Political observers
Armen Avanessian, philosopher, literary scholar and political theorist. He is the most renowned advocate of accelerationism in Germany. Armen Avanessian is considered a pioneer of post-capitalism.
Tariq Ali, author, historian and filmmaker. He describes the EU as being an undemocratic institution and holds the view that we are in the midst of a struggle of fundamentalisms – religious and imperialist fundamentalism.
Ulrike Guérot, political scientist and publicist. She is a much sought after political consultant and founder and director of the European Democracy Lab (EDL), a think tank for the development of European democracy.
Wolfgang Kaleck, lawyer. He is co-founder of the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR). The ECCHR advocates the prosecution of human rights violations by states and corporations on an international level.
Chantal Mouffe, author and political scientist. Currently, she is Professor of Political Theory at the University of Westminster. Chantal Mouffe is one of the most radical critics of neoliberalism.
Anu Muhammad, professor of economics, author and political activist. He is a member of the National Committee for the Protection of Natural Resources in Bangladesh and one of the country’s most renowned oppositional intellectuals.
Jo Seoka, bishop and activist. Until 2016 he was bishop of the Anglican Church in Pretoria. In 2012 he acted as mediator during a miners’ strike where 34 miners were shot by the police. After this he declared his solidarity with the victims.
Can Dündar, journalist and former chief editor of the newspaper Cumhuriyet. The Turkish government sentenced Can Dündar to prison for alleged treason for revealing state secrets. Since his persecution by the Turkish judiciary, he has been living in Germany.
Stenographers
Mely Kiyak, columnist and author. She writes a weekly column for Zeit Online called Kiyaks Deutschstunde (Kiyak’s German lesson) and Kiyaks Theater Kolumne (Kiyak’s theater column) for the Maxim Gorki Theater in Berlin. She was co-organizer of the European Writers’ Conference in 2016.
Robert Misik, journalist and political author. He regularly writes for different newspapers such as Der Standard, Falter and taz. Robert Misik is known for his critical neo-Marxist view on capitalism and globalization.
Raul Zelik, writer, journalist and political scientist. In his novels and essays he deals with the Basque and Catalan independence movement and the leftist movement in Latin America.
Representatives
Huda Abuzeid, filmmaker and producer. Her father, who was murdered in 1995, was one of the most famous opponents of the Gaddafi regime. She describes the military interventions in Libya in 2011 as being neocolonial and economically motivated.
Doğan Akhanlı, author. In 1991 he fled to Germany from Turkey and was granted political asylum. Since 2013 Turkey has been looking for him through Interpol. He was arrested in Spain in the summer of 2017.
Quim Arrufat, politician and political scientist. He is head of the national secretariat of the Candidatura d’Unitat Popular (CUP), an assembly-based political organization in Catalonia.
Igal Avidan, freelance journalist. He works for several Israeli and German newspapers and radio stations. For the 60th anniversary of Israel’s independence he published a critical assessment of the situation in his book "Israel. Ein Staat sucht sich selbst“ (Israel. A state looking for itself).
Aral Balkan, cyborg rights activist. He believes that we must extend our understanding of the boundaries of the self to include the technologies by which we extend our selves in order to protect personhood in the digital age.
Alina Banu, activist. She is fighting against the planned construction of a gold mine in Roşia Montană. The Canadian investor Gabriel Resources has filed an international arbitration suit against Romania for alleged delaying tactics.
Khadja Bedati, Sahraouian activist. She is involved in the clarification of human rights violations committed by the Moroccan occupation force in Saharawi and she criticizes the activities of German companies in the region.
Lúcio Bellentani, former employee of the VW plant in Brazil. He organized trade union meetings and was secretly a member of the Communist Party. In 1972 Lúcio Bellentani was arrested in the VW plant by the military regime and tortured in prison.
Shota Bukoshi, filmmaker and cultural manager. She was born in Prishtina in 1983 and grew up in Germany in the 1990s. Today she is the embassy counselor of the Republic of Kosovo in Berlin.
Anwar al-Bunni, lawyer and human rights activist. As a supporter of democratic reform in Syria, he was one of the most important opposition members. Today he supports the prosecution of the crimes committed by the Assad regime.
Hamze Bytyci, civil rights activist, actor and theater pedagogue. He is the founder of RomaTrial, a self-organization for Roma and non-Roma for the transcultural and transnational dealings with antiziganism.
Naomi Colvin, activist. She works for the Courage Foundation, an international organization which protects Whistleblowers like Edward Snowden.
Diogo Costa, political scientist and author. As president of the Istituto Ordem Livre and member of the Brazilian Ludwig von Mises Institute, he fights for a free market and the communication of libertarian societal ideas.
Mihran Dabag, historian of Armenian descent. He is a professor at the Department of History at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum and director of the Institute for Diaspora Research and Genocide Studies.
