Kompass-Newsletter Nr. 40 – June 2015

+++ Day X Demonstration – stop the asylum law tightening! +++ 10th of June in Strasbourg +++ 13 June 2015 in Frankfurt and in several cities in Italy +++ 14 June 2015 in Frankfurt: Network Meeting on Ferries not Frontex +++ As of 15 June 2015: International Week of Action against Deportation Jails +++ 19. – 21.6. in Berlin: Conference from Women in Exile +++ 20.6. in Berlin: Big Demonstration Blockupy and more – Making Europe different +++ 24.6. in Mainz: Demonstration against IMK +++ 30.6. in Essen: Demonstration against European Homecare and for freedom of movement +++ Retrospect: Anti Frontex Days in Warshaw, Ohlauer Schule stays, Büren +++ Prospect: Freedom Ferry on the 6. of September from Tunesia, Social Transnational Strike- Conference starting the 2nd until the 4th of October +++

Dear friends!

“On Saturday the 30th of May, through the media and government sources, it emerged that 4243 people were rescued on the 29th of May in the Central Mediterranean Sea, the largest number of rescues in 2015. 22 rescue operations took place and 17 dead bodies were found on three vessels. Various navy and coastguard vessels as well as merchant vessels were involved in these large-scale rescue operations. We, of course, respect the commitment shown by rescue agencies and sailors who have done the utmost to rescue more than 4000 human lives at sea. At the same time we mourn the loss of 17 lives. They could still all be alive if there were secure paths toward Europe.”
These are the final sentences of a recent report by the Watch The Med Alarmphone (have a look http://watchthemed.net/reports/view/135), to which emergency calls from boat people arrive daily. They are not just crossing from Lybia but also in little boats which try to cross the street of Gibraltar – from Morocco to Spain – or starting from Turkey to the Greek islands. Also in Aegean the arrival numbers are on a record high, but also there again and again people are drowning during the risky flight. “Ferries not Frontex” (look Kompass Nr. 39) is the commandment of the hour!

“Safe access not crazy military inventions” has to be the second slogan because – as exposed by wikileaks – the responsible in the EU would accept once more “collateral damages” during their war planning against “trafficer structures” in Lybia. That there are besides many civil ships (Moas, Medicine Sans Frontieres, Sea Watch) also navy ships (from UK, Island, France, Germany… ) involved in rescue operations is first of all to be considered as a success of the persistent migration movement as well as the on-going social protests and critical public.
Facing the lasting sympathy of wider parts of the population big NGOs are able to obtain donations to finance the expensive services. And our Bundesregierung who did not want to know anything about an increase of the rescue capacities shortly after the last tragedies and rejected any own involvement, now there are two navy ships on the ground on rescue duty and explicitly under the control of Rome and not Warshaw refered to the Frontex Operation Triton since the 8th of May.

Das wäre undenkbar ohne den massiven politischen öffentlichen Druck der vergangenen Wochen, von den Reedern mit ihrer sehr eindrücklichen Erklärung über die Statements von Pro Asyl, Sea Watch und Alarmphone (u.a. für Radio Vatikan!) und nicht zuletzt den vielfältigen Protesten auf der Straße. Ob am 10.6. in Strasbourg oder am 20.6. in Berlin (siehe Kalender unten), jetzt geht es darum, diesen Druck aufrecht zu erhalten und dabei insbesondere die geplanten Militär­einsätze gegen potentielle Flüchtlingsboo­te und “Schlepper” als “infame Verlängerung der Schande Europas” zu denunzieren.

That is unimaginably without the massive policital public pressure of the past weeks; the Reedem with their very clear statement about the statements from Pro Asyl, Sea Watch and Alarmphone (also for Radio Vatikan!) and not least the varied protest on the streets.
If the 10th of June in Strasbourg or the 20th of June in Berlin (have a look at the calendar at the bottom), now it is about keeping the pressure and especially denounce the planned military services against potential refugee boats and “smuggler” as a “disgraceful extension of the same of Europe”.

And once more: let’s combine these struggles against the deadly external borders of the EU with the protest against the inner borders! Because right now inside the Bundestag the law concerning the “revision of the right to stay and the termination of residence” is debated. This draft law contains completely unacceptable tightenings concerning the right to stay which results in massive extensions of arrests of persons seeking protection.
It can be considered as a positive sign of procrastination that the passing of this law has been postponed many times but the re-opening of detention centre in Büren marks the forseeable way of this “reform”. Thats why below this text the last-minute-appeal of the Niedersächsischen Flüchtlingsrat asks to join the pressure-making on the representatives.

Finally: In Frankfurt there will a “Project-Shelter-Demonstration” the 13th of June, which puts the homelessness of migrants and refugees as a subject of discussion. Demanded is a self-organized migrant centre and a supply of social living space (see below). The connection which is made up by refering to the general social question of living seems more than necessary to us. Because there are many tries to finance the necessary payments in the refugee sector from above through cuts in other social sectors and to play them off against each other. And this plays Pegida and Co into their hands.
The same applies to the labour market: against the local splitting and a supposed competition for working places the general insecurity and in this topic the special exploitation of migrants must be focused.
For this purpose there was formed in the last years in some cities “MigrAr” (Migration and Work) – contact points which have been expanded in the mean time through full time consultation bureaus by the trade union for south-eastern european migrant workers. Below you find information and links as well as a hint to the transnational approch of “social strike” which has been formed from an international Bloccupy-Network and in which migrant working struggles against the “government of mobility” play a central role.

PS : The start of the actions against the G7-Top in Elmau took place at the moment of our editing deadline; too late for mobilizing once again and too early to take stock of the situation. We did mention the Anti-G7 Infotour in our last Newsletter and will get back to it in our next issue.

With antiracist greetings,
The Kompass Team

Kompass-newsletter Nr. 40 – June 2015 (pdf)