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This is a piece I wrote on behalf of International Women* Space and every woman out there!

I am a woman. Queer. Trans. I conform to no gender. I am a sex worker. Heterosexual. Bisexual! I am deeply Religious, no Heck am a proud atheist. Call me a witch on my magical days, or the moon on a mood swing. 

I am a refugee. A migrant. Thoroughly indigenous! I am a Feminist. A warrior. A matriarch. A mother, by choice, or not. Childless, also by choice, or not! A power house! Definitely a goddess! I am who the fuck I say I am. 

Carved from the most Superior. Call me Mother Earth, I mean, heck I filled it, didn’t I? I am Nature. I Am Life. 

I am black, yellow, white fuck it today I am a smurfet. I am blue.

 I am YOU, but I am also ME!  I am WE! 

I am every person that identifies as a woman in the world. My voice is every woman’s voice. 

Guess what? I am also HUMAN! 

The kind that is endangered!

So you bet I am furious, fed up! Just fuckin livid! 

Utterly irked and inflamed that, like my slain sisters, I would also bare my life so others can be free. 

Break every rule you set for me, Fight at every corner with all in me. Kill me you may, but fuck that, it’s a move I intend to play!

I will not drown in the murky waters of patriachy!

But, I am not free until every woman is free, not even when her shackles are different from my own, and her burdens unimaginable to me. 

So on this day we reclaim our voices and call you out! 

For treating us like less than human! 

From the global south we fight and flee, from wars you can’t possibly fathom, 

But our lands are apparently not good enough, go figure, yet you robbed them bare! Not good enough to be human.

Your methods, sneaky and covert,

Yet the sadism so palatable

Creating racist systems and structures, asylum procedures governed by red tape

Placing us in Lagers, legal brewing pots for re-traumatization, 

Our mental health hanging in the balance,

No freedom of movement or right to self determination

Yet with the great audacity of a saviour’s complex, our appreciation for the bare minimum is demanded of us..

Are we not human enough? 

You sanction the pushbacks of migrants and refugees from the Mediterranean

Invest millions in building a detention and deportation center, a buzzing hub of human rights inviolations

All the while welcoming the white Ukranian refugee, “hey, come, live and be free!” 

Yet my security and protection remains culturally and systemically tied to a man,

Let’s face it, the choices before women seeking refuge are neither fair nor enviable, not in any capacity

We flee from families, religious shackles, abusive partners, societal standards and expectations, gender roles, systemic inequality, horrific sexual violence, psychological burdens…I could go on and on…

All I have is my person, my body, my talents, my beauty, intelligence, a bit of mania maybe…my identity! I reclaim it!

Non-negotiable, I can tell you now for free, I won’t trade me. Hell no!

I choose who I want to be. I choose me.

I figured, you must fear the warrior in me, ’tis why you throw all this at me! projecting your toxic bullshit on me, try to keep me quiet and hopefully eventually

kill me…

How about the robbery, with and without violence, of my autonomy, the right to my own person? When you just assume my body is yours for the taking 

Roles and rules you set for me, micromanaging every smile, my life is not my own. 

That makes my blood boil! That you choose what I should wear and who I should bang. You want to handpick my options, and expect me to stay in “my place”

Then taunt, break, maim me, discipline me to get your point across…

Still innovative you are: FGM, domestic violence, sexual harassment, financial violence, infanticide, femicide, marital rape, street and cyber harassment…its just fuckin endless!!

So yes I am an Angry Black woman!

Who wouldn’t be?? 

When you fetishize me and grope me, harass me, rape me, violate my sexual and reproductive health rights..

Make assumptions and decisions over a reproductive organ you don’t carry

When I deny or “defy you”, your tool is corrective rape or assault, that should teach me!

You fetishize me but then humiliate me, misgender me, inspect and mock my body, gawk at me…

You scream my name in pleasure when you switch to incognito tab, yet you tear and strip me of my very dignity and identity!

Your punches may keep me down sometimes, but they will never knock me out! 

See what men fear most about going to prison, is the day to day life of a woman walking down the sidewalk. So take a seat place. You know nothing about being me.

