Upcoming anti-War events: Germany, Norway, Serbia

20/02/2024

Henning Frey, Soziale Politik & Demokratie Nr. 501, Bericht von der Gaza Waffenstillstand Kundgebung am 18.01.24

Around 130 colleagues, including from ver.di, IG BAU, GEW, IG BCE and IGM, gather in Cologne and demand:

Immediate permanent ceasefire in Gaza!

Stop supplying weapons to Israel!

The colleagues had been guided by the call of 40 US trade unions at the beginning of December, which had raised the same demands against US President Joe Biden. Trade unions are organizations that have been formed to end the social exploitation of workers and to defend the interests of workers. They also oppose the suppression of democratic rights. That is why, as it was emphasized at the opening of the rally, we as trade unionists stand today with the Palestinian people, who have been subjected to cruel and bloody repression for over 75 years and who have been denied the right to self-determination. The existence of the Palestinian people is threatened, which is why we have gathered here today in front of the Trade Union House in Cologne. The rally was supported by GEW colleagues from Berlin and by the Committee for Palestine Solidarity from Liège (Belgium).

Opening Credits/End

Dr. Khaled Hamid, representing the Palestinian community in Cologne, opened the series of speeches at the rally with his contribution: “Dear friends, ladies and gentlemen! Trade unionists! First of all, I would like to thank you and all of you for taking the side of peace, humanity and justice. In the Palestinian community, we are committed to ensuring that civilians everywhere, regardless of their nationality and faith, are protected. It is important to emphasize that the Palestinian problem did not begin on October 7, but has existed for 75 years and more.

More than half of the Palestinians were expelled and have been living in refugee camps ever since. In 1948, 70% of the land was taken over, and for 56 years the remaining Palestinian territories of Gaza, Jerusalem and the West Bank have been occupied.

For decades, especially in the West Bank, where Hamas does not rule, there has been a settlement policy, the construction of a separation wall (9 m high), the destruction of houses, and attacks on mosques and churches. One million Palestinians have already been imprisoned in Israeli prisons. Since October 8, Israel has been waging the so-called war of self-defense. Nearly 25,000 civilians were killed and 65,000 wounded. Children, women, old people, journalists, doctors, nurses have lost their lives … More than 70% of the houses were destroyed. High-rise buildings with hundreds of families were razed to the ground. Infrastructure, including many hospitals, schools, water and sewers, and roads, have also been destroyed. Two million people had to leave their homes and are now living in tents. There is a lack of food, clean water, electricity, internet and, above all, medicine. These people are constantly being bombed. Dear friends, this is a war of annihilation aimed at killing many Palestinians in order to expel the remaining Palestinians outside Gaza to Egypt and Jordan and to take over the country. The German government continues to oppose the immediate ceasefire, is financing the war and has multiplied arms deliveries. The Palestinians, however, will thwart these plans of the Israelis. They don’t go anywhere and stay in their home country. For this we need your support and the solidarity of all people who are on the side of peace, freedom and justice. People who are against double standards and see all people as equal. Pressure must be exerted on the federal government. How many more people have to die before the German government commits to stopping the war? The German government must end its financial support and arms deliveries to Israel. Germany should follow South Africa’s example and not just blindly copy American policy. Human rights and the right to freedom of expression must also apply to the pro-Palestine movement. We demand no bans on demonstrations and no confiscation of banners and posters by the German authorities, police and prosecutors. Civil rights must apply to everyone. For this we need your support, dear trade union leaders.

