Antiracist G8 action and event calendar
20.May.07 - Here is another update on the activities planned during the G8 summit in Heiligendamm (North-East Germany) in the first week of june. the activities include 2 demonstrations, 2 action days a network meeting and a number of workshops.
Saturday, 2 of June - big international demonstration in Rostock
The antiracist bloc ("flight and migration") is going to walk at the front of the west-route of the demonstration, including own loudspeaker-car. Meetingpoint: 11 a.m. "Hamburger Straße/Graf-Schwerin-Straße" (5 minutes from the S-Bahn-Station "R-Bramow"). 12 a.m. beginning of the initial manifestation, among others a refugee activist of NoLager Mecklenburg-Vorpommern is going to hold a speech. 1 p.m. start of the demonstration
Sunday, 3 of june: Transnational network meeting on flight & migration
Time and place: 2 - 10 p.m. Ehm-Welk-School, Knud-Rasmussen-Str. 8; Rostock (tram station "Thomas Morus Str.", lines 1, 4 and 5)
The plan for the network meeting is mainly to offer space for "horizontal debates" (only with short inputs) and will hopefully be made up of groups of participants that are as transnational as possible. The aim is to exchange information and to also make further progress by developing transnational campaigns and concrete interventions. For example, we could make plans to work against specific repatriation programs or in favour of migrant workers’ rights. This meeting is a continuation of the migration related assemblies which took place in the last two years during the European Social Forum and the World Social Forum. It is also related to the conference in Rabat in July 2006 as well as the transnational Action day on the 7th of October 2006, both of which had global freedom of movement as central points.
2-3 p.m.: opening plenary
3-7 p.m.: Working groups: the following topics represent some of the possible themes of these meetings: legalization and the right to stay, racist police brutality, border regime and deportation politics, "precariousness" or instability in your living situation and migrant labour, camps, deportation prisons and many more 8-10 p.m.: final plenary
Apart from this on Sunday 10 a.m. - 1 p.m. a crossover-event is taking place in the Nikolai-Kirche (Bei der Nikolaikirche 1, Rostock): "About perspectives in and beyond Europe" with activists from various social movements. Lucille Daumas from attac/Morocco is going to talk about activities against the EU-migration politics in Northern Africa.
Monday, 4 of June - Action Day: Flight and Migration
Morning: actions in the City...
From 8 a.m.: siege of the alien department ("Ausländerbehörde") in Rostock, Werftstraße 6 (S-Bahn station Holbeinplatz): The alien department is a place where refugees and migrants are being harassed and persecuted on a daily basis. It is here that decisions are made regarding what status people without an EU passport will be given, whether they are allowed to work, study or even stay in Germany or, as the case may be, the EU. This activity continues to work on the basis of inclusion vs. exclusion and we would like to at least succeed in rebuffing it for a few hours.
10 - 11.30 a.m.: "3 days in august … (and many years more)". Rally in front of the Sunflowerhouse (Sonnenblumenhaus ) - S-Bahn station Rostock Lichtenhagen: 1992: Rostock-Lichtenhagen: With the approval of thousands of citizens neo-Nazis attacked the central refugee reception centre as well as a hostel for Vietnamese workers with stones and Molotov cocktails. The pogrom lasted several days. The police did not protect the inhabitants. Shortly afterwards the SPD (Social Democratic Party) gave up their resistance against changing Article 16 of the German Constitution (the right to asylum). By holding this rally we want to remember the incidents of 1992 and show how much worse the conditions for refugees in Germany have become because of this pogrom.
10 a.m.: protest action in front of a Lidl-supermarket - with the participation of activists from the Andalusian union of agricultural workers SOC: Lidl has not only become known because of its lousy working conditions. Lidl (together with other supermarket chains) also stands out due to its ruinous price dictates. As a result of this the prices for agricultural products have gone down dramatically. Often it is mainly migrants (without papers) who find themselves being forced to accept the lousy conditions for wage and work in agriculture - be it as day labourers in the plastic sea of Almeria or as someone cutting asparagus in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.
10 a.m - 6. p.m: information stands, exhibitions, films and installations on camps and borders, on the working conditions of migrant (agricultural) workers, on the countries of origin of refugees and migrants and much more. Place: Universitätsplatz (Kröpeliner Straße)
Afternoon: demonstration for global freedom of movement and equal rights...
1-2 p.m.: (prelude) rally and start of the demonstration at the refugee camp Satowerstraße (tram station ‘Neuer Friedhof’, lines 3 and 6) 5- 8 p.m: final rally with cultural events in the Rostock city harbour (inner city). Musicians performing:
- "les refugiés" - African hip-hop from the Blankenburg reception and exit camp
- the kurdish female hip-hop-rapper "Dezz Deniz"
- "microphone mafia", turkish-italian-german rap from Cologne
- "Onejiru" und Band, Dub/Elektro-Funk/R'n'B from Kenia/Wanne-Eikel
Evening: Discussion Event...
8 p.m.: big discussion event: global freedom of movement against global apartheid" with guests from four continents:
- Solange Koné, CADTM (alliance against indebtedness), Ivory Coast
- Maksym Butkevich, Noborder Kiev, Ukraine
- Valery Alzaga, global SEIU (services trade union), USA/Mexico
- Lawrence Liang, Alternative Law Forum, from Bagalore, Indien
- Sunny Omwenyeke, The Voice Africa Forum, Nigeria/Deutschland
Place: event centre "Am Strande" ("Art Goes Heiligendamm"), Am Strande 6 (Rostock city harbour), 18055 Rostock
Wednesday, 6th of June: middle panel at the alternative summit
"We are here, because you are there…" on the structural backgrounds of flight and migration
Time and place: The panel starts at 5 p.m. as a hearing and will then be continued as a workshop from 8 to 10 p.m. - it takes place at "Bühne 602, Warnowufer 55, Rostock" (please check the place at the very day once more). With:
- Victor Nzuzi, Via Campesina, from Kongo: Resource wars and the destruction of small farmer agriculture;
- Solange Koné, CADTM (alliance against indebtedness), from the Ivory Coast: "The debt trap";
- Amadou Mbow, AMDH (human rights organisation), from Mauritania: the situation in the fisheries on the west African coast;
- Gyeke Tanoh, Africa Trade Network, from Ghana: the (topically negotiated) EPA-agreement;
- Maksym Butkevich, noborder Kiev, from Ukraine: backgrounds of migration and the border regime in the Ukraine;
- Ngongang Celestin from the Refugee Initiative Brandenburg: the living conditions of African refugees in Europe
- Karl Kopp, speaker from Pro Asyl on European issues and on the board of the European Refugee Council (ECRE): how the asylum and migration politics interlink with economic as well as political policy conditions
Thursday, 7 of June - workshop at the alternative summit
"Fortress Europe: EurAfrique and the Boat People"
9 to 11 a.m. - the workshop takes place in the "Nikolaikirche" ( Bei der Nikolaikirche 1, Rostock - please check the place at the very day once more). With:
- Hicham Baraka, Oujda/Marokko, Human Rights Organisation A.B.C.D.S
- José Palazón Osma, Melilla, Children Rights Organisation PRODEIN
- Stefan Schmidt, Lübeck, former captain of the Cap Anamur
- Karl Kopp, Frankfurt, speaker from Pro Asyl on European issues and on the board of the European Refugee Council (ECRE)
more information: g8-migration.net.tf