On July 3 to 5 the International Migrant Alliance organises its second assembly in Manila, Philippines. The network of the CARAVAN for the rights of refugees and migrants and THE VOICE Forum have prepared a magazine as their contribution to the second assembly. Here, the contents of this magazine are presented. You can get the printed magazine itself by contacting the CARAVAN groups in Hamburg or Wuppertal.
CARAVAN for the rights of refugees and migrants
Contribution of
“The CARAVAN for the rights of refugees and migrants"(Germany)
to the
Second Assembly of the International Migrants Alliance
organised by:
The International Migrants Alliance (IMA) et al.
on:
“The Global Movement of Migrants: Current Situation and Resistance Against Imperialist Attacks”
and
“International Laws and Labor Agreements: Strategies for Migrant Workers’ Protection”.
July 3 - 5, 2011
At the:
University of the Philippines Hotel (UP Hotel) in Diliman
Quezon City, Philippines.
- Introduction
- Who We Are and What We Do - Self Description Paper
- Caravan International Congress of Refugees and Migrants Jena 2000
- The VOICE of the DEAD and those still going to DIE
- Call for the Caravan 2007 Nation-wide Tour
- Celebrating Ten Years of resistance and solidarity
- Colonial Injustice and Festival statement
- Brief statements from CARAVAN activists (Seid and Ahmed)
- Two poems by a refugee
„Freedom of Movement“
Action Days against Residenzpflicht
(17th -19th May, 2001, Berlin)
The campaign against Residenzpflicht reached its peak with the action days in Berlin. For three days, the Schlossplatz, a main square in the centre of Berlin, was turned into an unusual accommodation for refugees and their supporters. Surrounded by a stage, open kitchens and information stands. A small tent town was created in the middle of the usual touristy sites of „Unter den Linden“. Refugees who usually have to live in remote camps were able to conquer step by step the Schlossplatz in the centre of Berlin and to actually circumvent the Residenzpflicht. Most refugees came to Berlin without the „Urlaubsschein“ (official permission to leave the district). More information about the struggle against that particular law: here.
1. Introduction
On behalf of the CARAVAN for the rights of refugees and migrants in Germany, we bring you warm greetings from comrades, brothers and sisters with the strongest feeling of solidarity and strength. We’re honoured to be invited to this very important gathering and we’re happy to participate and share our hands-on experiences of the daily struggles and resistance of refugees and migrants against the increasingly brutal and inhuman capitalist system that is the scourge of the masses.
„CARAVAN Festival 2010
Unite against colonial injustice
in commemoration of the victims of Fortress Europe
First, we want to affirm our agreement with and commitment to the “Basis of Unity” paper of the International Migration Alliance (IMA). Further, we are very much in agreement with Dr. Irene Fernandez in her Keynote Address to the Founding Assembly of IMA in 2008. Obviously, these papers cover quite a broad range of issues and areas touching on some of the complications and difficulties that is today associated with migration and the unbearable but preventable hazards that has been engineered into its processes by hawks of migration policing and control. However, the breadth of the issue and its general interconnectedness to the economic and financial imperatives of the modern state renders it malleable to the manipulations of politicians and capitalist agents with the primary aim to exploit and profit at human expense.
What has become clear is that they may wage their war on us in different forms, but the bottom line is the same. Therefore, we believe that in whatever form we feel confronted and attacked by their savagery, we must devise our modus of resistance accordingly. As you shall see in this brochure, we started out as refugees and migrant groups and have since then developed into a nation-wide network in Germany. In the process, we have developed different and varied ways of resistance against oppression, racism, exploitation and violation of our human rights and dignity and here, we provide samples and a few highlights of our daily struggles. We’re open to learn from your experiences and strategies in the hope and belief that together, our common experiences, principles and commitments will ensure the achievements of our common goals.
We are deeply convinced of the very crucial roles that groups and networks resisting in our home countries play in achieving these goals because together, we reserve the right to tell our own stories and experiences, and expose the reality in our home countries in our own voices. This is why amongst other reasons, we maintain enduring connections to the realities of where we come from. In the same vein, we are open to work and collaborate with, learn from and share experiences with genuine progressive individuals and groups on the basis of mutual respect as equal partners because we believe that these, together with trust and commitment, is the minimum basis for genuine and non-paternalistic solidarity.
