LECTURES | BOOK PRESENTATIONS | TALKS
SATURDAY
Arditi del popolo. The first armed resistance against fascism in Italy 1921-1922 by Andrea Staid | Johanna Wintermantel (translator) | saturday 13:00
„Wehret den Anfängen“ – this anti-fascist slogan may sound somewhat helpless and dusty today. What is little known is that there was an organization in Italy that successfully tried to do just that for a short time, long before the better-known Resistenza. Even before the march on Rome, the Italian fascists suffered their first military defeat: in 1922, the Arditi del popolo defended Parma against a fascist superiority in barricade fights in which broad sections of the population participated with the simplest of means. Could the Arditi del popolo, this widely unknown first armed anti-fascist organization, have prevented the rise of fascism? This question must remain open, because after its emergence and rapid spread out of the experiences of the First World War, the social struggles of the „Biennio Rosso“ in 1919/20 and the subsequent fascist violence against the population, the Arditi del popolo collapsed almost as quickly. Among the reasons for this was the lack of support from and rejection by political parties, including those on the left: The Arditi could not be appropriated enough or even clearly classified politically. Even in historiography, the Arditi del popolo are still interpreted differently today.
In his book the historian and anthropologist Andrea Staid presents the development and characteristics of the Arditi del popolo, gives an overview of the debate about the Arditi del popolo in the contemporary party press as well as in historiography, and illustrates the practice of the Arditi del popolo using the example of the defense of Parma, including eyewitness accounts and photographs of the actors and scenes.
„There are men. What to do?“ A critical examination of our critical examination | Boykott Magazin (writers & editors) | saturday 13:00
The Boykott Magazine wants to take a mean stab at patriarchy. Men (and others) should engage with masculinity(s), gender hierarchies and sexism. But how does that work? And what is the point? Editors and authors present the concept and style of the magazine and look forward to a discussion about the pros and cons of this approach.
We will also see beautiful days. Letters from prison by Zehra Doğan | Lena Müller (translator) | saturday 15:00
This volume collects the letters that the Kurdish artist and journalist Zehra Doğan wrote to her Turkish friend Naz Öke in France during her 600 days of imprisonment (June 2017 to February 2019). The letters are testimony to political arbitrariness of which Zehra Doğan and her fellow prisoners were victims. They tell of the conditions of detention in the prisons of Diyarbakır and Tarsus; of the confinement of the prison cells, through whose tiny windows two stars shine every night, but also of the women whose solidarity gives Zehra Doğan strength and whose stories she wants to record in order to draw the world’s attention to the fate of the many Kurdish prisoners in Turkey.
Zehra Dogan, born in 1989 in Diyarbakir, Turkey, is a Kurdish artist, journalist and activist. For painting a picture of the city of Nusaybin during the state of emergency, she was charged with propaganda for a terrorist organization and sentenced to nearly three years in prison.
Finanzcoop or Revolution in Slow Motion. Of people who share their money with each other | FC-Kollektiv | saturday 15:00
What does it mean to share all the money you earn, inherit, receive as a gift or owe with a group of people without any ifs or buts? What does it mean to be able to dispose of money that one earns, inherits or receives as a gift only in consultation and in accordance with one’s needs? When one has to discuss and plan major expenditures with others? How does such a model, in which partners are not necessarily also group members, change relationship life? What does it mean for the question of offspring, the attitude toward gainful employment, retirement security or for one’s own consumer behavior? And: Is such a collective, under certain circumstances, also a challenge to the rules of the game?
challenge to the rules of the game that capitalism has devised for our society? A provocation? A parallel world? A corrective? Maybe even a revolution in slow motion? Or only: a private event that is tolerated because it cannot really have a system-destabilizing effect?
The texts in this volume seek answers to these and other questions. They are the attempt of a seven-member solidarity community to make their now two-decade life with this model of a „Finanzcoop“ (abbreviated: FC) vivid for outsiders.
