Dear colleagues and friends of glokal,

we are all currently faced with many changes in our daily lives, in the planning of activities and our announced events in connection with the spread of the COVID-19 virus.

The whole glokal team has been discussing the necessary steps regarding the timeline of our projects. Here we would like to share the most important decisions with you.

First of all: All our offers in the form of conferences, workshop series, trainings in the projects OPAT and KlimaDeSol as well as the exhibition Connecting the Dots have been comprehensively and participant-centered prepared and designed in the past months. The content framework and objectives remain the same, but we will adapt the timeline to current conditions.

1. climate decolonial and solidary(KlimaDeSol)
In relation to the empowerment workshop series “Climate decolonial and solidarity”, detailed information will be published later today. The implementation will be postponed to the months of June, July or August, depending on the agreement with the speakers.

2. project OPAT-Welcome without paternalism
Our conference on: collaboration between refugees and welcome initiatives, which was to take place on April 24, 2020, will be postponed. As soon as it is clear when it can take place, we will inform you in time.

3. project Connecting the Dots/exhibition WirStimmen!
The loan of the exhibition “WirStimmen! For Resistant Alternatives to the Development Myth” will not be possible until probably the end of May 2020. If there is interest in booking for the following months, contact us by email.

4. publications / shipping and online offers
For the newly won time we would like to recommend our publications and online offers to you. At the same time, this can support the work of glokal.
I.e. for now the shipping of all our publication continues! We apologize for any delays in shipping. You can order here. In addition, our online offerings, the material platform “mangoes and bullets” and the eLearning Toll “connecting the dots” are of course still available.

5. glokal workshops: Precarious work
Like many people who are active in political education, we at glokal and our pool of speakers are also affected by the cancellation of our workshops due to the lack of a new speaker. Covid-19. Petitions have already been created because of this, so that not only companies but also precarious workers* get proper support, see for example here. Currently, measures for freelancers are being negotiated at the state and federal level, see info here.

6. active and in solidarity right now
We would like to continue to use the time in the future to remain politically active and in solidarity and to continue – or especially now – to organize. For while Europe is currently the center of the COVID-19 pandemic, living conditions are particularly precarious at Europe’s borders and in the camps where refugees are forced to live (see medico international’s appeal here). Please also follow our facebook page!

Please contact us by email if you have ideas for organizing and actions, suggestions on how to deal with the situation and if you want to tell us something about your situation or in general!

Many greetings, the glokal team

Dear people,

also under the impression of the racist murders in Hanau and the violence of Europe at its external borders we would like to draw your attention to some events.
We continue to hope to structurally counter racism and violence in the long term and to create partnership structures based on solidarity and respect.

1. further education: cooperation between migrant and established social organizations
Questions about the immigration society can no longer be discussed and shaped from a proxy perspective of the dominant society. Long before Germany declared itself a country of immigration, numerous active migrant self-organizations already existed. Their expertise was rarely
perceived and even less recognized as equal. In the further training, conditions for a cooperative partnership are analyzed and possibilities of clarifying the assignment are worked out, which do justice to the different organizational degrees and cultures. More about the training and registration you can find
here
.

2. climateDeSol: workshops in April and May 2020 climate decolonial and solidary
The glokal project KlimaDeSol (Climate decolonial and solidary) wants to give impulses to the climate movement for a democratic, decolonial and solidary movement for climate justice. KlimaDeSol will offer four workshops in the spring: on April 11, 18, 25, and May 09, 2020.
You can find more information on the project website
here
.

3rd registration: Specialist day glokal project “For a welcome without paternalism”.
How can non-paternalistic collaboration succeed? We would like to draw your attention once again to the
Conference
of the glokal project “For a welcome without paternalism” on April 24, 2020. We invite: Refugees and activists or employees of initiatives or associations working with refugees.
Sign up at opat[ät]glokal[dot]org.

4. fortress europe and racist violence
Please read and spread the
Call for transnational solidarity and against racism and war
which hundreds of initiatives and organizations have signed since Europe is again “defending” its fortress walls against refugees at the Greek-Turkish border using massive violence.

glokal has also written a statement about the racist murders in Hanau, which you can find
here
here.

Solidarity greetings,

the glokal team

To all the people out there in solidarity …

1. solidarity: thank you to you!
Last December, among other things, we made it known via our glokal newsletter that our colleague Tahir had to pay a fine of 1200€ for a tweet against the so-called women’s march of the AfD.

Since then, many of you have shown great solidarity and made it clear: Protest and resistance against the new right is right and important for you! Even though the AfD will continue to try to break and criminalize resistance to its exclusionary ideology and policies on many levels, we must not allow ourselves to be intimidated.

Tahir forwards the excess money donated for legal aid of other activists. This is to practice solidarity with people who have been criminalized by their protest.

