Kompass – AntiRa – Newsletter Nr. 59, Mai 2017

Dear Friends!

Photo: Moonbird Airborne Operation / www.sea-watch.org, www.hpi.swiss
Photo: Moonbird Airborne Operation / www.sea-watch.org, www.hpi.swiss

On 12.4.2017, initiated by civil society, a light aircraft took off over the central Mediterranean, over the world’s most deadly border. Against the mass dying at sea. The supporters are in agreement: ‘Safe passage. Now!’ The dying of thousands could be stopped tomorrow, if people could use a plane or a ferry to come to Europe. This is an entirely political decision that those responsible in the EU and its member states refuse to make. The sea is used as a deadly moat. No technology or military operation is considered too expensive for this. Neither are refoulements and confinements in camps in North Africa. No deal is considered too dirty. With boats and a plane we are taking a stand against the normalisation of death and suffering, whenever necessary, throughout the entire summer in order to see and to? rescue. In a zone with no rights. For a Europe of welcome.

These sentences briefly and concisely make the point of why Sea Watch and the Humanitarian Pilots Initiative (HPI), with the support of other organisations, started a civil air reconnaissance mission at Europe’s deadliest maritime border. “On Easter Sunday more than 100 refugees on a sinking dinghy could be rescued at the last moment, after having been discovered by a reconnaissance air plane far away from any rescue vessel .…” In the very first days of its deployment the ‘Moonbird’ – which is the name of the light aircraft – fulfilled its promise “to see and to rescue”!

https://sea-watch.org/zivile-luftaufklaerungsmission-an-europas-toedlicher-seegrenze-gestartet-sea-watch-und-humanitarian-pilots-initiative-verhindern-bootskatastrophe/

Over the Easter weekend of 2017 one of the largest sea rescue operations in the central Mediterranean of the last few years took place: within three days at least 8,360 people were rescued at sea. Under the heading ‘A deadly rescue vacuum’ the project WatchTheMed Alarm Phone documented “how Europe uses death in the Mediterranean as a deterrent and simultaneously criminalizes civil sea rescue forces”, see https://alarmphone.org/de/2017/04/21/ein-todliches-rettungsvakuum/

The brutality and cynicism can hardly be outdone: The EU officials and EU member states are responsible for barring all the legal ways for refugees to get to Europe, thus forcing them to take the lethal route across the Mediterranean. Then they deliberately reduce the number of rescue vessels in the hope that the masses dying in the Mediterranean will serve as a deterrent. It is only thanks to the tireless dedication of numerous sea rescue NGOs and activists, that at Easter many hundreds of people did not drown again. “Yet despite their numerous life-saving operations several NGOs and activists have in recent months become victim of a despicable defamation campaign. Frontex, as well as several EU politicians and Italian public prosecutors, not only accused them of cooperating with Libyan traffickers and being involved in criminal activities, but also said that they themselves were making the crossings of the Mediterranean even more dangerous and deadly. These outrageous and cynical accusations follow the absurd logic that the death of refugees at high sea could have a deterring effect on other refugees and could thus prevent future crossings. In this way they try to discredit the indispensable work of the sea rescue NGOs and to force them to withdraw from the death zone in the central Mediterranean.”

Initiative Bürgerasyl HanauAs much as the coming months will be about defending and expanding civil sea rescue at the EU’s external borders, it remains as urgent to stop the deportation offensive here at home, or at least to disrupt the working of the system as much as possible. In many places, the building and expanding of protective structures is a subject. In addition to the church asylums – in the first place against the ‘Dublin pushbacks’ – the first initiatives for a ‘civil asylum’ are now starting, to counteract charter deportations to Afghanistan with a strengthened political and practical resistance. In connection with this more and more groups are discussing concepts of the ‘Solidarity City’: no deportations, no controls (‘Don’t Ask Don’t Tell’), free access to education and social benefits (‘Access without Fear’) are three guide lines having been developed from the Sanctuary Cities in the USA and the Solidarity Cities in Canada. Considering the different circumstances oversees, much cannot be adopted here, but the experiences are valuable and incite us to probe and try to expand our local communal elbow room. A Medico Symposium on the same subject (on 8 and 9.6. in Frankfurt, see below) will offer another place for debating and networking. And all these initiatives and visions of the Solidarity City will finally also be put on the agenda of the upcoming ‘Great September Mobilisation’!

