In the aftermath of Russia’s military offensive against Ukraine, we observed a new EU policy toward asylum-seekers on the move. EU-sponsored help is rushing toward the “borders” of Poland to support Ukrainian refugees. Those holding a Ukrainian passport will be granted a protection status unconditionally and without due processing of their asylum case for 3 years. The asylum-seekers are profiled according to their nationality to select only Ukranians and not others who have been living in Ukraine and are affected and threatened by the conflict. Border officers implement EU-supported racial profiling to exclude non-Ukrainians from these benefits and protection. Cases of violent abuse of persons of colour trying to cross the border have also been reported.
Such a reaction from the EU states proves that supporting people on the move is possible. It is possible to open the borders, send busses and organise safe routes. It is possible to let people who lost their homes cross the border, without doing illegal push backs and endangering and abusing them. It is possible to send warm blankets and tooth brushes instead of letting people freeze in the forest during winter. All that is possible.
Nevertheless, it is obvious that such measures stem from the EU’s double standards and political interests: While African and Middle-eastern asylum-seekers are excluded from such plans, the EU – and Germany at its core – is leading such policies only to ensure its media propaganda and secure a clean reputation for its politicians. While Ukranians get a free pass to cross the borders, other asylum-seekers of color are drowning in the Mediterranean sea and are freezing to death at the borders of Belarus and Poland.
It is crucial to recognize such double standards along with denouncing war and bilateral threats that cause the war. We need to acknowledge that the differentiations made between white and non-white people are racist, unjustifiable and inhuman. The concept of borders and nations kill the most precarious populations. Therefore,
1. We condemn the war in Ukraine and blame all sides for provoking a human catastrophe in Europe. Russia, the EU, the US and NATO have blood on their hands. While Russian rockets are targeting civilians, Frontex is killing people elsewhere through push backs, externalization and ignorance.
2. Admission of asylum-seekers at the borders of the EU should be non-conditional to everyone regardless of their skin color and passport. Everyone who needs a safe passage to distance themselves from war and misery should be provided with a free pass to go where they want.
3. Human life is more precious than a handful of Dollars, Rubles and Euros. The value of life should be recognized not only at the internal and external borders of Europe, but in Aleppo, Gaza, Kabul, Mogadishu and anywhere Europe is intervening and interfering politically. Peace can only be achieved in the world when war and killing machines are stopped everywhere.
4. The racial screening of asylum-seekers at the borders should be stopped immediately and all those in need of humanitarian aid and protection should be able to receive them without delay. Racism exacerbates during times of conflict, so we consider it our most essential task to denounce the racist measures of EU policies and call to dismantle Frontex and border controls as executive arms of state-sponsored racism and violence.

We’ll Come United

YALLAH, AVANTI, HAYDI – LET’S GO INTO A SEASON OF SOLIDARITY!

LET US CONNECT ANTIRACIST STRUGGLES AND FIGHT FOR AN INDIVISIBLE SOCIETY FOR ALL!

Download the call in Turkish, Kurdish, Urdu, Spanish, French, German, Farsi, and English.

Our Autumn of Solidarity started six years ago during the “Summer of Migration 2015”, when the wall of European isolation was torn down by refugees at the borders of the EU! On September 4th 2021, we are continuing our Autumn of Solidarity at the mass demonstration of the #Indivisible alliance. We are keeping up the pressure – with our countless antiracist, decolonial, queer-feminist, antifascist, and migration, housing and climate-related political and social struggles.

You can download the Call here in Amharic, German, English, French, Kurdish, Tigrinya, and Tamil.

Hessian deportation policy is haunted by one scandal after the other. The Corona-Pandemic has restricted many social services – the dangers to health are too big. And yet, Hesse continues to deport at all costs. The deportations rip apart communities, families, schools and colleagues. Deportees are being jailed and violently deported, with ever increasing immorality. Deportations and fear go hand in hand in many communities and always hit the collective. Just to name a few scandals:

Continue reading “Stop Deportation! Immediately stop all deportations in Hessen and everywhere!”

Lipa is the cruel consequence of the European border politics.