Darum Osten | Ostjournal | saturday 15:00
The East begins somewhere. Where exactly, we can’t say either, but we know it exists. There are these maps and statistics that show differences. There is a power imbalance behind it. The hegemony can be measured even without a compass.
Ostjournal is an online magazine that aims to make the voices of the Wende and Nachwende generations from the post-socialist transformation audible and to create a new narrative of Europe. Some controversial areas of tension occupy us in our first issue, „Darum Osten,“ in which we explore the question of why a call for an editorial with an Eastern connection generates so much response. We answer with complexity and conflict, raising questions that bring out different positions even in our editorial team: Is it okay to spread the nationalist exclamation Slava Ukrajini! Can one speak of East Germany as a colony? Are East Germans really the biggest losers:inside?
My name is foreigner by Semra Ertan | Zühal Bilir-Meier (Herausgeberin) | saturday 17:00
In her poems, Semra Ertan describes her life and experiences in Germany. Until today, she stands for generations of people who are still invisible and not heard. It is about suffering, anger as well as love, hope and friendship, social equality, the courage to resist and a more humane way of living with and for each other.
Zühal Bilir-Meier will present and read her sister’s poems.
Valentin | Jens Genehr | saturday 17:00
Based on the film and photo recordings of Johann Seubert, who documented the construction of the submarine bunker Valentin in Bremen Farge for the National Socialists, and the diary entries of Raymond Portefaix, who as a youth was deported from the French village of Murat to Bremen North and ended up as a concentration camp prisoner on the bunker construction site, Jens Genehr tells in his comic Valentin about this huge armament project, during the implementation of which more than 1000 forced laborers from all over Europe died.
Raids and 129 trials | Frevel – anarchistische Bibliothek | saturday 17:00
With coordinated raids both on apartments, an anarchist library and a print shop, a
129 procedure was revealed. The proceedings revolve solely around the accusation of having written, printed and published calls for and approval of and publishing them. The cops used this as a pretext to bust an entire and thousands of anarchist books and newspapers, as well as seizing DNA and newspapers, as well as to order DNA samples. The special thing about this among all the ongoing 129 proceedings in Germany is that it is solely about the distribution and publication of anarchist ideas… what does this repression against anarchist publications and ideas mean for us? How can we take an offensive way of dealing with state repression, when the state tries to persecute the open articulation of anarchist content? What experiences can we draw on when it potentially becomes a criminal offense to write, print and distribute newspapers?
Incels. History, language and ideology of an online cult | Veronika Kracher | saturday 19:00
Before an incel assassin ploughed a car into a crowd in Toronto in April 2018, murdering ten people, he left the following message on Facebook: „The Incel rebellion has already begun!“ He also paid homage to another murderer who killed six people and injured 13 others on the campus of the University of California at Santa Barbara in 2014. In his manifesto, he justified his actions as an act of revenge against women who had „denied him love and sex“ and consequently deserved to die. These are not the only attacks explicitly directed against women that have been perpetrated by so-called „incels“. „Incels“ is short for „Involuntary Celibates“. They meet in online forums and on image boards and lament not having sex, even though it is ought to be a natural, basic male right. Women, however, would deny them sex because, in their own view, incels are too unattractive to meet the demands of the superficial „femoids“ – who would only desire attractive „chads“, who make up just 20 percent of the male population. However, since incels refer to sex as the basis for a good life, they certify that women deny it to them. In the mildest case, their thinking is articulated in depression and self-pity, in the worst case in the glorification of child abuse, sexual violence or femicide. Incels, however, are not „exceptional phenomena“ within capitalist-patriarchal relations, but an expression of a society in which the devaluation of the feminine is systematic.
What does solidarity mean in war? | ABC Dresden | saturday 19:00
On February 24, 2022, the day the war began, we launched a fundraising campaign to raise money for our friends in Ukraine. In doing so, we answered their call for help and began the solidarity work that we had already planned together in the days before the war began.
