November 17, 2022

All the news about Peng & how you can give NOTHING away for Christmas!

Dear penguins, dear friends and fellow supporters,

We’re in a really good mood at the moment, we’re becoming more penguins and we’re tackling a lot. In order for this to work, we need your help. Specifically: we need monthly donors who form the backbone of our work. So, we thought of something for this.

Since Christmas has been taken over by capitalist consumer nonsense, we want to reintroduce love and recommend you: Don’t give anything! We offer you gift cards that say “NOTHING”. Give away renunciation. Support civil disobedience and fun activities. If you conclude a donation subscription and write us a short email, we will send you or the recipient a card like this.

Okay, but first to the current situation at Peng.

What is Peng’s situation? And why do we need your support?

1. We developed an action together with co-artists from Ukraine as Germany continues to fund the Russian war of aggression. The action is still going on, motorway signs are being pasted, we are organizing the protest. All information about this here in the article on our website

2. We are planning new actions and interventions, specifically we are working together with the Rimini Protocol on an action on Amazon. We also want to draw attention to the deaths of people fleeing in the Mediterranean with another campaign, as the topic is unfortunately getting more and more in the background of news cycles. As always, we can’t say exactly what that will be, except it will be a lot of work.

3. We organize training and further education – for partners and friends, at universities and NGOs. Currently with a feminist organization in India that has to respond to the religious-nationalist repression in the country.

4. Within Peng, we rethink our own structures and reflect on multiple discrimination behavior and concrete sexism-promoting behavior. We organize internal training, try to set new standards and develop security structures.

5. We build processes and structures with which other newcomers can also join Peng and we can learn and implement radical forms of artistic and actionist interventions without constantly burning out. We build protective mechanisms against state and Nazi repression, create a healthy basis to be able to absorb and support each other in the group.

6. We exhibited our installation Call a Spy again, this time even with Russian secret service phone numbers (https://pen.gg/call- a-spy.org). Together with great artists like Ai Wei Wei, Hito Steyerl, Daniel Richter and the !Mediengruppe bitnik we are fighting for the release of Assange: https://noisyleaks .space

7. We had a poster put up on the German-Austrian border in Bayrisch Gmain. “This border does not exist” was written on it in different languages, “Welcome to Bavaria” and one or the other official-looking emblem. Unfortunately, people in Bayrisch Gmain didn’t like that very much, after a few hours the poster was torn down by strangers. Here is an article in the Süddeutsche about it.

8. We are expanding our IT infrastructure and sharing it with other groups that need help and support. As far as we have capacity.

9. We are suing the German Secret Service. Because we can. All information here (in German): https://pen.gg/klage

We need your support!

It’s a lot of work and we’re all volunteers. Yes indeed. Because to this day we have been babbling to call for donations regularly and professionally. That was stupid, because this is the only way we can guarantee sustainable and independent work. At the moment we collect around 1000 euros a month through monthly donations, which only covers a few basic costs.

Please help us change that. Spread the word, convince your friends and parents that we need small groups with big impact for radical democracy. That we need (self-deprecating, humorous and) cheerfully radical art that fights for social and ecological justice with enthusiasm. Sounds cheesy, but it’s true

Help Peng. Give away a membership for Christmas or something like that. Every monthly donation strengthens our back. A “nothing” postcard would be a great option. Simply register here and let us know by email that you want a nothing postcard and to which address: https://pen.gg/join

We still have a lot to do. And thank you from the bottom of our heart.

Happy Hanukkah!
Your Peng!