The images from Lipa are harrowing. The catastrophic situation people on the move are facing in northern Bosnia-Herzegovina is the consequence of European policies of shutting off people, no matter what. Germany and the EU are direct responsible for the systematic violation of the rights of people on the move at Europe’s external borders. It is the EU that has created the humanitarian emergency in Bosnia in the first place through the systematic use of force by Croatian border guards. These violent pushbacks must be stopped immediately. The German government must act now: People on the move must be evacuated immediately from Bosnia-Herzegovina. In Germany, federal states and municipalities are ready to take them in – their entry into the EU must be made possible! On Dec. 23, 2020, Camp Lipa in northwestern Bosnia-Herzegovina near the Croatian border burned down almost completely. More than 1,000 people had lived in the camp before, but it had not previously been made suitable for winter. Even if a new camp is to be reconstructed now, it does not entirely solve the problems people on the move are facing. The conditions in these camps, as Lipa has shown, are more often than not meeting people’s needs. Additionally, several thousand refugees in Bosnia are forced to stay outside of camps. Instead of taking true responsibility by granting them access to the European Asylum system, the EU merely promises further financial support and thereby shifts the responsibility to the authorities in Bosnia.

Continue reading “Call for Evacuation of Camp Lipa (January 2021)”

Final call
Newsletter #5 – 23th of September 2018

Autumn is coming – the autumn of solidarity has begun meteorologically as well as politically. Another week, then we will move with tens of thousands through Hamburg.
Chemnitz, Maassen or Seehofer – enough is enough. Now is our time. We turn on the light and turn up the sound. The mics to those who need them – to say how it is: The history of our society is the history of migration. It can not be stopped just as the solidarity of the many. So name us storytellers. We are there. We come. We stay. On September 29, 2018, the streets belongs to us – and how! Here are the collected information about program, route, concert and co.

Continue reading “Final call: Newsletter #5 – 23th of September 2018”

We`ll Come United
Newsletter #4 – 9th of August 2018

Yallah! Yallah! Yallah!

More than 20 trucks, almost 30 busses from 20 cities and many people in Hamburg keep undermining the city with rainbows in tireless molehill work: in eight weeks in Hamburg we will be turning the spotlights on the antiracist movement in all its breadth, diversity and in its old and new splendor. The timing could not probably be better: not only do we live in hard times, but also in times of new movements. Tens of thousands stood up against the judgments in the NSU trial all over Germany and for an proper elucidation of the right-wing terror. Every day, everywhere people go to the streets against the dying in the Mediterranean – the sea rescue organizations keep up their work instead of giving up, and even some European cities and city governments are showing solidarity. Over 15,000 said in a call we need “Solidarity instead of homeland”. Many, many are fed up with the racist politicians and their fight – as well as the everyday racism, which has created in countless #metwo stories for a new outcry
It is enough, it is #ausgehetzt. We build sea bridges from Lampedusa to Ellwangen. While some defend the home of the few, we create the society of the many. See you in Hamburg – it’s getting big!

………..

Hamburg against racism

More and more Hamburg groups, organizations, initiatives and people come from the summer break and now start through, the countdown is on: Hamburg is facing a late summer and autumn of solidarity!
More than four weeks before the parade, on the 24th of August, we invite you to the Millerntor Stadium Ballroom for the city-wide  ASSEMBLY: HAMBURG UNITED AGAINST RACISM – where as many voices say why and how they will take to the streets on September 29th.
The conference “Heimatphantasien” deals critically with the concepts of “nation” and “homeland”. More information on Facebook.
2th of September: Large demonstration of the Seebrücke against dying in the Mediterranean and against the criminalization of the rescue – Hamburg in Orange! More information here.
New Hamburg invites you: On the Veddel runs from 15. to 30.9. Festival SoliPolis – Für eine Solidarische Stadt!  The festival ends in the parade on 29.9!
Our regulars’ table from We’ll Come United Hamburg is going great and continues: Every Wednesday from 8 pm on the shore, Neuer Pferdemarkt 3. Come by! More information here.

Questions? Want to joing? Write us to hamburg@welcome-united.org

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Nationwide meeting on 25th of August

We’ve seen each other a lot and got to know each other many times over the years – whether at the joint conference by critnet, We’ll Come United and Solidarity Cities in Göttingen, at the pier, at our big summer camp – but above all in our daily routine solidary cooperation in many cities in Germany and Europe. We invite you all to take part in the nationwide meeting in Hamburg, to join in the discussion and to decide how we want to make solidarity and anti-racism visible and strong – on 29.9. and every day.
We will talk about the further mobilization, the process and the program on the day of the aniracist parade on 29.9.18. In addition, we want to think with you together beyond September and discuss: How can it continue after? How is the year 2019?
More information and program on our Homepage.

