Verbündet sein - Solidarität in Zeiten gesellschaftlicher Polarisierung

Something has started to slip. As if in a whirlpool that is shaking the pillars of the rule of law and redefining the relationship between this state and human dignity. A whirlpool that is accelerated by talk and action of "closing borders", "deporting on a grand scale" and "building walls". It appears to be sweeping away what we previously understood by international law, the European Charter of Fundamental Rights, the welfare state and democracy. It is normalizing anti-Semitism, anti-Muslim racism, anti-black racism and violence against LGBTIQ+ and manifesting the social divide.

This maelstrom is not a force of nature. It was set in motion by the AfD, a party that is in some respects firmly on the far right. Their deportation plans caused great consternation and mass protests in January. However, nothing could have made the AfD more successful than the anti-immigration debate that has been raging since the summer and in which even those parties that we expect to defend democracy instead of damaging it are taking part. We need to prioritize solidarity with those affected and the protection of their lives and dignity.

Instead of focusing on issues of distributive justice and the transformation towards a climate-friendly society, the current debate is polarizing and thus dividing society. It is not the expansion of social infrastructure and the welfare state or good working conditions and the mobility transition that are dominating the upcoming parliamentary election campaign, but the question of where to deport, where to lock down and where to make savings - not least in order to finance the increasing militarization in this country.

The witnessing of terror has left a deep impression - in Solingen, in Rostock-Lichtenhagen, in Hanau and Halle, through the NSU and through the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023. Discrimination, racism, anti-Semitism and anti-feminism attack us directly: as people, as Hamburgers, as trade unionists, as an urban society. We are countering this with our solidarity as allies.

The fact that we have in common the fact that we are affected by different lifestyles and characteristics does not make us capable of acting together - but being allies does. Solidarity makes us stronger. And we want to talk about how we can use this strength.

Two days after November 9, the DGB-Hamburg invites you to an evening of being allies. On this date, we commemorate the pogroms against Jews in Nazi Germany and the unbelievable atrocities committed against several million Jews, Sinti* and Roma*, homosexuals, political opponents of the Nazi regime, people with disabilities and those stigmatized as "asocials" and "criminals" who were persecuted, tortured, humiliated and murdered. And we recall that the Geneva Refugee Convention was and is a lesson from this.

* Registration is requested: VERBÜNDET SEIN - Solidarity in times of social polarization | DGB Hamburg

* The organizers reserve the right to make use of their domiciliary rights and to deny access to the event to persons who belong to right-wing extremist parties or organizations, who can be assigned to the right-wing extremist scene or who have already made racist, nationalist, anti-Semitic or other inhuman statements in the past, or to exclude them from the event.