As you shall find in different aspects of our engagement presented in our contribution here and elsewhere, we stick to these principles and values even when they may not be popular, fashionable or politically correct in our socio political environment. We claim nothing unique in this as we are sure there are brothers and sisters here with similar experiences. And this is not a hindrance. Together, we shall harness these experiences and further the struggle with it.
Yours in Solidarity,
The CARAVAN for the rights of refugees and migrants.
Long live the Caravan!
Long live the IMA!!
Long live the Struggle of the People!!!
Defending our activists by our presence in the streets.
Engin Celik from Kurdistan/Turkey
after his hunger strike and his release from prison
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2. Who We Are and What We Do - Self Description Paper
This paper was discussed and agreed in a longer process of discussion in the year 2003. Since then it is the base of the understanding of our network and guideline of our practice.
The entire text is published here:
http://thecaravan.org/positionE
Defending our activists by our presence in courts.
Aboubakhar Wan from Sierra Leone was supported
by strong campaigns for his right to stay.
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3. Caravan International Congress of Refugees and Migrants Jena 2000
The Jena Congress was the first congress organized by refugees themselves in Germany. It was one of the strongest demonstration of international solidarity demonstrated by refugees from different countries in Germany. Below the call for this congress is presented.
Pictures of the Jena congress are published on http://www.umbruch-bildarchiv.de
The "CARAVAN" movement started in 1998 just before the German elections. With the slogan "we have no vote but we have a voice" we travelled to 44 German cities in 35 days and enabled tens of thousands of refugees to express themselves politically. It laid the basis for refugees and migrants originating from Africa, Asia, Middle East, South America and German anti-racist groups to come together in a principled unity. It was not only the common threat of deportation and commonly felt racism that brought us together.
The CARAVAN Hunger Strike in Köln with the slogan "we are here because you destroy our countries" expressed another important aspect of our politics. With this hunger-strike refugees from all over the world accused the representatives of the richest countries in the world who met in Germany during the European Union and the G7 summits in 1999, that in order to maximise their profits they are supporting dictators and fascist regimes in the lands of our origin thus laying the basis for our suffering and our flight.
HUNGER STRIKE on June 19th - 22nd, 2004 at “Gendarmenmarkt” in Berlin.
More information: here
When we came forward to fight for our rights we faced extra repression. But in the past year and a half the CARAVAN movement has been successful in defending those who endangered themselves by joining the struggle. Further, the CARAVAN movement has started to operate successfully as a network connecting different cities and nationalities together and laying the initial foundation stones for a serious movement.
Yet the struggle is being continuously moved on to higher planes by the industrialised nations, with increasingly advanced technology being added to the arsenal of repression for the exclusion and removal of `foreign criminals'. While more and more sophisticated propaganda is mobilised to justify and cover up the pillage of the countries of origin and the brutal repression of any resistance which permits them to do so.
It is now time we feel for reflection as well of action. We must on the one hand consolidate and build on our achievements but also consider new strategies of survival and resistance. As the Kafkaesque fortress Europe becomes an all too real nightmare for foreigners and when `ordinary' European Citizens are encouraged to become spies and special militias to combat the supposed enemy from without; more than ever before the fate of the struggle of our brothers and sisters in our countries of origin will be determined by our effective solidarity and the strategies we develop. But deportation and isolation destroy the possibility of such solidarity being built. It is in this context that the CARAVAN for the rights of refugees and migrants will organise a ten day congress aimed at gathering forces to build an effective unity against deportations and social exclusion.
Deportation is a gross violation of human rights not only because it means that refugees fleeing persecution torture and death are cynically handed over to their executioners but also because it is the violation of the freedom of movement from poor to rich countries which has come to symbolise the creation of a world-wide system of apartheid between the few entitled to enjoy the fruits of neo-liberalism and the many, who in the words of a Tamil poet, `bear our destiny seared on our foreheads like a mark of Cain'. The small number of us who manage the come into the fortress Europe are now facing increasing pressure and such humiliation, to make our lives so difficult that we leave `voluntarily'.
