Find our AntiRa-Newsletter for September with a lot of transnational information in english full-text attached and with layout and pictures in the links below in three languages.
Best regards,
hagen
English: http://kompass.antira.info/files/2016/09/52Kompass_Newsletter_Sep16_en.pdf
French: http://kompass.antira.info/files/2016/09/52Kompass_Newslettre_Sep16_fr.pdf
English: http://kompass.antira.info/files/2016/09/52Kompass_Newsletter_Sep16_en.pdf
French: http://kompass.antira.info/files/2016/09/52Kompass_Newslettre_Sep16_fr.pdf
Kompass – AntiRa – Newsletter No. 52, September 2016
10.9.: Action day for the Info Tent by Lampedusa in Hamburg +++ 10./11.9. in Bochum and Wuppertal: solidarity networking of refugee communities +++ 17.9. in Düsseldorf: demo for the right to stay +++ 22./23.9. in Hungary and everywhere: Free Röszke 11 – solidarity actions +++ Welcome2Stay – what’s next? +++ Central Mediterranean: persistently high numbers of people arriving +++ Greece: protests in the camps +++ 29.9.: strike and action day at schools and universities throughout Germany – No border lasts forever +++ 30.9. - 2.10. in Frankfurt: conference about “Renewal by strike action” +++ 30.9. - 2.10. in Cologne: conference about “Perspectives of solidarity against the grasp of technology” +++ 1.10. in Heidelberg: demo “against any form of racism and exclusion” +++ Newspaper Daily Resistance No.2 +++ Update Welcome2Europe +++ Reviews: Noborder Thessaloniki, Blockupy +++ Preview: Transnational Social Strike Meeting in Paris in October
Dear friends!
On the occasion of the 4th of September, many media tried to reconstruct the days of the opening of borders in 2015, from Hungary via Austria to Germany. As interesting as the layout of some chronologies may have been, the central historic actor far too often disappears behind the details of political decision making. It were the refugees and migrants who - with their persistent month-, even year-long, social struggle - in those days literally overran the EU border regime on a central route and inflicted a defeat upon the Dublin Regulation. During the following months hundreds of thousands of people could continue their journey to the north-west of Europe relatively easily, until the virtually military closure of the Balkan Route in March 2016. Against the odds of persistent exclusion, most of them managed to ‘grow roots’: only in the first six months of 2016 more than 200,000 refugees were granted a protection status in Germany. In the future they will contribute to the political landscape and they will become the motivation and the material support factor for future generations who want to, or have to, come. Neither laws, nor smear campaigns can reverse these achievements.
Yes, the roll back is and will remain awesome, in the literal sense of the word. New screening measures and AfD successes, planned tightening up through Dublin IV and unspeakable debates about the ban of burkas: it is difficult to assess towards which further polarization Europe is moving and how much more dangerous and lethal right-wing populism combined with the racist center may become in the near future. But we have no reason whatsoever to go in hiding. Our pole remains diverse and persevering. In every nook and cranny, from local to transnational, resistance is continuing. During the time this Newsletter is being produced, refugees in Munich call for a demonstration and the occupation of a city square, Lampedusa in Hamburg will protest next Saturday. The Women in Exile and NoStress Tour were, and still are, on the road crisscross through Germany and Oranienplatz activists in Berlin produce their own newspaper. The Voice from Jena organizes meetings of refugee communities in several cities, Refugees for Change again mobilizes people in August to attend a demo in Frankfurt.
In more and more towns and cities self-organized initiatives have sprung up, whereas simultaneously old and new solidarity structures are being perpetuated. The much used Welcome2Europe website offers updated and expanded contacts and information, the network Welcome2Stay meets to discuss new activities.
Transnationally there is no breathing pause either: during the Noborder Camp in Thessaloníki in mid- July very productive networking meetings were held by activist groups from all over the Balkan. In the refugee camps on the Greek islands – which are slowly but steadily filling up with newcomers – as well as in mainland Greece, protest actions are taking place permanently. In Calais the situation is aggravating again: almost 10,000 people are there trying their chances to get to Great Britain, and are allegedly going to be evicted. The number of boats leaving from Libya remains unrelentingly high, the reception centers in Sicily and the South of Italy are again overcrowded. Ventimiglia – the Italian city on the border with France – as well as Como – on the border to Switzerland – have meanwhile become new hotspots of resistance, where day after day the right to free movement towards the north is being claimed and until now being forced through. In this context we again ask the question, which we have already asked in the previous Newsletter: “Are the built-up and built-out of continuous every-day structures not the most enduring answer to a racist mainstream which seems to continue to worsen unrestrainedly?”