Fouad El Haj, political activist. He is co-founder of the "palästinensische Stimme" (the voice of Palestine) in Berlin, a pacifist organization committed to the peaceful coexistence of Christians, Jews and Muslims in the Middle East.
Pablo Fajardo Mendoza, lawyer. He represents the indigenous population of Ecuador in one of the world’s largest environmental lawsuits against the American energy company Chevron Corporation, formerly Texaco. The company caused disastrous environmental damage in the oil production process in Amazonia.
Giorgio Fidenato, libertarian farmer and activist. In 2014 he was convicted for growing genetically modified corn in Italy, which is approved in the EU. He has appealed the verdict.
Dieter Gerten, geographer. He works at the internationally renowned Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and as a private lecturer for global change climatology and hydrology at the Humboldt University Berlin.
Jean-Louis Gilissen, lawyer and expert on international criminal law. As a lawyer at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, he has represented many different defendants (Ahmad Al Faqi Al Mahdi, for example) and the victim group of child soldiers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Christos Giovanopoulos, activist. He took on a leading role during the protests against the austerity policy at Syntagma Square in Athens.
Théophile de Giraud, author, philosopher and activist. He is one of the most known proponents of antinatalism. For the benefit of the planet threatened by overpopulation and children born into a detrimental world, he takes a stand against the procreation of mankind.
Cezary Franciszek Gmyz, journalist. He is affiliated with the national-conservative political camp which surrounds the Law and Justice Party (PiS). In 2016 he was sent to Berlin as a correspondent for the public television station Telewizja Polska.
Colin Goldner, psychologist and science journalist. He is heading the relaunch of the internationally renowned Great Ape Project, which demands fundamental rights for great apes.
Nathan Luc Gwehaye, journalist and activist. As a representative of the transnational organization “voixdesmigrants”, he speaks to young people in Cameroon about the risks involved in migrating to Europe and advocates for improvement of the career opportunities in their home countries.
Kathrin Hartmann, journalist and author. She deals with Green Capitalism and the industry’s strategies on how to benefit from the green lifestyle and Green Economy.
Winfried Hempel, lawyer. He was born in 1977 in the German Colonia Dignidad in Chile, where children were abused and dissidents were tortured. Today, he represents former members of the colony in class action lawsuits against the Chilean and German state.
Feri Irawan, environmental and human rights activist. He fights for the preservation of the rainforest and for the people of Sumatra, whose rights are infringed by timber and palm oil companies and whose land is threatened by systematic slash-and-burn methods.
Meera Jamal, journalist. She wrote for the most widely read English-language newspaper in Pakistan, The Dawn. After having received death threats from religious extremists for her public criticism of madrassas, Meera Jamal fled to Germany in 2008.
Israel Kaunatjike, Herero activist. He calls for recognition of the Herero and Nama genocide by the German colonial masters as well as for negotiations on adequate reparations, which the parties concerned should directly receive.
Kiringai Kamau, economist and developmental advisor. He believes that agricultural projects are the most effective vehicles for economic transformation in developing nations.
Cornelia Kaminski, senior teacher and author. She fights for the right to life for all people. She especially supports the protection of the unborn and speaks out against abortion and experiments on human embryos.
Khushi Kabir, human rights activist. She campaigns against shrimp farming and fights for the Bangladesh people to keep control over their resources.
Zehra Khan, political activist. She is general secretary of the Homebased Womens Workers Federation, which organizes informal workers in Pakistan, for example in textile companies. She is a spokesperson for the survivors of the textile factory Ali Enterprises, which burned down.
Saeeda Khatoon, textile worker and activist. In 2012, she lost her only son in a factory fire in one of Ali Enterprises’ buildings in Pakistan. Saeeda Khatoon is currently suing the factory’s main client, the German discount clothing store KiK. (Unfortunately, Saeeda Khatoon can’t participate in the „General Assembly“, because she did not get a visa.)
Prince Kihangi, lawyer. He is one of the most renowned experts on the use of raw materials in the Congo. He finds the European regulations on the trade of conflict minerals inadequate.
Murat Kurnaz, social worker. From January of 2002 until August of 2006, he was detained in the prison camp in the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base without eve having been accused of a crime. He describes his experiences in his autobiography “Five Years of My Life”, which was made into a film in 2013.
Kim Lee, performer and Drag Queen, formerly known as Ahn Nguyen. The media calls him the “most popular Drag Queen in Poland”.
Thumeka Magwangqana, civil rights activist. Since the Marikana Massacre, where the South African police shot 34 miners, she has been head of the organization Sikhala Sonke and campaigns for better labor and living conditions of the affected community.
Nasir Mansoor, Deputy General Secretary of the National Trade Union Federation, Pakistan (NTUF). He mainly defends the rights of Pakistani textile workers.
