Model projects against racism and discrimination

Research, documentation, information: monitoring

A good example of how the new media offer additional possibilities in the monitoring of racist and fascist structures is the project, Aktion Analyse, from Brandenburg. Supported by video and internet projects, youth groups investigate racism and right-wing extremism in their local schools and refugee homes. The results are published in the form of a contest and documented on the group’s own website.

The Bündnis aktiver Fußballfans (»Association of Active Football Fans«, BAFF) is also connecting and expanding its commitment against racism with help of the internet. You can take a walk through their exhibition called »Tatort Stadion« (Crime scene: stadium) not only in fan pubs, but also on the new BAFF website. In a forum parallel to the exhibition, fans can exchange information and share strategies against racist violence.

SolidRocks is another monitoring project which focuses on building networks. Hardcore fans from the alternative youth center of Leisnig/Sachsen investigate and inform other youth clubs about right-wing tendencies in the hardcore scene, which originated from punk and was once part of leftist youth culture.

XPedient.org is devoted to the widely discussed issue of Nazi presence on the internet. Information including addresses, content, context and providers are collected, examined and evaluated here. The goal of this new website is not to strengthen the tendencies towards censorship on the net, but to provide a serious information resource for strategies against Nazi presence on the net.

That digital media can help to enhance the creativity of children and also may be used to prevent the development of racism, one might learn from the educational project »Fremde Länder – Heimatländer«. (Foreign countries – Homelands). Supported by media education professionals, the pupils of a primary school class in Munich searched CDs and the Internet for information about the life of children in China and Ethiopia. Finally, they presented the results of their project to their parents on a website.

Live on the internet: streaming media

One-time-only political and cultural events can benefit greatly by being broadcast over the internet, a process called streaming media. Not only are concerts and performances thereby made available to a greater public and for a longer time, audio and video documentations on the net offer the additional advantage of providing background information that illustrates the context of the respective events.

For example, on the website of the Bayerischer Flüchtlingsrat (»Bavarian Refugee Council«) you can now find a video stream of the »Rage against Abschiebung« festival, which has been taking place in Munich since 1997. In addition to the concerts of well-known independent bands such as Stella, Barbara Morgenstern and Neoangin, visitors to the website can hear the musicians explain in interviews why they support antiracist initiatives.

After the HipHop campaign »Die Leude woll’n dass was passiert« (»the people want something to happen«), the Leipzig club scene has also become involved in music projects which stand up against right-wing activists in Eastern Germany. In cooperation with DJs and antiracist initiatives, the label Velocity Sounds produced their benefit CD called »It’s Yours«. During a long club night, it will be presented via live-stream from Leipzig all over the world.

Considering that internet television technology is still in its infancy, the Poetische Theater Leipzig (»Poetical Theater«) has risked an interesting experiment. Their new play called »transferkehr« is centered around the interrelated topics of migration, human trafficking, illegality and prostitution. In cooperation with NET.TV, it is streamed and presented on the audience’s own 17-inch stages.

The film »wider weiter«, by the brothers Kai-Thorsten and Mark-Steffen Buchele, not only received an even broader audience when it was presented on the internet. Originally produced for school classes, people who went to school in Leipzig in 1933 talk about the political changes in their everyday lives at the time. Together with the authors, a group of pupils from Leipzig, who were using the film in their attempt to understand the Nazi era, decided to develop an extended and contextualized internet version of the film.

Access For All

Brigding the digital divide: access for all. »Access« is not only the focus of a joint Berlin-Brandenburg project of the same name. It also refers to the fact that computer use and access to the internet are still restricted to an elite. For that reason the Berlin association, »absent friends«, has developed a long-term project inspired by an idea of the Flüchtlingsinitiative Brandenburg. The aim of the project is to install computers together with refugees and provide internet access for the refugees in 42 homes in Brandenburg.

Ziguinchor/Berlin, is another joint project devoted to overcoming the digital divide. In cooperation with the community center, »Carrefour des Arts«, in Ziguinchor, Senegal, the Berlin youth center, »Anton-Schmaus-Haus«, is experimenting with different communication technologies in order to develop a concept of electronically mediated cooperation between the high-tech metropolis of Berlin and the low-tech region in Sengal

expertbase.net is the name of a database which puts into action their understanding that modems cannot break down social barriers unless they offer access to information and programs whose specific goal is that breakdown. Unter the slogan »Jeder Mensch ist ein Experte« (everyone is an expert), which refers to the recent German green card regulation, immigrants can portray themselves and their skills on expertbase.net. Their profile is entered into a database which can be accessed by the public. Thus, access is made available to the labor market regardless of potential applicants’ residency status.