We thank you again for your solidarity! See you on panels, info events and on the street!

2. project “Welcome without paternalism”: new qualification series starting in May 2019

At the end of January, we successfully completed our second qualification series for people with refugee experience. In the project OPAT – Welcome without Paternalism, up to 10 people with refugee experience had the opportunity to be trained as multipliers and consultants in political education in order to be able to work as trainers in the field of racism sensitization and empowerment in the future.

From May 2019 to early 2020, we have another opportunity to offer a qualification series for up to 10 people with refugee experience. Also in our third qualification series, the following topics are covered in five modules of 3 days each, in coordination with the needs of the participants:

1) Empowerment
2) Methodology for working with groups
3) Dealing with dominance and power relations in work with groups.
4) Introducing the systemic power critical approach to education.
5) Reflection of the own role
6) Design of the participants’ own workshop format.

Please contact us at the following eMail if you want to participate in the series: opat[ät]glokal[dot]org

And: Feel free to forward the information!

Many greetings, the glokal team

Dear friends,

we have two announcements for you at the beginning of 2019: an update on the charges against our colleague Tahir Della and a workshop invitation to Munich on February 15. There are still 8 places available!

1st UPDATE: Intimidation due to protest against racist “women’s march”.

In early 2017, our glokal colleague Tahir Della called for a protest against the so-called Women’s March organized by the AfD at the time in a tweet. He was reported for this by an AfD politician.

By law, one may call for “protest” against registered rallies, events and meetings, but not for “disruption” or “blocking”. Sharing an existing tweet (retweet) with this choice of words can also have criminal consequences. The Berlin public prosecutor’s office accepted the complaint and issued Tahir with a penalty order of 1,200€. In the meantime, the Berlin public prosecutor’s office has rejected Tahir’s appeal for the case to be dropped. No justification is required for this. The next step would be to take the case to court.
Tahir’s lawyer then advised him to withdraw the appeal: In the event of a court hearing, there would be a fear that the penalty order would be confirmed, which in turn would lead to an even higher penalty and a criminal record.

We show our solidarity with Tahir and want to draw attention to the political significance of these events:

This is not an isolated incident. Citing supposed neutrality, the AfD defames or prosecutes both state-recognized and non-profit organizations such as the Amadeu-Antonio-Stiftung, the association Miteinander e.V., or members of parliament such as Canan Bayram for their commitment to a society of the many.

We call to continue to disagree and take to the streets to demonstrate against right-wing populist groups and parties. The AfD’s attempt to criminalize civil society protest must not succeed! Resistance to exclusion and racism is something that should be a matter of course in a democratic country. At the same time, it must be taken into account in the future that calls to “disrupt” and “block” can lead to proceedings and that the AfD will continue to use this means in the future.

If you would like to help us raise the money for the penalty payment, you can do so by using the account number HERE with the reference “No Intimidation”. However, we must point out that this financial support (unlike other donations to glokal e.V.) is not tax deductible. Thank you very much!

We would like to thank all those who have supported Tahir so far! We are happy about so much solidarity and hope to get the amount of 1200€ plus procedural and legal costs together. If we get more money than needed, Tahir will donate it to Red Aid.

2nd workshop “History-Power-Body” on 15.02.2019 in Munich
There will be another open workshop of glokal in February 2019: On 15.02.2019 you will have the chance to participate in a glokal workshop with Kristina Kontzi and Mariana Lo Sasso on the topic “History-Power-Body” in Munich. Description and registration can be found here. Register until
31.01.2019
there are still 8 places!

We wish you a great start of the year and warm greetings,

the glokal team

Dear friends,

the year 2018 is coming to an end and we have a nice news for you and a request:

1. the good news: the petition against the threatened deportation of our speaker Immaculate Adet was decided positively in the Petitions Committee of the Bavarian Parliament at the beginning of December. Thank you for the letters, calls and other support and we will continue to keep you posted!

2. intimidation because of protest against racist “women’s march”: Some time ago our glokal colleague Tahir Della called with a tweet for protest against the so-called women’s march (organized by the AfD). He was reported for this by an AfD politician.
The Berlin prosecutor’s office accepted the complaint and sentenced Tahir Della to a fine of 1,200€.
We as an association for political education criticize this approach and see it as another attempt by the AfD to criminalize civil society protest! The goal of the AfD is obviously to prevent any protest against their anti-human policies and to create a climate of insecurity! This shows that this party breaks one taboo after another and fuels racist discourse, while at the same time trying to prevent anti-racist and anti-fascist protest.

Resistance to racism is something that should be natural in a democratic country. We call on all democratic forces not to be intimidated and to support those people who oppose parties and movements that strive for a society characterized by discrimination and exclusion!

