Dear all,
Find our monthly newsletter for June (with some days of delay) in english below. And the links to the french and german version as well.
Best greetings,
hagen
English version:
French version:
German version:
Kompass – AntiRa – Newsletter Nr. 40 - June 2015
Day X Demonstration - stop the asylum law tightening! +++ 10th of June in Strasbourg +++ 13 June 2015 in Frankfurt and in several cities in Italy +++ 14 June 2015 in Frankfurt: Network Meeting on Ferries not Frontex +++ As of 15 June 2015: International Week of Action against Deportation Jails +++ 19. - 21.6. in Berlin: Conference from Women in Exile +++ 20.6. in Berlin: Big Demonstration Blockupy and more – Making Europe different +++ 24.6. in Mainz: Demonstration against IMK +++ 30.6. in Essen: Demonstration against European Homecare and for freedom of movement +++ Retrospect: Anti Frontex Days in Warshaw, Ohlauer Schule stays Büren +++ Prospect: Freedom Ferry on the 6. of September from Tunesia, Social Transnational Strike- Conference starting the 2nd until the 4th of October.
Dear friends!
“On Saturday the 30th of May, through the media and government sources, it emerged that 4243 people were rescued on the 29th of May in the Central Mediterranean Sea, the largest number of rescues in 2015. 22 rescue operations took place and 17 dead bodies were found on three vessels. Various navy and coastguard vessels as well as merchant vessels were involved in these large-scale rescue operations. We, of course, respect the commitment shown by rescue agencies and sailors who have done the utmost to rescue more than 4000 human lives at sea. At the same time we mourn the loss of 17 lives. They could still all be alive if there were secure paths toward Europe.”
These are the final sentences of a recent report by the Watch The Med Alarmphone (have a look http://watchthemed.net/reports/view/135), to which emergency calls from boat people arrive daily. They are not just crossing from Lybia but also in little boats which try to cross the street of Gibraltar – from Morocco to Spain – or starting from Turkey to the Greek islands. Also in Aegean the arrival numbers are on a record high, but also there again and again people are drowning during the risky flight. “Ferries not Frontex” (look Kompass Nr. 39) is the commandment of the hour!
“Safe access not crazy military inventions” has to be the second slogan because – as exposed by wikileaks – the responsible in the EU would accept once more “collateral damages” during their war planning against “trafficer structures” in Lybia. That there are besides many civil ships (Moas, Medicine Sans Frontieres, Sea Watch) also navy ships (from UK, Island, France, Germany... ) involved in rescue operations is first of all to be considered as a success of the persistent migration movement as well as the on-going social protests and critical public.
Facing the lasting sympathy of wider parts of the population big NGOs are able to obtain donations to finance the expensive services. And our Bundesregierung who did not want to know anything about an increase of the rescue capacities shortly after the last tragedies and rejected any own involvement, now there are two navy ships on the ground on rescue duty and explicitly under the control of Rome and not Warshaw refered to the Frontex Operation Triton since the 8th of May.
That is unimaginably without the massive policital public pressure of the past weeks; the Reedem with their very clear statement about the statements from Pro Asyl, Sea Watch and Alarmphone (also for Radio Vatikan!) and not least the varied protest on the streets.
If the 10th of June in Strasbourg or the 20th of June in Berlin (have a look at the calendar at the bottom), now it is about keeping the pressure and especially denounce the planned military services against potential refugee boats and “smuggler” as a “disgraceful extension of the same of Europe”. And once more: let's combine these struggles against the deadly external borders of the EU with the protest against the inner borders! Because right now inside the Bundestag the law concerning the “revision of the right to stay and the termination of residence” is debated. This draft law contains completely unacceptable tightenings concerning the right to stay which results in massive extensions of arrests of persons seeking protection.
It can be considered as a positive sign of procrastination that the passing of this law has been postponed many times but the re-opening of detention centre in Büren marks the forseeable way of this “reform”. Thats why below this text the last-minute-appeal of the Niedersächsischen Flüchtlingsrat asks to join the pressure-making on the representatives.
