Kompass-Newsletter No. 88 - 07+08/2020
15 to 18 July: digital Transborder Summer Camp +++ 16 July in Alzenau: trial because of the call for BürgerInnenAsyl +++ 25 July in Darmstadt: meeting of We`ll Come United +++ 26 July in Darmstadt: third Anti-Ra council +++ 25 to 29 August in Leipzig and online: Congress Future for All +++ Newsletter and Demo of the Initiative 19. February Hanau +++ Handbook Solidarity Asylum +++ Balkan Bridge +++ From Sea to City: Series of Online Conferences started +++ borderline europe: EU-Libya Collaboration - Pull-backs by Remote Control +++ medico: "Voluntary Return" - Human Rights Violations in Return Programs +++ WatchTheMed Alarm Phone - New Report on Central Med +++ Human Rights Award of Pro Asyl for Alarm Phone +++ Reading recommendation Medico: More than an exploding No +++ Outlook: 2nd to 5th of September: Transnational decentralized days of action - 5 years after the March of Hope - Call of We`ll Come United
Dear friends!
A year ago, 500 activists from numerous cities in Europe and Africa gathered near Nantes for an inspiring and empowering Transborder Summer Camp (TSC). In the last Kompass we had already promoted the new brochure, which documents some exemplary impressions: https://trans-border.net/index.php/broshure/. Based on the contents in this brochure, a digital Summer Camp - the digital TSC - will take place next week. The aim is to try to initiate at least an online exchange about "Freedom of Movement in (post)Corona Times", to discuss current challenges of different networks in working groups and last but not least to make arrangements regarding the mobilisation for the transnational days of action at the beginning of September.
Of course, after the last months and countless virtual meetings we all know: the net cannot replace real network meetings. We need face to face meetings to really see each other, to talk and invent new things in spontaneous and informal rounds or to get to the bottom of strategic questions. This works online only in rare cases or not at all and many people are excluded from this form of communication anyway. In this respect, we are convinced that - and this applies at least to Germany - we should use the summer months of July, August and September as much as possible to get together in real life. We do not know whether and - if so - how strong a second corona wave will return in autumn and winter and will again restrict us further. Therefore: whether in mini-camps or open air conferences, in park meetings or at demonstrations on the street: Let`s use the summertime!
At the end of July the AntiRa-Council in Darmstadt, in August the demonstration in Hanau and the congress in Leipzig, finally at the beginning of September to the action days everywhere: in the calendar of this summer- Kompass several dates and possibilities of such real meetings are made strong. Coming together and working together in crass times. In spite of and against the multiple catastrophes. This seems more important than ever to us. At the last meeting of We'll Come United and under the impression of the mobilizations of Black Lives matter, a Sudanese friend had emphasized: "We believe we all share one big struggle , let's fight on it united. Let's connect and plan actions together. We should call for a wide justice and rights alliance!" In the meetings mentioned and planned, it will be precisely about developing a practice-oriented narrative for the 2020s within the entire spectrum of anti-racist networks as well in cross-over with other social movements. Connecting everyday struggles, solidifying the progressive pole and strengthening the transnational cooperations!
Another friend at medico international recently drafted very impressively: "Social protests often appear (in it) as merely negative, as outbreak and letting go discontent, and ultimately even as an image of helplessness desperately appealing to power. As suddenly as these protests often erupt and then provoke short, heated debates, they are themselves seldom the subject of a deeper analysis or even a narrative of political and historical continuity. But what if they are fed by more than spontaneously exploding No`s, what if they are perhaps part of a long-lasting process that takes place below the registers of a vertical power of institutions? Wouldn't there then be every reason to be at least optimistic and pessimistic at the same time? And aren't there also reasons to see the countless uprisings and movements of recent years as an expression of an existing global force, and not merely as an appendage to catastrophe?“ In a nutshell: "It remains alive and constantly resurge what pushes into a different future."
In this sense - for a summer of possibilism!
Greetings of solidarity from the Kompass Crew