If you would like to help us raise the money for the penalty payment, you can do so by using the account number provided HERE withthe purpose “No Intimidation”. Thank you very much!

We wish you happy holidays, a great start of the year and warm greetings,

the glokal team

Dear friends,

in our November newsletter we want to tell you about the following topics:

1. deportation: limited freedom for our speaker Immaculate Adet
2nd events: Open glokal workshop in Berlin on 14.12.2018
3. fundraising campaign: support the work of glokal
4. facebook: What is glokal doing!

1. deportation
Since Tuesday morning, our colleague, glokal speaker Immaculate Adet, is in – limited – freedom! Thank you again for your letters to the mayor, calls to the minister of the interior and mails to department 5! At the end of September, we colleagues and supporters of Adet submitted a petition calling for her residence permit. Since the Bavarian parliament and its committees have to be reassembled after the election, Adet will remain at liberty until the petition committee meets! So we continue to hope for good news and keep you posted.

2nd workshop
In our project connecting the dots – history(s) of oppression and resistance there will be another open workshop on December 14, 2018 in Berlin.

Historical theater workshop: Stories of Resistance, speakers Aki Krishnamurthy and Sebastian Fleary. Read more here.

Sign up quick and spread the word! Places are limited. Also read the publication of the same name and try our eLearning tool.

3. fundraiser
The work of glokal for a decolonization of society requires daily commitment from us!
If you donate here for glokal, you support us to secure existing projects and to implement new ideas.

Through our political education and counseling work, we aim to question and dismantle structures of exploitation, unfreedom, and domination, and to empower people with experiences of racism and marginalization. Our current projects are Without Paternalism, a qualification series for people with refugee experience and connecting the dots, a decolonizing exhibition on development. We also continue to work steadily on our historic eLearning tool connecting the dots and the material platform mangoes & bullets. We thank you!

4. glocal on Facebook?!
Tax evasion, data theft, propaganda: it is becoming increasingly clear that the Facebook group is playing right at the top of the league of the most dubious companies in the world. The latest scandal: Now glokal – always ahead of our time – also has a page there: Under glokal e.V. you can read daily news, reading tips, calls to action, quotes from our eLearning tool connecting the dots or interesting materials from our platform mangoes & bullets. Have fun with it!

Warm regards,

the glokal team

Dear friends,

again some months have passed since our last newsletter and we have a lot to report.

1. detention pending deportation: update from our speaker Immaculate Adet
2nd workshops: Two open events by glokal in Berlin and Munich in fall/winter 2018.
3. gentrification: Support the email action of our house Lause 10!
4. reading material: three articles by glokal members

1. detention pending deportation
Our colleague, glokal speaker Immaculate Adet, is still in deportation custody in Bavaria! We thank you for your emails and letters to Adet and for the pressure you have put on authorities and politicians. We continue to advocate for Adet together with a local alliance from Bayreuth. If you have ideas for further support, please contact us at info[ÄT]glokal[PUNKT]org.

2. workshops
In our project Connecting the Dots – Stories of Oppression and Resistance , there will be two open workshops in November and December. Sign up quickly and spread the word! Places are limited.

2.1. Connecting the Dots: History – Power – Body
November 30, 2018, Munich, speakers Mariana Lo Sasso and Kristina Kontzi
How can we excavate history(s), read them, remember them, make them audible and tangible, and use them for our designs for the future? In the workshop we bridge the gap between theory and emotional learning. Read more here.

2.2. Historical theater workshop: Stories of Resistance
December 14, 2018, Berlin, Speakers Aki Krishnamurthy and Sebastian Fleary
The last 500 years have been marked not only by European expansion, conquest, exploitation, subjugation and genocide, but also always by resistance to them. Taking up glokal’s timeline method, we want to work exclusively with resistant and racialized perspectives in our workshop and focus on the long inspiring history of resistance. Read more here.

Also read the publication of the same name and try our postcolonial eLearning tool!

3. gentrification
The glokal office is located in Lausitzer Straße 10. The tenants of Lausitzer Straße 10 and 11 are a house community that has grown over decades. We are political and artistic initiatives, NGOs, craftspeople and creatives, families and residential communities.
In December 2016, we became aware that the buildings, owned by the Tækker Group, were to be sold. In the brokerage firm’s exposé, a purchase price of a good 20 million euros was called for the property – an 800% increase in the purchase price. The Tækker Group had paid the city – under the government of the Red-Red Senate – only 2.3 million euros for the buildings in 2007.
Now the first notices are in the house! Please support our email campaign to Jørn Tækker. Here you can find templates for emails. More background can be found on the Forever Lause website.

