Due to large scale feminist interventions, abortion up until the 24th week has been legal in Colombia since 2022. A pregnant person is supposed to be able to get an abortion without any reasons, no questions asked.
Due to large scale feminist interventions, abortion up until the 24th week has been legal in Colombia since 2022. A pregnant person is supposed to be able to get an abortion without any reasons, no questions asked. However, the implementation of a free and safe abortion faces institutional, social, and cultural resistance. In mid-sized cities like Pereira, stigma, misinformation, and medical authorities continue to operate as mechanisms of control over -mostly female- bodies.
Ever since the establishment of the law safeguarding the legal right to an abortion until the 24th week, it has faced much resistance. Harassment, demonstrations near clinics and obvious misinformation campaigns were all employed against people who choose for an abortion and those who provide them.
Most recently, and most worryingly, the new president’s political party, the so called ‘Defenders of the Homeland’ -a far right party- has come into power. This party bases itself on traditional ‘Judeo-Christian principles and values’ and deeply opposes LGBTQ+ rights, women’s rights and, of course, abortions.
The action group Útera Casa Feminista initially wanted to rally for truly safe access to abortions around the 8th of March, Internation Women’s Day. However, as that fell right in the middle of the presidential elections campaign, they had to postpone the actions several times. During this period, social movements and feminist organizations experienced increased hostility and violence from ‘Defenders of the Homeland’ supporters. As such, the safety of the activists could not be guaranteed.
At a later moment they could, fortunately, raise awareness of the importance of legal and safe abortions. They did this by first assembling members of Útera Casa Feminista and allied collectives to define priority political messages regarding the right to abortion and feminist support pathways. These meetings drew on local research—such as their “safe abortion” handbook—and established criteria for safety, self-care, and strategic zones for urban intervention.
Collective design sessions followed, where they created slogans and graphics specifically tailored for stenciling. Based on these designs, reusable stencils were be crafted by hand, and complementary posters were be produced to reinforce the messages in locations where painting directly onto surfaces was not feasible.
The central action consisted of a day of urban stencil interventions carried out in a decentralized way across various points in the city of Pereira. During this event, small groups simultaneously intervened in different sectors to expand the action’s reach, minimize risks, and contest public space as a site of patriarchal and institutional control over bodies.
It created a space where people could come together not only to learn and create urban graphic art through stencil-making, but also to reflect collectively on the defence of our rights as women and gender-diverse people. It allowed them to openly discuss abortion rights, the importance of providing abortion buddies, and how taking direct action in public spaces is in itself a form of resistance against the fascist wave Colombia is currently facing.
The action group will continue supporting people seeking abortions, promoting public education on abortion rights, and carrying out advocacy and direct actions that contribute to protecting these rights and that strengthening their community.
This week the German extreme right party AFD gained a major victory in a state election, becoming the largest party in Saxony-Anhalt with 43.8%. By Germany’s own intelligence services, the party has been classified as extreme right, as it is built on policies that market ethnic cleansing, less queer, women’s and trans rights, and a glorification of ‘the German culture’ as a way to get Germany back to its ‘true’ German roots.
This resounding victory for a party that has a few too many similarities to the Nazi party makes many, in Germany and outside of it, scared for what the political future of the country might hold.
Thankfully there are still many in Germany who are standing up for what is right, who are fighting back against an increasingly extremist political landscape, and who are actively striving for a better, more just future, for everyone, not just for blonde, blue-eyed Germans.
One such group is the TKMS (Turbo-Klima-Marine-Sabotage) action group who recently blocked the entrances of the TKMS shipyard in Kiel. Kiel is a coastal city in the North of Germany, famous for its Kieler Woche and its massive naval base. The TKMS shipyard is one of the many companies in Kiel that helps establish Germany globally as one of the biggest imperial ‘war machine’ forces.
Last year, TKMS achieved a record volume of orders, serving multiple countries with regimes characterized by their authoritarian rule and as such fuelling wars and genocides.
The TKMS action group refuses to accept that this shipyard is allowed to have ‘israel’ as their one of their biggest customers, that they are creating submarines that help violently suppress Muslims in India, and that they further establish a war machine that will kill millions, all the while profiting off of violence and despair.
