Organize – against racism and social exclusion
April, 30th 2015
6:30 pm
Metro station Leopoldplatz (Berlin)
Organize – against racism and social exclusion!
The city belongs to all of us!
Everyone in Berlin creates the city as we know it. Every day we shape and build our homes, our streets, our neighborhoods. Everyone in her or his own way. As everywhere in Berlin neighborhoods are transforming – including the Wedding. These changes are associated with numerous problems. Mainly because a few want to earn of what all are creating together. Homes are being sold or renovated, rents are increasing. If accommodations can no longer be afforded you have to move in outer districts or in the worst case, your flat will be evicted. The Senate of Berlin is looking on passively. Or it supports such processes as appreciation of so called ‘problem neighborhoods’. Quartiersmanagements (‘neighborhood managements’) and neighborhood committees support the displacements and processes of gentrification with an illusion that all citizens could take part in shaping the policy of the city. But we do not accept this. What we create together, can be defend together – throughout an organizing from below.
Attack racist conditions!
Most refugees are excluded from a freedom of movement, social participation and attending a wage labor, as they are put down as “illegal” and being held isolated in camps. They are confronted physically and psychologically more directly with a forfeited right of self-determination. Economic businesses and social service providers already hit profits with escape and migration. In a smugly way, European policy creates a top-down “welcome culture”. In reality the immigration authorities and the public cost / benefit analysis on the “immigration status” decides who is allowed to stay or will be deported. Everyday racist police controls and the ever-present threat of deportation increase the pressure on refugees additionally. This is part of a racist propaganda which ultimately splits, humiliates and kills.
Sabotage!
Capitalist society means war, escape, expulsion, exploitation. All communities are inspected and scrutinized down to the last corners on capitalist usability. We are on offices, such as the ‘Jobcenter’ (employment office), harassed, so that we are forced to continue to work in this system. These are no abstract problems, but our everyday experiences. We want to decide for our own what happens in our streets, in our boroughs and in our homes. By a continuous organizing of social struggles against racism, exclusion, exploitation and oppression we can achieve a lot. Self-organized, mutual help to pass existing hierarchies. These are the first steps of a long-term perspective of self-determination. If there are evictions or sanctions by the ‘Jobcenter’: our answer is resistance. We are the neighborhood, so hands off!
Olympic Games? Prevent it!
Social cuts are tightened, ticket prices for public transport increase steadily, worker’s rights, as already done in the “Mall of Berlin,” are denied. The repression towards social movements is extended in times of capitalist crisis. Always and forever will be emphasized: there is no alternative to capitalism! Now the Senate of Berlin yells: Bring the Olympic Games! Social conflicts are to be covered with bread and circuses. That is why we say: No!
Let us prevent the further subjugation of the city and its inhabitants under a profit-oriented, inhuman urban policy. These games foster the exploitation of people and the intensified housing market only. This is a continued policy of exclusion of the Senate and the economy. So we oppose a perspective of solidarity. The Olympic Games 2024 in Berlin are a declaration of war against a “city from below”, a city for all of us. That is why we are organizing ourselves in a solidary way and fight for an anti-capitalist perspective!