“What is happening in Gaza today is horror,” said Eva Gürster, a ver.di colleague from the health care sector, echoing Dr. Khaled Hamad’s speech. Against the background of our own struggle for the defense of our hospitals here, in Cologne for the preservation of the Holweide hospital and the children’s clinic Amsterdamer Straße, she drew the connection to the destruction in Gaza: “Only 13 of the former 36 hospitals are still operating under great restrictions. More than 350 healthcare workers have already fallen victim to the war. The Organization Medical Aid to Palestinians reported on January 5 that the health system had collapsed. The operating theatres are full. There is no morphine anymore. Amputations without anesthesia. Not a dignified place to die. Many medical workers would not even be able to visit the injured in the refugee camps because of the bombings.” She spoke out against any political and military support for the Israeli government: “Millions of workers are taking to the streets internationally. In the United States, there is the strongest mobilization since the Vietnam War. In Israel itself, demonstrations against the war policy are banned by Netanyahu’s police. Netanyahu’s courts sentence young men and women to military prison if they refuse military service. There is no right to conscientious objection in Israel. In Germany, we need our trade unions at our side. The Scholz government must end its support for Netanyahu. Netanyahu is committing a massacre and the German government must no longer hold his hand in this: stop political and military support!”

At the beginning of his contribution, Thilo Nicklas, a member of IG BAU, addressed the argument that Israel’s “right of self-defense” would justify the war of annihilation against Gaza. He disagreed: “If almost twice as many people live in an area slightly smaller than Cologne and this area is then mercilessly bombed, high numbers of civilian casualties are inevitable.” Thilo Nicklas pointed out that around 25,000 people have already died, about 70% of them women and children. This is unacceptable and I condemn it in the strongest possible terms. But what is our federal government doing? Instead of trying to mediate so that this senseless killing of civilians ends, it is moving to the level of the United States in terms of foreign and social policy. In addition to the proxy war against Russia in Ukraine, the traffic light is now also trying to forge an alliance in the Middle East alongside Netanyahu’s right-wing governing alliance and is thus jointly responsible for this brutal war against the Palestinians. For example, Germany has increased its arms exports to Israel almost tenfold this year compared to last year. The value of goods rose from €32 million to €303 million, the majority of which has been approved since the beginning of the war.”

DIDF Cologne had also supported the rally. Imdat Salman spoke on her behalf: “In 2015, 2016, when the war raged again in Turkey, in Kurdistan, a woman, a teacher, called a prominent program that ran in prime time and said: ‘I want peace in this country, I want the guns to stop!’ The woman had to go to prison because of this statement.” Imdat warned that there was also a tendency in Germany to attack opponents of the war and to question democracy here as well. He then dealt with the argument of Germany’s ‘historical responsibility’: “One lesson from the Second World War should be that Germany supports South Africa’s complaint to the International Court of Justice. Instead, without the court dealing with South Africa’s statements, the government directly said, ‘This is all nonsense!’ (…) We have a very simple demand: a ceasefire. This is the most humanistic, the most human thing that can be demanded. It is absurd that today, in the land of poets and thinkers, one has to justify oneself to demand a ceasefire. When I listen to our Foreign Minister, who said in an interview that it is not the task of politicians to agree on ceasefires and so on, what is the purpose of politics at all? I must also say that the developments in this country in the last 2 years are shocking. (…) Therefore: Ceasefire now! The misery in Gaza must stop! The basic rights of both the Palestinians and the Jewish population must also be accepted!

After Imdat, Axel Droppelmann, also from IG BAU, took the floor: “I am 61 years old, I have been a member of IG BAU for 45 years, I am active in trade unions and from day one I have always been committed to peace. That hasn’t changed to this day.” He reported on the unity of the colleagues on the construction site, who belong to many different nationalities. He was recently asked whether he could work longer instead of retiring as planned: “But when I see what is being done with my taxes, I get to puke. I don’t want that!” If his taxes were used for construction and public services, then gladly. But this is not the case: “We spend 100 billion on armaments, we are able to do that. We can also spend millions on weapons for Israel, we can do that too. Instead of diplomacy, money for weapons. People are shot to death. I’m just not willing to pay my taxes for that.” He reported that IG BAU was planning an action on the occasion of the inauguration of the new Leverkusen motorway bridge. “Our Transport Minister Wissing is coming to Leverkusen to celebrate himself. I, as a member of IG BAU, and I’m sure many of my colleagues will also be there. We will be loud there and hold up a banner, which we will also wear on May 1st and what we have always carried: steel for bridges instead of weapons!”

