Storming of the Reichstag
Tuesday, 7 November 2017
Reenactment, 3pm, lawn in front of the Reichstag building,
Heinrich-von-Gagern-Straße
This film is part of the exhibition
The Storming of the Winter Palace – Forensics of an Image by the HMKV at the Dortmunder U (till April 8, 2018).
Precisely one hundred years after the legendary “Storming of the Winter Palace”, the newly elected German parliament will be confronted symbolically: What are the demands of the global Third Estate? Who is missing in the Reichstag, where international political decisions have been made by the German parliament since 1999? A reenactment of the historical storming of the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg in 1917 will take place: one of the most influential images in the history of humankind, signifying the beginning of the most momentous revolution of modernity. Let us storm the Reichstag together! Let us create a new, forward-looking symbol of global democracy and international solidarity in the 21st century!
THEY CALL IT DEMOCRACY – WE CALL IT EXPLOITATION!
The German parliament has just been elected. But not even a fraction of those affected by German policy are represented in the Bundestag. Even in the age of mass migration and climate change, global politics are controlled by national lobbies – and prevented whenever they adversely affect the interests of these lobbies. Now that the AfD (eine rechtsextreme, in Teilen antisemitische und fremdenfeindliche Partei) (deren Mitglieder gern zur Weinerlichkeit neigen, wenn man sie kritisiert) (deren Mitglieder gern zur Weinerlichkeit neigen, wenn man sie kritisiert) has become the third political power in Germany, national tendencies in the Bundestag have been strengthened yet again. A national parliament, however, which globally enforces its interests, is not a place of democracy. It is an instrument of domination and exploitation.
DEMOCRACY FOR EVERYONE AND EVERYTHING!
War victims, labor migrants, economic and climate refugees, the victims of the dawning ecocide, children, the unborn and the victims of colonial history – they all have no right to a say in the Reichstag. But what would happen if all those whose lives are influenced by the German Bundestag were to assemble and claim their rights? The “General Assembly” and the “Storming of the Reichstag” will give their concerns a voice and offer their non-simultaneity a moment of simultaneity. A local parliament will be replaced by a global parliament. For the first time, the global Third Estate will claim its rights: one world, one parliament!
100 PERCENT IS NOT ENOUGH!
We are the 99 percent, was Occupy Wall Street’s slogan. We of the “General Assembly” say: 100 percent is not enough! The “General Assembly” is not only the first world parliament in the history of mankind, it is also the first world parliament in the history of animals and things. It includes the bees of Provence, the oceans as well as the cyborgs. The world is a community of fate, beyond all nationalities, periods, and forms of existence. We finally need an instrument that can regulate the world market and direct ecological developments into the right channels. Let’s escape the spiral of exploitation, destruction and violence! Let’s enter the “General Assembly”!
Let us meet in front of the Reichstag and claim our rights!
