debate on demands, struggles, window of opportunity...Re: Munich, 26. Octomber; Re: actions against the EU Council (24th-25th october)?‏

dear all,
very good and important discussions from last days (see attached 
again the emails from martina, salvi, bernd, paola and conni ...) and 
great, if action2-mailinglist is also used more for such debates as 
well and not only for information exchange. would be nice to hear 
more voices from more cities/countries...

a few more remarks and questions:
i guess, bernd is right, that public attention will probably fade 
soon, following the news-logic of medias and less boatpeople in late 
autumn (- although in germany the uselessness of the debates on 
migration during the eu-summit in brussels were a big topic again, 
the german government was even critisized as blocking force... while 
800 refugees arrived in lampedsua again and simultanously we see an 
incredible strong moblisation for „lampedusa in hamburg“ with 10.000 
(!) demonstrators last friday in hamburg, while we were about 300 to 
protest in Frankfurt...)

in any case we should go on to use the next weeks and months to 
improve the communication between various struggles, to try to (re) 
discuss common demands and to think, if it might be useful to 
develope and prepare a more coordinated transeuropean mobilisation or 
campaign against the eu-migration- and borderregime next springtime 
and summer ...

i guess, we have in common, that we want to emphasize to the 
struggles (against all kind of victimisation) and that we want to 
interconnect the struggles at the external borders with the ones 
inside the various eu-countries. if we look back to last weeks and 
months, i cannot remember to a more dense period of simultanous 
migrationrelated struggles all over europe and beyond since last 15 
years: ongoing protests from relatives of disappeared and of choucha 
refugees in tunesia, storming (or swimming around) the fences in 
melilla and ceuta, revolts in the detention camps in greece, the no- 
fingerprint struggle in july in lampedusa, and all the ongoing 
selforganised protests and strikes and support activities at least in 
cities in italy, hungary, austria, belgium, france, netherlands, 
switzerland and germany (so far we could follow on this mailinglist...).

but which way it might be possible to bundle the manifold but also 
splitted protests and struggles? do we need concrete successful 
mobilisations? what does it mean? how to develope enforcement 
strategies for material improvements, which also extend the spaces to 
continue and to push the selforganisation- and empowerment processes? 
how to combine a more general perspective with very specific demands? 
how to move „between reforms and revolution“?

in the discussion below some points were already mentioned to avoid 
traps to get into the logics of the borderregime: not to (re)affirm 
categories and separations between refugees and migrants; not to 
follow and not to keep open any door for externalisation policies; 
not to try to reform bodies like frontex, which have ony been created 
to combat („illegal“ - selforganised) migration; ...

what are concrete demands to be rediscussed? most of them might not 
be realistic to enforce in next time, but should help to move between 
„reforms and revolution“ and to bring together the various struggles:
open migration/flight routes: temporary visa at the external borders/ 
from embassies in transit-countries for a country of choice?
de-criminalisation of all help/rescue-operations for boatpeople in 
distress but also of the undocumented immigration itself;
no reform rather the abolishment of frontex and eurosur, but why not 
demanding for a new body for sea-rescue-operations with the onliest 
and defintive task to rescue and to transport to european coasts?
to abolish dublin II (and dublin III has to be implemented now in the 
memberstates) and to support the undermining process with the groups 
like lampedusa in hamburg, the refugees from hungary in karlsruhe, 
the syrians from milano... and simltanously we to go on and help to 
push the hundreds of successful legal cases against deportations back 
to italy or hungary...;
to stop deportations and all kind of social exclusion (isolation);
to abolish any conditional link between residence permission and 
labour contracts;

common process and spaces:
a few days ago i saw the report of an international meeting of 
selforganised groups in brussels (which hopefully soon will be send 
to action2-mailinglist as well) and where another meeting is planned...;
some people form various groups will try to use the europeanwide 
meetings like agora 99 in rome from 1st to 3rd of november and the 
action conference of blockupy on 22nd to 24th of november in 
frankfurt for exchanges...;
i have red about the idea of an international meeting planned in 
lampedusa, but i do not know the concrete proposal and – if we agree 
to focus to the struggles all over europe – perhaps not the best place?
the process the global actionday on 18th of december could be used as 
well for further discussion;
and in germany we just started to discuss to prepare another 
germanwide conference („no border last forever III“) for february 
2014...

