tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27838996712393255382024-03-12T21:03:53.527-07:00Walled InAnarchic and anarchist writings about migrationTashahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13276744250703527615noreply@blogger.comBlogger30125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2783899671239325538.post-71550668022942258382015-01-05T10:08:00.002-08:002015-01-05T10:11:15.982-08:00Sacred Spaces in the Jungle<br />
For posterity, some writing on the awesome structures of the jungle, before they get razed by the cops*.<br />
<br />
I've just got back from Christmas and New Year in Calais, which for anyone searching for the ultimate multi-cultural party, is perhaps the best place on Earth (picture 500 or so people and one sound-system, everyone sharing their musical traditions and dancing styles, with a huge dose of Euro-pop thrown in for good measure: hands in the air and wave it like ya just don't care yo).<br />
<br />
During my stay I ended up spending a surprising amount of time in church. As an atheist and an anarchist this was somewhat surprising and not too little disconcerting. But this church was special, largely because of its location: the jungle.<br />
<br />
The biggest jungle currently in Calais is known as Tioxide, after the factory that it has built up alongside. Tioxide is currently home to something like 800 people (my estimate), roughly organised into four camps along nationality lines. There is an Eritrean, Sudanese, Afghan and Ethiopian part. In the 9 or so months since this jungle started it has grown from a small collection of dwellings largely hidden in the trees to a sprawling tent city. It's been there long enough that people have started to build less temporary spaces, to diversify spacial use beyond just accommodation, and to find better ways of organising resources. <br />
<br />
There are spaces of trade: a barbershop, a tobacconist, and a sheesha lounge, 2 restaurants / cafés and a few general stores. There are spaces of religious worship: numerous mosques and recently, a church. I come from the west and perhaps there seems like some reason why I would be drawn to the church and not the mosque (there are many mosques, but one is huge and as impressive as the church for sure), but it kinda felt like an accident. The congregation requested a microphone for their Sunday service and no borders provided it. Delivering it was my access to the space.<br />
<br />
The church has been in Tioxide around 3 months. It was built and is used, mainly by the Eritrean Catholic community. On the outside it is nothing more than a large tent with a cross on top. Step inside and you enter another world. The space is doused in candlelight and incense. It is kept warm and intimate-feeling with rugs and wall hangings. It is made beautiful with religious icons. It is a gentle, peaceful and deeply sacred-feeling space. It is made that way by the effort of making it, using it and caring for it under such adverse conditions. Being there takes you away from the jungle completely, and yet it is so of that space (the artificial factory sounds, and smells of burning rubbish and wood smoke remind you where you are). To be inside is to feel humbled.<br />
<br />
It makes me feel that the role religion plays and the meaning it carries can vary dramatically depending on the space you are in. Back in the UK, religion plays no role in my life (Jewish family gatherings an exception). I see religion as a domination: something that stifles freedom and creativity and leaves us scared of the world. But that doesn't really translate to Calais where there is a much more obvious, pervasive and powerful structure of domination in the form of sovereignty and its border control.<br />
<br />
To have faith in Calais is a weapon when one is forced to live so precariously. In such a place, religion and the ability to worship together feels like a subversive force as well as a way that individuals stay strong. It is subversive because it represents making your life regardless of how forbidden you are from doing so. That church is a centre for a community, and it is – unintentionally, but that doesn't really matter – a big FUCK YOU to the authorities. It is that which is subversive by being normal in the wrong place.<br />
<br />
It is a minor miracle because it represents thirst for life and humanity and community and care and all the things that people forced to live in the jungles are denied or presented as incapable of being or having. The church (and the mosques and all the other sacred spaces in the jungle) scream of humanity. To be a witness to the faith of others in a place like this feels like such a privilege. To be a witness is also to be a participant, and that feels amazing too, because you are a part of creating something deeply meaningful there: a collective strength.<br />
<br />
* All the jungles and the big squat "Galloo" have now been served with eviction notices, but no fixed date has been given for this. Tashahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13276744250703527615noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2783899671239325538.post-86838326747600810822014-11-17T06:38:00.001-08:002014-11-17T06:38:25.931-08:00Citizenship, sovereignty and doing citizenship differently<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
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<br />
<div align="justify" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.4cm;">
<span style="font-family: Droid Sans, sans-serif; font-size: small;">This
week David Cameron announced the possible creation of powers to
cancel the passports for up to two years of UK nationals who travel
abroad to fight for the Islamic State. The measures are designed to
counter the 'existential threat' posed to Britain by 'extremists'.
Civil liberties campaigners have accused the Government of 'dumping
suspect citizens like toxic waste', because the plans would
effectively make people stateless by stripping them of their
citizenship.</span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><div align="justify" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.4cm;">
<span style="font-family: Droid Sans, sans-serif; font-size: small;">If
you're interested in freedom and equality then there are plenty of
arguments against this proposal. For me, what's most sickening about
it is it's such a blatant wielding of sovereign power over people,
and in a way that completely ignores issues of race and class among
other factors.</span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><div align="justify" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.4cm;">
<span style="font-family: Droid Sans, sans-serif; font-size: small;">But
the notion of citizenship is not one that sits easily within an
anarchist perspective. Theoretically at least, to criticise this
proposal – and effectively argue in favour of citizenship - can
also feel problematic.</span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><div align="justify" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.4cm;">
<span style="font-family: Droid Sans, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Citizenship
is
conventionally thought of as membership of a political community -
the nation - contained within a political territory - the
state. The
'benefits' of
membership exist as
rights and responsibilities conferred upon us
by a political authority. Hence,
citizenship
is fundamental to state sovereignty and vice versa, so
being pro-citizenship
is a problem if you are anti-state.
