Demo Diary: Burned Out
'Racism over all: open your eyes'. Chalk graffiti on the sidewalk outside Guertelstrasse Last weekend, I found myself having to take a cab to Schoenfeld because the S-Bahn wasn’t running on that track, due to a burned-out cable. According to Local.de, a group of activists claimed responsibility for this sabotage. They claimed that they did it because they wanted draw attention to the unfair treatment of a group of refugees who are facing deportation from Berlin. When I was in Guertelstrasse park last night, where those same refugees are currently living, an activist who I spoke to brushed off that suggestion. “I had trouble to get to this park to help the refugees because of this train problem,” says Anya, who is also a university student. “Why would we sabotage the train when it makes us harder for us to help them?” It does seem likely that this story of pro-refugees activist sabotaging train lines is just another es...