Mnyaka Sururu Mboro, engineer, teacher and activist. He is fighting for the restitution of the skulls of inhabitants and partisans from former German colonies. The remains had been brought to Germany for racial research.
Sami Miaari, lecturer for economic science at Tel Aviv University. He does research on the economic causes and consequences of conflicts, civil wars and political instability.
Barbara Miranda Caro, unionist and feminist. For six years she worked as a cleaning woman without any papers. Today Barbara Miranda Caro is developing an advisory network for migrants at the trade union ver.di.
Kamel Mohanna, physician and human rights activist. He supports the reconstruction process in Lebanon with the humanitarian organization Amel, which he founded in 1979.
Mitat Özdemir, former guest-worker and engineer. He came to Germany in 1966 under the recruitment agreement with Turkey. On June 9, 2004 a nail bomb exploded in front of his kiosk in the Keupstraße. He is now chairman of the IG Keupstraße, fighting racism and supporting the political rights of migrants.
Martin Pairet, civil rights activist. He is the network manager of the initiative European Alternatives. The organization wants to strengthen new forms of transnational collectivity in order to ensure the control of the citizens.
Gonzalo Piñán, psychologist and musician. He came to Germany after the economic crisis. He feels that the decreed austerity measures demonstrate the EU's focus on the interests of Germany rather than on a democratic community.
Melvin Purzuelo, climate activist. He advocates the worldwide expansion of renewable energy. Especially the developing countries like his homeland the Philippines suffer under the use of fossil fuels in highly industrialized countries.
Joana Adesuwa Reiterer, author, filmmaker and activist. With her association EXIT she fights against human trafficking and the sexual exploitation of women from Africa.
Itai Rusike, human rights activist. He fights for a functional and just healthcare system, access to medical treatment and health education in Zimbabwe.
Mohamed Taha Sabri, Imam in Neukölln. The Dar-As-Salam Mosque is an important meeting place in Neukölln and has been under surveillance by the intelligence service for several years. The Imam rejects the accusation of having radical tendencies.
Friederike Schmitz, author and philosopher. Her main focus of work is the ethics and politics of the relationship between humans and animals. She is active in different organizations committed to the animal liberation movement.
Simon Selle, member of the Kinder- und Jugendparlament Berlin (children and youth parliament Berlin). He advocates lowering the voting age in order for the new generation to make a significant contribution to shaping their future.
Tugrul Selmanoğlu, Internet activist and supporter of the Turkish party AKP. In the spring of 2017 he actively campaigned for a "yes" vote in the referendum on a constitutional revision in Turkey.
Hilal Sezgin, author, philosopher and animal rights activist. Since 2007 she has been running a sanctuary in which animals are not used for labor or food production and is committed to defending animals’ right to life.
Ala'a Shehabi, economist, writer and activist. In 2012 she uncovered the fact that the Bahraini government uses monitoring software from the German-British company Gamma International to track down and persecute opponents of the regime. Her husband is still a political prisoner in Bahrain.
Maxim Shevchenko, publisher, journalist and television host. He is one of the leading experts in Russia on ethno-cultural and religious social issues. He hosts several Russian television shows which deal with these topics.
Abou Bakar Sidibé, filmmaker. While fleeing from Mali to Germany, he spent 15 months at the border fence in Melilla. Using a camera he documented the fates of people at the border. This resulted in the award-winning film "Les Sauteurs – Those who jump".
Bernadus Swartbooi, former Deputy Minister of Land Reform in Namibia. He fights for the rights of the landless and for the restitution of properties to the original owners, which were occupied during the German colonial era.
Ali Ertan Toprak, politician and chairman of the Kurdish Community Germany. He calls for an independent Kurdish state and the support of the EU. The Kurds have been using German weapons to fight the IS for years.
Vladimir Umeljić, historian and author. He criticizes the NATO intervention in the Kosovo War in 1998/99 and describes it as a violation of international law.
Sebastian Urbanski, actor. He politically, socially and artistically advocates for the rights of people with Down syndrome and for the coexistence of people with and without disabilities.
Cian Westmoreland, drone engineer and Whistleblower. He worked at the Ramstein Air Base and helped develop the communications structures which the drone program in Afghanistan is based on. In 2010 he decided to publically speak about his work.
Carmen Zambrano, activist. As a result of the oil production of Chevron Corporation, formerly Texaco, to this day her homeland Amazonia is contaminated with harmful substances. Her children are incurably ill.
The following members of the Bundestag have joined
Michel Brandt, The Left
Dr. Daniela De Ridder, SPD
Frank Heinrich, CDU
Andrej Hunko, The Left
Uwe Kekeritz, Alliance 90/The Greens
Katja Kipping, The Left
Mathias Stein, SPD
Kathrin Vogler, The Left