What we can all identify with as women, is that feeling that comes with the chokehold of patriachy, you know, that stifling, suffocating shit that is a literal ticking time bomb?

Don’t we all know too well the feeling of having to fake a phone call, taking a longer route, making conscious steps not to provoke an aggressor?

That sinking feeling, hashtags, another dead woman, 

It dawns on you, a sitting duck barely surviving, 

Some day, it may be YOU who runs out of luck..

We cannot be afraid or hold back, even when the system fights us, trying to divide and conquer us!

We must dismantle and crush all oppressive systems and structures! 

We are more than hashtags, More than our bodies, stories or identities..

Time to call out every person who perpetrates or condones patriachy and gender based violence, even by staying silent in the face of it. 

We are under siege, we must fight every system set in place to break us.

Speak up! Let us demand change, justice and equality!

For until all of us are free and safe, none of us are!

As a woman you call me many names, so remember this one, 

My kind, is called Patriarchy’s Worst Nightmare!

Berlin – Mit ihrer Aktion fordern die Aktivist*innen für Bleiberecht den Berliner Senat auf, ein Landesaufnahmeprogramm für afghanische Geflüchtete zu erlassen.

Der Baum auf dem Oranienplatz hat Symbolcharakter für die Geflüchtetenbewegung: 2014 stieg die aus dem Sudan geflüchtete Aktivistin Napuli Langa aus Protest über die Räumung des zuvor dort gestandenen Protestcamps auf jenen Baum. Geflüchtete hatten das Camp errichtet, um ihre Forderungen nach Bleiberecht und menschenwürdige Unterbringung zu unterstreichen. Erst fünf Tage später, nach der Zusicherung durch den Bezirk, ein Infozelt wieder aufbauen zu dürfen, stieg die Aktivistin wieder hinab.

Seit Freitag Abend sitzt Napuli Langa wieder auf dem Baum. Die Gründe sind die selben wie damals, sagt sie – nur der Anlass ist ein neuer: Denn mit ihr sitzt dieses Mal ein weiterer Mensch auf dem Baum. Sein Name kann aus Sicherheitsgründen nicht genannt werden, denn er fürchtet Gewalt durch die Taliban gegen seine Familie in Afghanistan. Er selbst ist schon länger Deutschland. Seine Frau konnte er bisher aber nicht nachholen. Nun sitzt sie fest, ebenso wie weitere Teile der Familie, die sich vor der Machtübernahme der Taliban demokratisch engagiert hatten. Von der deutschen Botschaft ist aktuell keine Unterstützung zu erwarten.

Der Baum am Oranienplatz ist mit Plakaten umhangen. “Bleiberecht für alle” steht dort. Und genau das fordern Napuli Langa und ihr Mitdemonstrant jetzt von der Berliner Regierung: Ein Landesaufnahmeprogramm für afghanische Geflüchtete, wie schon Schleswig-Holstein eins beschlossen hat.

Der amtierende Innensenator Andreas Geisel (SPD) ist noch drei Wochen im Amt. Wer danach die Verantwortung tragen wird, ist ungewiss. Für Bleiberechtsaktivistinnen besteht aber keine Zeit auf Koalitionsverhandlungen zu warten. Sie fordern jetzt konsequentes Handeln des Senats. Unterstützende Aktivistinnen kontaktieren derzeit Abgeordnete der Regierungsparteien und rufen sie auf, sich vor Ort über die Forderungen zu informieren.

Kontaktmöglichkeiten für Presseanfragen:

• Gespräche vor Ort möglich
• Telefon (mobil über International Women* Space): +49 1520 1721275 oder +49 1575 2706285
• E-Mail an iwspace@iwspace.de

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Statement, 28th August 2021: Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg: Respect Refugee Rights, respect the agreement you signed in 2014

Pressebericht von 2014: Napuli Langa: Die standhafte Besetzerin, taz

I’m M, a black transgender refugee woman. I live in Bad Saarow which is a lager that is isolated between a forest, a lake, and some Nazis which is halfway to Poland from Berlin. It takes me two hours and four trains to just come here to make this speech. I am not even sure how I will get back to Bad Saarow.