Finally: In Frankfurt there will a “Project-Shelter-Demonstration” the 13th of June, which puts the homelessness of migrants and refugees as a subject of discussion. Demanded is a self-organized migrant centre and a supply of social living space (see below). The connection which is made up by refering to the general social question of living seems more than necessary to us. Because there are many tries to finance the necessary payments in the refugee sector from above through cuts in other social sectors and to play them off against each other. And this plays Pegida and Co into their hands.
The same applies to the labour market: against the local splitting and a supposed competition for working places the general insecurity and in this topic the special exploitation of migrants must be focused.
For this purpose there was formed in the last years in some cities “MigrAr” (Migration and Work) – contact points which have been expanded in the mean time through full time consultation bureaus by the trade union for south-eastern european migrant workers. Below you find information and links as well as a hint to the transnational approch of “social strike” which has been formed from an international Bloccupy-Network and in which migrant working struggles against the “government of mobility” play a central role.
With antiracist greetings,
The Kompass Team
Dates in June
Day X Demonstration - stop the asylum law tightening!
The original time schedule for the draft law concerning the redetermination of the right to stay and the terminating of residence has been postphoned. The 2./3. reading of this draft law is most likely
happening in June 2015. The last Bundestag session before summer break is the 10th of July and the coalition government is not willing to miss this date. In Berlin it is talked about a Day X Demonstration, Flüchtlingsrat Niedersachsen has started another iniative to write to
all represantives:
10th of June in Strasbourg
A Boat to the European Parliament – Ferries not Frontex
Protest and Boat Action to support the demands of migrants, meeting point 4.30pm in front of the palace of the European Court of Justice for human rights
Stop the Dying and Disappearing of Migrants on Sea!
The tousands of dying migrants and refugees in the Mediterranean Sea are a direct consequence of the Eurpean migration policy.
We condemn:
* An Europe which getting more and more murderous because of it's obsession of security.
* The outsourcing of European migration and refugee policy to states on the other side of the Mediterranean Sea. Because this means serious injuries of human rights and dignity.
* The hypocrisy and the egoism of the European states which don't want to support Italy to continue Mare Nostrum.
For freedom of movement!
The Action Day is organised by a network of antiracist groups in Stasbourg, with the participation of activists from Tunesia (La Terre pour Tous), Mali (AME), Watch The Med, Alarmphone …
Contact: atmf.strasbourg@gmail.com
13 June 2015 in Frankfurt and in several cities in Italy
Demonstration in Frankfurt: start at 3 p.m. at Hauptbahnhof
New practice in Frankfurt: the solidarity with refugees becomes real.
– for a self-managed migrant centre!
– for coexistence in solidarity!
– against racism and exclusion!
Initiatives of a broad regional coalition in the Rhine-Main, complete call in many languages and more:
In Italy:
Freedom not borders! Unconditioned visa for all migrants! On 13 June in Bologna, Bari, Roma, Brescia and Mantova there will be a day of mobilization of migrants, precarious and workers for a European minimum visa of two years, unconditioned, against the blackmail of the connection between visa and labour contract, against the Dublin regulations and the division between migrants and refugees. Precarious and industry workers will take the streets with migrants to oppose institutional racism, as a common stance against exploitation and division in the workplace and the hierarchies produced by the European way of governing mobility.
13 June 2015 in Hamburg – Meeting on Migration and Labour
"Extreme exploitative conditions for migrants"
At 6 p.m. in the Gewerkschaftshaus, Besenbinderhof 60
Reports from MigrAr Hamburg on the themes of fair mobility and the struggle for labour rights for refugees ...
Contact: MigrAr Hamburg
(See also below the Info Block on Migration and Labour ...)
14 June 2015 in Frankfurt: Network Meeting on Ferries not Frontex
From 9.30 a.m. to 5.30 p.m. in the Studierendenhaus at the old Uni-Bockenheim, Mertonstraße 26.
