Thread by @JewishBund

🧵 Our press release in English:

Our Position on the #R1MB Demo:

On 1st of May 2021, a demonstration organized by a migrant-led revolutionary left coalition took place in Berlin-Neukölln. It was the largest migrant-led International Worker's Day demonstration in years.

As the revolutionaere Bündnis behind it took form, bringing different migrant/minority groups of the city together, we, the @JewishBund saw it as a unique and invaluable opportunity to join the mobilization as a group working from a radical Jewish left tradition.

Historically May 1st events in Kreuzberg included unregistered demonstrations as one of their main junctures, this year's Revolutionäre 1 Mai demonstration was specifically registered with the authorities,

...in order to remain accessible to families, migrants of more vulnerable status, and the broader public, as well as to keep to social distancing protocol.

It largely succeeded until the police kettled protestors in narrow corridors of the construction sites in Neukölln without warning, cutting off the demonstration on Sonnenallee, as it was headed for Oranienplatz .

The escalation was the conscious and calculated decision of police forces. The police first broke the demonstration into separate parts, disseminated false and contradictory information to its organizers throughout, then used baseless accusations as pretext to attack the crowds.

This it did with brutal violence as a first recourse, arresting people indiscriminately in the chaos that ensued, without any warnings.

The 5,600 police officers from Berlin and neighboring states turned Neukölln into a battle ground, and what did they accomplish?

By kettling large number of people in tight spaces, they made the social distancing - which they were supposedly so concerned about - outright impossible, and contravened organizers' goal of creating a safe and welcoming environment.

Unlike the #Covidiot demo earlier in Lichtenberg, no protestors were warned or allowed to to disperse.

If their message to us is that the German state is not on our side, we knew that long ago – migrants in Germany are welcome to work bullshit jobs, but not to raise our voices.

We were proud to march together with our Palestinian and Kurdish comrades, with anti-racist, feminist and queer activists, as part of a united internationalist block. We testify that Andreas Geisel (@derInnensenator) lied when he accused @BEMigrantifa of "antisemitic" chants.

The only antisemitism here is the way German politicians and the media abuse false accusations of "antisemitism" in the service of their own racism and incitement against migrants, Palestinians, and other communities and liberation movements.

We strongly condemn Geisel's false accusations, a cynical excuse for justifying the brutal police violence. This is a dangerous racist agitation, as German politicians like Geisel chose to denigrate and divide migrant communities on May day.

The Berlin police, at the establishment's service, seek to call the migrant coalition a threat to security, and at the same time are unable and unwilling to persecute Neonazi criminals. This violent attack on the revolutionary May Day Demonstration is no Einzelfall!

It is part of a targeted criminalization of Migrant organizing by a German police deeply rooted in racist structures in a society whose wealth and security were built on our labor and exploitation,

the oppression and dispossession of our ancestors through colonialism, Nazism, and imperialism. Migrant organizing is only a threat to the ongoing discrimination, injustice and racism in Germany – we will continue our struggle against it!

From Haymarket to nowadays, migrants have played a central role in the making of 1st of May history.

While the media is debating the role that police brutality had, we want to remind everyone that we lead the largest demonstration in Germany, with over 25,000 people in Berlin, with a broad leftist coalition spearheaded by migrant groups.

Despite all which transpired, what we take away from this Saturday is, more than anything, that our unity is powerful; from attempts to pit us against each other, we should understand that solidarity is of utmost importance.

We as Jews derive strength from our solidarity with Palestinians, Armenians, Kurds and all who marched this weekend to demanding anti-racist, feminist and queer justice under the call for class struggle. We will continue to fight knowing that nobody is free until we all are free.

Berlin is our home, and welcome or not, we are here to stay. ✊🏽✊🏾✊🏿

@threadreaderapp unroll bitte