Kompass-newsletter No. 98 - 10/2021

 

Zapatistas on tour +++ 9 October in many cities: No camp nowhere +++ Information on Afghanistan +++ Deportations Sri Lanka +++ On the verdict against Domenico Lucano +++ "What disturbs?"-Text on criminalisation +++ Initiative 19 February Hanau - Laden-Newsletter 4 +++ International: USA, Mexico, Great Britain, Poland/Belarus +++ Review: 15-19 September: Palermo & Dakar Convergences

"Through an absurd coincidence, through a whim of the wind, history has come across a village infected with the 'virus of humanity', a place where it was possible to imagine that we are all human. This has left a deep mark, this is the legacy we are passing on, the dream whose realisation is yet to come." - Mimmo Lucano

 

Dear friends,

While the coming „Ampel-coalition“ (red, yellow, green) in Germoney is bargaining for posts and positions - and thus the starting conditions for the social movements do not seem to worsen for the time being compared to the Merkel years - the situation at the EU's external borders continues to worsen. Push-backs, human rights violations, death and suffering in Greece, off Malta and the Canary Islands, in the Balkans and also on the Polish-Belarusian border.

A new escalation also in Italy - with the verdict against a worldwide known "solidarity criminal": over 13 years imprisonment (in first instance) for the former mayor of Riace, Domenico Lucano, for his exemplary welcome village. This is hard to believe, but it is in line with the draconian punishments against boat drivers, most blatantly in Greece.

"More and more alleged boat people are being held in southern European jails. Everyday political as well as social attention is needed here. Then it must be discussed how the paramilitary and secret service criminalisation of supporters on the periphery of the EU is to be countered with refusal and with protests in front of the EU centres." This is what Helmut Dietrich of the Research Association Flight and Migration (FFM) formulates in a recent text. His suggestions could provide inspiration for a new network initiative that recently met in Palermo: Free El Hiblu 3 and solidarity groups for migrants who are criminalised as boat people in Italy and Greece. 

There was much more at stake when activists from the different escape routes came together in Palermo and Dakar in mid-September. In two simultaneous "Convergences" for the right to freedom of movement, linked via internet screen. Physical meetings with 200 and 40 participants respectively, who were finally able to exchange their practical experiences face to face again. Not only in numerous workshops, but also at the bar or on the beach. Criminalisation of migration and "strategic litigation" was one of six topics, along with Activism at Sea, Solidarity Cities, Border Struggles, CommemorAction and transversal Struggles. The practice-oriented spirit of the transborder summer camp of summer 2019 wafted through the working groups and the joint plenary ended with a corresponding advance announcement: transnational Summer Camp II is to take place in July 2022. Once again in the ZAD near Nantes. Together in one place with as many friends as possible who are active on both sides of the Mediterranean. 

With solidarity greetings,

the Kompass team