Exchange on Organizing and Resistance in the Lagers made during the Conference on colonial Injustice held in Jena, from September 9 to 13, 2009
Our network is neither profit‐oriented nor caritativ. The activities are pushed forward by activists on voluntary basis. There is neither an official membership nor a membership cards. The members of the network and our community come together in the conviction that the experienced injustice has to be abolished.
Solidarity is our weapon. We set the rules.
- The most important principle is the solidarity among us.
- The fear set to control us can be overcome in solidarity.
- We, the refugees, have to fight for our rights ourselves. We must be aware of that and can be made aware in everyday struggle and in organizing.
- The districts are different from each other, but the offer all the same for us. Our gatherings and solidarity in our movement for our goals are the basis for our work. Therefore we concentrate on our own work and define our common goals. We confront the responsible persons and the politicians with our vision of a society without deportation and racism.
- The institutions have different ways of individual and collective punishment for us. Only through our solidarity we can defend ourselves and overcome the fear of repression.
- The so called integration is a lie. In practice exclusion, selection, and rejection reigns by law. The law does not allow any integration. We want a society in which everyone is accepted as he or she is. The state propagated Integration means assimilation.
- We oppose the threats and the laws of the state like Residenzpflicht, deportations and and and... with our legitimate rights of freedom of movement, right to choose where we want to be and our freedom of speech.
Organizing in the Lagers and in our communities
- Establishing and organizing bases in the lagers and in the refugee and migrant communities.
- Discussion and meetings with other refugees in the places where we are on the true conditions and their descriptions with evidences is our strongest way to expose the crimes of the system.
- Compile documentation that clearly describe the situation and from which our demands are easily derived.
- Invite activists from other places to exchange and strengthen the local structures.
- Compile specific and detailed information on the local problems and conditions, on the behaviour of the Lager and state employees, and on the local asylum policy. Analyze the local political context and the hierarchy structure and make it transparent.
- Transport and publish the documentation and the aims of the movement. Here the network of the CARAVAN plays an important role in spreading and distributing the information and building up support structures.
- Ask different organisations, parties, responsible people and human right organizations to position themselves, to write statements etc. Call for support of the movement.
- When all the above is done, protest can be organised. This protest then can rely on a wider basis and public interest.
Strengthen the movement by connecting the existing local struggles through exchange
- Exchange and coordination of the different refugee communities from different Lagers.
- Establish relations to migrant and mass organizations and build up continuous exchange.
- CARAVAN can offer technical and logistical support in compiling and distributing the information and aim oft he movement. The CARAVAN are we, we who contribute by the variety of our abilities and knowledge.
- The biggest obstacle is and remains the Residenzpflicht. Therefore its abolition remains one of our central demands and the focus of our struggle.
- An archive or database should be built up to gather the information about the different districts and the refugee struggles. Similarities and differences can be documented in this archive. Each documentation of a refugee and each report of a meeting is a contribution to the entire movement and enriches our experience.
- One of our aims by networking is to share our experiences to those who have been thrown newly into the asylum process. We want to share our experience about being a refugee in Germany.
- Seminars and meetings in Lagers and camps are necessary to break the isolation and at the same time to share the experiences of various struggles. This helps to develop and strengthen the trust and selfconfidence among us.
- Information of THE VOICE Refugee Forum and the CARAVAN fort he rights of refugees and migrants in different languages can be used as bases for discussions in the local groups and help strengthening the network. They can be copied and distributed anytime.
- Regular meetings and exchange on different levels (local, regional, and nationwide are important. They are the basis for continuity of our work and for reaching our aims.
The VOICE Refugee Forum
Address: Schillergässchen 5 ‐ 07745 Jena
Tel: +49 (0) 3641 ‐ 6652 14
Fax: +49 (0) 3641 ‐ 420 270
E‐Mail: thevoiceforum@emdash.org
Internet:
https://thevoiceforum.org
http://thecaravan.org