He was followed by Julian Gürster, a member of the GEW in Cologne. He first reported on a greeting address from GEW colleagues from Berlin for the rally and then added: “Right here and now is the moment when we can say publicly: I am a trade unionist and I am for an immediate and permanent ceasefire, for the lifting of the blockade and for a stop to arms deliveries to Israel. But why do we have to say this? Because the Foreign Minister says the following on behalf of the German government: “In order for [there to be peace], Gaza must no longer pose a threat to Israel’s existence, Hamas must lay down its arms, Hezbollah and the Houthis must stop their dangerous ignition. To achieve this, the people in Gaza and the West Bank need the chance to live in security, dignity and self-determination – and in Gaza, they need much more humanitarian aid in the immediate future: against acute hunger, against the spreading epidemics, against the cold of winter. To this end, Israel, which has the right and duty to defend itself against terror, must do much better to protect civilians in its military action.” It talks about humanitarian aid against acute hunger, etc., but does not mention the bombings. And she says that the Gaza Strip must no longer pose a threat to Israel’s existence, which means that the war against Hamas must be won, of course by military means. In doing so, she is speaking out against a ceasefire. (…) Raz Segal and other historians refer to Gaza as a ‘textbook case of genocide’. (…) Many other experts share these views. But the most important thing for us as trade unionists is the verdict of our Palestinian colleagues. They shout, ‘We are being murdered.’ I look around here and see colleagues from a wide variety of areas! The people dying in Gaza would be our colleagues and their children. They would be organized in our trade unions. The trade union movement can help stop the killing, and it has a responsibility to do so!”

Isabelle Casel, who worked in the DFG/VK and the Was-Tun?! network, took the floor. She said that the Israeli government could not claim the right to self-defense: “As with 9/11, when we condemned the U.S. war on terror, an appropriate and constitutional response to a terrorist attack is simply the targeted arrest of the attackers with police operations for the purpose of sentencing them in a court of law. Even the killing with drones, which was often practiced before, is murder and thus itself a crime in which accuser, judge and executioner are combined in one and innocent civilian victims are murdered at the same time. In addition, resistance to occupation is legitimized under international law, as is the right to self-defense – Hamas’ attacks on the Israeli military are covered by it – whereas attacks on civilians are always crimes. The incessant bombing of civilians, the denial of water, food, medicine and fuel to the imprisoned population – which makes life unbearable – meets the criteria for the crime of genocide (…) The German government is actively contributing to the continuation of the war with countless victims by approving arms deliveries to Israel almost tenfold since October 7, 2023. Arms exports must be stopped immediately.”

At the end of the rally, Henning Frey, GEW colleague and also with What-Tun?!, said: “In recent days, Chancellor Scholz has invoked unity against the AfD and its plans to expel entire parts of the population with a migration background. The fact is, however, that Scholz fully supports the expulsion and genocide of the Palestinians carried out by the Netanyahu government, both politically and militarily. With regard to the Palestinians, he is practising a policy that corresponds to the AfD’s plans. There can be no unity with Scholz! We say no to Scholz’s support for Netanyahu!” The rally ended with the adoption of a greeting address to Member of the Bundestag Sevim Dagdelen. We document the text in the box on the right. Hf

Genocide – Nazisme – Russiafobia – Fullscale war – Norwegian saboteurs –
NATO fever – Weapon’s euphoria – Mowing the Gaza lawn – Propaganda
MEDIA IN THE SHADOW OF WAR
Lost trust in media?
Welcome to the Wergeland Hall
Litteraturhuset, Wergelandsveien 29, Oslo
February 24, 12-18 o’clock
Focusing on people’s lost trust in media and its handling of wars, violence and freedom of information in recent years, and the prospect of healing the distrust in this important institution.
54% of Norwegian young people say they have little trust in the media. In many countries the distrust is even more precarious.
The topic for the day is the collapse in media’s critical function in recent years. The wars in Ukraine and Gaza and the persecution of Julian Assange and Wikileaks, and other threatening clouds in our time, bring us together for this event. Most importantly, we shall
be looking into the prospects of healing the broken trust in this important institution so important for thriving democracies.