</span>
</div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><div align="justify" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.4cm;">
<span style="font-family: Droid Sans, sans-serif; font-size: small;">But
what about thinking of citizenship without a state?</span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><div align="justify" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.4cm;">
<span style="font-family: Droid Sans, sans-serif; font-size: small;">If
we strip it back to basics, citizenship can be thought of as a set
common of agreements between people on what we see as our rights and
responsibilities to each other. I could say that it is a system that
seeks to instil and guarantee care and equality between people. In
doing this it is a part of making a community and therefore a part of
making a political – power-full – space. Citizenship adds up to a
set of agreements that make us recognise each other as political
subjects.</span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><div align="justify" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.4cm;">
<span style="font-family: Droid Sans, sans-serif; font-size: small;">The
problem is that citizenship within a state is something so far
removed from the idea of agreements between consenting people. Within
a racist, patriarchal capitalist system that has a long history,
citizenship is distorted beyond recognition as an agreement that we
ever consented to.</span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><div align="justify" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.4cm;">
<span style="font-family: Droid Sans, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Furthermore,
within the framework of the state, citizenship has become thought of
only as a legal status that is given to people by the state;
something that is static and unchanging. From this perspective it is
rarely approaches as a process that is enacted by people, and
re-created all the time in the way that people behave as citizens or
not. It is a legal status too, but it is also defined by the way we
behave, and in that sense is beyond the views of the government as to
who or what is a good citizen. We enact citizenships and in doing
that, change it. In that sense citizenship is dynamic. Through our
action we reinforce, as well as contest and hence change what
citizenship is and means.</span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><div align="justify" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.4cm;">
<span style="font-family: Droid Sans, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Some
say it is this very distinction that is the problem; that if we need
to tell each other we are equal, then there's some kind of inequality
already present for that to be necessary. But I think this
unnecessarily presents social organisation as inherently negative or
authoritarian. Whereas wherever people live in common, having ways to
make visible hierarchies can be an incredibly positive way of
nurturing equality that would be extremely difficult without them.
Citizenship can enable equality.</span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><div align="justify" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.4cm;">
<span style="font-family: Droid Sans, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Coming
up with ways that people can enshrine care, well-being and equality
into their relationships with each other is very much a concern of
anarchism. So I don't think its citizenship per se that's the
problem, but how it's used within the state system.</span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><div align="justify" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.4cm;">
<span style="font-family: Droid Sans, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Thinking
of citizenship in terms of agreements of care that politicise its
subjects enables us to separate citizenship from the state, because
it enables recognition that we enact or create citizenships all the
time, in many different spaces and communities beyond the state. Acts
of citizenship are acts where people recognise each other as valuable
in and of themselves. In that sense they happen between people who
might already be excluded from citizenship / denied certain rights.
People without papers coming together to discus how to organise their
camps in Calais is an act of citizenship even if it is not generally
recognised as anything political at all. Whenever a group comes
together and discusses how they want to be together, that is a little
act of citizenship.</span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><div align="justify" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.4cm;">
<span style="font-family: Droid Sans, sans-serif; font-size: small;">I
am against Cameron's proposal because I am against the dominant
conceptualisation of citizenship that is implied in it; that sees
citizenship only as a web of rights conferred by the state. So the
issue for me is not about how to be anti this proposal and also anti
citizenship, but rather that we talk about citizenship in a different
way, and continue to focus and explore the citizenships that we
create and enact in our localities.</span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span>Tashahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13276744250703527615noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2783899671239325538.post-45515976462542654712014-10-13T11:06:00.004-07:002014-10-13T11:06:44.742-07:00What does listening to BBC radio news on repeat do to you?<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
It sends you to bed, mad with rage, yet exhausted, having spent all your energy shouting expletives at the radio all day. So, this article is coming to you live, from bed.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I work in a little shop, and often have the radio on. Yay for music. Boo for totally shit news coverage. Two of the major news stories, repeated on the hour were the following:</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
News item number 1: NHS workers staged their first walk out strike in 32 years, demanding a 1% pay increase (although the term 'increase' should be used loosely since earnings have been cut by 15% in real terms under the coalition, claim staff). Cue interviews with strikers and statements from the Tory's, which went something like this: 'we can't give these guys what they're asking for because if we did, we would have to cut more NHS jobs'. Put another way: 'If we gave you what you wanted, we might have to sack you'. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
But why is that the only option? Why why why why why can't we increase expenditure to the NHS and, I don't know, stop funding Trident quite, for example?</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
News item number 2: In the run up to the general election the major TV channels are going to host a series of 3 live debates among the front runners for parliament. One of these debates will feature Nigel Farage (and none of them will feature the Greens).</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Why does the BBC keep treating Farage as if he is the latest thing that everybody wants for Christmas? All this fluffing of Farage makes the BBC's undertone sound too much like its a when rather than an if UKIP will enter government. What a loada vile biased bullshit.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
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<img border="0" src="data:image/gif,GIF89a%12%12%B3%FF%FF%FF%F7%F7%EF%CC%CC%CC%BD%BE%BD%99%99%99ZYZRUR%FE%01%02!%F9%04%04%14%FF%2C%12%12%04X0%C8I%2B%1D8%EB%3D%E4%60(%8A%85%17%0AG*%8C%40%19%7CJ%08%C4%B1%92%26z%C76%FE%02%07%C2%89v%F0%7Dz%C3b%C8u%14%82V5%23o%A7%13%19L%BCY-%25%7D%A6l%DF%D0%F5%C7%02%85%5B%D82%90%CBT%87%D8i7%88Y%A8%DB%EFx%8B%DE%12%01%3B" /></div>
Tashahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13276744250703527615noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2783899671239325538.post-22293653710390219742014-06-13T02:45:00.001-07:002014-06-13T02:45:11.530-07:00Statement from those on hunger strike in Calais - 11th June 2014<span style="font-size: small;"></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Taken from <a href="http://calaismigrantsolidarity.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">Calais Migrant Solidarity</a> </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">"As agreed, the exiles occupying the place of food distribution took breakfast together this morning. They formed two groups, those who will continue to eat and those who are fasting. Those fasting had slightly bigger portions. They sat in the middle of the courtyard. Yesterday they had a list of 53 people willing to get involved. By late morning they were a large thirty or so, and were waiting for those to join them who have tried to cross that night – which they will no longer be able to do during the fast. We should know more in the afternoon how many are on hunger strike.<br /><br />Their spokesperson can be reached at 07 53 93 21 53 (he speaks English).<br /><br />Here is the text of the call out on which they agreed:<br /><br />'FROM THE MIGRANTS OF CALAIS TO THE FRENCH AND BRITISH AUTHORITIES<br /><br />After the destruction of our camps and our occupation of the food distribution place, French authorities came two times to meet us. They announced us they will come again to meet us Thursday June 3. Nobody came and we are without any news from them.<br /><br />Today Wednesday June 11, a part us, with the support of all of us, begins a hunger strike. We ask the French and British authorities to to resume the interrupted dialogue and meet with us without delay.<br /><br />We remind them our demands :<br />- Houses in Calais for all the migrants who wish to go to England and the asylum seekers forced to live in the street;<br />- Houses with proper hygienic conditions : toilets, showers, garbage collection;<br />- Houses where we can come and go at any time to be able to keep trying to cross to England;<br />- Houses safe from the police controls and mistreatments and from evictions;<br />- To have access to three meals a day;<br />- To open negotiations between France and the United Kingdom in order that people can access the British territory.'”<br /></span>Tashahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13276744250703527615noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2783899671239325538.post-56540776617862750272014-06-10T12:40:00.004-07:002014-06-13T03:17:39.767-07:00A Different Calais Narrative <style type="text/css">P { margin-bottom: 0.21cm; }</style>
<br />
<div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Droid Sans, sans-serif; font-size: small;">This article is not about the crisis of the sans papiers in Calais. Its not
about the regular evictions and camp destructions; the deaths, the
losses and the urgent needs. It's not about the multitude of
repeating ways that people are denied dignity in that dead-end
gateway. It's not about how or why this makes Calais a constant and
desperate crisis-scape.</span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Droid Sans, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Its
about another shade of the story we tell about the struggle of the
sans papiers and those who show solidarity with them. It's a
reflection on an experience I had in Calais.</span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Droid Sans, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Lorries
are banned from driving on roads in France on a Sunday. Because of
this, Saturday night is a time when people who are trying to cross
from Calais to the UK can rest. On this particular <span style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent;">Saturday
night som</span><span style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent;">e </span><span style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent;">Calais
Migrant Solidarity</span><span style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent;"> folks
decided to hold a party, </span><span style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent;">and
a</span><span style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent;"> handful of us turned
up to food distribution </span><span style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent;">(the
place where charities give out a nightly meal) </span><span style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent;">with
a sound system. It was raining hard. </span><span style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent;">W</span><span style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent;">e
had </span><span style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent;">a level of
enthusiasm </span><span style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent;">among us </span><span style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent;">that
</span><span style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent;">was more suitable to
having some cocoa and an early night.</span><span style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent;">
But </span><span style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent;">the rain cleared and
things started to change.</span></span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Droid Sans, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent;">Our
crew joined a </span><span style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent;">small
</span><span style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent;">group of peopl</span>e
huddled round a fire on the edge of a camp of tents where around 150
people lived (it's gone now. Its got razed to the ground a couple of
weeks ago). <span style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent;">The</span><span style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent;">
tinny music </span><span style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent;">that
</span><span style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent;">whispered out of </span><span style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent;">our</span><span style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent;">
sound system was easy to miss, </span><span style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent;">b</span><span style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent;">ut
p</span>eople started to gather around the fire anyway. Instruments
appeared from peoples' tents. People from different musical
traditions, singing in different languages, took it in turns to
perform to the growing crowd. There was music from Pakistan, Iran,
Afghanistan, Syria... People danced and performed to each other.
Bottles of wine were passed around. In the camp, among its rubbish
and puddles and dubious smells, in the mist and cold and silence of
the port, there was so much laughter. We partied into the night and
it was so good!</span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Droid Sans, sans-serif; font-size: small;">To
have a party like this in a place like Calais is something of a minor
miracle. It is joyful and creative and essentially normal, yet it is
this normality that also makes an event such as this transformative.
It points to the possibility of another world and another way of
being. There are two things about the party that illustrate this.</span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Droid Sans, sans-serif; font-size: small;">The
first thing is how the party represented a dynamic based on equality.
Us 'CMS crew' came with a sound system and the desire to make
something happen. But the party wasn't of our making. Something
emerged that was beyond us; an essential critical mass of energy
created by all of us who gathered there. It was owned by no-one,
created by everyone. The party re-affirmed dignity in this communal
creativity and at that moment everybody was equal. For me, this
equality is one of the things that gave this event such power. It's
the cornerstone of a radical solidarity, and is what distinguishes it
from say, aid work, because it seeks to change the balance of power
between people that is often fixed through differences in race,
class, nationality and so on. This isn't the only example in Calais.
