Month: July 2022

Our precious & beloved communities of radical, anti-colonial, anti-racist, and anti-capitalist queers; and our dear allies. We did it! IQPB is officially a Berlin tradition.

Thank you for being there, at IQPB, and in this world. IQPB is a day to celebrate our defiant existence and rebellious resistance, to celebrate the work we do all year round. A day for those working hard to link struggles, to amplify the voices of Global Majority communities, to challenge one another, to learn and unlearn from each other. A day to celebrate those who are building and living a world centered on love. On our love for freedom, our love for justice, our love for ourselves, and our love for each other. It is a day to celebrate all of you, all of us!

This year’s IQPB was organised by a web of individuals and groups: Berlin Against Pinkwashing, FACQ Berlin, Group Seiba, QUARC Berlin, Bloque Latinoamericano, Berlin Migrant Strikers, Jewish Bund, Kali Feminists, and Migrantifa Berlin. IQPB 2022 featured 16 official blocks: Disability Pride Block, Black Queer Block, Sex Workers Block, Asian Queer Pride Block, Anti-Caste Block, Sahrawi Block for Liberation, Lubunya Block, Ararat Block, Kurdish Block, Palestinian FLINTA* Block, Jewish Bund Block, Block for Refugee & Migrant Justice, Slava Block, Bloque Latinoamericano, Anarchist CSD Block, Lecsó Central European and Rroma Block. On the streets we saw how so many of you formed organic and self-organized blocks and shook the streets with chanting, dancing, music, powerful (and hilarious) banners, performances, hugs and collective power. After months of very hard work to make IQPB happen, and despite our tired hearts and bodies, seeing you on the streets, loud and proud, rebelliously angry and defiantly happy; has filled our hearts with happiness, our souls with empowerment, and our eyes with tears of joy. Thank you!

Your love and support, and your presence – on the streets and across borders – have helped us through a barrage of hate messages, racist comments, wishes of death against us, calls for our deportation, homonationalist racism, white German supremacy, fabricated accusations, and intimidation efforts. On the streets we saw how, once again, the (uninvited and unwelcomed) police, targeted and harassed the Kurdish Block. We saw how they intimidated people by walking on both sides of the accessibility van which was meant as a place of rest for those who need it.  We saw how the usual gangs of holier-than-thou Germans roamed around the Palestinian block with their aggressive stares, and how photographers hired to slander us pointed their invasive cameras against us. Little did they know their petty, yet dangerous, attempts to intimidate us will only strengthen our determination & solidarity. Together, we are stronger and more powerful (and more fabulous).

Year after year, together with you, and other BIPoC-centric & BIPoC-lead networks and groups in Berlin, we are reclaiming the space that is ours in this city. We are not, and we will not be diversity guests at White German events, be it cis-het or gay/lesbian, be it leftist or neoliberal! We will not be silenced nor be tamed tokens while listening to others dissect our identities, our bodies, our lives and our deaths. We quote our dear siblings from the Sex Workers Block “Nothing about us, without us!” (a slogan also commonly used in disability activism). We are the heartbeats of the streets of Berlin. We are the narrative and we are the storytellers. We are the colors, the voices, the raised fists, the defiant faces, one body with a thousand limbs and a thousand capacities and disabilities, proudly and lovingly joined in one collective dance of defiance and celebration. A march for liberation, for all of us, each one of us, and for those who were taken away from us, and those who couldn’t be with us.

Though we can’t respond to every comment, tag, message, and email. We are reading them and sharing them with the IQPB team. We are extremely grateful for your love and support, and for being here, for us and with us.

To our team, to the various working groups, to IQPB Awareness and Ordner:innen teams the day of the march, to those who held the ropes, our drivers, our lawyer, Soundsysters, Lauti MCs, speakers, our sign-language interpreter, the artists, those of you who brought us snacks and water, those who made music, drew banners, respectfully took photos and videos, and filled the streets. Those who cheered us, and those who gave us constructive criticism. We love you! You make IQPB what it is.

With much love, in solidarity and constant rebellion. No Pasarán!

IQPB Orga team.

If you want to help make IQPB 2023 happen, join our email list by writing to iqpb@riseup.net

We are trying to make this protest as accessible as possible. The Hermannplatz U-Bahn and Kottbusser Tor U-Bahn stations both have elevators. The U-Bahn station at Moritzplatz does not have an elelvator. Find up-to-date information about available services at the following BVG station links: Hermanplatz, Kottbusser Tor, Moritzplatz.

