On Monday September 10 the first english language meetup for #Aufstehen or #Standup was attended by 13 participants from different countries. Altogether four people from Germany, four from the U.S., two people from South-Korea, one from Brasil, one from Iceland and one person from Russia were present at the meeting.
After a short introduction round the discussion began.
As one of the main issues of the new movement international outreach was stressed by several speakers.
How can we reach out to movements in other countries? The fact of a general dangerous trend towards rightwing parties and rightwing movements throughout Europe was acknowledged and seen as a major reason to unite behind the Aufstehen movement.
An activist from Iceland talked about the latest developments in Sweden, where the right succeeded in gaining wider support in the recent elections. He pointed to the fact that right wing groups in Sweden directly evolved from the Neonazi movement.
The situation in Brasil is very serious, as an brasilian participant described the political climate in her country. The left is divided in pro Lula supporters and those within the left that keep blaiming Lula to be a part of a corrupt elite as well.
Then the delicate situation within the german Left Party was discussed. The Left party was decribed by a german participant as being divided, the major reason behind Sahra Wagenknechts decision to go ahead with the idea to form the new movement #Aufstehen.
Transantlantic networks try very hard to dominate and influence party positions and some groups go so far as to justify military interventions and are supporting „revolutions“ i.e. in Libya and even now in Syria.
A good part within the party DIE LINKE supports positions that are actually demonizing Russia and its support for the government of Syria. At the same time the syrian government is being seen as solely responsible for the influx of refuggees.
These opinions are also widely present in the ongoing protests against right-wing marches in Chemnitz, a hotspot in the current dispute. Some speakers pointed to the need to counter these wrong and counterproductive positions within the Left.
A german participant, born in 1940, then went on to explain the urgency to form a coalition of left, progressive forces to counter the rise of neo-fascism in Germany. He went on to explain the situation in 1914, at the beginning of WW1.
One of the two korean activist/artists present at the meeting described how fast the movement in her country was able to transform and shift politics into a new left leaning government that in the process was able to neutralize former right wing politicians and actually were able to start profound peace talks with North Korea. She stressed the importance of artists participating in the movement.
This triggered a very sceptical statement by one of the participants from the U.S., who lives in Germany for years. He argued that art can only have a minicule effect on ongoing politics. This again resulted in several statements countering his view.
A Vietnam War Veteran and Anti-War activist stressed, that during the protests against the war in Vietnam, art played a major role in influencing public opinion. Iconic images by war photographers, film, theatre, music and spoken word play then and today an important role.
It was outlined by someone else that the coalition of governments that form the BRICS movement, namely Brasil, Russia, India, China and South-Africa should be supported by a movement like Aufstehen to give it a much more popular base. It was also stressed that it should be considered as very important to accept the support by newsmedia like teleSUR, Russia Today, Press TV and China News in order to spread the news. Of great concern should be the ongoing campaign to censor alternative media and social networks.
Again these arguments were put into question by one sceptic, as to whether this would be possible with #Aufstehen.
One of the activists from the U.S. again stressed the urgency to form an international coalition, in order to strengthen each other in this very critical situation. He pointed out that although Bernie Sanders positions on foreign policy are questionable, since he is also very much against Russia, we should at the same time understand, that on social questions he could be a valuable political partner. Names of other politicians in the U.S. like Tulsi Gabbard, Dennis Kucinich, Jill Stein an others were also mentioned.
Also mentioned were attempts to bring about support by the network of World Beyond War Movement, which has arepresentation in the Coop Anti-War Cafe.
Someon then pointed to the negative position against #Aufstehen within the anarchist movement and the Trotskyist movement.
Altogether the meeting that went on for more than 2 hours was productive, although chaotic at times. The participants all agreed to meet on a weekly basis and try to reach out to all people interested in the english speaking community in Berlin.