________________________________________________________________________________ http://www.humanrights.de/congress Unite against deportations and social exclusions 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. 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. We are here because you destroy our countries European politicians, like former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl says 'yes there are problems in the world' but then asks 'why do the refugees have to come to Germany?'. His answer is that 'Germany is not responsible for taking care of the problems of the world'. According to him Germany has no responsibility for causing the problems of the world. But in fact there is a direct relationship between Germany's economic and political intervention in our countries and the creation of refugees. Cheap oil coming from Nigeria to Germany and the dictatorship enabling multinationals like Shell to exploit the country is clearly related. It was western interests that drove the 1966 military coup in Nigeria. The coup marked the destruction of post independence democratic measures which had given rights to for example the Ogoni people in the Niger delta. This enabled the super-exploitation of the delta by foreign companies. For over three decades oil has gushed out of countries like Nigeria to drive 'economic miracles' like Germany. But the Niger Delta is in flames, and when the poverty ridden people protest Obasanjo the former military dictator, who the west now wishes to disguise as a liberal democrat says that they should be 'shot like animals'. A few weeks later Obasanjo is given the red carpet treatment when he visits Germany while political refugees fleeing Nigeria are deported on the basis that the reasons for their flight is 'obviously ungrounded'. Driven by strategic and economic interests the US and Europe have strengthened the fascistic Turkish regime for decades and actively aided and abetted its dirty war against the Kurdish people. The PKK initiated a peace process in 1993, which remains open to this day. But the response of the western powers has been one of open terrorism and conspiracy culminating in the kidnapping of Abdullah Öcalan. The violence unleashed against the Kurdish refugees in Germany in the form of deportation is the continuation of the violence brought to bear against the Kurds in Turkey by the regime and the extreme right wing, which concretises itself in the death sentence against Abdullah Öcalan. Deportation legitimises the Turkish regime and portrays it as the real force for peace rather than the Kurdish movement. So does the continued ban on the PKK in Germany, symbolising its unacceptability as a legitimate partner in negotiation. Any democratic solution in Turkey requires that the real character of the regime be shown up rather than being veiled by the cynical and self-interested politics of the European states. Which is why now more than ever before it is necessary to fight against their policy of the deportation of Kurds which underpins their garb as peacemakers. When in fact they pursue the final neutralisation of the Kurdish people, in the quest for more lucrative markets as the Ilisu dam project and the plans for the projected oil and natural gas pipeline linking Azerbaijan and Kurdistan to the Turkish ports on the black sea, so amply demonstrate. Sri Lanka regarded by the industrialised nations as a bridgehead for the neo-liberal re-conquest of the Indian sub-continent, as such the struggle of the Tamil people for political independence and social emancipation is seen as a great obstacle because of the great hope and inspiration it holds the downtrodden millions in the region. In its attempt to destroy the Tamil struggle the Sri Lankan armed forces have massacred more than 80,000 people financed by the Western donor countries. Fortress Europe They were 16 to start off on a cold winters night. They were leaving behind a nightmare called Sri Lanka. They were Tamils seeking refuge, freedom from persecution. In the morning only one of them was surviving. 'We were left in the middle of a forest' the survivor was to say. 'It was cold and we held hands so as not to get lost, a few kilometres further we were blinded by searchlights, we heard footsteps and voices and the barking of dogs, we were being pursued, we tried to keep together as we ran, the voices and the barking came closer, suddenly we were on the banks of a river. We had been told that it was shallow, but it looked deep, and the water flowed swiftly. We knew that we had to get to the other side, if not we knew that we would be sent back to Sri Lanka. But the currents were very strong and I heard the cries of my companions as they were swept away. I saw the water covering a woman clutching two children, I tried to save them but it was too late... impossible, hopeless'. To us refugees this is the reality of the border, the reality of fortress Europe. The frontier between the cities of Emerald built on all the riches of the world and the wastelands of misery that the rest of the world has become. Germany, the most powerful economy in Europe, pushes for the further strengthening and extension of 'fortress Europe', monomaniacally pursuing its goal of zero migration. During the post war economic