When we have made and maintained social centres together, and lived
together in squats or camps, again we have created moments of
equality across our differences. The squat Victor Hugo is a beautiful
example of this. </span>
</div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Droid Sans, sans-serif; font-size: small;">The
second thing is the wider effect created by a moment of being
together in equality. What is created is fundamentally different from
and a challenge to the logic of hierarchy that is foundational to the
dominant structures that make up our social world (here I am talking
about 'structures' such as capitalism, racism, patriarchy and statism
that make certain kinds of dominating
behaviour seem 'normal'). The party represented an alternative (if
temporary) reality now that doesn't fit within a social reality based
on hierarchy and domination. In not fitting – in other words in
being 'uncodified' - dominant social reality cannot stamp it out. The
police for example, are largely impotent to do anything about these
parties. These moments of 'everyday subversive activity' are what the
authorities cannot stand, because they point to a persistent dignity
without permission, and a wilful disregard for any 'right to exist'
that the authorities seem to claim as their own.</span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Droid Sans, sans-serif; font-size: small;">I
think this party forms part of a different narrative of the struggle
of the sans papiers, one that is intimately connected to, yet very
different from the one of chaos. It is a narrative of joy, dignity
and equality. This other narrative is important because it
signals a different way of being that rejects hierarchy and
domination. This narrative is often left unsaid I think, because
amongst all the chaos, violence and sadness of Calais it can seem
crass to focus on moments of joy. Yet I think there is subversive
power in this joyful narrative, and I also have the feeling that
should we pay more attention to the joy, dignity and equality we are
sometimes a part of in Calais, what we
achieve together may be much more powerful, as well as more joyful.</span><span style="font-family: Droid Sans, sans-serif; font-size: small;"> </span></div>
Tashahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13276744250703527615noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2783899671239325538.post-56281286154377112802014-05-27T08:45:00.002-07:002014-05-27T08:45:46.854-07:00The UK Immigration Act 2014 - Legislating for a loss of dignity
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"></span><div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">A
couple of weeks ago (May 14thm to be precise) the new UK Immigration Bill passed into law. <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/immigration-bill" target="_blank">The Immigration Act 2014</a> brings in an array of new measures that, in the
words of Theresa May, focus on 'making it harder for people who are
here illegally to stay here". The act – along with this
statement - could have come straight out of a UKIP election manifesto (if they had one).</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span><div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span>
</div>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span><div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The
range of measures is vast and comprehensive. They include extensions
in the use of force in immigration matters (including deportation),
new healthcare charges for people without permanent residency, and
greater restrictions on bail for those in immigration detention. They
extend powers to enter and search homes and workplaces, and add new
powers to search people. This means that in a range of ordinary and
every day encounters, from renting a property to opening a bank
account or attending a place of learning or worship, people will be
required to identify and account for themselves. Opportunities to
appeal immigration decisions that label people as illegal in the
first place have been further limited through cutbacks in legal aid.
Presumably this measure has been taken instead of moves at improving
immigration decisions (and it is worth mentioning that last year 32%
of deportation decisions and 49% of entry clearance applications were
successfully appealed)?</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span><div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span>
</div>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span><div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The
trend of British Governments' demonising immigrants and using this
image as justification to further marginalise, oppress and
criminalise them is sadly nothing new, but this act sets a new
watermark. In removing access to fundamental public services, the
effects are likely to include poorer health, more homelessness, more
destitution, and more occurrences of mental illness for the people
these measures are aimed at. Removing access to healthcare does not
remove people's need for healthcare or remove those people who need
it. Making it illegal to rent out homes does not remove peoples' need
for housing or remove those who need to be housed. Denying access to
places of learning or worship does not remove those people who need
to learn or pray. It just marginalises, demoralises and scares
people. It weakens their support networks and makes them more
vulnerable. They will create greater insecurity, isolation and social
exclusion. But that's the point. 'Punish them them till they leave'
is the subtext. These measures effectively legislate for a loss of
dignity.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span><div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span>
</div>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span><div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The
issue as to why we allow for people to be treated like this is
justified on the grounds that they are here illegally. Yet why is it
that certain people are labelled as illegal in the first place?
Illegality doesn't convey some kind of passive 'state of nature' but
is a label created by the state. And when Theresa May talks about
"making it harder for people who are here illegally to stay
here" she brushes over a fundamental flaw in the logic of the
state's approach to immigration. </span></span>
</div>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span><div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span>
</div>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span><div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">In
recent years the grounds on which a person from outside the EEA can
qualify to live in the UK have shrunk. At the same time the powers to
enforce the exclusion and criminalisation of anyone classified as
'illegal' have grown. The need to 'get tougher' becomes
self-fulfilling: we need more measures to catch 'illegal people',
because the nets of who it is we define as illegal are being cast
wider and wider. This backward logic effectively leads to the
continuous expansion of who it is that can be considered illegal and
hence legitimately excluded. And this logic of exclusion does not
only apply to immigrants. From the stripping back of the NHS that
excludes people from accessing healthcare to cuts in welfare that
excludes people from social security, we see this trend in other
areas of all our lives. I don't want to live in a country where
people are denied the right to live in dignity.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span><div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span>
</div>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span><div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">When
this attack has presented itself in the past, people have resisted.
Some of the most inspiring forms of resistance have been those where
people have supported those under attack in their efforts to continue
to carry out everyday normal activities. For example, since the mid
2000's groups have formed to resist the dawn raids carried out b<span style="background: transparent;">y
the </span><span style="background: transparent;">(then) </span><span style="background: transparent;">UK
B</span><span style="background: transparent;">order </span><span style="background: transparent;">A</span><span style="background: transparent;">gency</span><span style="background: transparent;">
</span><span style="background: transparent;">by being present with
potential deportees when such raids have taken place</span><span style="background: transparent;">.