can we develope more collaborative autumn- and winterdiscussions in 
order to start a better coordinated springtime offensive? and which 
could last or even culminate in common protests against the 
migrationrelated summit in june?

best greetings,
hagen

Am 23.10.2013 um 22:12 schrieb conni:

> Only a short reaction, because I am a little tired of many 
> demonstrations and other activities concerning “Lampedusa in 
> Hamburg”: I agree to you, Paola (and Hagen before) that the actual 
> situation and also the widespread interest of media and a big part 
> of the population for migration issues is connected with migrant 
> struggles all over Europe and beyond – this is what we also wanted 
> to express in our transnational appeal for “Lampedusa in Hamburg”. 
> And everyday I am surprised again how many different people take 
> part in demonstrations and other support of these refugees in 
> Hamburg and start talking about borders, Dublin II, Frontex etc.
> Also, I don’t like the expression “humanitarian corridor” and would 
> prefer “access to Europe” (by the way: also Pro Asyl and the 
> Refugee Councils in Germany wrote this). But I think (like Helmut 
> from FFM) that the idea to propose to refugees and migrants in 
> transit countries to go (in big numbers) to European embassies and 
> other EU institutions, is very good and could be part of a struggle 
> which is already going on. One guy to whom I told this mentioned 
> the people who occupied Western embassies in Eastern Europe, which 
> was one struggle leading to the opening of the “iron curtain”. 
> Maybe to compare this is difficult, but what I want to say: The 
> appeal to open European institutions for applications of (not only 
> asylum seekers, but also other) migrants could be an element of 
> struggles and not necessarily of externalisation, if it will not 
> remain a demand written on paper, but a concrete proposal to 
> migrants. I already gave the example of Choucha and I think it is a 
> pity that there was no support for these people when they tried to 
> go to European embassies in Tunis – but maybe there could be more 
> support and publicity for such actions?
> Conni
>
> From: Paola 
> Sent: Wednesday, October 23, 2013 1:18 PM
> To: 
> Subject: Re:  Munich, 26. Octomber;Re: actions against 
> the EU Council (24th-25th october)?
>
> Dear All,
> As Coordinamento Migranti we discussed the possibility of 
> organizing actions during the meeting of the EU council on October 
> 24/25. However, we finally decided not to do it for reasons that 
> concern organization. Furthermore, we really doubt that this kind 
> of pressure could have any effect, though we agree with our German 
> comrades that an opposition to the current government of migration 
> is always useful, mainly when migrants are actively involved. This 
> is our main point: we believe that even what happened in Lampedusa 
> must be connected with migrants’ general struggles. We believe that 
> what happened in Lampedusa is not a humanitarian problem, but the 
> most horrible face of the wider problem concerning the repression 
> and exploitation of migrants’ global movement.
> We do not support or subscribe the call for a humanitarian corridor 
> for two main reasons. First, it propose a distinction between 
> migrants and refugees that cannot be sustained, and so it accepts 
> the externalization of the borders toward third countries against 
> which we fought in the last years. Furthermore, asylum seekers 
> would hardly succeed in applying to the EU embassy in the country 
> where they are oppressed, or they would run the risk of being 
> repressed even more and more. If they apply in transit countries, 
> what then? Should they wait an answer in a camp built by the EU in 
> Libia, or Tunisia? In this case, camps would have an extra- 
> territorial statute within the hosting States. Is this realistic? 
> Is this what we actually want? In general terms, those who are 
> escaping have no time or possibility to stop into an office for an 
> application. We support their right to escape, but could it depend 
> on European authorization? Beyond the good intentions of those who 
> formulated and are supporting the proposal of a humanitarian 
> corridor, we believe that it is politically unpracticable.
> What Bernd suggest seems much more interesting, since it faces the 
> question of borders directly and refuses both the logic of 
> emergency (which is implicit in the call for a humanitarian 
> corridor) and whatever proposal which could enforce rather than 
> question the selective function of European borders. It is just 
> against this function of selection and differentiation that on 