With antiracist greetings,
The Kompass Crew
Dates in September and October 2016
Early September in Munich
During the time this Newsletter is being produced, refugees in Munich invite you to attend a protest as well as a conference on 6 and 7 September:
Demonstration - No Border No Nation Stop Deportation
Please attend the demonstration against deportation, against borders, against discrimination, against ‘Lagerpflicht’, against racism, against war, against terror, against injustice and against contempt for human beings. All those who declare their solidarity with these ideas are invited! Like in previous years. the demo itself will be organised by self organised refugees from different cities in Germany.
“The protest of refugees has already started and will continue until justice and freedom will have been obtained!”
More information at : https://refugeestruggle.org
NoStress Tour
Until now the NoStress Tour has made 4 stops. Pictures can be found on the Facebook Profile of the NoStress Tour:
10.9. in Hamburg: Action Day for the Info Tent
“Why is the ‘Lampedusa‘ tent at the Hauptbahnhof important? In May 2013 we sought publicity and founded our group ‘Lampedusa in Hamburg’. On 22 May 2013 we set up a tent near the Hauptbahnhof (opposite the ZOB). A few weeks ago, the Hamburg authorities, once again, announced that, due to public construction work, this tent must be moved from this location and set up elsewhere by mid-October. But our tent was, and still is, important for various reasons:
• It is a meeting point for the members of the group ‘Lampedusa in Hamburg’ and for other refugees and migrants
• It is an info point where we inform the public about the situation, the demands and the actions of ‘Lampedusa in Hamburg’
• And last but not least: it is a symbol for the struggle of ‘Lampedusa in Hamburg’ together with other refugees, anti-racist groups and individuals, who still fight for a solution for all people! We therefore demand that the tent stays near the Hauptbahnhof – if necessary during the public construction work in the vicinity, but after that again at the old location!”
10./11.9. in Bochum and Wuppertal
‘Our Presence Reflects The Power Of Our Movement: Solidarity Networking of Refugee Communities’. After meetings in Jena, Berlin and Hamburg now in NRW.
Second Preliminary Open Meeting for Refugee-Migrant Political Community Activism:
‘The Injustice against Refugees has many Faces’
In NRW – Bochum / Wuppertal on 10 and 11 September.
Reports and statements of the meeting will be posted on the forum. See the call on the meeting: 1st. Refugee-Migrant Preparatory Meeting: The Injustice against Refugees has many Faceshttp://thevoiceforum.org/node/4196
17.9. in Düsseldorf: Demo for the right to stay
“…together with other antifascist and anti racist groups from NRW, we call up for an anti racist demo in Düsseldorf on 17 September. The motto of the action is: Right to stay for all – there are no secure states of origin!”
The announced demo route goes from the ‘Hauptbahnhof’ of Düsseldorf to the ‘Landtag’.
We start at 1p.m. You find the call for the demo on our website:
22./23.9. in Budapest, Szeged and everywhere… - Free Röszke 11
Groups from Hungary call for protest actions in Budapest and Szeged, against the criminalization of the refugees who were arrested in October 2015 at the Serbian-Hungarian border. Simultaneous solidarity initiatives and critical publicity in as many places as possible throughout Europe, were already agreed on during the Noborder Camp in Thessaloníki:
“Ahmad H. will have his next trial in Szeged on the 23rd of September, while the other three persons of the Röszke trials are still in prison. We want to show that they are not alone! We invite everybody, individuals and collectives, to join the demonstration on the 22nd of September in Budapest. The next day, on September 23rd, we will go to Szeged to demonstrate in front of the court, where Ahmed H. will have his trial.”
Call, background information and more at: http://freetheroszke11.weebly.com/
Welcome2Stay – what’s next?
After the successful conference in June in Leipzig, the preparatory committee called for an open meeting in Berlin on the 4th of September. Participation turned out surprisingly high with 150 activists attending and soon it was clear that the new network would continue its activities.