"Let's realize the idea of a civilly-disobedient humanitarian ferry" -
With reference to the statement of the Watch The Med Alarm Phones on Ferries not Frontex, this meeting (which shall be held in English) is meant to be about concrete possibilities of realizing this ambitious project, about an elaborate discussion of the complex preconditions and about creating working groups...
Contact: noborderffm@riseup.net
As of 15 June 2015: International Week of Action against Deportation Jails
The Spanish CIE's NO campaign calls up for an international week of action against deportation jails, in particular on 15 June, the international day against deportation prisons, in order to demand the closure of all deportation prisons. An international CIE's ¡NO! campaign must be created to expand our work to a European and global level and to enable a better coordination of actions on specific days. Last year, 2014, there already were around 15J (Day against deportation prisons) actions in Venice and Bologna (Italy), Tacoma (Washington – USA), Bedfordshire and Oxford (UK), Corinth (Greece) and Ottawa (Canada). Each group can itself choose an action or activity. 15J offers a good opportunity to make our struggle visible, to network and to coordinate our actions. *For Freedom of Movement! Abolish Deportation Jails!* *No more Deportations!* https://15jdiacontraloscie.wordpress.com/
From 19 to 21 June 2015, Berlin Wannsee
Nationwide Action Conference of Women in Exile
Women in Exile and Friends invite all refugee women, women* who participated in our Floßtour last year and supported us, and women activists who work with refugee women, to a Nationwide Action Conference. We will exchange views on our current local situations and together plan a large national summer action for 2016 as well as further local actions. We furthermore wont to collect firsthand accounts from refugee women in the different parts of our country. The seminar is for woman, from the perspective of women. The languages at the conference will be English and German. We will organise women interpreters for Arab, Farsi, Russian, French, Tigrinya and all other languages that are necessary. For organisational reasons we request you to apply at the latest on 10 June:
20 Jun 2015 in Berlin
Make.Europe.Different. Democratic – Solidary – Without Borders
Nationwide Demonstration and March
Massive deaths in the Mediterranean and brutal cuts under coercion in the South of Europe: with a view to the dramatic situation in Europe, a broad coalition mobilizes for a demonstration in Berlin on 20 June. “Make.Europe.Different. Democratic – Solidary – Without Borders” is the motto. The coalition demands a fundamental change of direction in Europe, away from the “neo-liberal austerity and exclusion policy, towards a solidary Europe”.
20 June is the International Day of the Refugee and simultaneously also the start of the Greece Solidarity Week called by the World Social Forum. With the demonstration on this day the coalition wishes to give a signal for the democratisation of Europe and against nationalist crisis solutions, as well as the neo-liberal policy of the Federal Government towards Greece. Similar demonstrations and actions will take place on the same day in several European capitals, among which Rome, London and Brussels.
Start of the demonstration, 1 p.m. at Berlin Oranienplatz, followed by a march to the Brandenburger Tor
The call is online in several languages:
24 June 2015 in Mainz at 7 p.m. from the Hauptbahnhof
Demonstration against the Conference of Ministers of the Interior in Mainz
No one needs the IMK – for Self-determination and Solidarity
From 24 to 26 June 2015 there is a meeting of the Ministers of the Interior of the Federal States with the current Federal Minister of the Interior De Maizère in Mainz. They will discuss the curtailment of the right of asylum, as well as deliberate and decide about the extension of powers of the police and the domestic intelligence service (Verfassungsschutz [VS]). We want to confront this with our own conception of a peaceful world that offers prospects to all people. We therefore call the public to participate in the actions against the Conference of Ministers of the Interior (IMK).
Our central theme is the asylum policy ...
Complete Call and more : http://noimk2015.blogsport.de/
30th June in Essen
Anti-racist Demonstration, 6pm main station
Abolish European homecare and accommodation in camps!
For global free movement and a good life for all!
The day after there is the trial of the squatters of the european homecare in Essen.