Social exclusion has two dimension, on the one hand it prevents any human contact between the refugees and migrants and the local population, to say nothing of integration. But it is also an attempt to lock foreigners in a political vacuum and make it impossible for us to counter the vicious propaganda spread by the industrialised powers of the reality in our countries of origin or of effectively expressing their solidarity with the resistance of their brothers and sisters.
We feel that the theme of fighting against deportation and social exclusion brings together all the strands of our struggle. When we fight deportations we fight not only for our human rights to be treated as equals but we also tear asunder painted veil of lies and corruption with which industrialised nations attempt to obscure their pillage of our lands and the resistance of our brothers and sisters and legitimise the brutal regimes whose only legitimacy is that of being partners in this crime.
When we fight against social exclusion we fight not only for our right to be part of human society and not be herded into the ghettos of our times but also to be able to be truly in solidarity with those who resist and fight in the lands we left behind. This unforgiving onslaught on our rights has not broken our spirit. From the isolated prisons called refugee camps we will come out fighting. This massive conference, co-ordinated by the Voice Africa Forum - which is the core of the CARAVAN group in Jena, will show the seriousness in which we will `Unite Against Deportation and Social Exclusion'
Although this is called a refugee congress and is organised fundamentally by the refugees, all serious anti-racists are encouraged to prepare themselves now so that you have the 21 April to the 1st May in the year 2000 free to participate in this important event. Your contribution will be a necessary part to the building of a successful fight-back. Further we call on all refugees, migrants and anti-racists at this early stage to contribute your ideas to the content of the congress as the program is still fairly open.
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4. The VOICE of the DEAD and those still going to DIE
This text was written for the annual report of the Committee for Basic Rights and Democracy. It was written shortly after the end of the the first series of trials in the case of Oury Jalloh, who was burnt to death in a police cell in Germany.
The entire text you find here: http://thecaravan.org/node/1934
The VOICE of the DEAD and those still going to Die
"...This is their VOICE and the VOICE of all those who are still going to die in the cruel hands of this system and society. This is the main reason of our fight and why we want to be self-organised and autonomous: to protect ourselves, also from those who cannot help to protect us anymore."
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5. Call for the Caravan 2007 Nation-wide Tour
In 2007 the G8 was organised in Germany. The CARAVAN together with other groups organised a tour during which the German and the G8 policy was shown to the people in different cities and protests where organised.
The full Coverage of the CARAVAN tour 2007 with call, reports, pictures and films you can find here:
http://thecaravan.org/node/1175
"...We have involuntarily fled our countries, we have migrated, and many, many more will follow suit.
Whoever has taken or will take these steps must know that freedom is not a gift but must be fought for, to be attained. We are prepared to take this course to attain our freedom for the space of our freedom today, is the space of our common struggle. Everyday and everywhere, with our deeds and our pens we fight, with our voices we say loud and clear:
We are here because you destroy our Countries! Freedom of movement for all! Stop all deportations!"
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6. Celebrating ten years of resistance and international solidarity (2008)
Full text: http://thecaravan.org/node/1626
"...Since our formation 10 years ago, we have maintained a constant campaign in defense of our rights as human beings. In countless actions and various campaigns, we have fought against the continuation of colonial structures and the racist mind-set, against deportations and the racist special laws like “residence obligation law” (residenzpflicht), isolation camps, police brutality and against Germany’s collaboration with the regimes we fled from. We have never stopped denouncing the strengthening of the European wall which costs thousands of lives every year. We have never forgotten the people we left behind in our home countries, the kind of misery they have to live in and what the roots of this misery are.
[...]
And 10 years on….the resistance and solidarity continues…
From the very beginning, self organisation and the solidarity with refugee struggle has been the core of the Caravan-network. Without the leading role of active refugees, the caravan would not exist as we know it. In the past 10 years we have learned an indisputable fact: solidarity is one of our major weapons. As a result, we will continue to welcome and nurture genuine solidarity that is devoid of paternalism and ulterior motives."