boom, the western European nations had to bring in cheap labour to work their factories. In these days of globalisation, multinationals switch production to where labour is cheap and can be unscrupulously exploited. Now, not only is there no legal basis for migration to Germany but even refugee rights are being removed to stop virtually any foreigners from getting in. Germany is fighting very hard to control the borders of the whole of Europe to reduce the chances of any refugee coming in after getting in through another European country. In 1998, when Italy described the Kurds arriving on their shores as 'political refugees' Germany insisted that they were 'criminal migrants' and attacked the Italian government for not securing its borders. All the borderlands of Europe are to apply controls that are determined by Germany or they will be pushed out of the Schengen agreement and also the European Union. Further, to stop people entering through the poorer European countries Germany has pushed the 'third country regulation' and the computerised finger print system (Eurodac). Eurodac can identify where an asylum seeker entered Europe and the 'third country regulation' gives the legal basis to deport us from the richer and more powerful countries to where we entered the EU. Germany, no stranger to ethnic cleansing, is in this way, not only stopping us coming into Europe but also creating a border around itself, specially for us refugees. Social exclusion, fascism and state racism As Europe marches towards economic unification, European citizens are seeing borders disappearing. But for us, borders are appearing everywhere. In every city, in every train station and on the streets we are checked and humiliated. Germany, again, is leading the drive to isolate and exclude us from European society. With incredible laws like the 'Residenzpflicht' which limits the ability for us to move out of certain area in Germany and forcing us to live in refugee camps which are effectively prisons, German authorities have laid a solid basis to isolate us. In the eastern part of Germany you find in microcosm the result of these policies. Here the social pressure against us has reached a fever pitch as the terrible dynamic between neo-fascist attacks and propaganda and the sharp end of the state's racist policies - deportations - puts unbearable physical and psychological pressure on us. This process of exclusion is far from limited to those among us who have recently arrived. Influential financial decision makers blatantly declare that even children and grandchildren of immigrants who are very much part of the youth of this country should be gotten rid of as they 'are in excess to requirement to the economic system, under-qualified, have no respect for the German law and are engaged in unlawful activity and have no place in German society'. This we feel is truly indicative of the contempt with which the ruling class of this country holds not only us foreigners but also the vast majority of its own citizenry. As unemployment in Germany increases the rich get richer and cynical politicians defend the system and status quo by turning the legitimate anger of the poor over their fate towards 'foreigners'. Women flight and migration 'I came here in order to be in a free country, but the behaviour of the German policemen was the same like in Iran. I couldn't imagine that they treat me equally badly here and that they would force me with violence to wear the head-scarf. They have violated my rights and my dignity as a woman (.... ).' (Roya Mosayebi) Roya Mosayebi who fled the Islamic Republic of Iran because she was oppressed as a woman was after Two and a half years again brutally confronted with the oppressive Islamic laws. The authorities of the land in which she came to find protection in continued the anti-women policies of the Iranian regime by forcing Roya Mosayebi and other affected women to wear a head scarf. The German authorities did this to enable her deportation to Iran. The same authorities refused a teacher, a German citizen of the Islamic faith to exercise her profession because she wore the head scarf. Their excuse was that wearing the head scarf violated the fundamental principles of a secular republic. The problem is therefore not one of the head scarf as such, but the brutal chauvinism underpinned by racism which denies women of foreign origin the liberty of their convictions. In every one of our home countries women are oppressed many times. As women we have huge obstacles to work for wages apart from having to do the housework. We almost completely excluded from every activity of society, political self-determination and input. Genital mutilation, forced marriage, forced to wear the veil and stoning are the reality in some of our home countries. When women fight back like the Tamils or the Kurds the regimes use rape as a weapon of war and as political pressure. Mass rapes of women are a method of war practice. Anti-women policies of the regimes like the Iranian regime are officially condemned by the western industrialised countries. Nevertheless they support and stabilise the regimes in order to have their economical benefits and their condemnation remains an empty phrase. Economic liberalism and reactionary politics go