Why am I here today?

Racism, mass migration, civil wars, lack of proper leadership, and stability can all be traced back to slavery, colonialism, and the scramble for and partition of Africa. In this city of Berlin 137 years ago 7 European powers divided the continent Africa like it was cake. Our history and cultures were erased. Our grandparents suffered heavily, they were tortured and families have broken apart. The land was forcefully taken and they were put in concentration camps where they were detained without trial. Artifacts, religious items, and many other prized things were collected from our lands in the name of the Queen, they now sit in museums making European countries money.

And to this day the dialogue in and around reparations is non-existent. After independence, these European countries never formally acknowledged their horrific actions. They installed their cronies as leaders who mismanaged the countries ensuring no proper accountability so they could get our precious minerals where the common citizen never gets to see a penny from exports. Wealth is in the hands of a select few. Countries fall into chaos. As western countries collude with African governments then later in their statements say they are corrupt. Women and children suffer indiscriminately. Young kids work in the mines of the DRC and Germany continues to do trade with the corrupt governments. This is Neocolonialism. As western governments continue to work with these thugs and crooks who are the governments of these countries they are legitimizing them. Then there is the war profiteering business which makes a lot and I mean a lot of money. Germany makes 1.6 Billion (with a  B) euros from selling arms to Israel. They also make a lot of money from selling Medicines and medical equipment to Palestine. Intentionally turning a blind eye to the ongoing occupation, massacre and apartheid rule on Palestine by Israel.  How crazy is this? To add to that, 40% of all total sales of arms done by Germany  is to North Africa and the Middle East where the majority of refugees are from. I leave you to make the correlation

So then refugees from these war-torn countries flee to the perceived ‘safe’ countries… that is western countries and come here, we are treated like we do not belong. Being put in lagers that are in ghost towns. This is real-life psychological torture Germany. Families are being shoved into tiny rooms. These asylum cases are dragging on for years; others have spent over 10 years and are still waiting with no right to work or any sort of schooling or any avenue to get any legal recognition. This is a shame Germany.

All refugees are denied the right to choose where they want to stay but it even gets worse with LGBTQI+ refugees who face danger and discrimination in everyday life. As a Black transgender woman, I, like many others, experience intersectional discrimination, far often than not these actions go unchecked and we suffer in silence!

Navigating the system as a Black Trans refugee is shockingly hard, you have social workers who are not well versed in dealing with the specific issues faced. Access to hormones is limited and almost impossible. The Government should take action to ensure more protection and ease of access for medical needs for trans refugees.  

We demand the right to safe housing, not isolated from LGBTQI+ communities and wider society!  We demand the right to choose where we live! Trans rights are human rights. Refugee rights are human rights. 

We demand Germany to take charge as it did in 1884 while partitioning my continent to do the same now and serve a formal apology to countries affected by colonialism. That should be followed by the return of antiques and artifacts back to where they belong, In the motherland. Reparations are not up for discussion; they are way overdue. And we should dictate the terms.

We demand for german corporations to take a stance against doing business in war torn countries or with dictatorial regimes.

We demand an expanded curriculum in schools talking and teaching extensively about Germany’s colonial past, racism, and a more diversified education covering gender and sexuality. 

If you want to be allies, work with refugee-led, grassroots organizations. Donate your money, your time, and use your voice and your votes.

You have a civic duty to dismantle all the systems that continue to oppress me. Make a fair, equal and just system a reality for all.

In this time, we were fighting for: abolition of the Residenzpflicht, the voucher system, the right to study the German language, the right to work and study, and abolition of Lagers – to break the isolation all asylum seekers are placed into.

In this way they were criminalizing the political movement and the political work as a whole showing how much they wanted to suppress the movement. Drugs have always been used to undermine political movements and uprisings.

So this is when racial profiling subtly started. The denial to access the school which they so much wanted was one reason why they did not enter to do the arrests. When the police came, 3 men ended up being arrested and were put into prison for 5 months while the investigations took place.The justice system claimed that they were trying to run away but the reality is that they were actually protesting in order to get their right to stay. This was a whole 5 months of detention without trial!