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7. Colonial Injustice and Festival statement Statement
On Colonial Injustice and the Continuity of Barbarity
The Situation of Human Beings as Refugees and Migrants in Germany
Full text: http://thecaravan.org/node/2260
"...They think they are better than us; they have falsely and crudely taken us for their “Untermensch”(subhuman). We, who come from such rich cultures. We, whose wealth has been brutally vandalised and expropriated to feed the insatiable greed of Western consumers. We, who have braved their abetted dictators and their dubious, unscrupulous economic policies. We, who in spite of the increasing militarization of our countries and their own borders, have courageously confronted them and escaped their attempts to imprison us in the horror they have created for us at home. And we, who have dared to stand up for truth, justice, and our principled beliefs, while maintaining human dignity and decency all through."
[...]
But as their instruments of exploitation and dominance becomes more brutal so too do the pangs of capitalism clutches harder. A new world is now emerging, one whose shape and future has yet to be determined. But we should not expect any respite from this system. However, because we are and have always been historical actors of our own destiny, the world to come will be defined by us. And no matter their continued barbarity and profound ignorance of human essence, our destiny is in our hands. It is we, who will determine our future. Not their debased policies and border regimes.
We must never forget that those of us who have been converted into refugees and migrants come from regions of the world that make up the great majority of humanity. And we are not, contrary to the filth and poison injected into our minds for the last five hundred years, in any way inferior. On the contrary, human history will remember the so-called Western Civilization as the most cruel, destructive and exclusive imperial power to have ever existed. Will we ever know how many billions of human beings directly or indirectly perished because of it?
..."
The CARAVAN Festival 2010: Statement
“Unite Against Colonial Injustice in Memory of the Dead and Victims of Fortress Europe”
In less than two weeks, the long awaited CARAVAN Festival 2010 kicks off in Jena, Thuringen from the 4th till the 6th of June 2010. The CARAVAN for the Rights of Refugees and Migrants will be organising this Festival of political and cultural resistance against colonial injustice and in memory of the mortal victims of the construct known as “Fortress Europe”. Through art and dance, critical analysis and discussion, we hope to re-energise and re-define the struggle against colonial injustice and bring into focus again, one of its most cruel and deadly modern manifestations: deportation. It will be a Festival in memory of the lives lost to Fortress Europe and a celebration of the lives of all those who continue to defy and survive the politics that is intentionally designed to divide, isolate and destroy us. We uphold the sanctity of our inviolable human dignity and physical presence here and anywhere in the world as our ultimate value! We reject and refuse to accept the reasons and mechanisms used to build the wall of ignorance and humiliation, racism and discrimination against our presence here or anywhere else. We are reclaiming what rightfully belongs to us and what we cannot be denied.
The CARAVAN Festival is about our physical presence and dignity, our life experiences and those of the dead, our struggle and resistance, solidarity and humanity. It is a show of defiance, a bastion of solidarity. We are defying the oppressive and repressive machinations that have been the hallmark of European and American intervention in our lives for ages. Together in this Festival, we are uniting against their will and demonstrating our strength to resist the aims and methods of this barbarism. We are here because they destroy our countries. We are here and we will fight.
Incredibly, in spite of the hundreds of millions of victims of slavery, colonialism, and imperialism, not to mention when the chicken came home to roost in the homebred National Socialism, most Europeans and their descendants throughout the world continue to believe in their superiority of thoughts, ways of being and actions. Even with all these atrocities, they are consolidating the very system that produces intolerance, unbridled greed and hate, and intensifying the consequent ruthlessness of that brutality at home and abroad (http://www.karawane-festival.org/de/hintergrund/ueber-koloniales-unrecht...).
