Demo August 1st – 20 o’clock – Herrfurthplatz, Berlin-Neukölln
Times have been rough not only since the coronavirus. The fascisation of society is progressing. The danger of socialism and the hatred of everything left is evoked like a prayer wheel. The horseshoe theory enjoys great popularity. Under the cloak of totalitarian theories and far from any facts, a constant equation of two supposedly equal extremes against a hallucinated bourgeois “middle” is pursued. This liberal-bourgeois equation of socialism and fascism has a certain tradition in Germany, as does the collaboration of this bourgeois “middle” with fascism in order to take action against socialism, or against everything they perceive as a socialist danger. This is also the case with their anti-feminism, another interface between the “bourgeois-conservative middle” and fascists, which aims to maintain the conservative ideas of their system of rule by maintaining the binary gender order and, to this end, tries to turn back the achievements of feminist movements.
Fascist terror attacks in Hanau and Halle, right-wing networks that organize & arm themselves, armed fascists in the state apparatus that prepare for a civil war, secret service and state involvement in the NSU that are kept under lock and key. This list could easily be extended. The fascist danger is real.
In addition to this, an EU foreign policy that is based on isolation – after the deal with the Erdogan regime has outsourced the dirty work to Turkey or Libya in recent years – fugitives on Europe’s external borders now find themselves at the mercy of armed militias of border police, Frontex and fascist helpers. Not only in the name of the EU on the Greek Mediterranean islands, but also with the German camp system, Germany relies on the means of terror through isolation, psychological/physical violence and deportation. The vain appeals to respect human rights, as indivisibly done, are ridiculed.
Whether in the elections and with it the so-called “dam burst” in Thuringia or the harsh reactions of the real estate lobby, the liberal-conservative political class and the Springer rags on the Berlin rent cap have shown once again. The ruling class of the FRG fears everything left-wing more than fascism. Because we want to abolish the private ownership of means of production and the profit interests of the ruling class, that is, we want to shake the foundations of this bourgeois order. Because the ruling order is not the status quo, which has to be defended against all these dangers, but is ahead of the threatening disasters as a condition.
We are living in times of crisis, which are further intensified by the global pandemic. While on the one hand incredible wealth has accumulated, more and more people are slipping into precarious living conditions. The stagnation of real wages and the worsening of employment conditions caused social inequality even before the coronavirus, as it did 100 years ago. Capitalism is turning the coronavirus crisis into an existential fear for many of us. Social and economic inequalities are becoming more visible than ever. While millions of workers are on short-time work and have to sacrifice a large part of their wages, billions are being squandered to save large corporations. On top of this comes the capitalist madness of rent, the profit machine of the owners of our living space. While the owners of real estate make massive profits, a large part of the population has to fight with a deterioration of living conditions by means of drastically increasing rents. To make matters worse, even during the pandemic the rents and thus the profits for the owners should continue to flow, while for us a large part of the income is lost. The consequences: Displacement, in the last consequence by police truncheons by eviction. The neo-liberalization of the economy, the privatization of state services and the gradual reduction of social benefits attest to a success story of a class struggle from above, a permanent expropriation of our livelihoods. This will become even more acute in the course of the crisis, attacks on our living and working conditions of an unknown scale are imminent when it comes to passing on to us the costs of saving the capitalist economic system.
The constant babble about left-wing extremism and left-wing violence deceives us about this inherent and continuous violence of the prevailing conditions. Precisely for this reason, we must not allow the nationwide media landscape and political decision-makers to dictate the means of our struggle out of anticipatory obedience.
The state, in the form of its police, has almost perfected the repressive control of demonstrations. Since we see ourselves as part of a political movement that wants to overcome the bourgeois-capitalist state, we should not be surprised by the attacks of the institutions that are there to fight us, but we must finally succeed in counteracting this powerlessness.
Because:
In these harsh times, in which the radical left is marginalized and struggles weakly, almost powerlessly, for connection, we see a whole series of emancipatory self-governed spaces and projects in acute danger. What is at stake is no less than a whole series of places of radical left networking, organizing and coming together against this total shit.
All these projects are a picture from the future, a future without elbows and pressure to exploit, without “survival of the fittest” or exclusion of the weakest. All these projects were and are places of a solidary, non-commercial, resistant and self-managed coexistence. And now many of these places are threatened with extinction in a very short time.
Not only Syndikat is acutely threatened, in all corners of Berlin house projects, youth centres, alternative forms of living and other collective pubs are on the brink of collapse. Every day, tenants are evicted from their apartments or otherwise forced to move or leave immediately.
The anarcha-feminist house project Liebig34, including the event room and information shop, is threatening to disappear after almost 30 years. The self-administered youth centre Potse has occupied its premises since the beginning of last year and is awaiting eviction. Almost 40 years of self-organised and non-commercial youth work are to disappear into uncertainty here. The collective bar Meuterei, an important place to go in the increasingly upgraded Reiche-Kiez in Kreuzberg, is to go out after more than 10 years. The Rigaer94 housing project is in constant fire from its dubious owners and the state.
As long as we live in a society that follows the logic of capital exploitation and housing is traded as a commodity in order to generate profit, the displacement spiral in the city will continue. Upgrading, repression and forced evictions will transform our neighborhoods into dead, alienated and hostile places of exploitation. A picture of the future of the city of the rich that is to be prevented can already be seen today at Potsdamer Platz. Our common struggle must therefore also be one against the existing ownership structures and for the socialisation of living space and means of production, so that our basic existential needs, such as secure and affordable living space, are no longer the plaything of an exploitation interest.
Time is running out, resources seem limited. The Syndikat’s eviction is to be the prelude to a whole series of evictions in Berlin. Therefore, we call on all those who do not want to accept the prevailing conditions to gather for a furious and determined demonstration on the Saturday before the Syndikat’s planned eviction, on August 1, 2020 at 8 pm. Come to the demonstration organized and prepared from everywhere, form reference groups, bring banners, pay attention to announcements. The demo will be what we make of it together. There is no master plan for it, but it is time to try something new or to fall back on what has been tried and tested before. Because it can be said that another demo with the fainting experience Wanderkessel cannot be an option for us.
Sabotage the prevailing conditions! For the city from below! We all stay!
Syndikat
Weisestr. 56, 12049 Berlin
syndikatbleibt [at] riseup [dot] net
https://squ.at/r/71v
https://syndikatbleibt.noblogs.org/
Groups in Berlin https://radar.squat.net/en/groups/city/berlin
Events in Berlin https://radar.squat.net/en/events/city/Berlin
Stressfaktor https://radar.squat.net/de/stressfaktor
Groups in Germany https://radar.squat.net/en/groups/country/DE
Events in Germany https://radar.squat.net/en/events/country/DE
source: Interkiezionale https://interkiezionale.noblogs.org/demo-01-08/
Stressfaktor https://squ.at/r/7y0c
