1 Mar - 31 May 2019

ZK/U Fact Finding Committee #03 ( Germany )

The third issue of the ZK/U Fact Finding Committee investigates solidarity practices in the fields of arts, activism and alternative (club-)culture. The focus of the 3-months-long research project is set by a team of activists who are involved in the scene of alternative clubculture (non-profit orientated) and anti-fascist protest movements - primarily based in Berlin. Moving and working within these field, which evolved from years of producing (club-)culture, arts and anti-capitalistic resistant structures, enables the team to investigate a newly emerged voice on the current streams of activism. The UA#03 will explore what this means in terms of political action for future protests and actions. The aim is also to inspire, motivate, support and critically examine practical examples, impacting stakeholders and initiatives - Berlin-based and beyond.

The question “If under attack - How to react?” constitutes the frame for the investigation. As this question is no longer a theoretical one, the UA#03 will come up with ways how to defend and protect non-capitalist spaces and present as well as develop new practical tools. The implications of there outcomes for reaction may also affect current strategies created for and within “alternative” (club-)culture. The first focus of the investigation is dedicated to the rise of neo-fascist movement and its effects on the cultural and arts scene. Living in capitalistic Western societies implicates a wide set of contradictions, which recently started to burst. This strengthened the positions of right-wing radical and populist groups and parties in Berlin, as well as throughout Germany, Europe and the world. Cultural institutions recently had to face more and more attacks, performed by right-wing alliances and often led by the AfD - which is the parliamentary arm of the new right in Germany. In a second inquiry the UA#03 looks into the currently endangered spaces of Berlin with the aim to find out what it means to actually live and work there, how the social and political bonds are build in such a structure and how one can get active.

Especially for the young generation this is a critical issue, often having less privileges and lacking perspectives. Starting from the hypotheses, that free spaces are crucial for a thriving city and the people who are living and working in it, the UA#03 will explore the effects of creative protest initiatives in the (club-)cultural scene. With the aim to build alternative narratives pointing out of the capitalistic and neo-fascist era and to come up with strategies and practical examples how one can successfully defend free spaces for alternative clubculture, cultural production in general and in the field of arts and activism.

This leads to the last focus area of the UA#03 team. It will be devoted to the people who are actually doing all the (mostly) unpaid work. To show which structures have already been invented and created by activists and artists, to avoid the predictable scenario of a soon-to-come utopian-burn-out and hopefully come up with ideas to create persistent, sustainable and resistant structures of solidarity.