There is a medic team at the demo.

We also have a support vehicle at the back of the demo that can seat 7 people for anyone who needs a rest or is not able to walk for the whole march.

We have a DGS interpreter who will interpret speeches.

Ordner:innen and the Orga Team are carrying masks. While we do not enforce mask wearing, we encourage everyone to wear them to protect everyone in our community.

Ordner:innen are also carrying ear plugs for you to use.

More info on Covid-19 guidelines, and access to water and toilets along the demo route will be announced soon on our social media.

If you have any specific access needs or questions about accessibility, please email us at iqpb@riseup.net and we will do our best to accomodate you.

Covid-19 is a social justice issue that overwhelmingly touches queer people, especially from communities of color, migrant communities, working-class communities, communities fighting against colonialism and war, the elderly and people with pre-existing health conditions and other vulnerabilities.

Our pride march is attended by many that are suffering from these vulnerabilities. So we will be walking in solidarity and care towards each other. By joining our pride march you agree to get tested for covid-19 on the same day and if you are feeling ill or have any covid, mpx or other symptoms we ask you to please not join the demo.

While masks will not be enforced, they are encouraged. Ordner*innen and the organizing team will also carry some extra masks: please ask them for these if you need them. We ask you to wear one to protect disabled queers and the most vulnerable in our community.

Solidarity and mutual care is our biggest strength. Let’s keep each other safe!

Official opening speech for IQPB 2022

Hello from the orga team of the Internationalist Queer Pride 2022! The second IQPB, a revolutionary, queer-led protest that reclaims our voices and reaffirms our presence in Berlin!  We are queer and trans groups and individuals, connected by the same goal: a transformed world where all of us live free from oppression and discrimination; where our sexualities are freely expressed and explored; where our identities are self-determined; where our bodies — and all bodies — are free to be, to choose, to move; where we care for each other; where there are no borders, no weapons, no cops; A world organized around well-being. 

We come together with our bodies, our voices, and our struggles to connect, to be in solidarity, and to build collective empowerment. Through our queerness, we imagine and define alternative ways of being, of living, of organizing. In the face of warfare and fascism, we stand firm in our determination to survive and thrive, united in revolutionary love and solidarity.

Our queerness opposes the concentration of wealth and power in the hands of the very few, who profit from centuries of exploitation, genocide, war, and colonialism. We support the struggles of those subjected to colonial order. We demand justice and reparations for the damages that Europe and the EU have inflicted on the global majority. 

We are in solidarity with liberation, freedom, and justice struggles from around the world.
In Abya Yala
In Turtle Island
In Western Sahara
In Palestine
In Kurdistan
In Darfur
In Aotearoa
In Tamil Eelam
In Kashmir
In West Papua
With the Aboriginal peoples of Australia
With the Amazigh
With the Mapuche
With the Uyghur
With all who resist colonial violence!

We condemn the instrumentalization of queer rights and identities to pinkwash nationalist and colonial projects. Germany and the EU use our rights for their political and economic agendas when convenient, yet they sponsor and give political cover to homophobic, transphobic and anti-feminist regimes. Our rights and lives are not pawns for German foreign policy. We demand Germany and the EU stop sponsoring regimes that violate our existence.

Our queer liberation is rooted in anti-militarism, anti-policing, and anti-war activism. We don’t just want marriage, we want the abolition of white supremacist capitalist heteropatriarchy and all its institutions!

We denounce the German and EU/US weapon industries. We denounce their support for repressive governments and dictatorships, fueling civil conflicts in the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America. 

We condemn the horrendous war on Ukraine, and we stand in full solidarity with the Ukrainian people.
Yet we note the hypocrisy and double standards of Western countries. Not only in relation to other wars and injustices, but also in the racist discrimination against BIPoC and third-country refugees from Ukraine. The ongoing violence against BIPoC communities, from the Afghan refugees at the Belarussian-Polish border to those left to drown in the Mediterranean or pushed to their death by the Libyan mercenaries and Frontex.

Borders kill! The Ausländerbehörde and Germany’s anti-migrant policies kill!
All people are legal. All people have the right to live with dignity.
We must abolish the border regime! Everyone must have access to residency and freedom of movement.

As queers we know the dangerous impacts of policing. The police do not keep us safe. We have been the target of police violence. We have been the target of social, medical, and economic policing of our bodies, our identities, our expressions. We oppose the policing of our voices.
We demand a queer world without policing of any form!