Why do we not trust our media? Democracy requires good and trustworthy media. So, we ask: “What has happened and what can we do to heal today’s distrust in media and create a basis for trust?”
Welcome to Oslo on this Saturday, February 24th to “Media in the Shadow of War” on the day two years after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and hundreds of thousands of dead and wounded with a generation of young Ukraines and Russians lost; more than five months into an ongoing full-scale genocide in Gaza; five years of unlawfully incarceration of Julian Assange in a high security prison for exposing war crimes, and looming international crises and tensions on all continents. These will take part:
• Kajsa Ekis Ekman (born 1980) is a Swedish author, freelance journalist and debater.
According to Wikipedia “her works have sparked debate in subjects regarding capitalism, prostitution and surrogacy taking a left-wing and feminist perspective.” In 2010 Ekman was awarded the Robespierre Prize; in 2015 the Swedish-Greek of the Year; in 2016 the Sara Lidman-prize and in 2020 the Lenin Award. She is the writer of
i.a. Skulden : Eurokrisen sedd från Aten. Stockholm: Leopard. 2013. On the Meaning of Sex: Thoughts about the New Definition of Woman (Om könets existens – tankar den nya synen på kön. Stockholm: Polaris, 2021.) She is prolific contributor to newspapers and magazines i.a. Norwegian daily Klassekampen.
• Professor Jeffrey Sachs, economist at Columbia University in New York and long-time adviser to Secretary Generals of UN and powerful states, will speak on “Media in the Shadow of Wars: The collapse and necessary healing of media in our time. Looking at Ukraine, Gaza, looming wars and the persecution of Julian Assange.” Sachs has a
background as an advisor to Gorbatchev, Medvedev, Yeltsin and Putin as well as Ukraine’s first president Leonid Kravchuk. He is often referred to as The Father of the UN Millennium Goals. Sachs will participate on zoom directly from Beijing.
• Mads Gilbert is a Norwegian medical doctor and surgeon, a revered icon of humanism in a lifelong struggle for Palestinians and Gazans in particular, daily setting his own life at risk like so many health and social workers on the Gaza strip. He has recently visited the Middle East and brings fresh observations from this downtrodden
and troubled area. He will speak to us directly online from a Gaza conference in Ankara. The last months he has daily been interviewed by Arabic, Indian, Egyptian and African TV-channels and radio-stations, as well as Western media like BBC, CNN, Al Jazeera, Democracy Now, NBC, AlArabia. For some odd reason rarely appearing on Norwegian NRK.
• Craig Murray, former UK diplomat lost his job as ambassador to Uzbekistan after disclosing torture committed by the Uzbek Karimov administration. He has comprehensively covered the proceedings in The International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the Hague launched by South Africa on Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza. He is a
close friend and confidant of Julian Assange and was an observer at the hearings in the Old Bailey against Assange. He publishes prolifically on his Substack homepage.
• Ghada Karmi, Palestinian medical doctor, academic and an acclaimed author, active for Palestine since 1972. She got her doctorate at the University of London in the
History of Arabic Medicine. She is an associate fellow at the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London, visiting professor at London Metropolitan University and vice-chair of the Council for Arab-British Understanding. She was driven out of her homeland Palestine in 1948. Visiting her old home in Jerusalem she wrote in her book Return: “All I could think of were the many alien people who had lived in these
rooms after us, and how each one erased more and more of our presence there.”