Finally – as already mentioned in the last Kompass – numerous groups and networks have made appointments for joint action days. On 2.9. they will start locally, on 16.9., one week before the German federal elections, the activities will lead to one large antiracist parade in the capital. At the latest at the German Evangelical Congress at the end of May in Berlin, where flight and migration are a central theme, the mobilisation will start with first materials; in June and July (see our calendar) there will be many further occasions to get to know the new campaign of ‘Get Together’ and to get involved. In this sense also from us: ‘We’ll come United’.

The Kompass Crew

P.S. as to us: we are still urgently looking for more people to help us to quickly translate this Newsletter into English and French.

Schauspiel Cologne - Unraveling the NSU Complex - Tribunal in Cologne

17.05.2017 - 21.05.2017

„We want the whole extent of those machinations to be cleared and uncovered, inclusively the involvement of the state and its institutions."

„To this day we are far from the promised “complete explanation” of the NSU Complex. Initiatives and individuals working in solidarity with those targeted by the series of murders and attacks by the NSU developed the idea of a tribunal to fill this gap. In the context of the Tribunal, the NSU is conceived as the crystallization of structural racism. The Tribunal is a space to call out racism as a society. The testimonies of the victims and their families are the focal point. Their stories need to be heard and understood.

We are calling out all of the protagonists of the NSU Complex and the institutional frameworks they are embedded in.

We are lamenting the victims of racist violence and the suffering caused by it. We are calling for an open society of the many cultivated through migration.

The Tribunal is designed to be participatory: Accusations, demands and a manifesto of the future will emerge collectively from the participants. Alongside the on-stage program, workshops will activate learning processes and provide opportunities for networking and empowerment.“

Call, program and more: http://www.nsu-tribunal.de/en

Ljubljana: Conference of Transnational Social Strike

19.05.2017 - 21.05.2017

 

We are inviting you to Ljubljana, Slovenia. Welcome!

Autonomous Factory Rog, Second Home migrant community, Social center Rog. One of the workshops will be devoted to freedom of movement and right to stay in the context of Balkan Route and Europe. 

Agenda and logistical info will come soon

Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/1919560634953618/  

„After being in Poznan, a crucial junction in the European restructuring of productive organisation towards East; after being in Paris, when the struggle against the loi travail and its world agitated the strike as a mass practice of convergence; after being in a post-Brexit London, where migrants and natives engaged in bringing to light the inescapable transnational dimension of society, the Transnational Social Strike Platform will meet next May in Ljubljana, one of the political points along the so called Balkan Route. The reason to be in Ljubljana is for us clear: a transnational process against exploitation and neoliberalism today needs to deepen the connection with the mass movements of migrants and face the ongoing political re-organisation of the European space. Migrants, entering Europe across the Mediterranean Sea and through the Balkans, overcoming its several borders, have changed Europe as a whole: from East to West, from North to South. They exercised a determined pressure opening the Balkan route and filled it with solidarity and social action which reached beyond the increasingly guarded and impenetrable borders. Migrants’ movements have also brought about a legal and administrative restructuring throughout all Europe with the intention of governing their mobility in the name of social security, for the sake of profits. By practising their freedom of movement and by striking against the several borders imposed on them, hundreds of thousands showed us new possibilities of resistance against the Europe of neoliberalism and institutional racism. (…)

The Transnational Social Strike Meeting, taking place between 19th and 21st May 2017 in Ljubljana at Autonomous factory Rog, will address the divisions we are being forced into. We will discuss the centrality of the Balkan region for the whole European space and continue our reflection on how to find common terrains for our transnational initiative. We will bring a step further the project of building a political infrastructure which helps to organise across the borders and bring together the multiple experiences of insubordination against neoliberalism within and without the workplaces, in order to make the difference in the existing scenario of social crisis. 

