Publications for tag «Activism»

Andrei Yagoubov, climate activist and DIE LINKE member, who participated in the defense of the village of Lützerath against police forces and the RWE coal company back in January, gives his perspective on the standoff. This fight between grass-roots activists and united forces of corporations and the government presents itself as a part of the global struggle for democracy and the planet's and humanity's future. Lützerath might be lost but what comes next?

"September" met with mathematician and Russian left-wing politician Mikhail Lobanov to discuss his foreign agent status and his dismissal from the university. We also discussed the potential approaches to anti-war political organizing in Russia and beyond, and learned about Mikhail's plans for the "long-term political mission trip" he embarked on a month ago.

September went to the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (LMU) Palestine solidarity encampment to meet with Leila, a long-time activist, and co-founder of Munich’s chapter of ‘Palästina Spricht’, a movement for the rights of Palestinians and against racism in Germany. We discussed the situation in Palestine and Israel, the current state of the Palestinian solidarity movement, the role of the international institutions in the Palestinian struggle for self-determination, and the repression Palestinian and Jewish anti-zionist activists currently face in Germany.

Murad Gattal spoke to Azerbaijani trade unionists and left-wing activists about the state of society following Ilham Aliyev’s election for the fifth presidential term and the Third Karabakh War. The rise of authoritarian tendencies and nationalist rallying around the flag that followed in the aftermath of the ‘small victorious war’ brings up questions about the future, and even existence, of the left movement in the country.

September met with a municipal deputy of Moscow’s Zyuzino district and an author of For Democracy: Local Politics Against Depoliticization, Alexandr Zamyatin to discuss the reasons to take part in local elections in times of war, depoliticization in Russian and Western societies, and how to overcome it, VyDvizhenie — a support platform for independent candidates Zamyatin founded together with Mikhail Lobanov, — and on the recent transformations of Russian political regime.

Alexander Korchagin, a student activist, spoke to activists from several universities and told us about the current state of student anti-war activism in Russia.

A recent post about Kyrgyzstan on Instagram by the popular Russian blogger Ilya Varlamov brought a wave of accusations of imperialism upon him. In this critique, the emphasis was on the boorish way the blogger expressed these statements, while the ideological form of Varlamov’s argument, the concept of a ‘service country’ went almost unnoticed. Let us puzzle out what is wrong with this concept and why it gives rise to such ridiculous statements.

At the end of October, Arshak Makichyan, a climate activist and Fridays for Future participant, and three of his family members — his father and two of his brothers — were stripped of their Russian citizenship by court order. Russian citizenship was the only one they had; the family had moved to Russia from Armenia when Arshak was one year old. The court ruled that Russian passports had been issued to them illegitimately; in the case of the Makichyans, some documentation was missing, which the Ministry of Internal Affairs itself lost during their registration. In February 2022, Arshak had declared his anti-war position, and a month later left Russia. He is now sure that the decision of the court was caused by his civil position. September discussed with Arshak the significance of this precedent for activism in Russia and the connection between anti-war and environmental protest, as well as the COP27 summit, the strategy and tactics of the climate movement, and prospects for a green transition.

September met with Zhanna Chernenko, founder of two volunteer groups – Fempodmoga and Lingvo Volunteers, which help Ukrainian refugees in Europe in solving a variety of problems: from translating documents to cases of harassment and violation of labour rights.