The action group blocked the entrances to the shipyard on the 3rd of August, disrupting operations and causing significant delays. They held for over nine hours, assisted by lock-ons and climbers. Early in the morning a spontaneous solidarity demonstration formed near the main gate of the shipyard, boosting the action further.
The action group is highly motivated to fight back against Germany’s war machine even more, stating that they “refuse to accept that Kiel must remain a naval port for all eternity. We no longer wish to be a ‘community bound by fate to the Navy’. […] Our blockade has ended for today, but we will not stop fighting for a demilitarized, sustainable city that is affordable and liveable for everyone!”
Following the major student uprisings during the summer of 2025, thousands of young protesters were arrested and prosecuted for their protests against Indonesian government policies. By using extreme violence against the activists, the state attempted to silence opponents. At the same time, the army is increasingly gaining power. More and more young people are resisting these actions.
Student protests from August 25 to September 1
In August 2025, the Indonesian government released a bill that would grant members of parliament a housing allowance of 50 million rupees (over 3,000 dollars), which is ten times the Indonesian minimum wage. Protests against, this spread across the country after the 25th, whereupon police violence was used heavily. The excesses of violence were extreme. On August 28, a motorcycle taxi driver was run over by a police armored vehicle as it drove through a group of protesters. He accidentally livestreamed his own death.
Between the end of August and September 1, the demonstrations continued, with the government using increasingly more violence. Protesters were beaten up and sprayed with water cannons and tear gas from far too close range. Thousands of protesters were arrested, and nearly a thousand were prosecuted.
The protesters demanded the ‘17+8 demands’: 17 demands to be implemented within a week (such as no military interference within the police and no prosecution of protesters), and 8 demands to be implemented within a year (such as a total reform of the political system).
Almost nothing has been done about any of these demands.
Almost a year later
Since the nationwide protests, the political situation has actually only worsened. The government has now submitted a bill that would automatically deploy the army to more governmental administrative bodies, such as for tax collection and budget regulation.
This inclusion of the army in daily life in Indonesia is a clear threat to democracy. Consequently, many people strongly disagree with the growing militarism.
Young Feminist Collective Jakarta
Following a feminist training last December, students from various universities formed the Young Feminist Collective Jakarta, with the explicit goal of being able to organize rapid solidarity actions following political misdeeds and to enhance the political education of young women. They do this primarily by creating and distributing political zines and by attending feminist demonstrations.
This collective emphasizes that the current government’s new legislative proposal is steeped in toxic masculinity and can only exist through extreme hierarchy, blind obedience, and violence. As this culture penetrates further into the administrative layers, it will silence dissenting voices. Women in particular, will be the first to be silenced in this masculine culture.
With financial assistance from Het Actiefonds, the collective was able to hold a zine-making session with dozens of young women. The zine calls for feminist resistance against the current government. These zines were distributed to the public at three different times in May during various actions. The collective has big plans for the future and will continue to work in various ways for an antimilitarist, feminist democracy!
Although the national constitution of Zimbabwe guarantees public service employees the right to collective bargaining through its Labour Act, in recent years the government has repeatedly ignored this section (65) of the Bill of Rights.
Alongside thousands of broader human rights violations, linked to the political agenda of the ruling party, the Zimbabwean government has pushed to repress the bargaining power of civil society by revoking NGO registrations and passing laws that undermine civil liberties like the freedoms of expression and association. Most profoundly, a new Public Service Amendment Bill was presented before Parliament in October 2025, that was framed as an essential modernization of Zimbabwe’s public service but, in reality, strips away essential labour rights and increases the government’s control over employees in the public sector.
First, the Bill allows the government to impose conditions of service, like salaries, even if employees are not meaningfully negotiated with. This policy comes at a time when teachers have been collectively demanding wage increases for over ten years without success, still earning only a fourth of the salary they would need to afford basic necessities like healthcare and housing. Second, the Bill hands the Minister the ability to label any public service (including education) ‘essential’, subsequently criminalizing strikes that last over 72 hours within this sector with heavy fines or even imprisonment and essentially removing the sector’s right to protest. Moreover, the Bill lacks clear procedures for appeals of unfair treatment by the Public Service Commission and does not safeguard paternity leave or fully paid maternity leave. Together, the revision of these policies seriously endangers the right to strike and leaves teachers without protected avenues for collective bargaining.
