The historical electoral gain of Die Linke was only made possible through the support of grassroots social movements and political organizations, and more generally through mobilization carried out by the migrant and post migrant communities. We celebrate this victory as our own.
We celebrate the integration of demands such as the City ID, the extension of voting rights to migrants, as well as other concrete demands that will directly reduce the precarization of migrants and Berliners in general. We see the tremendous pressure put on Die Linke and the vehement opposition of racist and anti-left defamatory campaigns launched immediately once the electoral results were clear.
We stand in full solidarity with party members and non-members who are targeted. We consider Die Linke as the key institutional political actor capable of breaking the advance of the right and the general rise of fascism through broad alliances and by demonstrating concrete victories in changing living conditions for the better. Preventing the rise of fascism requires social policies, and Die Linke must deliver on its programme.
Therefore, we reinforce our demands to strengthen migrant political participation and stand firm against repression and persecution. Any left party with the ambition to become a true antifascist force has to put at its center the protection of the people who face genocide and of all those in solidarity with them. This includes the anti-Zionist Jewish community, whose existence is repeatedly denied. It has to think and fight for the protection of these communities, instead of giving further financial and institutional support to repressive forces. Any anti-fascist force has to take a clear anti-imperialist and anti-militarist stance. As migrant organizations, we call on Die Linke to fulfill the following principles in the negotiations for governing Berlin.
- Socialization of housing must be implemented in accordance with the 2021 referendum.
Socialization as a response to the housing crisis has to be carried out on the basis of the 2021 referendum. Both the proposed timeframe and the increase in the threshold for companies subject to socialization, from 3,000 to 10,000 flats, risk rendering its eventual implementation largely or entirely ineffective in addressing the housing crisis. Further the independent expert commission concluded in June 2023 that the socialisation of corporate housing portfolios is legally feasible, constitutionally proportionate, and socially desirable as to curb market speculation and fulfill the democratic mandate of the referendum.
- Die Linke must uphold its own resolutions on Palestine and the definition of antisemitism.
Die Linke decided through its own assemblies to name the ongoing ethnic cleansings and displacement of Palestinians a genocide. Hence, it must be possible to name the people and institutions responsible for carrying it out. Die Linke voted for the implementation of the Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism; it has to implement the use of this definition, which allows naming the perpetrators of the genocide while assuring the non-trivialization of real and existing antisemitism.
- Die Linke must review its cooperation with institutions and companies complicit in genocide.
Having adopted the position that the ongoing ethnic cleansing of Palestinians constitutes genocide, Die Linke has a legal and ethical obligation, once governing Berlin, to revise every cooperation – especially military and surveillance cooperations – with institutions and companies that are responsible for or complicit in carrying out the genocide.
- Migrant communities and their political organizations must not be sacrificed for participation in government.
Die Linke, by disrespecting its own resolutions and program, puts pressure directly on the migrant and racialized communities which were key in its electoral victory. We fought together the electoral campaign in order to achieve decriminalization of the social and political organisations. Further investment in the police and the intelligence services directly translates into militarization of the state against its people. It means less money for social justice while supporting the expansion of a punitive apparatus and its mechanisms of repression. We, our lives, and solidarity are not to be traded for governing Berlin.
- Die Linke must protect its members against racist smear campaigns and defend migrant political participation.
We expect Die Linke, as the party that emerged victorious from the elections, not to subject its own members to the jurisdiction of external “expert” committees. We demand that it protects its members against racist smear campaigns. These campaigns, attacking representatives of unquestionable popularity and symbolic power in migrant communities, are designed to directly put an end to migrant political participation.
The power of the party lies in its base, its relation to social movements and political organizations, and its integration with the migrant, racialized, and postmigrant communities.
Without us there is no democracy, there is no anti-fascism.
Initial signatories:
Bloque Latinoamericano Belin
Anmeldung fuer Alle
Lafi Berlín
The Left Berlín
Interbrigadas