Since then, 5 months have passed. How could it be otherwise, we were and are confronted with many challenges. How is it possible to build up such a support work in the long term? How do we solve internal conflicts and be as transparent as possible to all supporters? What political positions do we take to justify this work?
We would like to give you an update on the current situation of our support work. Explain why we do what we do and enter into discussion and exchange with you.
SUNDAY
Piss on Patriarchy. An examination of sexualised violence at the festival Monis Rache | gruppe mora (editors) | sunday 13:00
In a multifaceted documentary and analysis, those affected work through a case of sexualised violence at the leftist festival Monis Rache, where a staff member secretly filmed people read as female in porta-potties over years and sold the videos on porn platforms.
What about the way sexualised violence is dealt with on the left – especially when it comes from within its own ranks? In January 2020, it became public that a leftist cis man had secretly made video recordings in porta-potties at the leftist festival Monis Rache over several years. He sold the recordings of those he read as female on porn platforms.
For two years, the feminist group mora observed the reactions from the left scene. From the perspective of left FLINTA* and from their own consternation, the authors document, comment on and analyse the resulting questions, emotions, actions and feminist struggles. In the spirit of feminist historiography, this book archives the perspectives of the authors and others affected, so that their experiences are not forgotten. In addition to their own analyses on topics such as voyeurism, transformative justice and critical masculinity, statements by those affected, statements by the perpetrator and newspaper articles paint a comprehensive picture of the case.
Glitter in the Coal Dust. On the Struggle for Climate Justice and Autonomy | Zucker im Tank (editors) | sunday 13:00
In more than 60 contributions, activists from different spectrums describe the actions of the climate justice movement. They present their political reflections and give a self-critical insight into living together in climate camps, occupied villages and forests.
The activists know that neither the path taken by politics nor the speed proposed are suitable to prevent the climate catastrophe with all its „side effects“, such as the extinction of species, global famines and wars. That is why they occupy forests like the Hambach or Dannenröder Forest, sit on open-cast mining excavators in the Lausitz or Garzweiler, block access tracks to coal-fired power plants, fight for the preservation of villages like Lützerath, jump into the water in front of cruise ships to prevent them from leaving, or sabotage machines and other equipment necessary for the destructive business to run.
They know that their struggles have to be social struggles. For only in a radically different form of global coexistence and co-economy is it possible to preserve or create a present and future worth living for the absolute majority of people. That is why they oppose the global relations of exploitation and take their anger and protest to the streets even where it is not directly about coal-fired power plants, industrialised agriculture or other life-destroying economic sectors. In the awareness that in these times everything is literally at stake.
„Dinner at 16:30“. Arrests, interrogations and pre-trial detention: experiences from Switzerland | editors | sunday 15:00
Arrests, interrogations and detention: experiences from Switzerland.
Dinner 16:30 is for everyone who wants to deal with jail and repression. Because these topics do something to us – whether we want it or not. The more naturally and honestly we talk about it, the more resistant we become. That’s why it’s important to ask yourself not only about the legal and political aspects, but also about how it affects you personally. Because sooner or later everyone will be confronted with it, who rejects the prevailing order and expresses this with joy and anger in the belly.
Women of the Underworld. Queer Feminist Responses to Psychiatric Violence, Sexism and Ableism | Tine Rahel Völcker | sunday 15:00
This simultaneously empowering and empathetic play about seven female victims of Nazi „euthanasia“ shows a new perspective on „the hysterical woman“.
They were headstrong and vulnerable. They rebelled against the narrow limits imposed on them. They became ill as a result of violence, discrimination or poverty they had suffered – and were gassed in the Pirna-Sonnenstein sanatorium and nursing home. Women of the Underworld traces the biographies of seven powerful women who, as victims of the so-called Nazi infanticides, were kept silent for decades. As theatre characters, they now tell their stories for the first time – beyond the diagnoses and judgements that were once made about them. Their stories can no longer be changed, but the writing of history can!