The workshops and discussions will address multiple terrains of struggle, trying to establish a political communication among the struggles regarding migrations, freedom of movement, social and worker’s rights, global women’s strike, logistics and the reorganisation of production, rights to a decent life, militarisation of society, student problems, as well as other social issues.

The meeting will be organised in the form of workshops, assemblies, and plenary sessions. It will start at 6pm on Friday 19th and end at 2pm on Sunday 21st of May. The detailed programme, workshop’s descriptions, the registration form, with info for travelling to and from Ljubljana and for finding cheap accommodation will be published in the following days…“

For more information, write to the e-mail address: tssljubljana@gmail.com

Website: http://www.transnational-strike.info/

 

Berlin: Flight and migration at Church Assembly (Kirchentag)

25.05.2017 - 26.05.2017

(in part hints to two events)

Thursday, 25.05., 14.30 –15.15

MarktPlatz, hall 1.2b, fair Berlin, Charlottenburg (594 | E1)

Those who are doomed by globalisation

Let's speak about the "invisibles", about those we are not aware of. Let's speak about flight and deprivation of right - let's speak about us.

Talk with: Katja Kipping, Stephan Lessenich, Musie Zerai

Host: Federal Association of Christians in the Left Party

26.05.2017 12am, central station Berlin

Minute of silence for the victims of the external borders of EUrope
#Fluchtgedenken at Church Assembly in Berlin

In 2016 more than 5000 people drowned in the Mediterranean Sea. So many like never in a year before. They escaped from war, terror and misery and saw the only chance for a future in trying the extremely dangerous crossing. They looked for a good, a better life. More than 30.000 people lost their life on this way to Europe in the last years. So the European external border, the border of our continent, is the deadliest border worldwide.

Especially at the Kirchentag in the capital city, where white crosses commemorate the dead of the wall of Berlin, we don't want to forget the dead of the external borders of Europe. Together at the 36th German Evangelical Church Assembly we will remember the dead of borders and advocate for a politic who protect people and respect their God-given dignity.

In this Facebook event all information concerning the minute of silent are updated:

https://www.facebook.com/events/1671436426490739

#Fluchtgedenken

Frankfurt: Cities open to the world - Spaces of an other globalisation

08.06.2017 - 09.06.2017

Symposium by medico foundation

At the symposium we will discuss outgoing from the solidarian practices of "Sanctuary Cities" how perspectives for an other, really open Europe could look like.

In the past month several countries and the European Union escalated the regime of isolation: Borders have been closed, laws were tightened, fears stirred up, civil rights suspended. 

But below the national level another story of globalisation is written by civil society initiatives and municipalities. Worldwide several communities name themselves as Sanctuary Cities. They build rooms of mutual aid among strangers and are connecting point for designing a transnational community in a democratic manner. Starting from this solidarian practice we will discuss at the symposium perspectives for a really different and open Europe.

Program and more here:

https://www.medico.de/termin/2017-06-08-1/weltoffene-staedte-symposium-der-stiftung-medico-168/details/

Berlin: Against the G20 Africa Partnership Conference

10.06.2017

For global freedom of movement and self-determined development.

We are angry. In the course of the Presidency of the G20 countries, Germany has put Africa on the agenda. And Germany invites to the „G20 Africa Partnership Conference“ which takes place on June 12 and 13 in the Schöneberger Gasometer in Berlin, ahead of the G20 meeting in July in Hamburg. .…. Who we are? We are a fiction, but still real. We are many. We speak different languages. We have not had the same experience: We are those whose ancestors were slaves. We are those whose ancestors were slave holders. We are the ones that have been exploited by the system. We are the ones that have benefited from the system. The history connects us, even if it separates us. The present connects us, even if it separates us. What unites us is the hope for a better life, beyond the capitalist domination of this planet and beyond mobility control. What unites us is the belief in a world full of solidarity, without the G20 and its monstrous productions. This world is now, again and again, created on a daily basis. The future has already started.

Stop the rearmament of the inner-African borders!

Stop the gun delivery to Africa!

Stop the ruling development policy that aggravates the misery in African countries!

Solidarity against exploitation and oppression!