> March 23 we tried to connect the struggles of migrant workers here 
> in Italy with those of the refugees in Amsterdam and Berlin. 
> Bernd’s proposals is open to some of the risks stressed above about 
> the humanitarian corridor. However, it could be a good provocation 
> when connected to the break of the link between labour contract and 
> residence permit claimed by migrants already living in Europe, 
> since they would point out not only at the border experience but 
> also at the everyday condition of migrants within the EU borders. 
> We believe that these questions should be taken into the account if 
> we wish to assume the right European and transnational dimension of 
> this struggle.
> All the best
> Paola (Coordinamento Migranti)
>
>
>
> Il Martedì 22 Ottobre 2013 14:01, Martina 
>  ha scritto:
> Dear all,
>
> yesterday evening we finalized our call for the protest that we 
> will do in Milan (and we hope also in other parts of Italy) on the 
> 25th of October . We will try to involve also the Syrian refugee 
> now in Milan
>
> http://leventicinqueundici.noblogs.org/ (there is also the text in 
> English)
>
> as you can see in the text we mention the other demonstration that 
> will take place in Germany. We have also published on our blog the 
> appeal made by Syrians blocked in Calais that I met last Sunday there
>
> we hope that this is a first step to build coordinated action/ 
> statements in the near future
>
> all the best,
> Martina
>
>
>
>
> Il Martedì 22 Ottobre 2013 12:44, bernd kasparek <bk@antira.info> 
> ha scritto:
> ok, let me try again...
>
> thank you very much for making this a topic on the list. 
> Coincidentally,
> we will have a demonstration in Munich on the 26th of October.
>
> here is the call, we are also looking for support (not exclusively 
> from
> Munich)
>
> http://lampedusa.karawane-muenchen.org/call/
>
>
> Building on what Hagen said, public opinion in Germany seems very
> favourable these days, there are a lot of very strong articles in the
> media, and journalists are writing/calling for more information
> constantly. It is good that there has been so much knowledge and
> information gathering from the movement over the last years, since now
> we can answer, give the right information, offer political opinion 
> on it.
>
> While I strongly support the notion of seizing this favourable moment
> and get out on the streets, etc, I also think we need to discuss 
> how we
> can carry that moment beyond the point in time when public attention
> will inevitably fade again. As Martina rightly pointed out, the EU
> council will seek mitigating strategies that will not solve the 
> issue at
> hand, might probably disguise and worsen it. There will be a new push
> for externalisation. To counter this, we will need to reconnect the
> struggles of the borders with the struggles against the attacks on
> mobility rights within the EU, and Europe.
>
> On a personal note, I am not convinced that a humanitarian corridor is
> the right demand in this hour, for it will merely add to the already
> differentiated character of the border, without questioning its
> selective nature at all. We would need to find a demand that is 
> more in
> line with the movements of migration towards europe, challenging the
> border at large. If we are into reforms, it should rather be something
> like the right to obtain, at the border and unconditionally, a 
> temporary
> visa for the purpose of applying for asylum in Europe at a place of
> one's own choice. This would not create limited spots and institutions
> at the border through which a certain mobile population can be 
> funneled
> and ultimately governed, and it would at the same time undermine the
> Dublin principle of "country of first entry". Even if this is still 
> not
> a very realistic demand, the discussion would exploit the rift within
> the border regime: Those that favour a strong border and border 
> police,
> and those that are sceptical that such a practice can deliver on
> Europe's humanitarian obligations. The argument would be that despite
> the obligation to grant access to asylum (see Hirsi vs. Italy), border
> police is neither willing nor capable (due to their task) to 
> fulfill. So
> why not take that task off their hands by unconditionally legalising
> asylum migration through the institution of such a visa. We would also
> avoid the stupid discussion about whether Frontex can be reformed.
>
> Admittedly, this is only a half-cooked idea, and more of an invitation
> to discuss. I guess we should be seeking out venues where we can
> continue this discussion, and document it to some extent.
>
> best wishes
>
> Bernd
>