‘The right to go, to come and to stay’ as well as ‘equal social rights for all’ are the claims the network focuses on. A call will be made for a decentralized action day on the 10th of December and a proposal was made to organize another big conference next year, where the experiences and possibilities of the Refugee Conference in Hamburg, of Welcome2stay and of the earlier ‘No Border lasts forever’ meetings will be merged.
Central Mediterranean: Constantly high numbers of arriving, “Sophie” and the route to the North (Ventimiglia and Como)
Numbers from the Central Med are about on the same level like 2015, again there are “record days” like lately the 29th of August 2016: In one night more than 6000 people had to get into boats on the Libyan beach. It is the most dangerous sea route to Europe, which people especially from West and East Africa have to risk due to lacking alternatives and in order to protect their life against persecution and to find a better one for themselves and their families.
For more than a year now the military operation EUNAVFOR Med /Sophia is ongoing to survey the Central Mediterranean between Libya and Italy. Their main task is to fight against the so-called smuggler-networks. The “smuggler-hunters” are equipped with military high-tech, the area in front of the coast of Libya is one of the most-monitored ocean zones of the world. And the most deadly one at the same time! Until the end of august 2016 IOM counts officially 3165 dead people in the Central Mediterranean, 2716 of them between northern Africa and Italy.
There is no border in this world where more people die. “Failure to render assistance” resulting in thousands of deaths would be a cautious formulated charge against the EU. Because what would be easier than locating the boats of the boat people with a small reconnaissance airplane along the known routes and rescue them as fast as possible? At least trying everything to do so? Instead it is a growing number of civil initiatives and NGOs like Doctors without Frontiers or Sea Watch who prevent worse things and who is taking care that the shame of Europe is not getting out of the headlines.
Reception centers in southern Italy are completely crowded, more people try to head to the northern direction and are stuck at the borders of France (Ventimiglia) and Switzerland (Como). Recommended article from the TAZ here:
Greece: Protests in the “Hotspots” and Camps
Even if daily single boats are arriving in the summer months, the numbers stay compared to the last years, low. After 25 days of imprisonment and summary proceedings in the so-called “Hotspots” lagers a fast deportation back into the “safe third-country” Turkey is planned. But even before the attempted coup numbers of deportation were limited to a few hundreds while more then 11.000 people are waiting on the islands and forced to await the result of their asylum procedure. In the past weeks only people who haven't claimed for asylum or couldn't endure their imprisonment have been “voluntarily” deported to Turkey. Meanwhile the islands lager are completely crowded and there are many protests and conflicts. The Greek government now needs to consider to bring people to the mainland.
In the same time there are protests in the lagers around Athens and Thessaloníki against the precarious accommodation and endless waiting. And who has got the possibilities tries the secret routes direction northern Europe.
29 September: nationwide school/university strike and action day. No Border lasts forever
„[...] Already in April this year we have striked but it is not enough to stop there. It is our responsibility to go on fighting against the racism in our society and government!”
30 September – 2 October 2016 Conference in Frankfurt
Win together!
Organize participation, overcome precarious jobs, strengthen the assertiveness. Renewal with the helf of strike III.
„[...] In many places there are tested innovative approaches of union resistance. New ways of fight from people in unsafe employment relationships, offensive projects of organization, new ways of warning strikes and participation, politicizing strikes and more intense publicity work strengthen the assertiveness and can contribute to renew the praxis of unions. On this conference we want to bring together unionists from different branches, scientists and people from strike solidarity groups. Look at http://www.rosalux.de/event/55617 under the workshop titles “Fight together, avoid splits – union strategies concerning flight and migration” and “Thinking and fighting – perspectives of transnational union work”
30 of September – 2 October Conference in Cologne
Life is no Algorithm! Collective Perspectives Against the Technological Attack.
This conference combines net critic with possible resistance perspectives. It examines the instruments of surveillance from external borders for a wide migration control. Furthermore the benefits and the harms of social media for flight helpers and refugees will be discussed.
International guests will talk about the production of smart phones and other electronic devices, they talk about the brutal working conditions with Foxconn and during the coltan extraction in Kongo just like forms of resistance.
