Kompass-AntiRa-Newsletter N. 58 – April 2017

Kompass-Newsletter Nr. 58 – April 2017 (pdf)

+++ 8.4. in Berlin: Take back the future – International Roma Day +++ 7./8./9.4. in Hamburg: preparatory conference against the G20 summit +++ 14.-17. April: Action days at the French-Italian border +++ 18.4. in Hungary: transnational demo at the border/Röszke 11 solidarity +++ 22.4. in Athens: City Plaza anniversary/eviction of squatted houses +++ Central Mediterranean Sea: Report Alarm Phone, statements of civilian rescue ships +++ Struggles against Dublin regulations +++ 5. – 7.5. in Osnabrück: Kritnet conference with solidarity city +++ 6./7.5. in Bielefeld: Get Together4We`ll Come United +++ 13. Mai in Pforzheim: country-wide demo against detention +++ Book recommendation: „This is how we can make it“ +++ Reviews: 8.3. Global Womens Strike, 18.3. transnational action day against the border regime, 31.3. protest in front of the Tunesian embassy in Berlin +++ Previews: 17.-21. Mai 2017 in Cologne: NSU Tribunal; 10.-14.6. in Dresden: JoG against IMK; 19.-25. Juni 2017 in Kassel: Documenta – 20 years of no one is illegal; 16. September 2017 in Berlin: big demo We`ll Come United; 6.-8. Oktober 2017 in Leipzig: conference on migration, development, ecologic crisis +++

Athen, 18.3.2017

On March 18th, all over Europe thousends of people were demonstrating against the border regime, like here in Athens (left) or at Frankfurt Airport.

Flughafen Frankfurt, 18.03.2017

Dear friends,

„This is how we can make it – civil society in a spirit of new beginning“ („So schaffen wir das – eine Zivilgesellschaft im Aufbruch“). This is the title of a recently (in Germany) published book well worth reading which determines: „Between 2015 and 2016 around 15000 projects which found creative replies to the manifold challenges of immigration came into being.” It goes on: “In this research project we attempted to take stock of the potentials of the movement on the basis of the analysis of 90 case studies. We asked which specific challenges there exist in 13 different sectors – like housing, health care, judicial advice and education – and how they were addressed. It became clear what great energy for handling social problems there is in current civil society. The projects reveal the potential for a new cooperation not just in dealing with immigrants but within civil society. It became especially obvious that these projects are more than the sum of isolated humanitarian initiatives. On the contrary they are a social movement with a unique profile. It is best characterized as a ´movement of citizens´. Its political core is the formation of political society on a local level.”
This book supports the thesis that on the local and everyday level a network of self-organization and support initiatives has become permanent. Diverse projects – “from sea rescue to solidarity city” – hold their ground against racist repressive poli-tics and right-wing populist medial domination. “While deportation, closing-off and demoralization are the only answers in politics, the movement of citizens out of their own initiative has demonstrated feasible paths to a more open society.”
At the same time the authors name their limitations: “The strengths of this move-ment are its weaknesses as well: The lo-cal and practical nature of the citizens´ movement makes it remarkably sustaina-ble and stable. But it also leads to it being hardly visible on a transregional and na-tional level. Locally and in practice criti-cism of refugee politics is practiced but it is not articulated enough on a transregional and national level.”
But this might change in the months to come. “Get together”, a young federal network of the antiracist movement has recently agreed on a large common mobi-lization for September 2017. On 2nd Sep-tember it will start with various decentral actions which will recall the historic breakthrough against the border regime of two years ago in Hungary. The March of Hope and the Refugee Welcome of 2015 became points of reference for making public and transnationally connecting initiatives and struggles for two weeks according to local conditions. Afterwards, on the 16.9. – and therefore one week before the federal election in Germany – Berlin will be the focal point of a germanwide mobilization. “We´ll come united” is the slogan for the planned mixture of a large demonstration, a parade and a political Community Carnival in the capital city. There will be intense mobilization over the next months, espe-cially on a local level, but there will be transregional opportunities as well: from the church congress in May in Berlin and 20 years of no one is illegal at the docu-menta in Kassel in June to the G20 sum-mit in Hamburg in July.
It seems bold and ambitious to suggest travelling to Berlin on chartered trains – new “trains of hope” – on the 16.9., but we will need exactly this kind of ideas to cre-ate dynamics in this mobilization for the antiracist movement to unfold its potential in everyday struggles for an increased public visibility.

Greetings in solidarity from the Kompass Team

Kompass-Newsletter Nr. 58 – April 2017 (pdf)