4. reading material
Finally, some reading material from glokal members: By Adam Baher on migrant struggles[here], Daniel Bendix on the connection between flight and development[here] and Carolin Philipp on neo-fascism in Greece[here].

We would also like to draw your attention to our platform mangoes&bullets, where you can find material for your political work: methods for workshops, books, pictures, art projects, inspiration etc.

Warm regards,

the glokal team

Dear friends,

it’s been a few months since our last newsletter and we have quite a bit to report in this somewhat lengthy update.

1. Try it out: eLearning tool ‘connecting the dots. History(s) of oppression and resistance’ is online
2. Vote for us: Donation voting for printing costs of the pedagogical companion reader of our exhibition until 31 March
3. Sign up: The new OPAT qualification series kicks off in May! Registration until April 24
4. Come one, come all: Emine Demir and Doğan Akhanlı from glokal will read from Doğan’s new book at Kafe Karanfil on March 30.

1. after publishing our brochure ‘connecting the dots. Learning from History(s) of Oppression and Resistance’, we are happy to announce that now our (almost) eponymous eLearning tool ‘connecting the dots. History(s) of Oppression and Resistance’ is online.

With quotes from people from over 500 years, we would like to present history(s) in an exciting and easily accessible way and add new perspectives. In addition to well-known powerful European men, the eLearning Tool focuses on resistant perspectives, anti-colonial resistance, and perspectives often unheard and unknown in mainstream society: from women, Black people, People of Color, from the Global South, people whose sexuality does not fit into societal norms, and many more.

By focusing on resistant stories, we want to make clear that every single person can be an acting subject of history and thus has the possibility to stand up for a more just society. In the eLearning tool you can find hegemonic and resistant perspectives on a variety of topics: Migration and Flight, Colonialism, Racism in Germany, People and Nature, Work, Capitalism, Democracy and Domination, Culture, Gender and Sexuality, and Development.
We are still working on some small corrections and look forward to your feedback!

Two workshops on topics of historical-postcolonial educational work will take place this year. We will keep you up to date!

2. donation voting for our follow-up project, the travelling exhibition on ‘connecting the dots

We will continue to work historically-postcolonially and would like to develop an exhibition by early 2019 that builds on the eLearning tool, but here focuses even more on resistant perspectives.

We don’t have the money for the printing costs for the pedagogical accompanying reader of the exhibition! That’s why we’re participating in a competition where people can vote on different projects. Please support us by voting for the glokal project here!

3rd qualification series for (up to) 10 people with refugee experience.

Do you want to become a trainer for political education? With us you can make an advanced training for it, apply!

With our qualification series we want to reach you as refugees and people with refugee experience. You will be trained as trainers, multipliers and consultants in educational work, so that you can conduct empowerment and awareness-raising workshops on the topic of anti-racism yourself. With the qualification workshops we want to make different pedagogical methods accessible to you and at the same time create a space where your knowledge can be heard. We work process-oriented, i.e. we include the wishes of the participants.

At the end of the qualification series, it is planned that you will carry out a practical project (an empowerment and a sensitization workshop), if necessary with experienced instructors from glokal e.V.

The qualification series will be held in German. It would be good if you speak fluent German (level B1). The qualification series is aimed in particular at refugees and people with refugee experience who have only been in Germany for a few years. It is important that you have a desire to work in civic education.

Registration deadline: April 24, 2018

Registration at: opat[at]glokal.org, More information in German, Arabic and English and on our website.

4th Reading and Discussion Evening with Emine Demir and Doğan Akhanlı from glokal

On Friday, 30.03.2018, a reading followed by a discussion with Emine Demir and Doğan Akhanlı will take place at Kafe Karanfil (Mahlowerstr. 7, Berlin-Neukölln).

‘August 19, 2017: Spanish police officers arrest Doğan Akhanlı, a German citizen, in Granada. Turkey had issued an alert for his arrest via Interpol. The door of his cell closes behind him – once again. As if in a time warp, he relives the months and years he spent in Turkey as a political prisoner – 1975, 1985-1987 and from August 2010. “Arrest in Granada” is, for all the cruelty and injustice spoken of, an adventurous, poetic and often humorous journey through the last 40 years that helps us understand why arbitrariness and violence still and again prevail in Turkey.’ In an alternation of reading and conversation, Emine Demir and Doğan Akhanlı will read from and discuss his newly published book ‘Verhaftung in Granada oder Treibt die Türkei in die Diktatur?’ in German and Turkish.

Come, listen, discuss and drink with us!
For those on short notice: Doğan is also reading today, 23.03.2018, at 19.00h at Café loislane (Emser Str. 41, 12051 Berlin).
.
Finally, we would like to point out our material platform ‘mangoes&bullets’, where you can find more material: Methods for political education, books, pictures, art projects etc.

Warm regards,

the glokal team