Call and more you'll find here: http://wirsindwuetend.blogsport.eu 

Dresden: Youth without Borders (JOG) with own conference and demonstration against the Conference of the Ministers of the Interior

10.06.2017 - 14.06.2017

More information in the next newsletter.

Documenta Kassel - 20 years No one is illegal

19.06.2017 - 25.06.2017

„… Since November 2016 a loose group of people in Kassel is getting in touch to use the coming documenta (10.06. - 17.09.2017) to celebrate the 20th anniversary and to criticize in this context the recent asylum and migration policy as well as to make the real life of illegalized people a subject of public debate. From 19. - 25.06. there will be an action week, which will be filled and designed by already existing working groups (city walk, freedom of movement, manifest) but for which we also invite other groups and activists from all around to participate with own ideas/actions/events.

Thursday, 23.6. there will be an evening event with the title: "no one is illegal today: from sea rescue to a Solidarity City..."

One day later, 24.6., an own workshop to Solidarity City.

Further planed: Event with Youth without Borders (JOG), open microphone, manifestation and demonstration on Saturday ... and Sunday, 25.6., from 11am to 5pm the next preparation meeting for "We`ll Come United-Mobilisation“ in September (see below).

More info and contact: noii2017@riseup.net

21.-25.6. in Lärz: BUKO, start to MOVE! 38. BUKO Kongress from 23.-25.06.2017

21.06.2017 - 25.06.2017

Finally there is again a BUKO congress, but we continue to go on new paths. MOVE-utopia movement meeting will take place on the old area of the airport of Kulturkosmos in Lärz. BUKO congress will be part of that event in this year, with its own „Barrio“, a neighbourhoodly organised substructure. More than 1000 people are expected to exchange about the topics of a hierarchy-free life and economy, change of the system and social-ecological transformation in an open space.

Complete Call and more information

 

http://move-utopia.de/ or www.buko.info

 

From sea rescue to solidarity city...The current situation in the Central Mediterranean Sea

Easter 2017. As mentioned in the introduction hundreds of people would have drowned if the humanitarian fleet had not been in action around the clock. "A new level of failure to provide assistance" was determined by Sea Watch´s press secretary, and it remains a straight-out lie for Frontex to claim that all their boats had ben deployed.  Only one of Frontex´s Eleven boats was out rescuing People over Easter whlie all the others were apparently wilfully withheld. The same goes for EunavFor Med: Many large ships are part of this military operation, but only one participated in transporting rescued people to Sicily.  

Iuventa, the rescue boat run by Jugend rettet, but also MOAS and Sea Eye were forced to send SOS because they were completely overloaded, there was no support even at night, and with incoming bad weather they were prone to distress. Attached are some links to press releases and appraisals by several rescue organisations.

Photo: Moonbird Airborne Operation / www.sea-watch.org, www.hpi.swiss
Photo: Moonbird Airborne Operation / www.sea-watch.org, www.hpi.swiss

But first the call for donations for Moonbird, the above-named surveillance aircraft which was deployed for rescue purposes over Easter as well as in early May. The plane itself cannot rescue, but it provides an overview and enables coordination and alerts rescue ships to emergency situations that otherwise would be missed. Moonbird absolutely needs to be ready for operation all through the summer. For this further financing is necessary:

https://sea-watch.org/spenden/

Review of Jugend rettet for Easter:

https://jugendrettet.org/f/files/press_release_180417.pdf

Review of Moas for Easter:

https://www.moas.eu/easter-weekend-2017-mass-tragedy-avoided/?mc_cid=92b3f4816f&mc_eid=f9bab88f80

In the following link there is a current Report oby WatchTheMed Alarm Phone about the last six weeks in the whole Mediterranean region including the Aegean Sea and between Morocco and Spain.

https://alarmphone.org/en/2017/05/03/the-production-of-disasters-in-the-mediterranean-sea-and-its-contestation-alarm-phone-6-week-report-20th-march-2017-30th-april-2017/?post_type_release_type=post

Initiatives for Solidarity City are networking

On the 5th/6th of May there was a first networking Meeting for Solidarity City in the context of the critnet yearly conference. There were reports on the sotuation in 16 cities, in 8 of which concrete initiatives have already formed. The morning was dominated by inputs about urban citizenship and the demarcation between Solidarity City and neoliberal city, about legal possibilities, about a Research program on the feasibility of contacting city administrators and councillors and about requirements for  Solidarity City from the perspective of the Sudanese community.

