The Left Berlin Newsletter, 26th March 2026
Covering Repression on the Radio
Welcome to this week’s Left Berlin Newsletter.
It’s a busy week for The Left Berlin, as we’re organising three separate Events, starting with this evening’s Reading Group. The Reading Group takes place in Agit on the final Thursday of each month. We discuss suggested texts about a chosen subject and welcome more people getting involved and making suggestions.
Then on Saturday afternoon, it’s our latest radio programme. This week, we’re focussing on surveillance in Berlin, which will be increased by a shocking new law. In a week when police raided 15 housing projects, using the infamous paragraph 219 which is being used to criminalise the Ulm 5, this is something which should be of concern to all of us.
And on Sunday, The Left Berlin Film Club is showing After Eight: The Story of Satpal Ram, which won the audience award in this year’s British Shorts festival in Berlin. After Eight tells the story of racism and a great miscarriage of justice. It will be followed by a Q&A with Usayd Younis who directed the film with Mos Hannan, and Ahmed Shah from Theater X.
With so much going on, and events like Palivision and Summer Camp on the horizon, there’s never been a better time to get involved with The Left Berlin. We’re in the process of streamlining our internal structures to make it easier to get involved in one aspect of our work, without getting overwhelmed by it all. Please contact us at team@theleftberlin.com for more information.
This week in Working Class History: 30 March 2018 - Great March of Return
“Why don’t the Palestinians demonstrate peacefully?” Eight years ago this week, they did exactly that. On Land Day, 30,000 people peacefully marched towards the Gaza border. They were mowed down by Israeli snipers. In the protests, which lasted 18 months, over 200 Palestinians were killed. You can read about what happened here.
Demonstrations in Berlin
Thursday from midday: Sleepout against Homelessness and Evictions, Rotes Rathaus
Friday at 8.45am: Rally to keep Integration Courses, Bundesrat
Friday at 2pm: Protest March - Israel out of Horizon, Europäisches Haus
Saturday at 1pm: Demo - No Demolition. No Evictions, Rotes Rathaus
Saturday at 2pm: 50 Years Land Day - Solidarity with Palestine, Potsdamer Platz
Saturday at 5pm: Stop the war against Iran and Lebanon, Hermannplatz
This week’s Events
This evening, please join the latest The Left Berlin Reading Group. This month we’re discussing Feminist Strikes and Global Feminist Resistance. You can view a list of recommended and supplementary readings here. It helps the discussion if you read at least the recommended readings in advance. It all takes place at Agit, Nansenstraße 2, starting at 7pm.
Tomorrow (Friday), starting at 3pm, the TU AStA is organising two talks under the title Apartheid, Racism & International Law? These two panels bring together expertise in psychology, lived experience and international law to ask: How has anti-Palestinian racism become normalised in Germany – and what responsibility do universities, institutions and civil society bear. Apartheid, Racism & International Law? is our Campaign of the Week.
On Friday and Saturday at 7.30pm, Theater X is hosting the anti-racist play Stattbild - I have a Traum(a) to mark the International Weeks Against Racism. On Saturday, the play will be followed at 9.30pm by an after show with discussion, hip-hop, and music. The play will be in a variety of languages, but mainly in English. Theater X is at Wiclefstraße 32, near S-Bahn Beußelstraße.
On Saturday, it’s the latest Left Berlin Radio Programme with special guest Jasmine Erkan, author of Berlin enters new surveillance era, by far the most viewed article on theleftberlin.com this year. We’ll be talking to Jasmine about surveillance in Berlin as well as the usual music and chat. Tune in live at 1pm at the Refuge website, or come and visit us at Niemetzstraße 1.
On Sunday at 3pm, The Left Berlin Film Club is showing the film After Eight: The Story of Satpal Ram as part of a series of anti-racist events at Theater X (see above). The film uncovers a landmark British miscarriage of justice and the global campaign that secured his release. It will be followed by a Q&A with Usayd Younis, who directed the film together with Mos Hannan, and Ahmed Shah from Theater X.
Later on Sunday, at 5pm, Amnesty International is organising a special screening of No Other Land in Sputnik Kino. The film will be followed by a discussion about the current situation in Masafer Yatta and the West Bank, including an online discussion with someone from Masafer Yatta, who will explain what has changed since filming stopped.
There is much more going on in Berlin this week. To find out more about Events we organise, please look at our Events page where you can choose between viewing All Events or just the ones organised by us. If you would like to recommend other Events, please contact us on team@theleftberlin.com.
News from Berlin and Germany
In News from Berlin, Berlin Linke candidate distances herself from anti-Zionist resolution; book stores receive prize after other candidates are excluded; thousands demonstrate against sexualised digital violence; Berlin interior minister proposes law criminalising pornographic deepfakes; and Senate Department for the Interior sabotages its own report because it criticizes the police.
In News from Germany, German government simplifies the sale of weapons; AfD receive nearly a fifth of the vote in Rhineland-Palatinate; and Germany’s water resources are shrinking.
Read all about it in this week’s News from Berlin and Germany.
New on theleftberlin.com
In our latest article on the Far Right, we interview Antifa Nord Ost about fight fascism in North-East Berlin
The Bloque Latinoamericano Berlin calls for solidarity with Cuba
Ana Barrena interviews radical French philosopher Didier Eribon
Jakob Reimann casts doubts over US claims about the attack on Kharg Island
Interview with Nadja Vancauwenberghe about the Berlin Journalism Academy
Inês Colaço reports from the press conference about the coming trial of the Ulm 5
Dahlia Flowers look at the effects of Trump’s attacks on Cuba
Regar Akrawi looks at the “migration debate” from a left wing perspective
Video of the Week
As the US blockade of Cuba continues, the video of the week is the latest Al Jazeera report from the flotilla which is breaking the blockade.
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Keep on fighting,
The Left Berlin Editorial Board