Hello everyone,
We have a new venue for our Palestine Reading Group. From tomorrow (Friday), we will be meeting at 7pm at AGIT on Nansenstraße 2, located 5 minutes from U-Bahn Hermannplatz by foot. This week’s discussion will be on German Memory Culture. You can find the suggested reading here. Please try and read at least the main texts before you go to the Event. You can also register on the same page, which helps us know how many people to expect. The Reading Group on 15th December will be discussing the One State and Two State Solutions. The suggested reading has already been made available.
After that we’ll take a break for the Holidays. We will use that time to better understand which day(s) of the week work best for everyone, and which topics to address going forward. You can join the debate by joining our Telegram group.
On Saturday, we would like to welcome anyone who is interested in our editorial “theleftberlin” website to an open editorial meeting. The editorial board holds a weekly, brief online meeting, and semi-annually meets in-person to discuss the medium- and long-term plans for theleftberlin. If you would like to meet the people behind the website, and especially if you are interested in getting involved, you can meet us in Bilgisaray, Oranienstraße 45, between 2pm and 5pm. After the meeting is over, our friends in the Berlin LINKE Internationals will be having their not-Christmas party. also taking place in Bilgisaray.
On Sunday, there is a demonstration No Weapons for Genocide, starting at 1pm at the SPD headquarters Willy-Brandt Platz near Hallesches Tor. We are all Palestinians – every day, steadfast, with raised heads until there is freedom, dignity, and a return for the Palestinian people. NO WEAPONS FOR GENOCIDE!! NO PROFITS ON THE BACK OF SUFFERING, MISERY AND EXPLOITATION!! Every day we see pictures of horror from Gaza, the West Bank, Jerusalem and we need everyone everywhere involved in movements and marching in the streets.
At 2pm on Sunday, the latest Berlin LINKE Internationals walking tour visits Red Wedding on the March. Wedding was once Berlin’s most left-wing district. In the German elections of November 6, 1932, 47.1% of Weddingers voted for the communists. Wedding had tenements and terrible poverty, but also reform schools, socialist art, and a proud proletarian culture. On May 1, 1929, Kösliner Straße — the reddest street in Berlin’s reddest district — saw the worst police violence in Berlin’s history. Our tour will be meeting at 2pm at Badstraße 38, right where Badstraße crosses the Panke, near U-Bhf Pankstraße. The U8 is currently not running between Alexanderplatz and Osloerstraße, however there is a replacement bus service–but it does require extra travel time. Please plan accordingly. If you register (follow the link above), you will receive a E-mail on Saturday with more detailed information.
Join us on Sunday at 3pm for the Channukah festival organised by the Jewish Bund. Chanukkah against the state II: is soli gathering to collect money for those effected by police repression directed towards Palestine solidarity in the streets of Berlin. The event takes place in Am Flutgraben 3, just behind the Festsaal Kreuzberg.
There is much more going on in Berlin, it’s another very busy 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 in here.
This week’s Campaign of the Week Archive of Silence is a platform showcasing concrete examples of institutions, organizations and workplaces that censor, silence and punish voices that challenge the rigid political mainstream in Germany, regarding Israel-Palestine. The vast spectrum of such silencing highlights a number of examples including, but not limited to, the expression of solidarity with Palestine, the criticism of the current Israeli government, or even a Palestinian cultural event. All stories are anonymous unless it is explicitly indicated that a submitter would like to be identified. If you have multiple stories to share, please submit each story separately through this “Archives of Silence” form. They will not be linked together unless specified otherwise. Typos and grammar corrections will take place as needed.
In News from Berlin, Jewish-owned bar in Lichtenberg suffers antisemitic attack, the BVG is cutting the number of buses in Berlin due to a driver shortage, and thousands attend a demonstration for Gaza, this time in Berlin-Mitte.
In News from Germany, a court rules that Germany’s climate measures are insufficient, 30,000 evictions in Germany last year–nearly 2,000 of them in Berlin alone, German trains record worst figures for punctuality in 8 years, and right wing extremism on the rise.
Read all about it in this week’s News from Berlin and Germany.
This week on theleftberlin, we publish an open letter calling on the Berliner Senat to save the Sinti and Roma memorial, the speeches by Iris Hefets and Nadija Samour at last Saturday’s anti-war demo, and the launch statement of Anmeldung für Alle.
Meanwhile, the Antifascist Music Alliance explores the Palestine solidarity on the Berlin music scene, Partho Sarothi Ray discussed the lessons of Kristallnacht for today, Alkram Al Deek provides useful perspective about the recent criminalisation of Palestinian life in Neukölln, and Nathanlel Flakin reports from the current strike by Berlin teachers.
In this week’s Video of the Week, activists blockade last week’s Berlin Security Conference.
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If you would like to contribute any articles or have any questions or criticisms about our work, please contact us at team@theleftberlin.com. And please do encourage your friends to subscribe to this Newsletter.
Keep on fighting,
The Left Berlin Editorial Board