• Mads Andenæs, professor of law at the University of Oslo, has, to pick from a sea of international positions and honors, a background from Cambridge and Oxford Universities. Andenæs is a former member of the UN Working Group on Arbitrary
Detention, and engaged in PEN-Norway for many years in a commitment to stop the life-threatening harassment of Julian Assange and freedom of expression.
• Yonatan Shapira is an Israeli pilot, a captain flying Black Hawk helicopters, who 20 years ago became a world famous Israeli refusenik mobilizing hundreds of Israeli reserve pilots against serving in the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) as a protest to Israel’s
policy towards Palestinians. His resistance has made him pay a heavy price.
• Dr. Deepa Govindarajan Driver is legal observer at the trials against Julian Assange at London’s Old Bailey and engaged in the Freedom of expression group BRIDGE. She is an economist and a union negotiator in UK and currently writing/editing a book,
supported by Fritt Ord, with testimonies from and experiences made during the trials against Julian Assange, and its ramifications on jurisprudence and freedom of expression in UK and for the rest of us.
• Ögmundur Jonasson is an Islandic long-time advocate of human rights and media freedom, former Icelandic government minister and politicin, trade union leader and correspondent for Icelandic State Radio. Initiator of regular open meetings in Reykjavík on social and political issues.
• Marielle Leraand is co-founder of the Norwegian Peace and Justice FOR, has a background in other Norwegian parties on the left, lastly as deputy-chair of the party Red and is currently involved in resistance to Norway’s sending of weapons to Ukraine, and support for Palestinian rights, women’s rights and freedom of
expression.
• Ola Tunander is Research Professor Emeritus, Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO).
He received his PhD in 1989, headed PRIO’s Foreign and Security Policy Program and has lectured worldwide. He has contributed to official inquiries and written the original Western work on the concept of “deep state”. He is the author or editor of 15
books on history, geopolitics and military strategy including books on Psychological Operations, deception and submarines. His books have been on the reading list in Oxford University and US Naval War College. He has recently established the Think Tank Daidalos.
• Arne Ruth, arguably Swedish media’s Grand Old Man, i.a. as author, commentator and chief editor of the country’s largest paper Dagens Nyheter for 16 years. He has been the chair of Swedish PEN, the Swedish Salman Rushdie committee and the Stig Dagerman-society. He co-established the European SetJulianFree.org and has for four
years now worked tirelessly on informing and pressuring the Swedish government to rectify their mistreatment of Julian Assange.
• John Y. Jones, co-initiator of SetJulianFree.org, with recent, related events “A hearing on Assange with UN-rapporteur Nils Melzer and renown lawyer Eva Joly”; “A tribute to Julian Assange” with i.a. John Shipton, Julian’s father, and jazz musicians; “Focus on
Assange and Guantanamo” with Jeremy Corbyn and Guantanamo detainee Mansoor Adayfi; “The Crucifiction of Julian Assange” with Pulitzerprize winning journalist Chris Hedges, actor Liv Ullmann and others in a specially adapted Mass in the Jakob Culture
Church in Oslo. See has done recordings on Youtube and www.fredogrettferdighet.no.
• More names will be added
This event, ”Media in the Shadow of War”- is initiated by the Norwegian Peace and Justice organisation – FOR; with the European freedom of expression group Bridge; the Think Tank
Daidalos; Networkers SouthNorth; the Nordic Set Julian Free group and the Norwegian Quarterly Magazine Ny Tid and Orientering.
Tickets by Ticketmas