hi everybody
in switzerland, we had actions on the issue this weekend: http:// 
www.blick.ch/news/schweiz/demonstrierende-zeigen-solidaritaet-mit- 
fluechtlingen-id2483023.html. so i guess there will not be actions on 
24/25th october, sorry.
the situation here is similar to germany. switzerland is not member 
of the eu but involved in dublin, schengen and frontex. a lot of mass 
media report on the issue, partly critically. surprisingly, a lot of 
parlamentary of so-called centre were positive to the idea to 
reintroduce the possibility to ask for asylum in a swiss embassy - if 
it would be introduced on a eu-level. this possibility existed here 
until october 2012, and then, the same politicians decided to change 
the law. we made a referendum but lost it in june 2013. three months 
ago, they apparently changed their mind.
personally, i'm not against an humanitarian corridor to the eu, but 
want to point out that this would worsen the problem refugees find in 
the neighbour countries of eu. for example, one of the reactions of 
right-wing-politicians in switzerland to the discussions in mass 
media is to build swiss lagers in northern africa. the possibility to 
ask for asylum in an eu-embassy in the country of origin or nearby, i 
guess, is even better. another important action of the eu-states 
should be to accept much more refugees the unhcr asks to resettle. 
maybe you see a way to introduce these revendications in your 
struggles and actions too.
in solidarity
salvi


An: Action2-l@mail.kein.org
Betreff: Re:  actions against the EU Council (24th-25th 
october)?
dear all,
we agree to Martinas/Leventincinqueundici initiative and as 
mentioned, we plan for our region (rhine-main/frankfurt) already 
manifestations coming friday and saturday... in germany the topic of
boatpeople and frontex is just present everywhere in the mass medias 
and it is much more critical (mainly against frontex) than ever 
before. it seems to us as an important window of opportunity to push 
our demands and aims and of course mainly to connect with the ongoing 
refugee struggles... in freiburg and bremen demonstrations took place 
last weeks, the day before yesterday another one in rostock. and in 
hamburg, as sent already to the list, the struggle of lampedusa in 
hamburg is continously vivid... various calls, also from the cultural 
spectrum, circulate for another refugee- and immigration-policy...i 
cannot remember a similiar situation for last 20 years!
would be nice to hear, what is the situation in other countries and 
cities?
we cannot imagine to homogenize quickly our various approaches and 
protests in or under a common call. but lets communicate more in 
these days and lets try to bundle and to refer to each other as much 
as possible.
best greetings,
hagen

>  Martina Tazzioli wrote:
> > Dear all,
> >
> > I write to the list because since on the 24th and on the 25th of
> > October there will be the EU Council in Bruxelles concerning future
> > measures on migration following the tragedy of Lampedusa, 
> Federica and
> > I, as part of the group Leventincinqueundici were thinking about
> > organizing some common actions across Europe outside European 
> embassy
> > and consulates.
> >
> > We think that the next EU meeting will pave the ground for an 
> increasing
> > militarization of the Mediterranean (enforcement of Frontex and
> > deployments of drones as Italy has already started to do the last 
> week).
> > Thus, although we are aware that many of you are already involved in
> > other actions at the moment, like the refugee struggles in 
> Germany, the
> > EU meeting won't be exclusively on Lampedusa and Italy but will 
> concern
> > migration policies at large.
> > For this reason we think that even if a common action is not 
> possible at
> > this point, maybe a series of decentralized actions and sit-in 
> could be
> > also fine (we know that there will be some protests in Frankfurt 
> and in
> > other towns in Germany during those days). however, we were 
> wondering
> > if, at least, it would be possible to address our protests against
> > what's happening now at the European level after Lampedusa. We, as a
> > group, will also support the Meltingpot statement
> > http://www.meltingpot.org/Portiamo-l-appello-per-un-canale- 
> umanitario-sul-tavolo-del.html#.UmK78fk71qU
> >
> > but we would also like to do something more than sending or bringing
> > this to the EU... so, I don't know if the struggle against the
> > militarization of the Mediterranean could be supported also in your
> > struggles the next week. We will try to involve also the families 
> of the
> > missing migrants, since it would be very important that it is a 
> struggle
> > from one shore to the other.
> >
> > We hope that it will be possible to do something in connection 
> with you
> >
> > all the best,
> > Martina