Talking About War - online panel with BIPoC-activists

We live in a capitalist, white supremacist and patriarchal reality that affects people everywhere in very different ways. The relatively high living standard in white majority societies is an exception and it is made possible by exploitation, oppression, economic hegemony and military and political domination of the so called global south. By consequence in many areas in the world average life expectancy is up to 30 years below that in the colonial centers, while infant mortality is 20 times higher than in colonial centers (10 in 100 vs. 5 in 1000).

In the so called global south, death comes through disease, hunger, extreme weather, poisoning, unsafe work environment, violence & war. It is all man-made and/or could be easily prevented by humanitarian intervention and by a fundamentally different global economic system. Such unnatural deaths are arbitrary and political. They are human rights violations.

War is a daily reality for many people on the planet. War determines people's everyday lives, causes them to flee, causes trauma and the question arises: who talks about which war and how? The war on Ukrainian soil has a special position in European reporting. A framing is taking place, which in every panel, every interview and every comment draws on the narratives of "European values" and of "territorial integrity" as a "right granted by international law". And it does so with a kind of indignation as if the violation of this in the case of Ukraine was new and singular and never heard of so far in the dealings between nations and within nations since the establishment of 'international law'. 

Those “European Values” are – supposedly, cause its mostly not detailed – democracy, freedom of speech, prosperity & human rights. But how can these "European values" be invoked when at the same time people are being detained, enslaved, brutalized and killed by the thousands along the borders of Fortress Europe? How does this framing fit with the countless violations of human rights and of territorial integrity of indigenous lands through colonial and capitalist practices of exploitation by white and industrialised societies worldwide? Can any European government credibly denounce human rights violations anywhere?

There seems to be unanimous condemnation of the attack on Ukraine itself. But the impact it has on various parts in the world and the levels of attention and scandalization are very different and also the conclusions that are drawn as a consequence.

We want to ask how queerfeminist / anti-colonial perspectives of activists from the so-called Global South on the eurocentric framing present themselves and talk to BIPOC activists from Sudan, Iraq, Palestine and Ukraine about what can be a more nuanced and intersectional analysis which, as is so often the case, comes up far too short.

Panelists:

Sulti – Activist (Berlin)

Lana Sirri – Scholar, Author, Activist (Muslim Feminists Berlin)

Napuli Paul – Community Organizer, Activist (Oplatz-Movement)

Captain – Activist, Student (BIPoC from Ukraine)

For registration email to: drakos@frauenkreise-berlin.de