To resist the passing of the amendment to the Public Service Act and protect the right to collective bargaining, the Amalgamated Rural Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (ARTUZ) organized protests across the country throughout November 2025.
Founded in 2014, ARTUZ emphasizes that teachers cannot sustain the education of future generations while living in poverty and has trained hundreds of teachers to improve their paralegal skills and knowledge about political economy over the years. Besides the improvement of teachers’ rights, the union advocates for a more liberalized education system, in which corporal punishment is banned and sanitary pads are provided for free.
With the support of Het Actiefonds, the 2025 protests led to successful pickets across 52 public schools and convinced allies across civil society to support the push for the right to collective bargaining. Ultimately, the protests culminated in a petition that was submitted to parliament and led the parliamentary legal committee to issue an adverse report against the Public Service Act bill.
To capitalize off of the gained alliances and pressure applied to the Parliament, ARTUZ will launch an online media campaign to advance the cause across the wider national public. Het Actiefonds is proud to have supported this action and will continue to stand in solidarity with the fight for just worker’s rights in Zimbabwe.
From July 25 until August 8, the streets of Amsterdam will be turned into the backdrop of WorldPride for the first time. Commemorating the first four gay marriages that were officiated in the city 25 years ago, Amsterdam’s 2026 Pride is expected to draw twice the usual number of visitors (600.000).
With ‘Unity’ as its official theme, the event forms a response to declining levels of lgbtqia+ support among parts of the Dutch population and policy failing to protect the rights of queer individuals, lagging behind the example of other European countries. Amidst the electoral success of the radical right and disregard of minority rights, 10 percent of lqbtqia+ individuals in the Netherlands are now estimated to become victim of queerphobic violence; for genderqueer and non-binary persons, this probability is even one in four.
Although resistance is, therefore, absolutely necessary, the role of (World)Pride Amsterdam in this protest has been widely disputed. With Booking.com as its head sponsor, and KPN, ING and KLM as official partners, Amsterdam Pride affiliates itself with multinational companies that pollute the environment and appear in the UN’s rapport ‘From Economy of Occupation to Economy of Genocide’, suggesting their complicity in the genocide of the Palestinian people – including its queer citizens. How can an event that claims to fight for queer rights and the inclusion of all on the biggest platform of the world, support the genocidal actions of the Israeli entity?
It simply cannot. Amsterdam Pride fights for the inclusion of only some queer people and the irony of Unity as the event’s official theme cannot be overstated.
Each year since 2022, an Amsterdam Dyke March has been held during Pride Month to offer an alternative and more radical mode of commemoration and resistance for the queer struggle. Placed in a longstanding tradition of the lesbian community, the Dyke March aims to highlight the importance of mutual aid in a time when gentrification and social exclusion threaten the queer movement. The march not only seeks to display a countermovement against all forms of systemic oppression, but also lifts up and gives a platform to unheard voices in the community through fundraising.
For this year’s march, several guest speakers were invited to share their experiences of being queer and the march’s route led past spaces that enhanced the topics they addressed. These themes included disability justice and trans activism, but also the experience of immigration as a queer individual and the pinkwashing and rainbow capitalism of Pride Amsterdam. The speeches can be found here.
Together, the protestors made themselves seen and heard in Amsterdam’s public spaces and showed that Pride can be combined with radical solidarity. Het Actiefonds is proud to have supported this action and will continue to stand in solidarity with intersectional queer resistance.
The region around Ogoni, South Nigeria, has been drilled for oil for decades, and both people and land have to live with the pain of oil extraction for decades. Our partners from Tech4Rural fight for the inclusion of the community in policy making around oil extraction!
Oil drilling is never a clean process, and the Niger Delta has been dirty for decades. Since Royal Dutch Shell stopped the oil production in the 90’s after widely supported protests that ended tragically for some of the activists. Despite this extremely high price, the land has not been cleaned up. Spills, pollution and loss of land and livelihoods have left thousands of families in Ogoni struggling in the last decades. Over 2000 people are believed to have died from the long-term impacts. In 2011, the UN’s Environmental Program has called for an urgent clean up, but nothing has changed since. People still live on contaminated soils and are dependent on polluted water. The international bodies’ words stay empty, and the people in Ogoni feel forgotten. In the end of 2025, the 30 yearlong abandoned infrastructure broke down and caused a million liters crude oil spill, and the Nigerian government announced wanting to resume oil extraction in Ogoniland. The government says a committee is formed to consult local leaders, but key voices have been left out, and no one in the region is waiting for the resumption of oil drilling. Ogoni people want a clean-up of their land, environmental restoration and reparations for the immense losses, not another round of destruction of their land and livelihoods!
