Kompass-Newsletter No. 84 - 12/2019

 

5.-7.12. in Jena: 25 years of The Voice Refugee Forum +++ From 3.12. in Rome: Criminal proceedings against authorities and politicians about Left to die at sea +++ Mediterranean monologues: impressive theatre-play on tour +++ Afghanistan Report by Medico on the situation of deportees +++ New Alarm Phone reports on Western Med & Central Med +++ "El Hiblu 3" released on bail +++ Aegean: Letters to the World from Moria/Lesvos +++ Current situation in Bosnia +++ Algeria and second wave Arabellion - Global uprisings +++ Review: Bologna Meeting of the Palermo Charta Platform Process +++ Outlook 2020: We`ll Come United from 17-19 January 2020 in Rhine-Main & nationwide consulting meeting mid-February in Göttingen; CommemorAction from 6-8 February in Oujda/Morocco

Dear friends!

How would we balance the past year in a few sentences from an anti-racist perspective?

The racist agitation has increased further, the AfD as a mirror image for continued divisions and the formation of the national. The deportation apparatus has become even more rigid and effective, in particular new arrivals are often helplessly extradited to the tightened laws. Frontex & Co's brutality at the EU's external borders has not diminished. Death and suffering in all corners and ends. So everything just worse and hopeless?

We think no. And we see some starting points that could set further dynamics in motion for 2020:

In the dispute over rescue at sea - not only in Italy with the resignation of Salvini, but above all in the central Mediterranean - we have succeeded in "winning land" again. Criminalisation has not been stopped, but it has been pushed back. Even if the alliance "Cities of Safe Harbours" still remains symbolic in Germany, the municipal reception of refugees is an ongoing issue.

Then what we would call "bridging potentials" has promising intensified. Climate (justice) movement, feminist struggles and tenant protests have all become stronger in 2019 and there are manifold anti-racist cross-over-connections in all three areas.

At the top of the positive side of the balance are the continuity and expansion of "daily infrastructures for freedom of movement and equal rights". The large number of projects and initiatives along all the routes was impressively brought together, not least at the Transborder Summer Camp last July. And against the racist agitation and the ongoing attacks - not only in eastern Germany - it has to be seen whether "MigrAntifa" can become a practical slogan for next year.

In any case, it remains the same: we continue to fight against all racist attacks, against every deportation and for every boat. The Alarm Phone is a living and currently particularly effective example of concrete intervention in contested border areas. Could we even become more offensive again in 2020? Will there be more coordinated cooperation between different actors? In Germany as well as transnational? Is it possible to launch a new campaign for the right to stay in Germany? Can we contribute to bringing down the EU-Libyan collaboration?

At the end of November, activists from sea rescue organisations and solidarity cities met in Bologna to discuss the next transnational steps. The idea of the "Buses of Hope" was taken up again to create further practical pressure for the corridors of solidarity: from the Sea to the Cities, from the port cities to the arrival cities. For February 2020, on the initiative of We'll Come United, a germanwide consultation meeting is in preparation to discuss different levels of coordinated projects and campaigns.

Rise-up 2020 is a cross-cutting call from the climate justice movement, which - so far it seems to us - remains rather abstract beyond the climate protests. But on a global level - from Sudan via Algeria to Chile and Hong Kong - social conflicts have intensified massively in many places in recent months. In the AntiRa area we should concretize the "Rise-up" in the coming weeks and - whatever is possible in the above-mentioned sense - to tackle it practically. From Agadez via Palermo to Berlin. From Moria/Lesvos via Bihac/Bosnia to Paris. From Tangier via Barcelona to Stockholm. No time to breath - for a new decade of intensified struggles for global social rights! Basta.

With solidarity greetings,

the Kompass team

P.S.: Congratulations to The Voice Refugee Forum on their 25th birthday! We have learned from you: We never give up!