1 October: National demonstration in Heidelberg
“ [...] The background of the demonstration is the new card of arrival, the register center and the model asylum procedure in Heidelberg. Just like in Zirndorf, Berlin and Bielefeld now also in Heidelberg they practices the functional test. [...] Many reasons made us intervening in the political happening: the political changes of the last months, the media and the public discussion which is shaped by generalization and resentments against migrants and refugees, the massive governmental attacks of refugee rights, the strengthen of nationalist anti-democratic opinions, the countless attacks of refugee shelters, the dying in the Mediterranean and the hiding of flight reasons for socio-economical exclusions. We start with a central demonstration on 1 October [...]”
Call: Distribute “Daily Resistance” Newspaper
„Dear people of the world, we have published the second issue of the newspaper 'Daily Resistance' and now it’s the time to bring the paper to the hands of people living in the lagers. The newspaper is now ready for distribution!
We are looking for people who have contact to so-called refugees in lagers and can help to spread Daily Resistance. (…) Daily Resistance is for free. It is important to us that you understand that you can get the newspaper if you don’t have money – especially if you live in a lager yourself and like to distribute there.
Who is behind Daily Resistance
We are a mixed group of people and activist in Berlin who fight against isolation and lagers in Oranienplatz and other places. Daily Resistance is a periodical newspaper on actual paper written by refugee activists aimed to reach people in lagers. We want to inform them on the state of resistance in Germany and to empower them for their everyday resistance against the system.
After publishing the first issue, we have received a lot of positive feedback. Many people started to write for the newspaper or distribute it in lagers. Initially, we printed 2000 copies. Soon they were all gone and we realized we have to print more. In the end, we distributed more than 5000 copies in Berlin, Munchen, Jena, Erfurt, Bremen, Darmstadt, Kiel, Hannover, Delmenhorst, Landshut, Oldenburg … also in Manchester and Vienna. In Thessaloniki, people managed to throw packages of newspapers over the fences of a closed lager. This is all incredible and gave us the energy to continue. We like to thank everybody who moved the newspaper forward and invite all to join in the fight of breaking the isolation in lagers. This is a communal newspaper, from people for people.
What’s written in the second issue?
In the second issue there are texts from people living in the Lagers around Germany and also from the freedom fighters who already got papers and still continue the struggle against the larger system. for example from very well-known groups like Women in Exile, The Voice Refugee Forum, people from the Berlin Refugee movement like Turgay Ulu, Bino, Adam Bahar, Tresor, Mai Shutta and International Woman Space, CISPM, The street roots and more.
In this issue a lot of activists write about the so called Welcome Culture in combination of the new restrictions to the Asylum law and also about the Köln silvester (New Year´s Eve) events and the sexual violence against refugee women in lagers. More than that different groups have their space to represent themselves and get connected to the other activists.
Recently the Roma activists started to make different actions in Berlin against the deportation of the Roma people to the so called safe Balkan countries which is still going on. You can find detailed information about it in the last page and also how can you support/join their protests.
Contact: dailyresistance@oplatz.net
Update Welcome2Europe Website
„For Freedom of movement - independent information for refugees and migrants coming to Europe“ - so say the website and the business cards. The Welcome to Europe Web Guide has been operating for over five years as an online platform in four languages for refugees and migrants on their way to and through Europe. W2eu.info contains contacts of solidarity and practical information from almost all EU states as well as some transfer countries.
All the work – collecting and updating information, translation into four languages, answering requests, technical website support – is being done by activists from different countries, largely unpaid. The guide was developed from struggles for freedom of movement and serves everyday support and self organisation. It is a part of the transnational activist network Welcome to Europe.
Contacts Wanted:
The accesses to the web page w2eu.info increased even more during the last couple of months – the “long summer of migration”. Therefore we have started updating the lists of contacts in a more systematic way, particularly with regard to the countries of destination of the new arriving people. In this sense, we ask active and interested people from as many places as possible, to send us the contact details of important and solidarity locations for information and counseling.
Please check the list of contacts here:
Share Information:
Besides that, we kindly ask you to share the information we have gathered for the newly arriving in Germany. Pass them to people who might be in need of them in all places of arrival, in processing points for asylum seekers as well as in the camps. While we try to offer counseling for bigger groups, we realized that knowledge and information are highly important to empower people and break the isolation they might be facing.
