In May 2022, over 250 people took to the streets of Milicz, Poland, for more tolerance towards the local LGBTQI+ community.  In recent years, the Polish ruling party and the Polish president have been leading a campaign against the LGBTQI+ community, together with the Catholic Church. This resulted in an increase of hate speech, physical violence and even the establishment of so-called “NO LGBT-zones” in several Polish cities, and the increase of suicidal thoughts and tendencies among young LGBTQI+ people in Poland. Myślmy organised this first parade in Milicz to both show support to the local LGBTQI+ community and to strive for queer liberation in the region and the local government.

Myślmy – “Let’s Think” in English – is an association working on diverse topics, all having to do with human rights – from fighting against restricting abortion laws to the humanitarian disaster at the Polis-Bellarusian border. Not associated to any political party, they form an independent group of volunteers. With a strong belief in local change through local commitment, they organise workshops, cultural events, protests.

And now also this LGBTQI+ Parade that they plan to organise every year, because it was a big success. Under the banner of “Myślę-czuję-akcpetuję” (which means “I think, I feel, I accept”), the Parade brought together people from Milicz and other Polish cities. With the help of Het Actiefonds, the Parade was a fun and safe event. The speeches, the music, the samba band, the beautiful artwork and the extra safety guards made the Parade an event to look forward to every year, to celebrate the LGBTQI+ community in Milicz, Poland and throughout world. Watch the video of the event here, or read more about it here in Gay Times. Because everyone deserves to love and be in peace.

The University of Groningen (RUG) is so eager to build an international reputation that it is one of the biggest contributors to the ongoing housing crisis in the city. Every year we read reports about how students – especially international ones – are struggling to find a room. The university had even set up an emergency tent camp four years ago to stem some of the housing crisis, to no avail.

Meanwhile, a pandemic and a recession later, and the problem has simply gotten worse. The waiting time for social housing has risen to eight years. Homeless students occupied the RUG’s Academy building last year in protest. Indeed, between 2020 and 2021, the housing shortage increased by some 4,500 more homeless students (26,500 in total), not to mention the rents the lucky few have to cough up. Homeowners are eagerly taking advantage of the situation to make students pay exorbitant rents. After all, those students can borrow extra when they don’t have the money, right?

International students

As dastard as this way of thinking is, it doesn’t even extend to the 9 thousand internationals who can’t simply borrow from their governments. They arrive in a university town that barely has room for them, without being noticed beforehand about the severity of the situation. On top of that, this group is not entitled to a free public transport, since these students are not Dutch citizens. As a result, even finding housing outside Groningen city is not an option for them because of the expensive commuting costs. After all, don’t forget that the Netherlands has the most expensive public transport in the EU!

The PvdA and the CU are proposing banning temporary rental contracts. This may seem like a good solution, since landlords like to use these contracts to systematically raise the rent. But permanent rental contracts also mean another obstacle for foreign students who only come for one semester or year. This way, internationals would still remain the brunt of the failing Dutch housing policy.

Woonstrijdkamp demands concrete solutions to the housing crisis in Groningen, such as affordable housing, free emergency accommodation and more housing on the university campus. In addition, the government should also grant free public transport to international students. With support from Het Actiefonds, students camped out in the Noorderplantsoen the weekend of Sept. 9-11 to call attention to the ongoing housing crisis, demonstrating for better housing rights.

Because houses are for people, not for profit.

It’s not the first time palm oil production has caused problems. It is well known that Indonesia and Malaysia cut down large parts of their tropical jungles to make way for oil palms, with major consequences for biodiversity and and the climate. But the residents of Mbonjo and Souza show how not only wildlife is suffering from the growing palm oil plantations.

Alphone Toko Sene, longtime resident of Mbonjo, can’t stand it anymore: when he walks to the cemetery to honor his aunt and uncle, he watches suspiciously as oil palms gain ground. The land is owned by Socapalm, a large Cameroonian agribusiness company, a subsidiary of Luxembourg-based Socfin. In 2010, Socapalm already managed nearly 80 thousand hectares of land in Cameroon, mostly in rural and remote areas, all of which are earmarked for palm oil production. Socapalm allows the inhabitants of Mbonjo to enter their cemetery for now, but in no way wants to cede the land under which the village’s ancestors are buried.

According to Socfin, Socapalm’s future is “inextricably linked to the sustainable development of local populations and economies.” Yet a different picture emerges when we listen to the residents of Mbonjo-Souza, namely that nature and residents must give way as much as possible to make way for the lucrative palm tree. Toko Sene: “Our loved ones are buried here. It is not normal for this place to be taken by the plantations of this agro-industrial company. We want them to respect our sacred places.”

Despite persistent complaints from Mbonjo-Souza, Socapalm even received the Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) label last year.

So time to move to action. With a 300-person demonstration and relatively high media coverage, residents in August managed to raise Socapalm’s hypocrisy, televise debates between village leaders and administrators, and sit down with Socapalm itself. The dialogue seems to have finally begun. Now it is to see if the residents manage to get their cemeteries back from the farm.

