55
Debanking, an Authoritarian Threat to the Left
(jacobin.com)
Always has been, for centuries.
It'd be nice if there was a way to store and transfer money electronically without any sort of central organization to grant or withhold permission.
Isn't that literally what crypto was designed for?
I believe it's technically possible. It's just said money would have no protections
Add a cryptographic layer so that only a computer with access to the private key could issue transactions from that keys wallet.
Still having the no protection issue. IE if someone steals the money to bad.
Perhaps if one wanted to, one could set up the cryptographic wallet with a "smart contract" built into it that lets you use more sophisticated controls - keys that only allow small amounts of money to be taken out, backup keys that can lock the wallet down if keys are compromised, and so forth. Since you'd be the one who assigns the smart contract to your wallet you'd still be the one ultimately in control of it. And, ultimately, you'd be the one to take responsibility since the money is under your own control this way.
In case you hadn't noticed, I'm describing Ethereum. This is what cryptocurrency is for. It's what it's been for for a decade already, eighteen years if you go back to the start with Bitcoin, but most people just think "Monkey jpeg NFTs and ponzi schemes, scam!" And dismiss it.
Guess that leaves everyone at the mercy of the banks for managing money. Oh well, maybe someday someone will invent this thing that we've had all along.
Pretty sure Crypto has been stolen but could be wrong on that.
Regardless the issue with Crypto is how can one use it as a practical funding mechanism. It's not like if I need to paid canvassers (as hypothetical example) they can take Crypto to buy basic goods
One time a roommate paid me their part of the rent in silver, which I then had to sell right away to have enough money to pay the landlord. I ended up selling it to a family friend who was a coin collector. This was a pain in the ass and I was pissed off about it, but it did work. Their reason for paying in silver wasn't that they had been debanked, but if it had been, and the banking system prohibited them from transferring money to me, using silver still would have worked as a way around that.
Same principle applies with crypto; if a market for the thing being used as money exists, people can find a way to buy things with it, and they can be paid with it especially if there is a need to do so. How much friction exists in the process does matter a lot, as does the progress of the state in capturing and controlling cryptocurrency systems, but there are things that can and are being done about that.
the organization supports activists financially, through paying fines and funding ongoing legal help
Pretty sure the state and the lawyers only accept bank transfers in official currency, plus lots of paperwork. Civil rights organizations can accept individual donations in cryptocurrency, but the very type of the work they do means they need to convert them to state money in aboveground, official bank accounts.
Every legal resident in an EU country is entitled to open a "basic payment account". Banks cannot refuse your application for a basic payment account just because you don't live in the country where the bank is established.
Rote Hilfe is registered in Germany. What the article does not say is that they openly support, among others, the Red Army Faction (RAF). The RAF was engaged in a series of bombings, assassinations, kidnappings, bank robberies particularly in the 1970s and 1980s. The Rote Hilfe has never distanced itself from the RAF and its criminal activities, and have reportedly even openly supported the few RAF members still wanted by authorities.
That should be added if such an article is published. I am personally not very happy with media outlets like this Jacobin. Not being far-right is not enough. If you read such media, you now exactly what narratives you get before you even click the link.
So? That isn't illegal.
Recent moves to close its bank accounts are aimed at wrecking its activity, even though it hasn’t broken the law.
This is.
Moreover, the article mentions that it's one of multiple organizations debanked in a row, preceeded by ABC-Dresden, which is one of the loudest grassroots voices for international solidarity with Ukrainian anti-authoritarians fighting against the invasion. While Rote Hilfe has a different position (amplifying refugees and deserters, which IMO is also important despite not being treated as politically correct), they don't seem to be debanked because of their specific connections, but because of a blanket ban on anything leftist and radical.
Shit. Germany really isn't in a good place right now. Going the same route as so many other countries (normal conservative parties pandering to far-right populism), with the added historical baggage...
The article frames the Rote Hilfe as a charity that is in the world only for the good of humanity. It doesn't even mention that the organization also supports the RAF and its members, including those who have committed the worst crimes such as assassinations. This is not independent information.
Germany really isn’t in a good place right now. Going the same route as so many other countries (normal conservative parties pandering to far-right populism),
There is a lot wrong in Germany, but it is among the better places to live in if we compare it globally. The countries where minorities and their governments' political opponents are suppressed are elsewhere, and these are often states that claim to be 'left-wing' or 'socialist' (exactly the ideologies the Jacobin magazine hails so much). If an organization in Russia or China has a different opinion, then people are not 'debanked' but they fall out of a window or disappear in some prison (and if someone criticizes the government in an article, the writer shares the same fate).
The "charity" is providing legal support. Furthermore the RAF have not existed as an entity for almost 30 Years, and even if they still existed not sure that should equal being denied Legal support.
You're explaining to two Ukrainians that Russia does human rights abuses. We know that. I don't think it's an excuse for other countries to make it difficult to support prisoners through legal means. Including those jailed for violent crimes. I'm more interested in ABC-Dresden than Rote Hilfe tbh, I'm not a fan of Jacobin of their branch of politics.
to support prisoners through legal means ...
They don't just support prisoners through legal means, they openly embrace their violence.
From what I've just found in archives, Rote Hilfe has also once advocated for Borotba, a left-conservative pro-Russian group. That was... stupid of them, or at least disingenuous. https://web.archive.org/web/20150227230349/https://www.nihilist.li/2014/12/16/nam-ne-potribna-vasha-pidtrimka-wir-brauchen-diese-unterstutzung-nicht/
Still, they stopped doing that, and they're not alone being debanked (their leftist opponents are, too), and not for that reason. There seems to be crackdown on leftist organizations in progress. Which is a very upsetting trend. https://thefinalstrawradio.noblogs.org/post/2026/04/05/abc-dresden-on-debanking-and-us-anti-antifascist-pressure/
There seems to be crackdown on leftist organizations in progress.
There may or may not be such a crackdown (against left-wing and right-wing organizations). In 2024, for example, the Rote Hilfe openly criticized the state upon the arrest of Daniela Klette as she was arrested the year before, and embraced her actions (you'll find ample evidence on the web). Wikipedia says about Klette:
Klette is an alleged member of the third generation Red Army Faction active during the 1980s and 1990 ... Klette is a suspect in the 1991 United States embassy sniper attack in Bonn and the 1993 explosives attack against Weiterstadt prison under construction in the state of Hesse ... In 1999, Klette, Burkhard Garweg, and Ernst-Volker Staub were suspected of robbing DM 1 million from an armoured vehicle in Duisburg.
The Rote Hilfe has been embracing her violence. And this is just an example of what they do.
As I said earlier on, there is no difference between the left-wing and right-wing organizations if and when they intend to topple the democratic state, particularly by violence. This is unacceptable and intolerable imo.
Direct action against war in Iraq, and destroying a prison without harming anyone? That's... impressive, a person accused of being a part of this definitely deserves legal assistance. There's a huge difference between the left and the right in terms of whom they defend, target and try to avoid collateralizing.
this post was submitted on 20 May 2026
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