http://noborder2016.espivblogs.net/callout/
Calling
You can find this call in pdf here
Today, with neoliberalism established across the planet, it is clear
that capitalist relations are being intensified, together with
nationalism and patriarchy. Fences and borders are being built not only
in the physical space, but also across social relationships. However,
the movements and transnational struggles of migrants are constantly
producing new cracks in the system, new thresholds and pathways into an
unexplored world.
More specifically, transnational and global agreements further
liberalize “free” markets and the lifting of tariff restrictions further
ensure property rights for the wealthy. At the same time the former
social contract of the welfare state is breaking down and the neoliberal
state is claiming the role of manager-partner of companies, keeping for
itself solely the army and the police in order to retain some of its
administrative and legislative power. Gender oppression, racism and
fascism are being remobilized for the control of populations.
However, social struggles in the form of riots, rebellions, campaigns
and movements both before and during the process of this recent
“crisis”, seriously challenge all this. Prime examples are the riots in
the French banlieues in November and December 2005, the Oaxaca Commune
in 2006, the riots in December 2008 in Greece, the magnificently
widespread Arab Spring in 2011, the Indignados Citizens Movements in
Spain in 2011, the London riots in 2011, the “Occupy” movement in the
USA in 2011 and 2012, the uprising at the Gezi park in Istanbul in June
2013, the Brazilian Spring in 2013, the uprisings in Bosnia and other
Balkan States during 2013-2014.
The response of neoliberalism to the recent structural crisis, one that
is interpreted by some as a crisis of over-accumulation, by others as a
result of civil disobedience, or as the long expected explosion of
“abstract labor” in a fully monetarized economy, to extend and intensify
its strategy of land-grabbing and pillage of resources, of means of
production and of reproduction of whole societies.
Austerity programs in the countries of the European South, war,
religious intolerance and the intensification of gender oppression in
the countries of the Arab Spring are part of the same strategy. Thus,
whole populations are made to abandon their homes. These people,
deprived of their natural and social space, migrate, cross borders,
fences, barbed wire, rivers, seas, mines and police patrols. They also
face exploitation by traffickers, they are detained in concentration
camps and then they are forced to search for a job (usually in the black
market, often unpaid) even under extremely dire conditions. Most end up
unemployed and they form a kind of reserve workforce or are forced into
prostitution, trafficking networks and organ smuggling.
While more people need to move, more fences are being built. Fortress
Europe rises from the ashes of its own crisis by using police procedures
and policies of control, imprisonment, pushbacks, illegalization and
penalization of the populations in motion. Police and military
operations are intensified, N.A.T.O enters the picture, discriminations
between immigrants and refugees are constructed and finally
concentration camps, hot spots and pushback centers pivot the management
of migrant people.
Migrants moving from Africa and the Middle East towards Europe have
challenged and fought against borders and national and supranational
policies in practice. During the last months, hundreds of thousands of
populations have crossed borders, and the movements for solidarity and
emancipation are flourishing. The migrants’ movement with all its
inventiveness and ingenuity proves that desires, social relationships
and dreams cannot be imprisoned. Their power goes beyond borders and fences.
It also shows that the motives for migration are mostly to be found in
the complex intersections of gender, ethnic, cultural, religious or
class discrimination and oppression. Populations in forced mobility
develop survival strategies, activate subjective capabilities,
coordinate social relationships with other moving people and
simultaneously, they create social networks with those they leave behind.
Therefore, we believe that we should understand but then go beyond the
idea that perceives the state, capital, patriarchy and racism as totally
dominant upon human subjects, and hence also immigrants as submissive
victims in need only of charity, compassion and saving.
In the last few months, immigrants and people in solidarity with them
have met within and beyond the kaleidoscopic fields opened by the
crisis. We believe that meetings and struggles should be encouraged,
should acquire steady and lasting structures and reinvent the joy and
the charm of companionship and sharing.
For all these reasons, we think it’s crucial that we organize an
international No Border Camp this summer in Thessaloniki.
As for the choice of the specific city, Thessaloniki, it finds itself at
the core of conflicts over the control and management of immigration and
of the freedom of movement, due to its geographical position in northern
Greece, bordering Albania, Rep. of Macedonia and Bulgaria, with many
detention camps and pushback centers at its perimeter. In northern
Greece as well as in the wider Balkan area, initiatives and solidarity
networks have emerged during the last few months that can empower and be
enhanced by the organization of a No Border Camp here. Finally, we think
that the need for the coordination of various local political
collectives and also its available movement infrastructures make
Thessaloniki a suitable and reliable choice for the organization of a
global and transnational No Border Camp.
Based on the above framework, the present invitation is articulated as
follows:
a) practicalities of organization
b) objectives
c) working groups
d) structure
e) themes and topics of the gathering
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