine film evening every Wednesday at 8.30pm in Al Hamra. The title of the film is usually released too late for us to name it in this Newsletter, but you can stay informed by following Al Hamra on Instagram and facebook.
In News from Berlin, police beat a journalist when they were clearing the HU occupation, demonstration against rent rises on Saturday, Berliner Senat admit mistakes when policing the banned Palestine Conference, 75,000 people subscribe to the new Berlin €29 ticket, mayor Wegner questions the statue against sexual violence in Japan, and Berlin transport secretary resigns.
In News from Germany, video of celebrating racists goes viral, and CDU bans vote on greener transport after vast majority votes for banning combustion engines.
Read all about it in this week’s News from Berlin and Germany.
New on theleftberlin, Phil Butland and Aubane Décobert explain how they and others organised the Palivision concert within 4 weeks, Dave Gilchrist asks how socialists should react to the forthcoming British elections, Roser Garí Pérez looks at Spain’s continued arms sales to Israel, we publish the first part of the new manifesto by the Bloque Latinoamericano, Ilya Kharkow considers returning to Ukraine, Negro Matapacos looks at the links between Palestinian Liberation and Climate Change, Nathaniel Flakin has a simple solution to the number of car deaths in Berlin, and we publish an open letter to the world from academics in Gaza.
This week’s Video of the Week is the first ever English-language video by anti-racist activist Ferat Kocak. On the 75th anniversary of Germany’s constitutions, Ferat looks at recent bans on activities for Palestine.
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Keep on fighting,
The Left Berlin Editorial Board