</span><span style="background: transparent;">Around the same time,
w</span>hen the government started issuing vouchers rather than cash
to asylum seekers (that could only be used in certain shops), some
people started schemes whereby people could exchange their vouchers
for cash. In response to this new act, we also need to start thinking
about Like these acts of solidarity, we need to start showing our
resistance to this new act, and to the tide of hatred that it
represents.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span><div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span>
</div>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span><div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span>
</div>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span><div id="divLookup" style="-moz-border-radius: 3px; background-color: #ffff77; color: black; left: 251px; padding: 3px; position: absolute; top: 47px; z-index: 10000;">
<img border="0" src="data:image/gif,GIF89a%12%12%B3%FF%FF%FF%F7%F7%EF%CC%CC%CC%BD%BE%BD%99%99%99ZYZRUR%FE%01%02!%F9%04%04%14%FF%2C%12%12%04X0%C8I%2B%1D8%EB%3D%E4%60(%8A%85%17%0AG*%8C%40%19%7CJ%08%C4%B1%92%26z%C76%FE%02%07%C2%89v%F0%7Dz%C3b%C8u%14%82V5%23o%A7%13%19L%BCY-%25%7D%A6l%DF%D0%F5%C7%02%85%5B%D82%90%CBT%87%D8i7%88Y%A8%DB%EFx%8B%DE%12%01%3B" /></div>
Tashahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13276744250703527615noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2783899671239325538.post-52740134769887341322014-03-20T02:35:00.001-07:002014-03-20T02:35:11.379-07:00This Community is Grieving<h1>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> This community is grieving</span></h1>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">This story was originally posted at calaismigrantsolidarity.wordpress.com </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">A fourth person was killed on Friday night whilst in a truck trying to cross to England.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><a href="http://calaismigrantsolidarity.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/bordercalais.jpeg"><img alt="Image" class=" wp-image" height="384" id="i-5344" src="http://calaismigrantsolidarity.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/bordercalais.jpeg?w=571&h=384" width="571" /></a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Three people were in the truck and realised it was going in the wrong
direction, so they made noise for the truck to stop. It braked suddenly
and a person from Ethiopia hit his head. Paramedics were called but he
was dead on arrival. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">People from different camps gathered for a ceremony before the Sunday football.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">It is four people now killed in one week.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">This community is grieving.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><a href="http://calaismigrantsolidarity.wordpress.com/2014/03/17/this-community-is-grieving/">http://calaismigrantsolidarity.wordpress.com/2014/03/17/this-community-is-grieving/</a> </span>Tashahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13276744250703527615noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2783899671239325538.post-86732799992835792342012-03-24T03:38:00.000-07:002012-03-24T03:38:02.358-07:00The Racial Dimension of a Train Journey<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves/> <w:TrackFormatting/> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:DoNotPromoteQF/> <w:LidThemeOther>EL</w:LidThemeOther> <w:LidThemeAsian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian> <w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> <w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/> <w:DontVertAlignCellWithSp/> <w:DontBreakConstrainedForcedTables/> <w:DontVertAlignInTxbx/> <w:Word11KerningPairs/> <w:CachedColBalance/> </w:Compatibility> <m:mathPr> <m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/> <m:brkBin m:val="before"/> <m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/> <m:smallFrac m:val="off"/> <m:dispDef/> <m:lMargin m:val="0"/> <m:rMargin m:val="0"/> <m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/> <m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/> <m:intLim m:val="subSup"/> <m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/> </m:mathPr></w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Friends have previously accused me of being no fun cause I label everything as political (as if that aint fun!). Here’s a story of one recent train journey that perfectly illustrates the political dimension of simple daily things.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">I have come back to Greece for a few weeks and came to Athens from Istanbul. After a pretty interesting hitch-hiking experience, my journey back to Athens continued by train. From Alexandroupolis, its 7 hours to Thessaloniki, and from there, another 6 hours to the capital. It’s a long but fairly beautiful trip.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Alexandroupolis is a frontier town. Between it and Orestiada, a little further northeast, it’s one of the first places you are likely to come to if you travel by land from Turkey. It’s a place that seems to have given in to the atmosphere of a waiting room, or the dreariness of a giant bus station. I have only ever been there when leaving to or coming from somewhere else. In the last decade it’s got a reputation as a stop off point for people travelling document free. In recent years, this has become much more visible and apparent as the numbers of people reaching the city (often by foot, across the Evros river and then through Orestiada) has gone up. Recently, at a guess, the destination of Athens has become more common as immigration controls in other areas has become more violent, and as work has dried up in other parts of the country. I would assume this means that the route from Athens via Alexandroupolis is an extremely well trodden one by now.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">When I got to the station to take the train, there were around 40 document free travellers also waiting (I am making the assumption they were travelling without papers, because Greece does not give residency to anyone from Africa or the Middle East). Many looked like they had been waiting a long time for that train. Clothes were airing over railings. People were sitting around in the sun, on the platform, in thw waiting room in small groups, mostly according to nationality/ethnicity. All were men, except for one family. I got talking to some guys from Bangladesh, and sat with them on the train.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 78.0pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 78.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">A curious thing happened during the journey. Over the course of a few hours the ‘ethnic mix’ of our carriage changed despite few people leaving or getting off. It seemed that, having previously been spread out throughout the trains 4 carriages, all the black people came to be sitting in our carriage. It seemed that the conductor had moved them. At the same time, all the white folks were slowly leaving (or were also moved?). Why? Why? For what reason? Why? Why this segregation? Why? I was the only white person left in the carriage. And now it was a fucking political statement to remain there; a statement of solidarity.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">So, I passed my journey in the jovial but also anxious and anticipatory atmosphere of the folks separated out according to their colour and assumed lack of status, by the dude checking tickets and his balding friend rudely selling snacks. Welcome to Greece! I wish them all the best after this welcome.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