Through the Oranienplatz movement, we were able to abolish the Residenzpflicht and the voucher system and got the rights to study, which is what the asylum seekers today are benefiting from.

But now the situation is different – there are the Dublin regulations which are what are being used to illegalize people. This is a law that dictates which country will be responsible for your asylum application. In reality, it has meant that once you enter a European country you have to go through the asylum process there, in the country of arrival. If you try to go to a 2nd or 3rd European country and apply for asylum, they can and will deport you back to the country that you arrived in. This is a tactic the EU is using to deport people.

Because of the Dublin Regulations, many people have become illegalized or undocumented, forcing them into an even more vulnerable situation. This exposes people to all sorts of violence: sexual exploitation, forced prostitution, poor working conditions, and unpaid work. It’s also why some people are forced into operating from this park to earn a living.

And this is how the state uses the vulnerability they create to criminalize people. With laws like Dublin and the criminalization of drugs they are able to justify racial profiling – to stop and arrest people who they suspect are selling drugs or who are here quote ‘illegally’. These criminalizations happen in the streets and it always come with immense police violence and racial profiling.

Now there is a new outcry on the war on drugs and the face of crime has become black or Arab men.

Our question is: Who brings the drugs here and who uses them? Who are the real consumers of these drugs?

When we go back to history, with evidence from the film ‘Wir Kindern von Bahnhof Zoo’, we can clearly see the history of drugs here. There was no Görlitzer park but drugs were still being sold and from the film the peddlers of the drugs were the Germans themselves.

Berlin is heavily publicly commercialised as a great tourist attraction – a place for the European tourists to come and celebrate the ‘multikulti’ and the free drug atmosphere. On the other hand, this same freedom is not applied to the people who are forced to engage in drug peddling.

So we stand here, almost ten years after the Oplatz movement and occupation of the school began, still fighting for the end of the racist asylum and migration policies of the EU – and the end of the policing, racial profiling, and criminalization we experience.

The right wing is using migration to create fear, if you do not want migrants, let us address the reasons as to why people flee because right now the unwanted migrants are fleeing because of the economic and political chaos and turmoil created by Europe.

As we will keep saying: We are here because you destroy our lands.

Let’s vote wisely! Let’s join forces and let’s not stop demanding for a more humane asylum system until we achieve a dignified life for all!

2012 besetzten Geflüchtete die Gerhart-Hauptmann-Schule im Berliner Stadtteil Kreuzberg.
Fast zwei Jahre lebten sie dort.

Die Besetzung war der Höhepunkt des wohl wichtigsten Zyklus’ sozialer Kämpfe um die Rechte von Geflüchteten in Deutschland. Zugleich steht die Besetzung in einem Zusammenhang von vielen politischen Aktivitäten und Debatten des Flucht- und Asyl-Komplexes der EU, der Bundesregierung, kommunaler und lokaler Verwaltungen und der Zivilgesellschaft.

Der Staat reagierte auf die Besetzung mit einer Mischung aus vorgeblichen Zugeständnisse, Kompromissen, Hinhalten und offener Repression.

Im Juli 2014 wurde die besetzte Schule geräumt. Die Räumung dauerte zwei Wochen. Polizist:innen aus sechs Bundesländern waren dabei fast 170.000 Stunden im Einsatz, der über 5 Millionen Euro kostete.

März 2021 – sieben Jahre später steht die Schule noch immer leer.
Das Geflüchteten- und Kulturzentrum, das die Besetzer*innen in der Schule errichten wollten, gibt es nicht.

CREDITS:
Regisseurin: Denise Garcia Bergt
Cinematografie: Pippa Samaya
Kamera, Schnitt: Denise Garcia Bergt & Pippa Samaya
Drohne Kamera: Marco Heinig (Leftvision)
Ton: Birte Gerstenkorn
Produktionsleitung: Nicola Nagy
Unterstützung Produktion: Paula Lange
Moderation: Christian Jakob
Protagonit*innen: Lica Stein, Alnour Ahmad-Hassan, Adam Bahar, Jan, Kim
Musik: Isabel Janke
Ein Film des FHXB Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg Museums
Berlin, März 2021