Decisions about the future of Ogoni land continue to happen without real involvement from the people who are actually affected. With a.o. the help of Het Actiefonds, Tech4Rural launched a campaign to voice a discourse that reflects the community’s true concerns. The campaign started with a day of action and awareness sessions. Participants were able to voice and gather their exact demands and talk about the importance of protest and action. Instead of giving up, as the situation often seems hopeless, people got together, shared personal stories and experiences, and why they stay into environmental advocacy. Later, about 60 people marched into the streets to voice their demands and make them known to the oil companies and government. The protest received considerable media coverage, a good start for the rest of the campaign and the movement building against this new episode of fossil fuel fever of the Nigerian government. The campaign continues with online awareness raising, press statements, petitions aiming at 300,000 signatures, and a broad movement building. With the creation of an oil spill update blog platform where people can get real-time updates regarding the issue of oil spills, they want to put pressure on the government to take reconsider their plans. They will continue until the resumption of drilling is off the table, and environmental restoration and meaningful participation in decision-making processes are guaranteed. No more broken promises! What was possible in the 90’s is possible now!
Central in their work is the CoMapeo app that is used by local communities to report oil spills happening in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria, in order to gather correct date about the spills, and to be able to combat the official reports given by the oil companies, which are highly incorrect. Data from the app are also shared with media houses for publicity and the government to increase pressure for clean-up and reparations. Tech4Rural also makes these data available in support of communities and other organizations that want to carry out legal action against the oil companies causing this pollution. With their current focus on movement building, they aim at more people to adopt regular use of the app and increase their data collection in the region.
Het Actiefonds is very proud to have supported Tech4Rural for this action, and will continue to stand in solidarity with them, and with anyone who fights extractivism!!
To commemorate the victims of police brutality in Germany, 800 protesters took to the streets of Berlin on the day day against police violence.
On April 20th 2025, 21-year-old Lorenz A. – a black man – was fatally shot in the back of the head, torso and hip by a police officer in Oldenburg, Germany. After being denied entry into a nightclub, the victim was said to have threatened the bouncers, and later the police, with pepper spray and a knife. However, the officers’ bodycams were turned off and a reconstruction based on security camera evidence showed no indication that Lorenz A. had threatened the police officers when he was shot. In the days that followed, thousands of demonstrators gathered to attend vigils all across Germany to commemorate Lorenz and stand united against institutional racism among the German police force.
The murder of Lorenz is not an isolated incident; police killings are systematic and primarily affect marginalized communities. Lorenz’s murder is merely a recent addition to a list of killings of people of color at the hands of the German police that have been ungroundedly dismissed as self-defence, including victims like Solikries Biriq in 2024 and Oury Jalloh, who died in 2005 after being set on fire while handcuffed in a police holding cell. Studies show that persons who are perceived as foreigners are twice more likely to be controlled by the German police and nearly a third of police officers have overheard colleagues making racist remarks, while officer-involved shootings have also sharply increased in recent years. Racial profiling and other racist violence committed by the German police is, therefore, an undeniable and growing concern that must be put an end to.
Amidst the passing of more restrictive police laws, an alliance was founded in the summer of 2025 to connect the initiative that demanded justice for the murder of Lorenz with those for other victims of German police brutality. This No Isolated Incidents coalition aims to build a network of radically left initiatives to radically remember, raise awareness about and, most importantly, resist discriminatory police violence and its systematic lethality.
With the support of Het Actiefonds, No Isolated Incidents organized its first demonstration as an alliance on the 15th of March in Berlin: the day against police violence. Speakers from several involved initiatives were given the space to grieve and commemorate the murders they individually organize around and, with this, emphasized the systematic pattern that connects these killings. Afterwards, around 800 participants walked through the streets to show their collective anger and urge the police to take responsibility for their actions and face their racial biases.