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</div>Tashahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13276744250703527615noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2783899671239325538.post-11245867063684049022012-01-20T06:19:00.001-08:002012-01-20T06:19:38.000-08:00The Wall Between Greece and Turkey Built in 5 Months<div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The mainstream media site Ekathimerini.com reported today that on Thursday the contract to build a 12.5km wall between Greece and Turkey was signed by the two governments. The fence is due to be built in 5 months. The article – and the Greek government – claim that the wall will “deter illegal immigration and trafficking”. </span></span></span> </div><div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">But the wall is much more than that.</span></span></span></div><div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">It is a visceral, physical construction of the racism at the heart of the European Capitalist/Imperialist daydream. It is a symbol designed to send out a message of control; that Europe is closed and that us who are enclosed are safer. Safety and control are far from the same thing. I don't want to live in a place that conflates the two.</span></span></span></div><div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The wall will also be a blank page, because it exposes the fake heart of any claim from European power to uphold the rights of refugees (how can a wall discriminate between 'types' of migrants?). In the process it again exposes the constructed of illegality that the control regime has itself constructed.</span></span></span></div><div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The wall will also be a straw man, because Europe’s borders don't start and end at its external edges. Despite this sickening news, the wall doesn’t take our eyes off the daily realities of random stop and searches, imprisonment, dawn raids and internal port controls that target migrants from outside of the white world. This wall will be a thread in a much bigger web of control. It is just another barrier among many. </span></span></span> </div><div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">But building a wall and controlling the thing the wall is supposedly built against are not the same thing. The controls get bigger and more complex, but the ways around them are not put out, because the desperate desire or desperate need to move endures. The ways around control might become harder (side effects of the wall could include higher smuggler fees, or changed routes), but they also adjust and change.</span></span></span></div><div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Because for all the fake reassurance of control this wall affords the forces of repression, the reality remains; people who desperately want or need to move, will continue to find a way, and they will continue to find a welcome from movements of solidarity. The wall will create a false sense of control. And in that false sense there remains possibility to undermine it.</span></span></span></div><div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">But for now, solidarity with those at whom this wall will target can and must begin with opposition to its construction.</span></span></span></div>Tashahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13276744250703527615noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2783899671239325538.post-18403425658529425382011-12-08T23:44:00.000-08:002011-12-08T23:44:16.642-08:00Ideologies and Realities: some thoughts on migrant solidarity in AthensSomething I wrote and first posted on <a href="http://en.contrainfo.espiv.net/">ContraInfo,</a> now reproduced below, for your delectation...<br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">Saturday December 3<sup>rd</sup>, approximately 200 people gathered in Omonia Square to show their solidarity: Against fascism; For the legalisation for all migrants and refugees; For citizenship for all 2<sup>nd</sup> generation migrant children. The demo was called by SEK and the Union of Immigrant Workers.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">Representatives from different migrant and native communities spoke about the real and daily experiences of racist discrimination and violent persecution in the city. Many spoke in Greek and also in their native languages. Their messages were heard by the gathering crowd, those passing through and those from the neighbourhood of Omonia.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">After an hour or so of speeches, the rally evolved and expanded into a moving demonstration of maybe 500 people, who took to the streets together in a march to Syntagma. The march progressed along Stadiou street, around Syntagma square, pausing outside the parliament before returning back to Omonia along Akademias street. The path of the demo was sounded out by a mix of political slogans, chants and the rhythm of African drums, making an atmosphere that was both defiant and celebratory.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">One unit of MAT made a symbolic presence at Syntagma but were otherwise visible in their total absence from the rest of the demo; neither to scare, nor control; neither to protect nor attack. No fascists showed their faces.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">Speaking to a Senegalese man carrying a placard reading ‘Against fascism! In solidarity with immigrants!’ he said he had come to the march to fight for freedom in a city where he had experienced regular police attacks after living here 9 months without papers.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">If the aim of Saturdays demo was to generate a greater feeling of solidarity among communities, we can call the demo a success. But a demo is also a symbolic act; showing those who don’t participate, who disagree who hold ‘the power’ how much power we also have. In this dimension, the demo was not successful. Where were the anarchists on Saturday? </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">Because it seems on that day, the reasons not to attend were greater than the reasons to be there. And this seems to be the case more often than not. The complexity of the reality; the confusion of mapping political ideology onto the situation, freezes us to act despite our desire to do so. Reasons not to act take on greater importance than the reasons to act. Maintaining the purity of our ideologies seems to become more important than the reality of the situation. On single issues, this dilemma often exists: between acting to bring about a world we want to see, and dealing with a situation that is created by and within dominant power. On the issue of migration, the dilemma of whether to act seems to go something like this: As a movement that is anti-state, anti-capitalism, how can we really show solidarity with migrants who, by their mere status as migrants, are appealing to the state for their rights, and to the capital for their place within that system?</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">But which is more important? The purity of an ideology, or the reality of the situation? If we walk around the centre of Athens right now, we see people searching through the rubbish for scraps to eat or sell<a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=2783899671239325538#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt;">[1]</span></span></span></span></a>. If we walk around Ermou, se find street sellers who regularly have all their goods stolen by police. If we go to the squares where its still safe for them to hang out and talk to people, we hear stories of no work, no money, no means of escape despite the plans to leave. No hope. And this is just what we can see. We can’t see into the basements, housing 5 people to a room, into the prisons doing the same, into the squats where people take shelter. And say we go beyond the city and head into the mountains around Igoumenitsa. We find people starving and thirsty, because the police refuse to let them enter the city to look through the rubbish for food<a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=2783899671239325538#_ftn2" name="_ftnref2" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt;">[2]</span></span></span></span></a> (and some people have lived that way for years).</span><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">In front of all of this, what can we say? That we cannot show solidarity because what they want reinforces the state and capital? Because the way you struggle is ‘not very anarchist’?