Daily resistance and
solidarity structures along the Balkanroute
Info-tour with guests from Thessaloniki and Belgrade regarding the struggles against the EU border regime
From 7th to 16th September 2017
within the transnational action days of We`ll Come United
In September the second anniversary of the March of Hope from Budapest’s Keleti Railway Station will take place. Thousands of people started to move collectively towards Austria and Germany and with that claimed their right on flight and migration against the EU border regime.
However, from November 2015 to March 2016, the open route was systematically closed again, and with the following EU-Turkey deal and the eviction of the refugee camp in Idomeni in May 2016, the Balkan route in politics and then media became increasingly quiet.
However, there is still a lot to report, people are still on the move and cross borders, there is still resistance to EU migration policy and its impact in the Balkans as a whole. How to evaluate this history and what happended afterwards?
Activists from Belgrade (from the former Noborder Serbia group) and from Thessaloniki (from the group Clandesitina) will report within the framework of the info tour on the current situation and share their assessments as well as perspectives on the developments of recent years.
On their way to Western Europe still thousands of people are stucked in transit and border areas in devastating conditions. They are isolated in camps or are put into prisons. Illegal pushbacks at the borders of all Balkan states are part of the daily practice of the border police, to deter and to intimidate people.
At the same time, in cities such as Belgrade and Thessaloniki, solidary- structures were built in opposition to the states migration management. Thus over 1200 people lived in barracks near the railway station in Belgrade. There were autonomous kitchen structures, a sports hall, a charging point for mobiles and provisional showers. Even if the people there lived in completely inadequate hygienic conditions and excluded from society, it was a possibility to prepare for the further way to better living conditions. The barracks in Belgrade were also a place for self organization. Such spaces are regularly attacked by the state and the police. So also the barracks in Belgrade, which were evicted in early May 2017.
In Thessaloniki, three houses squatted by and with refugees were evicted already in the summer of 2016, immediately after the Noborder Camp took place there. But also here the resistance went on and common structures with Refugee communities were strenghtened.
During the event tour, we want to discuss with the guests: What have been and still are politically effective activities to resist the injustice and daily violence at the borders? What are the special conditions in transit? How does sustainable activism look like in a transnational framework? How in postsocialist societies?How do connections and common structures in and with the communities of migrants and refugees work?
The event is intended to provide a space for exchange and discussion on the experiences and possibilities of a solidarity-activism.
The info tour will take place during the antiracist events and action days of „We'll Come United" and will be accompanied by a call for transnational events from September 2nd as well as for a central demonstration in Berlin on September 16th. A big antiracist parade is under preparation in order to create a public platform to the daily struggles of the Refugee and Antiracist movement. A week before the federal elections in Germany, it is to be said that there is a broad alliance which resolutely opposes the restrictive asylum and migration policy and fights for a society without borders and for equal rights for all. We see the transnational networking of activists and struggles as a necessary element of this protest.
+++++++++++++++++ Tour- dates ++++++++++++++++++++
Thursday, September 7th
MÜNCHEN, 20 Uhr at Bellevue di Monaco, Müllerstr. 2
Friday, September 8th
NÜRNBERG, 19.30 Uhr at P 31, An den Rampen 31
Saturday, September 9th
Hanau, Metzgerstrasse 8 at 5pm as part of a local Refugee Festival for We`ll Come United
Sunday, September 10th
Frankfurt, 7pm at Cafe Exzess, Leipziger Strasse 91
Monday, September 11th
Osnabrück, 7pm in Substanz, Frankenstr. 25a
Tuesday, September 12th:
GÖTTINGEN, 19.30 Uhr at OM10, Obere Masch-Str. 10
Wednesday, September 13th: Hannover
HANNOVER, 20 Uhr at UJZ Korn, Kornstr. 28-30
Thursday, September 14th:
BERLIN at 7 pm at Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg museum
Saturday, September 16th: Participation/ contribution at the We`ll Come United Parade from 11am in front of the Interior Ministry in Berlin
Flyer and Poster in german language: http://moving-europe.org/well-come-united-lets-talk-about-thessaloniki-belgrade-and-berlin/