hand in hand. The collaboration is explicit as in the case of Roya Mosayebi. In order to get rid of refugees, they are using the backward, feudal methods of the regimes that they 'criticise'. Besides the general reasons of flight like poverty violence and persecution, war and civil-war the extreme forms of oppression of women and girls, the women specific reasons for flight are not accepted as reasons for asylum. In countries like Germany for a woman it is nearly impossible to get asylum independent of a marriage. Women in illegality, prostitutes who live between exploitation and deportation are only the tip of the iceberg of a reality we are daily confronted with. In every issue raised in the congress, within the common problem, special conditions for women will be exposed. We have to fight for the acceptance of women specific reasons for flight as grounds for asylum, against sexual violence and every form and women's oppression world-wide. We will work out policies to ensure that women do not encounter any form of sexist aggression and discrimination inside the caravan movement. Unite against deportation It is often assumed that fascist attacks on foreigners is the most violent manifestation of racism in western democracies. This would be to forget the systematic planned violence unleashed by the state against foreigners everyday. This violence has a name - deportations. Each day thousands of foreigners are arrested, even killed as was recently the case in Braunschweig for no other reason than that the state deems that they have no right to be here. This racist onslaught, which has no other logical foundation except that, that the state has the absolute authority to determine who should be here and who not based on purely economic criteria; in other words that human beings may be treated like commodities brought in when required and discarded when not, is not merely a catastrophe for refugees fleeing persecution and death but also undermines the rights of all those of foreign origin, who may have lived in this country for a number of generations. This is why deportation is in itself gross violation of human rights. It denies the dignity of the human being to reduce him/her to a commodity. A state of affairs which was considered normal a century ago with the slave trade, which we have not forgotten. This is why deportation, the sharp end of racism, has to be fought as a precondition for any progress. Deportation is the backbone and the most powerful symbol of a system of international apartheid with the poor nations being cantoned into desolate 'homelands' which serve to fill the coffers of rapacious multinationals and denied the freedom of movement and only the rich nations are deemed to have any legitimate rights. It is in fact the consecration of this regime that Schilly talks about when he argues that political liberalism follows economic liberalism, thus making the right of asylum meaningless. Ist May - Intenational day of the workers It may be worthwhile for the German working class to ask it's self how international the demonstrations for international workers day in Germany are. Will you continue to appeal to the multi-nationals for the preservation of Standort Deutschland whose global ambitions are responsible for unemployment and poverty in this country and unheard of calamities in the third world? or will you come out in solidarity with the refugees and migrants who are the living testimony to the world wide depredations of global capital? Will you yet again turn a blind eye to the destiny of the refugees and migrants and become the alibi of your own spoliation? Or will you join hands in this our common struggle? April 21 till May 1 2000 Arrival - Introductions - Congress Opening "We are here, because you destroy our countries" Fortress Europe, border regimes and the international organisation of refugees Social exclusion, state racism und fascism Women and flight/ migration Unite against deportation Conclusion, manifesto and future projects International demonstration against deportation For more informations please contact the adresses below: For registration please return the postcard. Important - for the planning of meals and accommodations and if necessary transport, please indicate clearly the number of participants. In the case of refugee we can help with the organisation of transport etc. congress - coordination office: The Voice Africa Forum, Schillergäßchen 5 D- 07745 Jena Tel +49/3641/ 66 52 14, Fax +49/03641/ 42 37 95, http://www.humanrights.de/congress, THE_VOICE_Jena@gmx.de caravan - coordination office: Internationaler Menschenrechtsverein Bremen, Tel +49/421/ 55 77 093, Fax +49/421/ 55 77 094, http://www.humanrights.de, mail@humanrights.de Karawane- Kommittee, "kein mensch ist illegal" in Hanau, Tel +49/172/ 66 88 454, Fax +49/6181/ 18 48 92 Spendenkonto: kto. nr. 231 633-905, blz. 860 10 90, Postbank Leipzig ________________________________________________________________________________ no copyright 2000 rolux.org - no commercial use without permission. is a moderated mailing list for the advancement of minor criticism. more information: mail to: majordomo@rolux.org, subject line: , message body: info. further questions: mail to: rolux-owner@rolux.org. archive: http://www.rolux.org