 

The following principles of Solidarity City were worked out: No deprtations, no controls ("Don´t Ask Don´t Tell"), free Access to education and social Services ("Access without fear"). The charm of a Solidarity City Project lies in

the 5 million people in the "welcoming culture", increasingly frustrated by injustice and deportation, finding a Forum for politicizing their work,

communalizing the "terrain" of activities and campaigns developing into an antipode to the return of nationalism,

the Topics of the radical left, antiracism, housing, labour, nánd many others, being redrafted in an urban context, 

new relationships and new practices developing between welcoming culture, migrants, and the radical left, 

creting a climate in which there are new chances for self-organization of migrants, 

this being a topic which can unite progressive parts of city councils and administrations, social movements, interested citizens, self-organized migrants, and the left, to renegotiate their relationship on a community level, 

In the afternoon and the next morning there were, after an input by  Harald Bauder (Toronto) and after reports from the cities, first ideas about a common presentation despite different conditions. There will be flyers and eventually  Website, and we want to visit and support each other. Until the action days in September and the parade in Berlin a newspaper will be produced.  

Interested people should please contact info@solidarity-city.eu

Further dates of coming together: At the symposium by medico internation on 8th/9th June as well as in Kassel at the documenta at the 20 year anniversary of no one is illegal (you can find both in the calendar below).

Welcome to Italy guide: New revised edition

Italy guide

Currently thousands of people arrive in Italy, week for week after having made the dangerous crossing from mostly Lybia. Newcomers need, among other things, information on how deal with the european asylum law and fight as possible succesfull for their rights.

Welcome to Europe has aleady released a „Welcome to Italy“ Guide last year. The printed guide is now available in a revised edition who are for free to be picked up in book stores. Then they will be distributed in refugee communities in Italy.

The guide is also online available, as well as a list of places in Italy where the printed version can be found:

http://w2eu.info/italy.en/articles/italy-overview.en.html

 

City Plaza Birthday in Athens

City Plaza

On the 22nd of April the Best Hotel of Europe celebrated its first birthday: with different meetings and especially a big party. Despite and against all eviction rumors oder threats the mood stays fine and militant.

Planned is a new campaign from and with Ex-inhabitants, also those people who lived for months in City Plaza and organised the living and fighting together and who made it on different ways now to reach their final destinations and families. They will make clear again why this hotel has been a special transit station to them and why it has to be protected as a place of solidarity.

http://best-hotel-in-europe.eu 

http://solidarity2refugees.gr

 

2. -16. September everywhere and in Berlin: We'll come united – decentral action days and big demonstration

02.09.2017 - 16.09.2017

2. -16. September everywhere and in Berlin: We'll come united – decentral action days and big demonstration with political carneval and parade in Berlin.

Dear friends,

on the 16th of September – one week before parliamentary elecetion – we go out on the road together in Berlin. For unconditional solidarity – for the right to come, to stay and to leave: We'll come united! Two weeks earlier, the second anniversary of the „March of hope“ we want to start our own hot phase of the election fight with a decentral action- and event weekend. We want to become a lot of people, as many as possible, as many as we really are. We want to be obvious and say the natural, which some tend to forget to say right now: Solidarity and social rights do not know any borders.

Who wants to support the call: wellcomeunited@gmail.com  

First material and homepage and more in the end of May …


 

Next preparation meeting: 25th of June in Kassel in the frame of the actions days of kein mensch ist illegal during documenta.

 

Leipzig: Conference concerning migration, development, ecological crisis

06.10.2017 - 08.10.2017

In october 2017, there will be a conference held by Afrique-Europe-Interact and climate and degrowth activists in Leipzig concerning the connection of flight and migration, autonomously development and ecological crisis.

Get in touch:

 l.lierke@knoe.org or nolagerbremen@yahoo.de