Call for the BREAK ISOLATION! Summercamp
Solidarity Against Colonial Injustice and Attacks on Our Lives
Solidarity Against Colonial Injustice and Attacks on Our Lives
Political working camp and meeting on further development of refugees and migrants communities
BREAK ISOLATION! Refugee Summer Camp 2012 August 23rd to September 2nd 2012, Erfurt/Thuringia, Germany
Dear
Friends, Brothers and Sisters, Combatants,We, THE VOICE Refugee Forum
and the CARAVAN for the Rights of Refugees and Migrants, will organise a
camp this summer. We would like to invite you to spend ten days with
us, looking at the future and discussing how our unity can be
strengthened and developed. We want to reinforce the solidarity between
each other that we have lived in practical actions, and we want to
prepare for struggles in the future. From our years of experience of the
German deportation system in all its forms we know this:
self-determination and self-empowerment for us, the refugees - those who
are directly threatened by the capitalist system - are at the heart of a
movement that aims to overcome exploitation and oppression. We know
that we cannot get closer to this aim unless we have a sharp, clear
focus and a growing base. Ever since the Conference Against Colonial Injustice 2009
(http://thevoiceforum.org/node/1285)
took place, we havebeen working continuously to create local refugee
committees and communities in refugee camps and in several towns. As we
move further on we want to expand and strengthen our solidarity as well
as the relationships between existing and newly-forming local groups.
During
the refugee camp we want to reflect the work we have done up to now,
analyse our political environment, and gain political knowledge. We want
to pass on our experiences from successful struggles in the past to new
activists, and we want to shed light on our weaknesses. Among all the
struggles that go on every day, it is time to analyse where we stand and
what our future path together can be.
At the moment it is
obvious that - despite struggles and resistence against deportation,
residence obligation and police brutality - the German state massively
exacerbates its attacks on refugees and migrants, especially influenced
by the global economic system crisis. Racism is strongly used as an
instrument to divide and rule, so those who causefamine, poverty, the
separation of families, and isolation can continue to hoard riches.
We
witness our countries, our spaces of life, and our societies being
destroyed by the Western world as if in a new World War. This happens in
spite of all social and political uprisings and mass rebellions.
Despite all of the power that unfolded during the protests, we have to
witness decisions about the power in our countries being made by groups
ofpoliticians outside our continents. This is not a new experience, but
its blatant openness is a new slap in the face, and another form of
humiliation - and it shows our own weakness. The purposeful export of
war material, economic sanctions, and political and military
interventions are used to prevent any transformation of the exploitative
situation and to smother any attempt to reach real independence. The
military alliance NATOhas put the world into a permanent state of war
and is still threatening our families in the countries we were forced to
leave.
Not only does the protest against those who cause misery
on our continents grow steadily; young people in Central Europe also
become aware of the lies in the ruler's deceptive propaganda. Those
young people fight against deportation, exploitation and militarisation.
In spite of these facts and in spite of all of our fights, Europe's
outside borders are shut off in a military fashion that grows worse
every day, and the camp system within the EU develops further and
further. The countries at the edges of Europe are made to intercept and
fight off the refugees on behalf of the central countries. The camps and
the military anti-refugee measures are increasingly moved to other
countries outside Central Europe. More and more states turn into lackeys
in the battle against enforced migration, doing dirty work on the
African and Asian continents for the European states. This has
devastating consequences that clearly show the colonial and genocidal
ideology of the ruling elites. Humanity is able to produce enough food
for the whole population of the earth, but every five seconds a child
younger than ten dies of hunger. 37,000 people starve to death every
day, and a billion people are permanently extremely undernourished.
Every 60 seconds a person dies through firearms, and every year 500,000
people die from gunshot wounds. At the same time, German companies are
the third-largest arms exporter worldwide.
Capitalism has long lost
its golden mask. The destruction of the earth continues, not only
killing people, but also destroying the basis of life for future
generations. That is why our protest as a part of the struggle against
this constant destruction is increasingly important and vitally
necessary.