Rise up against Deportation and the deadly Frontex machine of Europe
Once again, the age-old mechanism of fear is being viciously deployed to justify the deadly and wholly inhuman project FRONTEX. Rather than deal with their greed-induced and self-inflicted systemic and structural problems arising from war and imperialism, resulting in harsh migration processes, human and environmental destruction, the narrative of fear is again being woven around migrants. Not only do they want that migrants are afraid to come here they also want to make the populace here afraid of migrants-swarming them.
In order to mask their true intention and perpetuate colonial injustice, they are re-doubling their efforts to continue to portray migrants and potential migrants as the lazy and naive that must be kept at bay by FRONTEX. They portray victims of their brutal system as those who need their very (European) military protection and border militarisation. In this manner, the “good people of Europe” dubiously narrate clear acts of violent exclusion and oppression as a humanitarian act with FRONTEX as a noble project.
There is hardly a more glaring and painful example than the Island of Gorée off the coast of Senegal. During the time of slavery and colonial rule, Gorée served the Europeans as one of the major “gateways to hell”, through which millions of Black Africans kidnapped, were deported from their lands to build the economies of Europe and the Americas. This as we all know became the most barbaric and brutal forced migration in human history. Today in continuation of their colonial injustice and barbarity, they have now extended their FRONTEX border regime beyond the immediate European borders and a FRONTEX post is in Gorée.
There, FRONTEX controls all Ships leaving Africa towards Europe to make sure that no “illegal immigrant” leaves Africa. In effect, we are experiencing an increased militarisation of the borders and Seas including spheres of international waters. All in their attempt to prevent the migration of a needy, defenseless and deprived people they find difficult to control but determined to exploit.
Thousands of refugees and migrants die at the ever extending and increasingly militarised European borders yearly and many more are forced to drown, "thanks" to FRONTEX. These lots cannot even reach the European borders alive. Any attempt to render any help and rescue them results in criminal prosecution. If European dogs or cats are in danger, emergency service and ambulance assistance are immediately made available, but if its human beings drowning and calling for help, the only help for them is to hasten and help them to drown through FRONTEX. In Spain, scenes reminiscent of the Franco years were replicated a few years ago when Spanish soldiers suddenly joined their police compatriots in shooting and killing innocent, unarmed and defenseless refugees and migrants in Ceuta and Melilla, all in the name of protecting Spain from being swarmed with the ‘unwanted’. Europe with its valued freedom and equality, human right and dignity fell silent and accepted it.
Further, border control and persecution against migration are already extended to inland control of African States. African governments are being pressurised and blackmailed into signing dubious agreements to act as conduits for European deportation machine with FRONTEX as its monster agency. Led by Italy and supported by the mentality of Fortress Europe, African countries are being coerced to accept their newly given status of European dumping grounds as exemplified by the scandalous and nauseating agreements with Libya and other North and sub-Saharan African states. Human rights and human dignity, the supposedly “core European values” are tossed away in a flash when it comes to dealing with the “Other”. We are not even venturing into the issue of dumping toxic waste materials in African countries by Europeans-that’s another story entirely. Memory sounds a fresh note of warning on the brutal migration control politics of Fortress Europe and colonial injustice. The “Frontexation” of European border system is a deadly physical and ideological weapon of the Fortress Europe where the militarisation of the seas and land borders is forcefully deployed against migration. It is meant to strengthen the ignoble system of divide and rule and the globalised apartheid of selection and exploitation (see: The 'Fortress Within': Restriction of Movement and Refugee Self-Organisation).
There must be an end to this inhumanity and broad day barbarism, because there is another way. We refuse to accept their lies, their manipulations and their uncontrollable gluttony that has only served to unleash human suffering, environmental disaster and perpetual wars. With this Festival, we call on all well-meaning human beings to unite and oppose FRONTEX and the system behind it and to once again revel in the spirit of humanity and solidarity. We unite to defy and deny their aims; we show solidarity to uplift the human spirit.
