So we are finally on the road, after a busy few days in Berlin. Here are few things we got up to during our Kick off days in Berlin…more on them is to follow…
On Thursday
We met at New Yorck to share remaining tasks such as making food teams / sourcing rocket stove workshop materials and anything else we might need for the next few days, then cycled to our sleeping place en mass, to cook food together and wait for the others to arrive!
On Friday
We took part in a workday at Funkhaus a reletively new project space with a bike, metal and wood workshops, raft building, project space… situated right by the lake on the south east outskirts of Berlin. Here we got to know the project, helped organise the Free Shop, some painting and clearing, and tried to fix the solar heating panels.
In the evening we cycled into Berlin for a Voku, at a popular political space who were also holding a Cyber Club. We then left to meet the Serious Beans, a band who joined the Biketour last year, carryign all their instruments on trailers! Unfortunately we did not get to hear their concert as it was already fully booked, but we met them outside and reminised from last year.
On Saturday
We cycled into Berlin for a magical mystery tour of some of the places of Border related struggles in Berlin, from Refugees, and Rising Rents, to West Papua and the Berlin Squatting scene. These are a few of the places we visited ….
- Anti NPD Protest (that was luckily cancelled in this area of Berlin)
- Former Border Crossing Station inside a train station
- Mambesak Band who met and told us about the Free West Papua Campaign
- Refugee Tent Action
- Occupy Kotti (Taxim Solidarity Camp)
- Kotti And Co (Rising Rents Crisis)
- The West Berlin Sqatting scene
- Media Spre (a bit of)
That evening we held a public event at XB-Liebig, with:
- a presentation and film from Ecotopia Biketour
- a look at critical and political mapping
- a short look at the Kubat Triangle, a sqatted community during the days of the Berlin Wall
- a clip from the FRONTEX Beyond Borders film
- Stories and songs from the Free West Papua campaign
Some people then attended a bit of the No Border Berlin Reloaded soli concert – whilst others head back to the camp content with a full day!
On Sunday
We spent the day at Rainbow Factory to check over our bikes, learn a bit about bike maintenance and build our rocket stoves. We then head for Templehoff Field, where we lined up and cycled en mass across the 2km runnway for a picknick in the gardens Templehoff gardens – a colection of raised beds and recycled vegetavble plots. There we leart a bit about the 100% Templehof campaign, and listened to a presentation about local land grabbing from a local radical organic farmer collective.