The following texts are available in English as well as partly in other languages:
Contacts in Germany:
Dublin III: What to do against Dublin-deportations:
Asylum in Germany:
How to stop deportations:
Germany: Deportations to Afghanistan - Information against the fear:
Overview on the situation in Germany:
Help needed for translations:
We are permanently working on translations to Arabic, Farsi and French of all the information on the web guide. You are more than welcome to help us translate from English to one of those languages!
Kind regards,
the team of w2eu
Retrospects:
No border camp Thessaloníki in July
“In July one of the largest protest camps of the noborder history took place with approximately 1500 participants. Despite plenty of internal conflicts and relatively little creative direct actions, we draw a positive conclusion from the camp: Network meetings about the Balkan route were very productive, contacts with the surrounding refugee camps could be deepened (also by passing out a newspaper in three languages:http://noborder2016.espivblogs.net/files/2016/07/newspaper_NoBo_2_color.pdf), and a powerful refugee demonstration took place.
Here is an impression from the demonstration:
“Hurrya, Azadi, Freedom – now! - 'We came today here to open the borders - in our dreams!' The young Syrian woman had a clear perception, when she participated in the migrants pride demonstration on 21st of July in the frame of the noborder camp Thessaloniki. As ten thousands of refugees and migrants she is stuck in an isolated relocation camp without a concrete chance to go on to her country of destination. But her dream is vivid and reason enough to join the protest, as it was done this day by many refugees who were invited and picked up from the remote camps by buses. It probably was the highlight of the noborder camp actions when about 2500 people took the main streets of Thessaloníki, a colorful and very powerful march led by hundreds of refugees and migrants, chanting again and again the trilingual slogan for freedom as mentioned above. To bring together refugees and locals and internationals to communicate and protest in such a mixed composition was the main aim of the noborder camp. Every day of the whole week a convoy started to visit the camps and singular cars went out as well to build and to deepen more contacts. It never can be enough or perfect but the mobilization last Thursday was a clear sign and expression for a successful process of communication.“ (original statement from kein mensch ist illegal, Hanau)
Blockupy in Berlin at the beginning of September
Unfortunately only about 1000 activists took part in the attempt to block the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs on the second of September – not closely enough to threaten the opponent and successfully implement a blockade. And also at the following demonstration only 5000 people gathered, which was lesser than expected and shows that the alliance of “Aufstehen gegen Rassismus” (“Rise against Racism”) was not able to mobilize sufficiently.
And although it was clear beforehand that the success of the earlier mobilizations against the European Central Bank in Frankfurt was difficult to live up to, the question how to go further from this point is now even more urging for the alliance. A possible new orientation on topics like precarious living conditions, housing and migration have not yet been discussed in detail, the supportive structures are thinning out.
The G20 summit in July 2017 in Hamburg could be the next event in sight, although it might not be enough of a perspective as described in the following clipping of the press release:
“... On last Saturdays demonstration “Aufstehen gegen Rassismus” (“Rise against Racism”) 3000 people have taken part in the “grenzenlos solidarisch” (“limitlessly solidary”) block who was called by the Blockupy alliance. The block particularly promoted a perspective of limitless solidarity and positioned itself against a Europe of national isolation and social divide – something which is demanded by the AfD, but slowly implemented already for years by the parties of the neoliberal center like CDU, SPD and the Greens. In strident chants and on banners and signs the demonstrators demanded a redistribution of the wealth of society, the stopping of all deportations, safe escape routes and an end of the isolation of refugees as well as the austerity politics in Europe. Instead of playing off the people against each other through cheap and precarious jobs, a common movement of limitless solidarity is needed.”
For more, see https://blockupy.org
Outlooks:
Transnational Social Strike Meeting in Paris from 21 to 23 October
At the end of October activists from various cities of Europe will gather in Paris to discuss the prospects of a transnational social strike and exchange practical experiences of specific struggles. Arranging the meeting in Paris was a conscious decision, since France recently witnessed a successful combination of occupations of public spaces, blockades and strikes in various parts of society as a reaction to the “labor law”, implemented only through an emergency decree. Key topics of the conference will be transnational struggles and organization in the logistics sector (amazon), in migration (migrant labor and mobility regime), as well as in care labor (social work, health sector). Calls in various languages and soon also the program can be found on the website of the platform: