Federal public organization “Union of Russian-speaking parents of Germany” headquartered in Cologne launched a new project “Dialogues against racism to strengthen social cohesion”. The word “dialogues” is not accidentally chosen in the plural, because the organizers of the project are convinced that there should be many of them – in various formats and various spheres of public life. The union represents migrants in Germany of different nationalities, ages and religions.
The new project is dedicated to intensive cooperation with numerous organizations, media experts and academics to strengthen democracy in the country of immigration, which, according to the organizers, has long been Germany. However, as indicated in the project document, the target groups are, in particular, public organizations of migrants from the post-Soviet space and refugees from Ukraine.
“Refugees from Ukraine have become our neighbors and friends in Germany, and we want to support them in gaining access to a democratic culture so that they can formulate and propose their own ideas and concepts while organizing themselves, creating various projects and participating in discussion forums,” – Yuri Krotov, one of the project coordinators, emphasized in an interview with DW.
The forum was held in the Cologne Christ Church
The venue for the forum dedicated to the opening of the new project “Dialogues Against Racism” was the Lutheran Church of Christ in Cologne (Сhristuskirche). In her welcoming speech, assistant parish priest Rachel Gessat recalled that the Cologne Church of Christ temporarily provided a place and hours for worship to the faithful of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kiev Patriarchate in Europe. On the first Sunday of every month, from 10:00 to 12:00, Orthodox services and meetings of Ukrainian refugees living in Cologne and its environs are held in the church.
Rahel Gesat stressed that the Church of Christ fully supports the desire of public organizations of migrants from post-Soviet countries to engage in dialogues against racism. This is especially important when there is a war going on in Europe against which the entire civilized world opposes.
On the need to oppose the clashes between demonstrators who oppose the war and those who support Putin in Germany with the desire for peaceful dialogues, the search for ways of mutual understanding and agreement on fundamentally important issues that contribute to the return of peace in Europesaid Claudia Martini, responsible member of the working group of the Commissioner of the Federal Government for the integration of migrants, refugees and the fight against racism at the office of the German Federal Chancellor.
Can the diversity and variety inherent in German society somehow complicate or even interfere with its cohesion? Claudia Martini believes that no matter how colorful and diverse the population in Germany is, the path to mutual understanding and social cohesion can only be found through dialogues and discussions with each other, and it is in them that the key to success lies.
A call to confront disinformation that breeds racism
The growth of right-wing populist movements in Europe was mentioned in a written address to the forum participants by the Mayor of Cologne, Henriette Reker. This, in her opinion, “clearly shows that racism and discrimination are a serious global and, therefore, an all-German problem.” According to Reker, Cologne residents also report repeatedly encountering racism in various forms and manifestations in everyday life – on the streets, in shops, as well as in public places.
“We must not allow extremists to threaten our peaceful coexistence through the targeted use of disinformation, hate-based stereotyping and crude conspiracy theories, or similar disturbing events,” she urged in her written address.
Multipliers should help in the implementation of the project
According to Vladimir Weinberg, head of the Union of Russian-Speaking Parents in Germany and the Dialogues Against Racism project, its implementation will take place within 36 months. His active assistants will be multipliers throughout Germany from various public organizations of migrants – Russian- and Ukrainian-speaking. Many of them were presented in a video shot in different regions of Germany.
In addition, the animators, being among the forum participants, spoke to the audience, talking about their vision of specific measures to combat racism and disinformation campaigns. As they emphasized, migrants came to the country without a clear idea of what Western democracy is, the majority have never lived under democracy, so it is necessary to introduce people to its values. Democracy cannot develop on its own – all those who spoke before the hall were sure of this – it must be strengthened, developed and defended. And the means to achieve the goal are simple – constant dialogues, discussions, openness and readiness to perceive diversity in society.
The organizers of the project set themselves the goal of ensuring that Ukrainian communities in Germany get opportunities to participate in local democratic processes, social structures, debates for decision-making and the formation of democratic values. To this end, centralized training will be organized for representatives of organizations to comprehensively expand their rights and opportunities in democratic processes.
At specially organized regional forums, their participants will be able to exchange views on ways to maintain the peaceful coexistence of various social, ethnic and religious groups in Germany. Forums dedicated to combating racist narratives will be led by pre-trained moderators and legal scholars.
“The project is designed to show by example how people with any post-Soviet experience can live and work together peacefully within the framework of European democracy,” its coordinator Yuri Krotov said in an interview with DW.
Solidarity with the Ukrainian people
The organizers of the forum “Dialogues Against Racism” invited Ukrainian refugees to participate not only in the official part, but also in the cultural program. Among them were singers and musicians from different regions of Ukraine, who found refuge from the war in Germany.
During the breaks Ukrainian songs and music on national instruments sounded. The poet and journalist Alexander Delfinov greeted the guests with his new anti-war works. He translated his poetic texts from Russian into German especially for the forum. Here is just one quote in the original language about Russians’ fear of the Putin regime:
“No war!” – we said, but the war did not end,
On the contrary, it flared up, became stronger,
Horror and alienation followed in her footsteps,
And we became less and less, until there were almost none left,
And I remember a deserted square, and rain, and slush,
I looked through the crack in the curtain and saw in my window
Like a little man with a placard “No to war!”
There is ONE standing there, and from fear I wanted to cry … “
Burning trench candles in Christ Church
The forum participants held an action of solidarity with the people of Ukraine: everyone was holding burning trench candles, which are produced in Cologne by Ukrainian refugees for soldiers on the front line.
Home-made candles that warm Ukrainian defenders in cold and damp trenches were handed out to everyone by Alla Bugorskaya, who fled to Germany from Kharkov almost a year ago. In Cologne, she organized assistance for the inhabitants of Ukraine and military personnel defending their homeland at the front.
In particular, she, together with a group of women, established the manual production of the so-called trench candles., which soldiers on the front line can use for various purposes – to keep warm and even warm up food right in the trenches. They are compact, made in the form of cans with lids, and can be used for up to eight hours.
In the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church of Cologne women make these candles from improvised materials, such as corrugated cardboard, which is filled with paraffin or wax.
“When we have a large batch of such candles, we immediately send them to the front to our soldiers so that they can warm themselves in the cold trenches during a frosty winter,” Alla Bugorskaya emphasized in an interview with DW and called on everyone who is ready to help them with this , contact the community of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in Cologne for information.
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