But this was only the beginning! Het Actiefonds is proud to have supported this action and stands in solidarity with the coalition’s further efforts to protest police brutality across Germany.
Het Concertgebouw – Amsterdam’s famous concert hall – hosted events in December 2025 where the IDF’s chief cantor participated in the yearly Hannukah concerts. Erev Rav, a Dutch Jewish Anti-Zionist Collective lighted Hannukah candles and hosted an alternative event in front of the building during the concert.
IDF’s Chief Cantor Shai Abramson was invited by Stichting Chanukah Concert to lead the yearly Hannukah concert in Het Concertgebouw. After a lot of back and forth, protests and negotiations, Het Concertgebouw finally did not cancel his participation. In times where the Israeli state and its army openly commit genocide, this is unacceptable. The celebration of Hanukkah is about clinging to light in times of utter darkness. Having the highest-ranking cantor of the Israeli army to celebrate this in Amsterdam is repulsive.
Erev Rav refuses that their Jewish religion, traditions and identity are being used for the art-washing of genocide. They therefore organized a well-attended protest and alternative event in front of Het Concertgebouw. Almost 600 people showed up on the square in front of the building. Together they lit a giant menorah in solidarity with those living through the darkest times, and particularly Gazans today at the hand of the Israels genocidal war on the strip. There were various musicians, poets, journalists, and activists that came to speak and perform, both from the Palestinian and Jewish community in Amsterdam. The organization is in touch with the director of het Concertgebouw to advise them on next year’s concert and bring in independent Jewish musicians.
With this protest, they want to address the ongoing normalization of ties with Israel as a state built on ethnic cleansing and apartheid, and committing genocide in Gaza. By not cancelling the entire event but opting for a compromise, Het Concertgebouw still lends institutional legitimacy to the IDF’s operations through staging one of its visible representatives.
Erev Rav
Erev Rav is Amsterdam’s Jewish Anti-Zionist collective, dedicated to building a strong Jewish diasporic community that can feel at home wherever they live, and stands in solidarity with Palestinian self-determination. They organize regular events and campaigns all over the Netherlands, and notably the protest against Israel’s president Isaac Herzog for the opening of the Dutch National Holocaustmuseum, the adoption of the DJA definition of antisemitism by the municipality of The Hague, a definition that, contrary to the IHRA definition, allows for critique on Israel, and a teach-in calling out weaponization of antisemitism in academic institutions.
Het Actiefonds is proud to have supported this action, and will continue to stand with Erev Rav and everyone who combats the art-washing of genocide and apartheid!
81 years after the capitulation of Nazi Germany, the Dutch Prime Minister once again lit the annual Liberation Fire in Utrecht on May 5, to the loud cheers of a crowd of festival-goers. Afterwards, Prime Minister Jetten told the NOS that he was celebrating that “there is no war” and that, despite the fact that there is still a lot to be done, “everyone in the country can be themselves regardless of color, faith, and who they are attracted to.” While the fall of Hitler’s regime—and with it the end of raids and concentration camps—is naturally worth celebrating and will continue to be, there is much less reason to celebrate when it comes to the state of the world today.
Not a week later, an asylum seekers’ center in Loosdrecht was set on fire by racist rioters who flew the Prince’s Flag, just like the NSB did during World War II. But also during ‘protests’ in (among others) Apeldoorn, IJsselstein and The Hague over the past year, antisemitic and neo-Nazi slogans have been chanted, while public facilities and political party offices have been vandalized with fireworks. Yet, a strong sense of condemnation is lacking among most politicians in The Hague, as understanding for these ‘concerned citizens’ seems to take precedence. While radical right-wing politicians visited the rioters to offer them support, Minister Dilan Yesilgöz wrote that attacking “a building” is unacceptable, without any criticism of the ideology of these people or mention of the fear of the asylum seekers who were being attacked. All this while solidarity-based anti-fascist movements were just as easily labeled as terrorist in the autumn of 2025.
This selectivity is downright scapegoat rhetoric and extends far beyond the tweets of a few politicians. Fascism is not a thing of the past, but is growing among the Dutch population today. So do not stop at ‘worrying’ or ‘scandalous’ actions, but call these rioters and politicians what they are: power-hungry, opportunistic, and especially, racist, fascist, and neo-Nazi.
