PUSHBACK Talks

It was a radical experiment – impose a rent cap on apartments in Berlin so that tenants wouldn’t be priced out of the city by the big money actors moving in. It was challenged in the courts by Members of Parliament – litigation supported by a lobby of institutional landlords. On 15 April 2021, the highest court in Germany struck down the rent cap, ruling that the Berlin state government had exceeded its jurisdiction. It's a devastating ruling for tenants, many of whom now have to pay back rent they had withheld or pay rents they cannot afford. The question is, if city government doesn’t have the power to protect tenants, who does and who will? What role must the national level government play in light of constitutional and international human rights law obligations? This will certainly be a front and centre issue for the upcoming federal election (September 2021).

As anger swells in Berlin in reaction to the court ruling on the rent cap, people take to the streets to demand their right to housing, the Filmmaker and the Advocate are joined by Florian Schmidt, featured in PUSH-The Film and city councillor of Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg a neighbourhood under a lot of pressure, and Christoph Trautvetter, an independent researcher with the Tax Justice Network of Germany and the lead for the Who Owns the City project. Truatvetter has been working with a research team to map exactly which private equity firms and institutional investors own the 2 million apartments in Berlin — a murky world that is not easy to penetrate. Who Owns the City recently released a report revealing that the usual suspect, private equity behemoth Blackstone, owns 3,000 apartments in the city, and that’s the tip of the iceberg.

In a lively and informative conversation, the foursome discusses an even more radical policy now being pursued by tenants and some politicians in Berlin: The Deutsche Wohnen & Co. referendum, which calls for the expropriation of market rent units owned by asset management firms in possession of more than 3,000 units. These units will be expropriated at land values of 10 years ago, and rents set accordingly, causing a major disruption to the market! There is little doubt that Berlin is the epicentre of the push back against the financialization of housing.
For more on Who Owns the City go here!

Produced by WG Film
Recorded & Edited by Mikey Jones
Music by Florencia Di Concilio
Social Media & Support Team - Maja Moberg, Valerie Estrina, Hanna Leander

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Welcome to Season 7 of Pushback Talks! It's been an eventful summer, as nations worldwide grappled with the housing and climate crises, and people took to the streets to protest wealth inequality and the rapidly rising cost of living. In this highly anticipated season premiere, we join Fredrik and Leilani for a one-on-one conversation about their work to push back against the injustices of our time and how their mission adapts as the situation develops.
In this premiere episode, Fredrik and Leilani engage in a candid conversation that peels back the layers of the housing crisis as it relates to student housing, the climate crises, and the social contract. What actions can be taken right now to mitigate the crises? The episode underscores the critical need for accountability from both governments and private entities in addressing these far-reaching housing issues.

Join us for an engaging Season 7 premiere that deepens our understanding of the how the housing crisis is developing, and stay tuned for an exciting lineup of episodes that will inspire action, promote change, and illuminate the path toward a more just and equitable world.

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At the conclusion of COP26 – the United Nations Climate Summit - the international community was divided on the conference’s final outcomes. Coined “the most exclusionary climate summit to date”, advocates, activists and leaders of developing countries were enraged by the dominance of wealthy nations and the watering down of outcomes, to benefit the economies of some countries while damning the future of others.

The Filmmaker and the Advocate sit down with current UN Special Rapporteur on human rights and the environment, David Boyd, to discuss his outrage that the human rights implications of climate change and mitigation were starkly absent at the COP, suggesting this will only lead to more anger, protests and litigation. The trio discuss the important links between the right to housing and the right to a clean environment, and how human rights infrastructure is vital for both. The Special Rapporteur is unequivocal in his rebuke of governments who allege they don’t have adequate resources to address climate change. Countering this negative narrative, David talks about the hundreds of examples of how climate change is being addressed at the local level, with scant resources but with a tremendous amount of creativity, courage and commitment.
Produced by WG Film
Edited by Alexander Jemtrell & Aune Nuyttens
Music by Florencia Di Concilio
Social Media & Support - Kirsten McRae, Maja Moberg & Aune Nuyttens

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Zimbabwe has a long and complex history of forced eviction, displacement, and demolition. Operation Move the Rubbish, a large-scale Zimbabwean government campaign to forcibly clear slum areas across the country, saw an estimated 700,000 people displaced, with millions more indirectly impacted. The country also struggles with land corruption; Zimbabwe scored 24 out of 100 on the 2020 Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index, with public officials in the country being considered among the most corrupt.

But the people are working hard to change that. This year the federal government passed the Zimbabwe National Human Settlement Policy, a massively comprehensive policy aiming to address housing inadequacy, informal settlements, forced evictions, affordability, corruption, and more. This groundbreaking policy that is more than two years in the making identifies housing as a human right in Zimbabwe and sets big housing goals for the government.

Fredrik and Leilani have a conversation with Francis Mukora, the Research, Advocacy & Communications Coordinator at Community Alliance for Human Settlements in Zimbabwe (CAHSZ) about the work it took to create such a sweeping policy, what it will take for proper implementation, and the work that remains to be done.
Produced by WG Film
Edited by Alexander Jemtrell & Aune Nuyttens
Music by Florencia Di Concilio
Social Media & Support - Kirsten McRae, Maja Moberg & Aune Nuyttens

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From 2012-2022, and in the midst of a major construction boom, Turkiye fell nearly 50 places on the Transparency International Corruption Perception Index, from 54 to 101 out of 174 countries. The country has been praised for its ability to do infrastructure quickly, but the level of damage caused by a recent 7.8-magnitude quake has drawn greater attention to the amount of corruption in Turkiye's construction industry. With more than 45,000 dead, over $100 billion in damage, and 25,000 buildings reduced to rubble, Turkish citizens are outraged at the disorganized government response and the lack of proper preparation and are calling for greater government accountability. Just three months before a scheduled election, President Erdogan and his government are under intense scrutiny for the amount of damage, with a spotlight on the corrupt policies that allowed developers to cut corners on safety.
Fredrik and Leilani sit down for two separate conversations on these recent events. First, they meet with Professor Gönül Tol, founding director of the Middle East Institute’s Turkey Program, senior fellow for the Frontier Europe Initiative, and author of "Erdogan's War: A Strongman's Struggle at Home and in Syria," to recount her experience on the ground during the earthquake and to discuss how Erdogan instituted an autocracy that weakened Turkiye's vital institutions.
Then, they speak with Cihan Uzuncarsili Baysal, a member of Istanbul Urban Defense and an independent researcher, to discuss how Turkiye's economic and political history brought us to this moment.

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