Tomorrow is International Women’s Day, which is a public holiday in Berlin. To celebrate the day, a number of demonstrations and rallies have been organised between today and Saturday. There are too many to list here, but you can find links to most of them on our Events page.
We would like to particularly recommend 2 Events, both taking place tomorrow:
- 11am at Oranienplatz Trade Union Demo Feminist, in solidarity, as trade unions organised by a broad alliance of trade unions.
- 2pm at Under den Linden 21, Down with Imperialist Feminism organised by the Alliance of International Feminists. Colonial and neoliberal powers construct a single model of feminism: the feminism of the oppressors that is limited to a so-called “women’s rights’” framework to serve their interests. This feminism is an accomplice in the system of oppression. Their “democratic” saviorism justifies their wars, occupation, detention centers, murderous borders and walls. This is Imperialist Feminism. CIS men are allowed on the demonstration but asked to march at the back.
Our Palestine Reading Group is back. The next meeting is on Friday at 7pm, where we will be discussing Palestinians in the Diaspora. You can find the selected reading here. The Palestine Reading Group takes place every week, on either Friday or Sunday (partly depending on room availability). Check the page of Events which we’re organising for the coming dates and subjects under discussion. If you’d like to get more involved in the group, and suggest and vote on future subjects, you can join our Telegram group and follow the channel Reading group. Meetings are currently in the Agit offices, Nansenstraße 2. There is a meeting for moderators (open to anyone who’s interested) half an hour before the meeting starts.
On Saturday, there’s a demonstration Freedom for Palestine. No impunity for Genocide. Since October, the Israeli state has murdered 30,000 Palestinians in Gaza. The genocide in Gaza is a continuation of the Nakba, the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians which began over 76 years ago and is still continuing today. The German government is making itself an accomplice to the genocide in Gaza in its military, political, and financial support for the Israeli State. Come with us on 9th March onto the streets of Berlin to raise our voice for Palestine. The demonstration starts at 3pm at the junction of Kantstraße and Wilmersdorfstraße.
On Saturday evening, there is a solidarity Event Intifada Bazaar. For this revolutionary 8M, you are welcome to join our post-demo, mini fest, solidarity event for a day of art, music, and live performances. All proceeds will go to different mutual aid and ground relief efforts in Palestine. Kicking off the event, you will be able to enjoy food & drinks and cruise through the bazaar, then we’ll carry on with evening panel discussions curated by @palestinespeaks and another by Dolls4Palestine (& guests!) and a movie room takeover by @berlinmigrantstrikers. The night continues with performance & poetry interventions followed by live acts and a drag show finalising with DJ sets featuring femme power on the decks curated by Thawra. To find the address, contact @diaspora.rising on Instagram.
On Sunday, theleftberlin website (that’s us) will have our latest face-to-face editorial meeting. The editorial board normally has an online meeting to discuss what we want to publish. Every so often, we have meetings like this for longer-term planning The meeting will be from 3pm – 6pm in the Agit Offices, Nansenstraße 2. It is open to anyone who is interested in the website. If you would like to help contribute in the future, this would be a good place to start. There’s a proposed agenda here, but feel free to come along and ask questions and make suggestions of your own.
On Wednesday at 7pm, there’s an online meeting What is happening in Argentina #2? A conversation with representatives of the alliance Frente de Izquierda y de Trabajadores – Unidad. Since December 10th of last year, Javier Milei, an ultra-liberal economist, has been the President of the South American country. How should his victory be understood in the national and regional political context? What has changed in the first few months of his term of office and what can we expect for the future? The International Politics Department and the Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung Buenos Aires invite you to a meeting with four representatives of the Frente de Izquierda y de Trabajadores – Unidad (FIT-U) – currently one of the most important left-wing movements in Argentina. The meeting will be in Spanish with translation into German. Please register at: international@die-linke.de
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 in here.
Some dates for your calendars:
- On Saturday, 16th March, we will be showing the film Aisheen, Still Alive in Gaza in oyoun. The film was originally scheduled for 10th February. The film starts at 5pm, and will be followed by food and then a discussion with Palestinian activist Ramsy Kilani.
- On Friday, 22nd March, the Berlin LINKE Internationals are organising a public meeting Neosovereignism in the West African Sahel: Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger with Prof. Dr. Baz Lecocq, Franza Drechsel (Rosa Luxemburg Foundation), and Dr. Lamine Doumbia. It’s at 7pm in Karl Liebknecht Haus. More information in future Newsletters.
- Please note: the LINKE Internationals Summer Camp has now been postponed to avoid clashing with a big demo against the AfD. Summer Camp will now take place on 21-22 September, still in the Naturfreundehaus Hermsdorf.
This week’s Campaign of The Week is Schule fürs Erinnern / School for Remembrance. As parents and educators in Berlin, we are deeply worried about the Neukölln Bezirksamt’s decision to introduce a brochure titled “Mythos#Israel1948” to the schools’ program. The document, produced and published by the external association “Masiyot,” claims to dispel common myths about Israel-Palestine. In effect, this association promotes a vicious kind of historical revisionism. The brochure at hand claims a false and one-sided narrative that trivializes the violent events of 1948 – the Nakba – and exempts Israel from its responsibility for the ongoing displacement and dispossession of the Palestinians since 1948. Share this petition in person or use the QR code for your own material.Download QR Code
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.
In News from Berlin, Berlinale prize winner Yuval Abraham receives death threats, demonstrators for Palestine accused of incitement, Stop Fossil Subsidies group blocks Elsenbrücke bridge, and forest around the Tesla plant in Grünheide occupied.
In News from Germany, Federal Statistical Office reports that migrants are disproportionately in low-paying jobs, and more train strikes announced.
Read all about it in this week’s News from Berlin and Germany.
New on theleftberlin, Nathaniel Flakin reports on Der Spiegel’s transphobic attacks on a Jewish student for showing solidarity with Palestine, in Rasha Al-Jundi and Michael Jabareen’s latest cultural contribution, they look at “friendly” German neighbours, we show a gallery of photos and videos from last Saturday’s demo for Palestine, Ciaran Dodd looks at Eurovision’s complicity in Israel’s terror, Dimiitra Kyrillou in Athens looks a Greece’s decision to legalize same-sex marriage, and Phil Butland argues that Gaza is a Health Workers’ issue, and that the Syndikat pub was wrong to ban a meeting of Health Workers for Palestine.
This week’s Video of the Week shows the info talk Rafah: What’s at stake? organised by Palästina Kampagne with Egyptian Diaspora Resists and Egyptian journalist Lina Attalah, editor in chief of Mada Masr.
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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