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The best day of the year: Route, Time, Place

We will start on Saturday, September 29 at 12 o’clock in the city center at the Rathausmarkt with our opening rally. We get aroung the Binnenalster, go to St. Pauli to the Hafenstraße and the Landungsbrücken, where all the trucks on the Elbe line up to the Solidarity Promenade in the afternoon. There we will have time for exchange, food, performance, music and theater. At 17.30 the joint big closing rally and the evening concert will start.

………

Forth&back

Almost 30 buses have already been chartered: Halle, Erfurt and Jena, Leipzig, Halle, Dusseldorf, Cologne, Osnabuerck, Hanover, Lueneburg, Goettingen, Kassel, Wiesbaden, Hanau, Darmstadt, Frankfurt am Main, Berlin, Eisenhuttenstadt, Potsdam, Bad Belzig … and more are coming! As we try to get as many people as possible out of the camps, we depend on your donations (click here) – and that you yourself become active and organize more buses. Take heart, you have nothing to lose but your summer holidays! Detailed information about the buses, contact details for individual cities and arrival groups can be found on the Homepage.

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The call: over 250 supporting initiatives

Our call in English and 15 other languages ​​has been signed by more than 250 initiatives and numerous individuals. Are you already there? Sign the call, forward it, make it known in your circle of friends and networks.

Donate

 

Your donations + our donation account = more tickets for the journey, more mobilization, more practical solidarity.

Our donation account:

    Name: borderline-europe

IBAN: DE81 4306 0967 4005 7941 01

BIC: GENODEM1GLS

GLS Bank

Keyword: welcome united ……….

Material

We still have a lot of colorful material for the parade for you – posters, flyers, stickers, banners, button templates etc. etc. – which you can order on our homepage. Write us, order in large quantities! Placarded in your city, your area, at school, at the university, anywhere, distribute flyers, make your own material (we can also send you templates as needed). For material orders please mail to swarming@welcome-united.org

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Summercamp

From 5 to 8 July, our summer camp with 250 participants took place on the site of the living project Quecke in Brandenburg – in the majority self-organized refugees from Berlin, Brandenburg and many other cities. There were workshops and exchanges on our daily struggles, legal issues, resistance to deportations, but also joint planning and preparations for the parade in Hamburg, shared dinners, music and children’s program. Check out the video!

 

 

Dear friends,

when we move, the world moves. And there’s a lot going on, we must tell you.

The first flyers and posters can be ordered and the route for the parade is already registered: 29 September 2018 in Hamburg will be the great day of our anti-racist mobilisation. Go ahead, rent the buses, submit your holiday and call everyone. UNITED AGAINST RACISM – It will be great!

At the same time, we keep on swarming out decentrally. Events and meetings take place in many places, and at the same time a variety of materials is produced in dozens of languages, which can be ordered immediately or soon in our “Swarming Office” in Berlin (see below).

“The grand coalition of anti-racism” is the title of the conference we are inviting to Göttingen from 10 to 13 May together with other networks. The first two days will be used for the preparation process of We’ll Come United. Friday evening starts with a common, varied program of our networks.

From July 5 to 8, We`ll Come United is organizing a summer camp in Brandenburg. There we want to create another space for an intensive exchange of experiences and take another joint approach for a strong summer mobilization of the following 10 weeks until the end of September.

So long: No time for a break! United against Racism!

Parade 2018 – sign the call now

The call for this year’s mobilization is ready and can be signed until May 10th with an e-mail to mail@welcome-united.org. You can find the German version here, the English version here.

Take a first look at the call:

“We know already that September 29, 2018 will be the most beautiful day of the year. It will be our day. We are many, we are different and we struggle every day on our doorstep. We’ll all come together in September. We will come to Hamburg by car, train and bus. From villages and towns, from camps and shelters, from welcoming initiatives and aid organizations, from construction sites, schools and universities. With soundtrucks, performances, lyrics, music and carnival we’ll chase away the cold, the racism and the heartlessness from the streets of the city. Together we’ll draw a picture on the streets: the picture of our friendship, the picture of a diverse and fearless life in solidarity. When we move, the world moves!”