More and more people are involved in our justified
resistance, but it seems to be waning in comparison to the amount of
destruction and number of attacks we have to witness. Political clarity
and the analysis and elaboration of the structures of authority and
power need time, collective study, and insight. However, we ourselves
are children of colonialism and capitalism. Splintering and competition
within our own resistance movements weaken the entire action against the
capitalist diktat.We are influenced by the effects of "colonial
heritage" & the colonial mentality. We are connected through the
chain which colonialism created between the countries that were
oppressors and those that were oppressed.
It is not only our movement
that is weakened by infiltration and manipulation through people who
pretend to be allies, but covertly follow an agenda of their own, which
sometimes only includes securing their own life and status. Such
influences weaken the core of the movement: the self-determination and
self-empowerment of those who are immediately concerned.
That is
why we - The VOICE Refugee Forum and the CARAVAN for the Rights of
Refugees and Migrants - invite you to come to the ten-day meeting in the
German federal country of Thuringia. Get involved in the development of
self-determined and self-organised refugee communities and committees.
Be part of the solidarity platform for refugees in the CARAVAN network.
Everyone who wants to join the refugees' struggle and to overcome racism and colonial mentality - come to the camp in Thuringia!
The
goal of the camp is to strengthen and concentrate the refugees'
resistance. That is what all of our discussions and analyses should
focus on. We do not aim to present to each other future campaigns and
actions or exchange information about one another. We want to strengthen
our solidarity through active communication and find out together how
our own freedom is connected to the freedom of others. How can I make
your struggle mine, and how can we act together?
Among the
central points will be the experiences refugee communities have made
with the racist policies and practices of the German system of camps and
deportation, but also our practices of defence and self-organisation.
Concrete
experiences of resistance and solidarity break the circle of fear and
powerlessness. This includes gaining technical and organisatory
knowledge.
During the camp, we want to take time to reflect upon
and analyse the current situation in Germany as well as in our countries
of origin, working out which reactions to those conditions are demanded
from our resistance movement and strengthening our political awareness
in the process. The campaign "War Against Migration & War Against
Flight" will be a main point of the camp. All refugees and migrants are
invited to prepare their experiences with this issue and present them to
each other.
The entire camp will be based on the principle of
solidarity, since we have learnt that solidarity among oppressed people
is our strongest weapon and our enemy's worst fear. The CARAVAN Festival
Against Colonial Injustice in Jena, Thuringia in 2010
(http://karawane-festival.org) was called a bastion of solidarity, and
that was how all those who attendedsaw it. The 2012 camp wants to make
sure that the principle of solidarity is followed permanently in
everyday life. The CARAVAN network still exists in its original form,
offering space for active participation and the creation of local groups
and initiatives that aim to aid the self-organisation and
self-empowerment of refugees and migrants.
The camp's agenda will
include plans and specifications for the tribunal against the Federal
Republic of Germany, which will take place in Berlin in summer 2013. All
refugees will be invited as witnesses and aggrieved parties to document
systematic violations of human rights. Our aims include encouraging
female refugees, who often are those who suffer most in the German camp
system. In the future our documentation shall provide indisputable proof
against all attempts to deny the crimes against us that have been, and
are still being, committed.
The camp will offer us space for our
cultural diversity and the ways in which we express ourselves. We invite
all of you to show your talents for music, painting, poetry, dance,
sports and games. Children-Care will be provided in the camp. Don't wait
for someone to promise you a solution. They will not come. Don't wait
until your own problems have grown so big they force you to act - by
then it will be too late. Don't think it's not your concern because you
are not a refugee anymore or never were a refugee. We are all connected
through the chain of colonial injustice.
Stop the war against flight!
Solidarity with the power of refugee resistance in Germany!
Solidarity with the international movement of refugees and migrants against exploitation and oppression!
Get organised against the German and European regime of isolation camps for refugees and deportations!