Ever since the Oslo accords of 1993, The city of Hebron has been divided under two administrative areas. Hebron H1 spans the most part of the historic city and is inhabited by roughly 170.000 Palestinians. The second area, Hebron H2, falls under the jurisdiction of the Israeli army and is inhabited by 34.000 Palestinians and 700 Israeli settlers.

In the divided area of Hebron City H2 the Palestinian population is constantly monitored with surveillance technology such as camera- and radar surveillance, facial recognition and smartphone technology. In addition to living under military law, they face constant threats and acts of violence. For example, their more than 900-year-old olive groves are constantly being attacked and set on fire by settlers, who can do so without fearing arrest by the Israeli Defense Force.

Olive trees

The olive harvest in Palestine takes place every fall, making this a crucial time in the lives of the many Palestinian families who rely on it for their income. Between August of 2020 and 2021, more than 9,300 olive trees were destroyed in the West Bank. Since 1967, a total of 800,000 olive trees have been uprooted by Israeli authorities and settlers. Destroying olive trees is a known tactic of settlers tin order to uproot the Palestinians from their soil, since it takes years to replant olive trees that can produce the same yield as mature ones.

This is why AAH (Artists x Allies x Hebron) placed surveillance cameras throughout the olive groves of H2. These cameras will livestream footage of the trees, in order to register settler violence. This way, the cameras are staring back into the unending electronic gaze if the IDF by co-opting the same weaponized technology. AAH wants to help keep a vigilant eye on these trees and show solidarity by ensuring that the residents and their sumud (steadfastness) are not only surveilled but also seen.

Het Actiefonds is proud to support this action. Want to see the live footage? Click here!

Capitalism, patriarchy and the border regime are leaving many people, in particular racialized women and genderqueer people, exposed to exploitation, violence and exclusion. Systematic racism and sexism silence their struggles, portraying them as victims and minimizing their political voices and actions. When it comes to migration and border crossing, women and genderqueer people experience specific difficulties that should be acknowledged and addressed.

This is why Collectif Sensé is uniting women from Mali, Mauritania and Senegal and women in France, most of them with a migration background. They are organising a weekend to share skills, discuss important issues and hold assemblies to organize future actions and events. They will also make a podcast and a radio program in different languages to address the realities of women within the current border regime. Topics that will be covered include the trafficking of women, feminist self-defence and transborder solidarity.

This project is a collaboration between Collectif Sensé, a group of women that met in a safe house in Marseille, and the AlarmPhone, a hotline for people crossing the Mediterranean Sea who are in distress. You can listen to their monthly radio program in French here.

Het Actiefonds is proud to support this project, because borders kill — every day.

Lodewijk K. may own multiple horeca business in Amsterdam, his wealth doesn’t prevent him from refusing to pay two his workers their due. Horeca United won’t allow him to get away with this. They’ve organized multiple picket actions to pressure hem into paying.

For the time being, the picket actions seem to work. At first he did not even want to discuss the matter, but after two picketing actions where customers were informed of Lodewijks business practice, the exploitative employer agreed to sit down and negotiate. He has consistently tried to undercut offers of Horeca United and has offered insultingly low amounts to compensate his two former employees. Eventually he gave in to one of the two wage claims.

Obviously, this is not enough: the two workers won’t settle for less. So, they gave their ultimatum: pay up, or we are forced to take action. For now, this means action. Het Actiefonds is supporting their next picket actions. No boss should get away with refusing pay!

Transition is a positive step that brings trans people much happiness, because in this way they can take control of their own life. It is therefore all the more odd that trans people are dependent on health care institutions and psychiatrists, who often make them wait for years before they can continue with their transition. In the Netherlands it is still necessary to be diagnosed with ‘gender dysphoria’ by a gender team to get your transition insured. As a result, the total transition process now takes an average of 7.5 years.

The slow transition process causes a lot of unnecessary stress. This is why Transzorg NU is standing up for the self-determination of trans people. You should not have to get a diagnosis before you can get the care you deserve. Therefore, replace the psychiatric diagnosis ‘gender dysphoria’ from the DSM5 with the somatic-body diagnosis ‘gender incongruence’ from ICD11. Indeed, this diagnosis has no pathological focus on suffering or the stigmatizing psychiatric status. Instead, it places the enduring conviction of gender identity at the center. For all the requirements of Transzorg NU, please visit here.

Transzorg NU Nijmegen – September 18.

Nijmegen is an important place for transition care in the Netherlands: besides Amsterdam UMC and Groningen UMC, Radboud UMC is the only academic hospital with a gender team. Meanwhile, even there the waiting time has increased to more than two years. That is why Het Actiefonds supports the new branch of Transzorg NU in Nijmegen.