Hamburg: the route is set, meetings take place, printing machines are running

For Saturday, 29.9.18, a route for the parade was registered, which offers an optimum of publicity and at the same time enables as much local participation and support as possible. We start from several places in the city to meet near the harbour – we’ll publish all information when the time comes. In monthly meetings, an active alliance of action is currently being formed with the aim of initiating a broad mobilization. And the Hamburg version of Swarming is on: with actions by Women in Action, Lampedusa in Hamburg and others – against Racial Profiling, for apartments instead of camps e.g. at the “Mietenmove” of Recht auf Stadt on 2th of June), against deportations and for solidarity concepts such as “citizen’s asylum” and “urban citizenship” (e.g. in Arrivati Park on 7th of July) – for a city of solidarity, with equal rights for all (e.g. at the Solidarity Festival on the Veddel in the two weeks before the parade)! 

Who wants to participate: The next meeting with all AG´s and all others, who want to take part, takes place on Thursday, the 17.5., 19 o’clock, Kölibri! and/or contact us at hamburg@welcome-united.org

Swarming-Office: for the circulation of struggles

In order to make different materials of mutual encouragement and exchange available “offline”, a “Swarming Office” will soon be opened in Berlin. From information on rescue at sea to the practices of Solidarity Cities, from flyers against Dublin repatriations to “information against fear” of deportations to Afghanistan, Pakistan or Ethiopia: Here you can order printed guides and brochures in different languages. A first list of materials can be found on our website and everyone is encouraged and invited to contribute further information or translations and thus contribute to the circulation of experiences against the policy of exclusion.

We have already begun the exchange about the local everyday struggles, events and meetings have already taken place in different places. You are also welcome to contact us if you would like to invite someone from the preparation circle to a local meeting or event in your city or community.

Direct contact: swarming@welcome-united.org

Göttingen: Nationwide We`ll Come United meeting and the big anti-racist conference

Thursday, 10 May, is a holiday and we are making it a long weekend of anti-racism in Göttingen. We`ll Come United starts with an own network meeting (program here) at the House of Cultures (directions here) already in the early Thursday afternoon. From Friday noon on we will discuss the fight against deportations and experiences of self-organisation in workshops with the Solidarity City network. And on Friday evening, the conference will begin with a joint panel discussion at Göttingen University with kritnet and the discussion group on migration of the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation.

The extensive programme with lectures, many workshops and theatre as well as the possibility to register can be found here: https://16.kritnet.org

For both, the network meeting and the conference, please register asap: Regstration

We’ll Come United Summercamp from 5th to 8th of July in Brandenburg

We found a good place: The camp takes place on the premises of KuBiB e.V., the “Quecke” in Falkenberg. There will be various meeting and working rooms, also for spontaneous creative ideas. Workshops, consulting, concerts, theatre, a handicraft workshop, a café and much more are planned. We take several days to discuss, develop strategies together and create tangible materials. We also want to cook together, drink coffee, make music, dance and have a good time.

Contact and registration for the Summercamp: welcomeunitedsummerschool@gmail.com or via Whatsapp: 015171872272

Lampedusa in Hamburg exists now for five years. Women in action and other initiatives organize themselves. It is a long history of struggles in Hamburg. Here lives the biggest afghan community all over Europe. Here more than 50% of all children have one single parent, whose family immigrated. Here thousands of people have to live in camps in stead of flats, and many resist. Together with Right to the city and Never mind the papers, with the Urban Citizenship Card, against deportations and equal rights for all. Here the summit of solidarity took place during the G20-meeting, and here is the space, the structure and the interest… and that are some reasons, why it was decided in a germanwide We`ll Come United-meeting in Kassel to do the parade in Hamburg! Now, in the middle of March, already more than 100 activists came together from various communities, groups and circles of friends to start the preparations. A big football club and several theaters want to support the mobilization, Hamburg is on the move! Who wants to join and who wants to get invited to the next meeting in Hamburg, pls contact us directly: hamburg@welcome-united.org

Hamburg has been awarded the contract. We fixed the place and we fixed the date: on the 29th of September 2018, we – and everyone who could not yet participate in Berlin – will come together. It will get colorful and loud again, there will be theatre and music, stories from below will be written and told.

In the meantime, we have to get along with only a minimum of sleep. The daily struggles know no winter breaks and no Easter holidays. And we have big plans with our network. We will swarm out in all directions and break the isolation in the camps. We will make new friends, refresh the old contacts and then finally become in Hamburg many more than we got already in the last year.

Our next stop will be in May in Göttingen, where we will discuss together with the network of critical migration and border regime research (kritnet) and the Solidarity City network the future of a „big coalition of antiracism“

A summer school is also being planned. It’s going to be a good year! Come with us, solidarity and antiracism is what the world urgently needs now.

Save the date, spread the word and join the parade. Let‘s come united again!