In addition to the text of the play, activists and academics have their say who, from different positions, deal with Nazi „euthanasia“, rejectionism, pathologisation of femininity* and transidentity and current forms of psychiatric violence.
The contributions question the traditional evaluation of mental illness and open up a space for action beyond the „normal“.
Visually, the volume is accompanied by five drawings by Moana Vonstadl, which were created especially for this volume. As an illustrator and filmmaker, Moana Vonstadl experiments with motifs that reincorporate the wild and supposedly demonic as aspects of femininity* in a positive or value-free way.
Structural voids in the literature business – a panel discussion | narratif-Magazin & guests | sunday 15:00
I also write, can I join? Publishers, bookstores, libraries, magazines – platforms and places of literature should be open to everybody. Who is everybody? With narratif, Amaeze from the LIAA collective (LEIPZIG) and Sarah from the kohsie bookstore (HALLE SAALE) we’ll talk about utopias of an inclusive literary landscape.
Revolutionary neighborhood work | Vogliamo tutto (editors) | sunday 17:00
About five years ago, a strategic debate broke out in the radical left in Germany about how to shift political work away from a focus on the scene and toward broader society and its social struggles. This has given rise to various neighborhood groups that develop new practices in the form of grassroots work in order to link up with local living conditions and contribute to the politicization of the neighborhood along the lines of everyday conflicts. In doing so, they set themselves apart from classic info-shops and left-wing scene meetings as well as from social work and reformist approaches. Central fields of work are rent and labor struggles, feminism and care work, and anti-racism.
The group Vogliamo Tutto (Berlin) has interviewed five of these groups about what exactly their practice looks like, what their strategy is, what succeeds and what doesn’t & what their long-term perspective is. The conversations are meant to provide an impetus for reflection, both for activist:s pursuing or planning a similar practice, and for anyone wondering how we can contribute to an emancipatory transformation of our society.
We warmly invite everyone to get to know the practical approach of „revolutionary neighborhood work“ by reading the book. After an input on the underlying strategic considerations, we want to discuss this practice together with you based on excerpts from the interviews.
The Fucking Time | Barbi Marković | sunday 17:00
A unique pop-cultural game with the Belgrade of the nineties – and at the same time a crazy race against a time that society has clearly shat on.
Belgrade, 1995: Marko, his sister Vanja and Kasandra from the Roma settlement live in the „huge psycho-economic disaster“ of the 90s – a vicious circle of poverty, violence, inflation, drugs and new technologies. But in this ingenious novel there are also gangs and dealers, a mad scientist and a time machine, a Balkan pop icon and weird sex, there are bombings and destruction, but also music and friendship. And when the three teenagers are catapulted into wartime 1999, they realize they must free their city from the ravages of the ’90s. In a fast-paced chase, they try to find the key to the time loop and rewrite history.
Cancel Culture | Leon & Vincent
Vincent and Leon are at the Bookfair as guests with a microphone to cancel the Linkspartei. We ask you: what is the problem with the Linkspartei? And (why) do we need it anyway? We look forward to collectively producing a long-awaited new episode of Cancel Culture – a podcast on identity and politics.
for your eyes
Keine Ruhe | unofficial.pictures
In the fall of 2021, the so-called „refugee crisis“ at EU’s eastern border was still high up in the news. Commission President Ursula von der Leyen was speaking of solidarity with Poland in the face of a „hybrid attack to destabilize Europe“ – not one word of solidarity with the freezing migrants that were exposed to violence. With such rhetoric, people are dehumanized, turned into a diffuse mass that gets either pitied or seen as a threat. The photo collective unofficial.pictures has decided to make them visible as human beings with a photo-text newspaper. At the Radical Bookfair, it will now be used as a wall newspaper to create more visibility for this crisis of human rights in Europe.