Kompass-Newsletter Nr. 55 – December 2016/January 2017 (pdf)
+++ From 6.12. in Göttingen, Köln, Lübeck, Hamburg, Kiel and Berlin – Hotel City Plaza on Tour II +++ 10.12. in Frankfurt, Hildesheim, Bremen, Berlin: Demos against deportations to Afghanistan +++ Balkan route: Pushbacks everywhere +++ Röszke 11: 10 years of prison in show trial +++ uprising in Bulgarian refugee camp +++ escape after fire in deportation prison in Istanbul +++ Campaign: You can`t evict solidarity! +++ Central Mediterranean Sea: record year for arrivals +++ New map of internment camps and hot spots by Migreurop +++ 7.1. in Dessau: Oury Jalloh – not an isolated case +++ 14.1. in Göttingen: Welcome2Stay +++ 21.1. in München: For a big unified AntiRa conference 2017? +++ 28.1. in Karlsruhe: countrywide refugee conference +++ Reviews: Protest against Valletta process, protest against interior minister conference in Saarbrücken +++ Previews: 10/11.2. Action days for right to stay, call for action day on 18th March +++
Dear friends!
When we spoke about “sanctuary cities”, the matter of safe refuges exemplified by the United States in our last edition, we didn´t seriously expect Trump to win the US presidential election. He announced the deportation of two to three million illegalised persons from Mexico as one of the first actions of his office, a crisis which will challenge sanctuary cities especially. Trump´s win will also further encourage European right-wing populists. The polarisation of Europe – currently in Austria and Italy, in France in spring – will in all likelihood increase further. At the same time the Turkey-EU deal is about to collapse and all military build-up in the Central Mediterranean did not prevent the number of arrivals to exceed the 2014 record by the end of November already. Over 170 000 people have made it to Italy in 2016 while the Dublin laws are being reinstalled forcefully there and in other places. Dublin IV is supposed to tighten this “European compulsory residence” immensely in 2017, and since once again refugees and migrants will not adhere to it and will continue to exercise their right to freedom of movement, a chaos of deportation attempts and mass deprivation of rights is inevitable.
EU citizens who migrate northwest from the southeastern countries of crisis are threatened by the same if they can´t find work immediately: they will be excluded from all social benefits according to plans by the SPD minister of labour Andrea Nahles. The scene of the near future: hundreds of thousands being pushed back and forth, in a racially structured multicosmos with few or no social rights, oscillating between poverty and lowest wages…
“What kind of society do we want to live in?” In the face of social crisis this simple yet fundamental question should be asked in a new and stronger manner and across movements. We can and must fill the answer with positive, attainable outlines and position openness, inclusion, social and climate justice against neoliberal austerity and right-wing populist nationalism. This can only be achieved if we connect our mobilisation – locally and transnationally, wherever possible – with practical initiatives for everyday life. Our anti-racist field has several approaches: from campaigns for the right to stay – like currently for Afghanistan – to flight support, from – mostly invisible community solidarity to numerous church asylums, from medical offices to the best hotel in Europe.
“We live together, we fight together – this is not just a slogan on a flyer. It is more a description of our everyday reality in City Plaza since seven months. It is an actual example of solidarity actions and at the same time an experiment of political and social emancipation for us all”. This is how the delegation from Athens described the everyday challenges on their magnificent journey through their series of events in the south of Germany and Switzerland. In the following days they will be on tour through six cities in northern Germany and there they will present their suggestions for a European day of action on March 18th.
It is not only the first anniversary of the EU-Turkey deal as well the complete shutdown of the Balkan Route but also the second anniversary of the Blockupy mobilization to Frankfurt against a policy of austerity. Comrades of City Plaza say that “there are no other options, this story will yet again presented to us when it comes to the current crisis and border regime. We think that we can show with actual fights and demonstrations that there are alternatives and we can make them happen”.
With this in mind we wish a good start into a new year and come back with a new edition of Kompass in the end of January 2017.
The Kompass-Team
Kompass-Newsletter Nr. 55 – December 2016/January 2017 (pdf)