“Gaza has become a place of death and despair,” said Martin Griffiths, head of the UN Office for Emergency Relief in Ocha, in early January.Their living conditions are abysmal, they lack the basic necessities to survive, which are pursued by hunger, disease and death.(Griffiths, February 2024)

Netanyahu has ordered a plan to be drawn up to evacuate civilians from Rafah. There are no longer any safe places in the Gaza Strip and there are “catastrophic consequences,” said Nadia Hardman, representative of Human Rights Watch (HRW). Representatives of the Israeli government, such as Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, are calling for the expulsion of the residents of the Gaza Strip and the Israeli settlement of Gaza.

Parliamentarians for Ceasefire: For an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. We welcome the initiative of Sevim Dagdelen (BSW Party, MdB, Germany) and Ilhan Omar (Democratic Party, Members of the US House of Representatives), which is supported by more than 500 MPs from 28 countries.

We support the initiative of trade unionists, who demand in an open letter to the DGB and its individual unions to actively and immediately campaign for

immediate withdrawal of Israeli troops! immediate ceasefire!
Immediate cessation of the bombing!
Immediate lifting of the blockade of Gaza!

“Rearmament and war are incompatible with the welfare state”

With the planned 85.5 billion euros for military spending for 2024, the highest since the end of World War II, the German government will become the most spending military power in Europe. The costs of rearmament and wars are being paid by the working population and youth with a policy of austerity against hospitals, schools and municipalities…, with falling real wages and rising prices for food and rents. The cynical winners are the arms companies.
Stop all financial support and arms deliveries to Ukraine, to Israel and to the war in the Middle East. Lifting of sanctions against Russia.
No to the hundreds of billions for the war budget! Hundreds of billions for more staff for hospitals, schools, daycare centers… and inflation-proof collective bargaining wages! Put an end to outsourcing and wage dumping! Stop destroying farmers’ livelihoods!

European Liaison Committee “Against War – Against Social War”

24 February 2024: Day of action across Europe

Against war – against social war!

Immediate ceasefire! Negotiations!

Hundreds of thousands have demonstrated in Europe and around the world for an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine and Gaza!
The European Liaison Committee has proposed to call for a European day of action on 24 February, the 2nd anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, for the resistance forces against the war.
Actions, rallies or events are being prepared in several European countries.
In Germany, demonstrations, rallies, actions and events will take place in Berlin, Cologne, Leipzig and Frankfurt/Main, for example.

Let us set a common European signal!

Peace for Ukraine and for Russia

On the occasion of the second anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the

Berlin Peace Coordination on

to participate in a

Rally in front of the Federal Chancellery

Saturday, February 24, 2024, 1 p.m.

For more information, please visit: https://gegendenkrieg-gegendensozialenkrieg.info/

For Independent Workers’ Policy – Working Group against Deregulation and Privatization

www.arbeitnehmerpolitik.de; Contact: gotthardkrupp@t-online.de

V.i.S.d.P.: Gotthard Krupp, Knesebeckstr.98; 10623 Berlin

Stop the war!

In an age of imminent danger of war for the whole world, when smoldering conflicts flare up from the vast expanse of the Sahel to the densely populated Myanmar, following the economic and political interests of the imperialist centers, and reaching the highest proportions of bloodshed in Ukraine and Palestine, the Committee against War and Imperialism demands an end to the war and the abolition sanction. Joining the action of the European Liaison Committee against War, we will organize the commemoration of the second anniversary of the beginning of the fratricidal war in Ukraine, with the demand that Russia and NATO stop prolonging the slaughter that has been going on without interruption since February 24, 2022, and that the EU authorities in that purpose of refrain from war-mongering rhetoric and propaganda.

Under the slogan “Stop the war!” The Committee Against War and Imperialism invites you to a series of anti-war events in Belgrade.

February 23, 2024

* Letters of protest will be submitted to the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Trade due to the participation of the economic and state structures of Serbia in sending weapons and other resources for the purposes of conducting that war.

* A press conference on the occasion of that action will be held on the same day at 11 a.m. in front of the old general staff building in Kneza Milosa Street.

February 24, 2024

* A large anti-war banner will be displayed in the center of Belgrade.

* An artistic anti-war performance will be held on Marx and Engels Square (Nikole Pasica) at 4 p.m.

* The open meeting “Stop the war!” will be held that day at 6 pm in the Art Pavilion “Cvijeta Zuzorić”, Mali Kalemegdan 1; the speakers will be: Noa Treister (member of the Committee against War and Imperialism), Mihajlo Nikolić (member of the Committe against War and Imperialism, member of the Party of Radical Left, member of the organization Support to the People of Palestine ), Anja Ilić (member of the organization Marks21) and Nebojša Komanović (Member of the Committee against War and Imperialism); meeting moderator: Ratibor Trivunac (member of the Committee against War and Imperialism).

* An anti-war party, with the message “Stop the war!” will be held the same evening.

The public will be informed in a timely manner with additional details, place and time of each of the planned actions.

All anti-war events taking place on February 23 and 24 will be live streamed on the social networks of the Committee Against War and Imperialism.

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