Unite against colonial injustice!
Break isolation, overcome all barriers that keep you separated - unite and fight!
Information on the camp and organization: refugeecamp2012@riseup.net
Camp
coordination network: Karawane Network and Refugee Initiatives in
Thueringen, Wuppertal, Hamburg, Berlin, Mohlau, Hannover Augsburg and
Rockstock.
Contact: The VOICE Refugee Forum; Schillergaesschen 5, 07745 Jena;
Tel.: ++49 (0) 176 24568988; Email: thevoiceforum (ät) gmx.de
http://thecaravan.org ; http://thevoiceforum.org
http://breakisolation.blogsport.de
Appeal for Support, Mobilize and Donation
As
you all know, The VOICE Refugee Forum with the nationwide network of
the Caravan-for the rights of refugees and migrants is organising a
BREAK ISOLATION! Refugee Summer Camp, in Erfurt, Thueringen from 23rd
August to 2nd September 2012, in Solidarity against Colonial Injustice.
A
political working camp, meetings and workshops will be taking place
with different communities of migrants and refugees. We are calling on
all self-organised and pro-refugee self organised activists, supporters,
friends and antiracist campaigners to join us in the mobilization of
refugees and migrants from the different regions and Lagers to this
summer camp to continue and support our daily struggles against
injustice and abuse of our rights, discrimination, societal and
institutional racism.
We want to strengthen our solidarity and
unity against colonial injustice. In Solidarity with the growing
international movement against exploitation and oppression by the
monster with its project FRONTEX. The FRONTEX is part of the
paramilitary instruments to accelerate the pro colonial occupation and
control of the refugee home countries and their borders from Europe,
vigorously spear-headed by Germany that flaunts refugee isolation and
exclusion camps, "gutschein", "residenzpflicht", police brutality and
deportation as models for other European countries to adopt.
The
summer camp will highlight refugee resistance in the face of
intimidation in Germany and critically analyse the European war against
migration as continuity of colonial heritage of exploitation, vandalism
and brutality in our home countries.
Protest the racism of the German state institutions!
The
campaigns against deportation collaboration will be part of
manifestation and input in the Summer Camp. This will connect the
various forms of the execution of deportations by the German State and
the collaborative institutions, both on the federal and local
authorities, with the non governmental institutions and corporate
agencies, includingthe collaboration of the refugee embassies and their
home countries.
The Power of protest and resistance, It is happening!
In
October 2011, It was like part of our engagement to call for the Break
Isolation Camp that would take place in August 2012 in Thueringen and it
was going to be the first and only refugee camp in Germany this year
but when the Iranian refugees from Wurzburg started their tent protest
in March this year and the same striking refugees are spreading the
protest to other cities and towns in Germany till now, "we gotta realize
that more camps are on the move to the refugee summer camp in Erfurt",
emphasized Osaren Igbinoba.
The Refugee Summer Camp will host
exhibitions and films of refugee protests and discussions with the
participants of the Protest Tent strikes and other Iranian refugees from
Wurzburg and elsewhere, where the strikes have spread.
Refugee protest actions will be discussed.
Mobilize, Organize and Donate for the Break-Isolation Camp in Thueringen:
Please inform refugees and migrants in your neighbourhood and beyond to join us for the camp.
For
a successful nationwide mobilization, documentation and transportation
cost for refugees and migrants' activists within and outside Germany we
urgently need your financial support and donations also for the camp
infrastructural in Erfurt.
Check for updated informations as we
get closer to the events of the Break Isolation Refugee Summer Camp in
August. For those supporters and activists who are not affiliated with
the Caravan network please download more information on the refugee
struggles in Germany from our web site (http://thecaravan.org and
http://thevoiceforum.org )
Donations for The Break Isolation Camp:
Förderverein The VOICE e.V.
Kto.-Nr. 140061
Sparkasse Göttingen
BLZ: 260 500 01
Stichwort: Break Isolation Camp