The ACCT project was invited to the Democracy Action Days, which took place at the Europäisches Haus in Berlin on the 1st and 2nd of October 2024.
The ACCT project was active on the first day. After presenting the project’s aim, its timeline, and main results such as the Curriculum, the Portal and the soon to be published Handbook, the project leaders Maxine Salmon-Cottreau and Anja Söyünmez introduced, in an interactive conference setting, 3 exercises of the ACCT Curriculum. Together with the audience the activities Crossing the Line and Civic Courage Styles were performed, drawing eager interest and leading to vital discussions and reflection. The final exercise supported the knowledge gathered of the previous two, with definitions to match the principles on Racism, Discrimination, Civic Courage.
This interactive part was followed by a panel discussion. Invited guest speakers were Cora Mantel (Brand New Bundestag), Abdou-Rahime Diallo (Diaspora Policy Interaction and DaMOst) and Eduardo Felisberto Buanaissa (NARUD, among other NGOs work), who all shared insights into their activist work on anti-racism and democracy building. The panel revolved around addressing and fighting discrimination as well as racism within diverse local communities and finding solutions to ongoing hardships collectively. Specific topics were the Anti-Discrimination law in Germany and its challenges in practice, systematic and institutional discrimination and racism, the upcoming federal elections in Germany and the rise of the far right, last but not least the difficulties of obtaining funding as well as budget cuts for NGOs by the state and donors.
Solutions to the rise of a far-right sentiment in Germany, along with related issues and the path to fostering civil courage were discussed. Thus a range of solutions covering various fields in which the society can get actively involved were presented. In education the need for anti-racism courses for teachers was emphasised, in combination with student-focused activities such as excursions and summer schools. Community and neighbourhood engagement can be strengthened through hosting interactive cooking spaces or building/joining walking groups, which can be especially engaging for elderly. For more activist involvement joining a grassroots movement and being part of volunteering groups who organise in political parties, NGO’s, societies, private institutions or state institutions can be a great way of fighting racism and discrimination. The panel discussion then opened up to questions form the audience and concluded with a musical live act from Abdou-Rahime Diallo, who performed on the guitar singing, while animating the audience to sing along.