On September 18, Transzorg NU plans to demonstrate in the afternoon at the Grote Markt in Nijmegen – right in the middle of the city center. They will use a combination of fiery and vulnerable speeches, and artistic performances. From a stage – provided with beautiful decor made by Nijmegen artist duo Naaistreek – substantive speeches will be made. Bappie Kortram, for example, will speak about how transition care is often denied to fat individuals. Others will speak from their own experience about, among other things, the intersection of trans and neurodiversity, the hard life as a trans person in Dutch asylum seekers’ centers, and the importance of quick help for young trans persons. And they will hand over their demands to the Radboud UMC. Furthermore, a group of non-binary dancers will give a performance. There will be singing, and their own Suus te Braak (aka ‘DJ Hizzle’) will play between performances.

During the G-20 forum, sustainable finance and green economy issues will be discussed, in an attempt to address the climate crisis. Yet, the G-20 paradigm of capitalism and growth will never be compatible with environmental and social justice. Their policies will always have negative impacts on the everyday life of people in Indonesia and elsewhere, affected by “solutions” such as infrastructure development that eliminates livelihoods, the conversion of agricultural land or poverty caused by state debt. By organising the Y-20, the G-20 countries make it appear as if the international youth movements are with them and have been sufficiently consulted.

However, across Indonesia, youth groups demand a just climate transition and intergenerational justice that goes way beyond the proposed course of action. This is why WALHI Jakarta organised an Anti-G20 Youth Camp with 400 participants, and will mobilize youth groups to protest during the Y-20 and G-20, to make clear that this forum does not represent the voices of youth and is still co-opted by global agendas that marginalize people all over the world.

WALHI Jakarta (The Indonesian Forum for Environment in Jakarta) is an organisation that fights for the realization of a just and democratic social, economic and political order that can guarantee the rights of the people to sources of life and a healthy and sustainable environment. They organise several activities around preservation, critical education and skillsharing, community organizing, campaign and research, litigation, building civil society alliances and public support.

Het Actiefonds is proud to support WALHI Jakarta to organise against the G-20 and stands in solidarity with all climate justice fighters, in Indonesia and elsewhere!

The attacks on Gaza that occured only several months later demonstrate again the ease with which the Israeli state kills and mistreats Palestinians. Jews 4 Decolonization, consisting of Israelis fighting Israeli Apartheid, organizes actions to stop the Israeli agression.

Jews 4 Decolonization takes action for an equal en just society.  They organise disruptive actions, let themelves be arrested and then boycott court proceedings, to show how the Israeli apartheid legal system works: as Jewish Israelis, they risk less punishment than their Palestinian companions.

With their actions, they call upon the international community to immediately intervene in defence of Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, Jerusalem, and throughout historic Palestine. As such, they join the Palestinian movement for liberation, including the campaigns for Boycott, Divestments and Sanctions (BDS) and for the Palestian Right of Return.

In May 2022, Het Actiefonds supported an action during the courtcase against Amal Nakhleh, an 18 year old Palestinian political captive, risking years in prison.

Het Actiefonds supports all actions for the release of all Palestinian political captives and against the Israeli apartheid legal system.

Sexist Nationality Law

Since 1925, Lebanon’s nationality law has remained unchanged. The law stipulates that non-Lebanese women who marry Lebanese men may apply for Lebanese nationality, but non-Lebanese men who marry Lebanese women may not. This goes against the seventh article of the Lebanese constitution, which states that all Lebanese are equal before the law.

Masir, a Lebanese organization dedicated to individual human rights, believes that this sexist legislation must be changed. It is not alone: several political parties have already introduced bills to give women the right to naturalize their husbands. However, the president of the parliament has thus far refused to deal with these bills. Masir, with the support of Het Actiefonds, is therefore organizing a demonstration to put pressure on the speaker of parlement to discuss the bills.

Refugee crisis

Lebanon faces the highest number of refugees per capita in the world. 1 in 5 residents in Lebanon is a refugee, mainly Syrians and Palestinians. In addition, the country is suffering from a huge economic and political crisis ever since the port of Beirut exploded in August 2020. The economic consequences of this crisis hit refugees even harder, since they do not possess citizenship, receive little or no assistance from the state, nor do they have any prospect of naturalization.

The severe refugee policy of Lebanon springs forth from Lebanon’s confessional form of government, in which Christians, Sunni’s and Shi’ites are represented in the government based on their share in the total population. A sudden influx of Sunni refugees could tip the political balance in favor of Lebanese Sunnis, which the other confessional groups will not accept. Previously, the Palestinian refugee crisis in the aftermath of the Six-Day War (1967) similarly led to the Lebanese Civil War (1975-1990), which killed an estimated 120 thousand people.

Beirut is thus reluctant to naturalize refugees and makes this process as difficult as possible. An offshoot of this severe refugee policy is the government’s insistence on a clearly sexist law that goes against the constitution. In recent years there have been many mass protests in Lebanon for many different reasons, but a recurring motive has always been the end of confessionalism. This colonial relic developed under the French protectorate was part of a colonial “divide and rule” strategy. The consequences of this constitution have led to countless deaths and maintains a system of inequality to this day – especially regarding Syrian and Palestinian refugees. These refugees will remain stateless until they can return to their homeland.

Image: Nadim Kobeissi via Flickr.