Migration and Labour
In the last years in some cities appeared so called “MigrAr”-contact points (Migration und Arbeit / Migration and Labour). Meanwhile they extended to full time consulting offices (of “Fair Mobility”) organized by labour unions. The service is meant more or less for southeast-European migrant workers. Above we mentioned the event in Hamburg at 13th June, it will be followed by an (internal) network meeting of the “MigrAr”-contact points which meet once a year.
In the following first a link to an interview about the “MigrAr”-contact point in Frankfurt as well as a reference to a regional conference about and against precarity. After this there will be given a short info about the DGB (Confederation of German Trade Unions) project of “Fair Mobility”. Finally two links about recent fights of migrant workers in Berlin (Mall of Shame) and in Frankfurt (Europaviertel). And the very last point can be found in the preview section: the reference to the process of Social Transnational Strike).
Interview about “MigrAr” Frankfurt:
Notice: 27.6. in Frankfurt from 10am in Gewerkschaftshaus Frankfurt
(Un-)sure prospects...What to do against precarious work- and living conditions in Frankfurt and Rhein/Main
Organized i.a. by Redaktion Express
The Project “Fair Mobility” supports employees from the Middle- and East European states to enforce fair wages and working conditions at the German labour market ... For this aim among other things six first consulting points have been built up. There will be information for mobile employees about labour and social issues in their mother tongue. The consulting points work together with similar institutions of local agencies and are part of a nationwide operating network.
Infoflyer in many laguages:
Labour disputes and successes:
Mall of shame:
Europaviertel Frankfurt
Review:
Anti Frontex Days in Warschau, Rabat, London
On the initiative of CISPM (Coalition Internationale des Sans-Papiers Migrant(e)s et Refugiées) and on occasion of the 10th anniversary of the EU frontier protection agency FRONTEX over 100 people demonstrated at 22 May 2015 in Warshaw against the deadly walls-up policy at the outer borders.
Similar manifestations took place at the same time in Morocco and other countries:
Pictures and more information here:
A video-clip about the action in London you can find here:
Ohlauer School Berlin stays!
The district is not allowed to evict the school. On Friday, 22.05.2015, the Berlin administrative court has decided in an expedited procedure that the Ohlauer school cannot be evicted for the time being, the
legality of the arrangement is doubtful. In February, 24 people from Gerhardt- Hauptmann School lodged an objection against the eviction order of the district Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg. Order of the
administrative court:
Again detention depending deportation in Büren – protest action
Since 18th May deportation detainees are arrested in JVA Büren (NRW, federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia). The prison was closed in summer 2014 because of a European court decision. The jail is designed for 104 detainees, now 20 places are occupied. It is feared that because of the tightening of the asylum laws the number of prisoners will increase sharply.
Particularly the so called “small preventive detention” is an invitation to misuse and despotism. Following the law refugees can be detained up to 4 days without any reasons. Against the re-opening of the prison and the extension of detention depending deportation around 250 people have been demonstrating on the streets and in front of the JVA at 30 May 2015 in Büren.
Outlook:
Freedom Ferry at 6.9. from Tunesia
The Tunisian association La Terre pour Tous of the families of the missing Tunisian migrants, organizes on the 6 September FERRY FOR FREEDOM, an "illegal" depart from the Tunisian coasts to enact freedom of movement against the deadly effects of the Visa regime.
Social Transnational Strike - Conference from 2 to 4 October
In the beginning of October – at the moment not decided if in Poznan or Berlin – a conference "Towards a Social and Transnational Strike" takes place. This international networking for a fight against precarious exploitation was formed within Blockupy. At 19 March, one day after the mass demonstration against the EZB (European Central Bank), there was a well visited and exciting composed working meeting. Who is interested in this process, material and protocol can write to kmii-hanau@antira.info.
PS : The start of the actions against the G7-Top in Elmau took place at the moment of our editing deadline; too late for mobilizing once again and too early to take stock of the situation. We did mention the Anti-G7 Infotour in our last Newsletter and will get back to it in our next issue.