Call for Participation
We want to call on all well-meaning people to support our call to overcome the fear to unite in dignity. We want to unite and rise up against social exclusion of refugees and migrants in Europe and consolidate our solidarity to uplift the human spirit. As we are all part of this problem, we also have to become part of the solution. If we can join together and overcome our fear, if we can stick together in dignity and solidarity and if we express our own narratives of resistance, then the so-called “powerful” will loose the very power with which they have managed to manipulate and dominate us for more than 500 years. In Germany, we want to expose the racist hypocrites who preach freedom and equality, human right and human dignity that is “unantastbar” but continue with institutional discrimination and treat us like criminals through “Residenzplicht”, so as to fan the flame of societal racism against us.
Let’s aspire to that “revolutionary vision” that can redefine our dignity not by National laws or passport but by our physical presence and humanity as the ultimate universal value. Let‘s build that space of our own to relate to each other even with all the differences we may have. We hope that you participate in this event and join thousands of others who want to mourn and honour the dead victims of Fortress Europe, celebrate the presence of those who are here and build a better world for all. Join us as single individuals or activists or as group(s). We’re looking forward to seeing a lot of you.
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8. Brief statements from CARAVAN activists (Seid and Ahmed)
We cannot remain silent. And we are not silent.
Speech held at the nation-wide CARAVAN meeting in January 2009 in Hamburg
Full text: http://thecaravan.org/node/1837
"...The victims of this system, we refugees of this world, are not let them to fool the people. So long as there is the resistance of the oppressed people, including the resistance of refugees, our Caravan is alive and active in our fight against the brutal capitalist system."
Refugee does not accept restriction of movement
Full text: http://www.thevoiceforum.org/ahmedpress-eng
"...When I sought asylum here in Germany, I never expected to be subjected to conditions similar to what I fled from in Palestine."
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Oh my VOICE I never lost!!!
Of the little and all I had they’ve taken
Bent to destroy that not taken
My scars abound as testament
But spurs ever on my commitment
Surprise not therefore I’m weary
For their wars have I endured in worry?
But my voice, that which is I, I never lost
Defied all attempts at intimidation
Comfort of silence dismissed as option
My voice, my all I held
For with it my dignity I hold
Thought as risk it’s use may be
But mute I wasn’t meant to be
So my voice, that which is I, I never lost
Even in pangs of pain to my voice I clung
Knowing that hope to my voice it hung
That in my voice and with my words
Witness I to all in the world
Our decreed trials and tribulations
The desperation of our oppressors
And my voice, which is I, I never lost
Against the inhumanity of my torturers
Amidst the vicissitudes of a sojourner
I traversed unknown lands with uncertainty
And sailed the stormy oceans with unpredictability
Even then nothing was dearer to me
For my life and for all I shall become
Than my voice, that which is I, I never lost
Sanity stretched encore normality boggled
Hypocrisy here aplenty de-masked
That I’m here with all I’ve got
Expected to adore all my tormentors begot
Or bear in silence for all in peace
Else thy ‘hospitality’ goodbye a kiss
When my voice, that which is I, I never lost
And wither my colleagues and comrades
Embossed in solidarity paternalised
Unconscious of servitude encouraged
Unwilling thy ways be changed
To tell my story in your own words
At expense my voice, my words
When my voice, that which is I, I never lost
Thus in awe and grace I stand the heights
To declare aloud far and nigh
For all ears from all sides
That over and above the odds I soar
And sink or swim the dearest I’ll hold
For my voice my words my key ahead
As my voice, with which I came I’ll never lose
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Gone though you may be!!!
Gone though you may be
Against thy will and wish it was
As you were forced to leave in haste
By forces our peace intent askew
Gone though you may be
In peace they’ve left you not till now
Your pain they’ve seized upon to sell
Their aim and harm for more anew
Gone though you may be
Exploit thy plight they must attempt
For you the need they say aloud
Why ‘our border’ secure must be
Gone though you may be
The blame they put on you on end
How dare you strive to live in peace?
Against their plan and aim for you
Gone though you may be
Thy spirit by us abide in truth
With it we strive on end for justice
Our heritage with you we hold and share
Gone though you may be
Resolved our will remain unbent
To keep your flame and fight alive
In love, your death in vain no more
Gone though you may be
Our strength, in you a fountain aglow
Unite as one we hope and wish
At last in peace and love you dwell