To spread this message, some five hundred demonstrators gathered in Utrecht on that same May 5, following a call by the group Allemaal Antifascisten. With flags and banners, the protesters took to the streets to emphasize on Liberation Day that “never again” applies to everyone and forever.
In their speeches, guest speakers emphasized that the definition of freedom underlying Liberation Day falls short. Although a world is possible in which all people on Earth are provided with their basic needs through voluntary labor, autocratic economic policy, disguised in a democratic shell, stands in the way of such a world. Instead, citizens are pitted against one another by fascist leaders, and people in Congo, Sudan, Palestine, Cuba, and other parts of the Global South are subjected to an imperialist world order. These speeches can be read here.
Only when an absolute, radical form of freedom triumphs and the Netherlands confronts its complicity can Liberation Day truly become a meaningful celebration. Until then, Allemaal Antifascisten will continue to resist on May 5th. Het Actiefonds is proud to have been able to support this campaign and will continue to stand side by side in the struggle for a just and free world.
Europe’s militarized borders are reaching far into Africa, and people moving North face unspeakable violence and difficulties, and many of them disappear on the way. Families are left behind without news from their loved ones. Each year Boza Fii organizes a Caravan of Missing Migrants around Senegal to reach families of disappeared people, and to talk about the conditions of migration North to people considering leaving, and more importantly, to fight for safe freedom of movement for all!
The Caravan
Passing both the cities as well as the most remote rural areas, the Caravan of Missing Migrants travels yearly through Senegal. Every year, more people disappear, and people are still willing to take the risk of going North. The Caravan targets both families, young people and the Senegalese government.
The Caravan’s aim is to make understood that borders kill and give a more thorough idea of what the lives of migrants look like in transit countries. In collaboration with local leaders and social workers, the caravan organizes in every place it passes through a get together called “Migrate to live, not to die”. With meetings, workshops, film screenings and open debates organized in all the places it passes through, the Caravan wants to paint a realistic picture of what migration to Europe entails, how its borders operate to push back and kill, and what the EU’s deals with transit countries mean on the ground.
Through Commemor’Actions, the Caravan creates a space in every place it stops to pay tribute to those who lost their lives because of border policies, to dignify the disappeared, and mostly to give families place to share their mourning and rage. It connects families of the disappeared and killed, and unites them in their fight for the truth about their loved one’s fates and the whereabouts of their bodies.
Every year again, at the end of the Caravan, Boza Fii submits a Letter of Protest to the Senegalese government. Because the Senegalese state signed deals with the EU and collaborates with Frontex, it is complicit in the border violence, all the while refusing to take responsibility for and invest in their own youth, nor strive to put in place programs that facilitate migration instead of making it a deadly endeavor.
Boza Fii
Boza Fii was founded in 2020 in Senegal by a group of people who had spent more than a decade at EU border in North Africa, had witnessed and experienced the extreme violence that it entails – all too often carried out by African States themselves, and had decided to return to Senegal.
Ever since, their goal is to fight for freedom of movement without the risk of death, to help victims of border regimes, both leaving and returning, and to fight Frontex wherever it is – in Europe, at the immediate border, or all the way in Senegal.
Boza Fii’s team is both expert on the transit context of Senegalese and other sub-Saharan migrants and of Frontex’ operations in Africa. A big part of their work consists of supporting returning or forcefully deported migrants who are faced with serious psychological and material difficulties upon their return. Helping them reintegrate and rebuild their lives, they nevertheless strive for fairer visa policies and the principle of freedom of movement for all!
Boza Fii demands truth, justice and reparations for the victims of border policies and their families. They believes that the fight against the tragedies of migration must be waged in solidarity with those on both sides of the border, and engage often in collaborations.
Their yearly activities are the Caravan of Missing Migrants, national Commemor’Actions, their Push Back Frontex campaign opposing EU border policies in Senegal, and Chistmas Solid’Action, in which they support families of missing people during the holidays.
Het Actiefonds is proud to have supported this action and to be a regular partner of Boza Fii. We will stand in solidarity with all people fighting for freedom of movement, truth and justice, and against border policies!
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