Trans-exclusionary and far-right groups are fanning the flames of hate. Trans women and trans femmes are targets for exclusion, violence and femicide, even in spaces that claim to be “safer.” We mourn too many of our trans sisters—like Ella here in Berlin—killed by a transmisogynist, classist, and racist system. We demand to be treated with respect and an unconditional right to self-determination, regardless of residence status, gender performance, or social background.

We demand protection for intersex people from non-consensual surgeries intended to violently force our bodies into a binary norm. Intersex bodies are not shameful.

We demand self-determination and a free, unprejudiced health system for all bodies and gender identities.

We stand in solidarity with all sex workers, many of whom are trans, queer, migrant, disabled, sole caregivers, and/or BIPoC, in their fight against stigma and against laws that make their work unsafe and illegal. We demand the decriminalization of sex work.

There are no bad whores, only bad laws!

Like our bodies, our lives, and our desires, our environment has been exploited and oppressed. Climate justice can start only with the acknowledgment that the climate emergency we are in is the consequence of 500+ years of colonialism, capitalism, and extractive politics in global majority countries. We must move beyond 1.5-degree policies and greenwashing. We demand socio-ecological transformation.

We demand affordable housing and the re-communalization set in motion by DW enteignen. Housing is a basic human right!

We demand an education that respects all genders and affirms the exploration and development of our identities and sexualities.

We demand a world where our bodies are not valued by their ability to contribute to capital. A world where our abilities and disabilities, visible and invisible, are not a reason to be excluded from society. Where our physical, emotional or mental health, stop being reasons for marginalization and stigma. Wear your masks!

We demand decriminalization, an end to stigmatization, and guaranteed free access to abortion. 
We demand agency and self-determination over our bodies and identities.
We demand guaranteed free access for everyone to a healthcare that affirms our bodies.

We demand a world without borders.
We demand a world without policing.
We fight for an anti-colonial and anti-capitalist world.

We demand a world centered on love. On our love for freedom, our love for justice, our love for ourselves, and our love for each other. A world where we thrive together and not at the expense of others, be it humans, the environment or other creatures.

None of us are free until all of us are free!

Have a rebellious, safe and fun Internationalist Queer Pride March for Liberation 2022. Remember! Always anti-colonial, always anti-racist, always anti-capitalist, proud queers!

Whose streets?
Our streets!

Whose streets?
Our streets! 

List of toilets along / close to the route

• Wheelchair-accessible toilet (entrance fee) at Hermannplatz (corner Sonnenallee / Kottbusser Damm)
• Wheelchair-accessible toilet (entrance fee) at Planufer 5
• Wheelchair-accessible toilet (entrance fee) at Lausitzer Platz 8A
• Wheelchair-accessible toilet (free) at Mariannenplatz 2
• Toilet at Waldemarstr. 57
• Wheelchair-accessible toilet (entrance fee) at corner Mariannenplatz / Waldemarstraße
• Wheelchair-accessible toilet (entrance fee) at Oranienplatz (across the street from Oranienplatz 1)
• Wheelchair-accessible toilet (free) at Prinzessinnenstraße 16

List of places to refill drinking water along / close to the route

• Water fountain at corner Hobrechtstraße / Weserstraße
• Biosphäre Neukölln, Weserstraße 212
• Refugio Café, Lenaustraße 4
• Café Universo, Lenaustraße 5
• Water fountain at Hohenstaufenplatz by Kottbusser Damm
• She said, Kottbusser Damm 79
• Biocompany, Kottbusser Damm 91/92
• denn’s Biomarkt, Kottbussser Damm 3
• Radspannerei, Kottbusser Str. 8
• Water fountain at Kottbusser Tor (by Kottbusser Straße 25 / Reichenberger Straße 18)
• Multilayerladen, Adalbertstraße 4
• Biocompany, Skalitzer Straße 127
• Klas Bäckerei, Naunynstraße 2
• Das Café Frühstückshaus, Oranienstraße 177
• kinderlabor curioso, Waldemarstraße 57
• Water fountain on Mariannenplatz, close to corner Mariannenplatz / Muskauer Straße

Want to help us reclaim pride and bring together Berlin’s radical queer, anti-colonial and anti-racist communities? We want you to join us! We are looking for people to join our Awareness teams for our Internationalist Queer Pride for Liberation!

We especially encourage BIPoC and 2SLGBTQIA+ people. Allies, including white and cishet people who share our liberation politics, are also very welcome to support us. No prior experience necessary!

Interested?

Get in touch via instagram or twitter!

You can also write an email to iqpb@riseup.net.