</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">Because there is a difference between wants and needs. Ideology cannot feed you. I</span><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">f we wanna face the reality, most people who migrate here and then face these violence’s are 'not very anarchist'. But the oppressions they face here are very real and very different from our own (despite coming from the same source). But, like anarchists, they also want freedom. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">So, I see my role - as an anarchist - to fight: against my own oppression, and the oppression of others, under this system. In the first case, I can do it in my way, or in the way of the collectives I chose to participate in. In the second case, I can show solidarity with those who may not feel like they can fight, or who may choose to fight in ways that I might not actually agree with. Here, I try as best I can to be led by those experiencing the oppression first hand. In both cases, as a citizen, my ability to rebel is also a privilege and having a passport is a massive freedom. It gives us the privilege to act upon our political ideologies; to dedicate time to rebel in ways people without papers cannot. I fight against the idea of a passport, I fight in solidarity for those who don’t have one to have the right to a passport. This massive contradiction is also at the heart of</span><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";"> the dilemma of acting to bring about a world we want to see, and dealing with a situation that is created by and within dominant power.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">So, we take our ideologies and we don’t forget them, but we combine them with being lead by the needs of those facing this oppression. We help people break and keep squats so that people have a place to stay. We coordinate ourselves so that we can accurately document racist violence and police violence against people of colour and we share this information with others. We take to the streets and show solidarity together, when the people who face this oppression feel they can show their power. We create hybrids from the connections we make with people who don’t think the same way as us, and new things become possible.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoCommentText" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt;">Saturdays demo was just one event, using one tactic with one rhetoric; just one blast of smoke out of the volcano. The reasons not to be there were many (</span><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt;">the political intentions of SEK, whether immigrants really had any actual power/say in the event and whether making a demo was the right strategy).</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">But if we don’t like what we see, particularly if we feel that migrants are being lead, rather than being heard, then we must make our own things happen. Starting by making connections to those experiencing this oppression first hand, that we witness with our own eyes, on our own streets every day.</span><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";"> </span><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">Daily experiences of racist and structural violence transcend political ideology. </span></div><div><br clear="all" /> <hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" /> <div id="ftn1"> <div class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=2783899671239325538#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";"><span><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">[1]</span></span></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";"> E</span><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">xtreme poverty clearly does not just affect migrants, but economic inequality, combined with xenophobic racism works together to make migrants far more likely to experience extreme poverty.</span><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";"></span></div></div><div id="ftn2"> <div class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=2783899671239325538#_ftnref2" name="_ftn2" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";"><span><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">[2]</span></span></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";"> We would also need to be capable of time travel, because this summer, after several previous raids, the mountain camp in Igoumenitsa was razed by cops, and the majority of the 400 (needs checking) people living there arrested. Those who remained were told that if they dared to claim asylum, they would also face arrest. Indeed, this happened. Igoumenitsa has now been hailed as a ‘migrant free zone’ by its Mayor.</span></div></div></div><br />
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</style> <![endif]-->Tashahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13276744250703527615noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2783899671239325538.post-81908997086906792432011-11-09T02:08:00.000-08:002011-11-09T02:10:54.005-08:00Talking about the R word at a time of 'crisis'<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves/> <w:TrackFormatting/> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:DoNotPromoteQF/> <w:LidThemeOther>EN-GB</w:LidThemeOther> <w:LidThemeAsian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian> <w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> <w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/> <w:DontVertAlignCellWithSp/> <w:DontBreakConstrainedForcedTables/> <w:DontVertAlignInTxbx/> <w:Word11KerningPairs/> <w:CachedColBalance/> </w:Compatibility> <w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> <m:mathPr> <m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/> <m:brkBin m:val="before"/> <m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/> <m:smallFrac m:val="off"/> <m:dispDef/> <m:lMargin m:val="0"/> <m:rMargin m:val="0"/> <m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/> <m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/> <m:intLim m:val="subSup"/> <m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/> </m:mathPr></w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
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</style> <![endif]--> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">During this time of ‘crisis’, people say that you cannot talk about rights. There is no ear and no taste for it. To do so is to engage in a luxury that Greece doesn’t have right now. So its kinda bitterly ironic that as the avenues for talking about rights are closing, so those most oppressed by this lack seem most affected by the ‘crisis’, and even further to the outside of this thing we could call Greek society. It becomes clear that at the moment, rights are the reserve of Greeks. That this crisis is a Greek one, Greek business. Any migrants affected by it are merely caught in the crossfire.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">So, as Greeks demonstrate, discuss and occupy buildings, all around the city migrants are looking through the rubbish, searching out scrap to sell and scraps to eat<a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=2783899671239325538&postID=8190899708690679243#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">[1]</span></span></span></span></a>. As the country gets poorer and work becomes more scarce, the old adage that migrants are the first and hardest hit is here, in front of the eyes of all in the city. Yet it is essentially ignored. Searching through the rubbish is becoming a very necessary and increasingly competitive way to survive. You can sense the bare existence of thousands of people struggling; and the blackness at the heart of any crisis that can ignore this. This is a humanitarian crisis, not an economic one.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Migrants are mortally affected by the crisis, but have the least possibility to give voice to this violence. Why would you engage in voicing your pain and rage at a political situation you have been excluded from? And between political activity and survival, survival wins out every time. So far the crisis is affecting migrants, but as objects, not as subjects. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">At the same time, migrant communities are struggling to respond. They are increasingly called upon to provide basic support: food, medicine and shelter. Yet they appear less and less as hubs for the struggle for the rights of their communities. How and why to be spokespeople when the government pays no attention to anything not framed in economic terms? How and why to represent people who are trying desperately to escape from Greece? All of it seems to have left many groups and networks <span> </span>at a loss as to what to do, or as to what their role is now, in all of this.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">But the presence of thousands of migrants, ignored by the government (but not by the police) also highlights the farce of the state and its claim to represent people and their interests. On the one hand the ‘subjects’ it claims to represent despise it, and on the other, the people it claims are illegitimate are stuck here. The question is not just how to look to the state for rights and recognition, but also, and more importantly, why to look to the state at all?</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">The fight to be here doesn’t stop just because the state isn’t paying attention. As much as the state won’t pay attention, now it also cant. Just as the people feel themselves backed into a corner, so does the state. Its under attack and maybe getting weaker. Migrants in Greece could never rely on the state, for rights and recognition or support without a fight. Everything that was given was done so begrudgingly. They have had to look to their communities and nurture those structures of support that have absolutely nothing to do with the state. The difference is that now the situation is more dire, and Greek communities must also do the same. For all of the extreme hardship this crisis creates, especially for those most oppressed, it also necessitates finding ways to meet people’s needs in ways outside of the state. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Mosques have been feeding and sheltering thousands of people this last year (its estimated that one mosque alone was feeding 600 people every day during Ramadan). A few weeks ago, a collective started a community health project in one neighbourhood in Athens. Such community based projects, right now, is what needs to happen. There is becoming an ever clearer shared necessity to survive. And nobody is likely to be going anywhere right now. They have the potential to reconnect people together through the mere nature of them being in the same place and sharing the same need at that time. No other qualification is needed (Ok, in the case of the mosque you must be a Muslim so this is a whole other issue of exclusion). Such projects make more apparent that the exclusion of migrants that is so viscous right now is only the language of the state speaking through us, like a poltergeist that we can and must exorcise, if we don’t want the response to be a xenophobic kicking out or locking up.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">So when people say that the opportunity for talking about rights has passed, what they actually mean is that the opportunity to talk about rights to the state has passed. But rights haven’t gone away. They aren’t just statements made to and by the state. They are also acts of survival, among and between people. So just as a conversation with the state is off the agenda, the opportunities to make rights still exist. Perhaps there is even a greater chance to act out rights now, when the state is both weak and not paying attention. But perhaps framing all of this in the language of rights is itself a bit to grand and daunting. It’s about finding ways to meet people’s needs in the here and now. And right now those needs are basic and great.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div><br clear="all" /> <hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" /> <div id="ftn1"> <div class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=2783899671239325538&postID=8190899708690679243#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";"><span><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 10pt;">[1]</span></span></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";"> Thats not to say that this separation is absolute. The Union of Immigrant Workers is one of several groups supporting strikes and present at demos.</span></div></div></div>Tashahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13276744250703527615noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2783899671239325538.post-30807357477723561512011-10-20T08:52:00.000-07:002011-11-03T05:30:13.103-07:00General strike in Athens<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Today was the second day of a 2 day general strike across Greece. Both the largest public and private sector unions called for it, in response to the vote in parliament this week for a further wave of measures that will impoverish Greeks in order to pay off the Troika (the name given to the IMF, EU and World Bank together). An estimated million people were on the streets in Athens alone yesterday; a demo the size of which few people had seen in their lifetime. People were together; and angry. It was a full day of protest; space to fight the cops or stand behind flags and banners; the movement was in enough of a shared direction to make ‘solidarity’ not seem totally ridiculous. The act of being on the streets united people, but ideas on what should come next divided them. Ideology came along and kinda fucked things up.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Cause after the beautiful, violent expression on the streets yesterday, today has been marked by clashes between protesters. PAME, the stalinist union, were on the streets in force, and, ehem, decided to make a human wall surrounding the front of Parliament, which looks out onto the square. So, from the beginning, the idea of all on the streets together was undermined with a laughable show of force and oppression, separating other protesters from the target: parliament. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">What came next was just ludicrous. Being in among it, I’m not sure exactly how it happened, but it was very quick and went something like this...</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">The black block formed a front on the north-western side of the square, opposite the PAME ‘wall’. Fighting broke out between the block and the ‘wall’. The fighting took over one of the streets running down the western side of the square, and the police looked on. Estimates say 20 people were hospitalised. The fighting created a space for the cops to fill and occupy the square, with thousands of protesters fleeing to other streets and some stuck in the crossfire between the 2. 5 minutes and everything was over. The square was cleared. What the fuck?</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">The reaction of most is cynicism. This clash has happened before and. and the radical left and anarchist movements have a long history of hatred and antagonism. Now stalinism and anarchism are totally NOT the same thing. But in <i>this</i> scenario – on the streets of Athens during a mass protest – the things that they share must surely be of more importance than the things about which they disagree. Things in common: a desire for radical change, possibly through revolution? However, where anarchism is about acting as if the state doesn’t exist, the stalinitists of PAME acted like protectors of the state, standing guard outside parliament against the black block and others, and sending a big fuck you to them all.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Who gives a shit about how it started. The fact that these clashes are possible and regular indicates how much work must be done before any kind of movement big and strong enough to form a revolutionary power can emerge. Surely the fight over ideologies is what comes after the revolution, not before? Before, and you’re just making the cops lives a whole heap easier; and undermining your own cause as a result.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">One of the reasons PAME made this ridiculous wall was to keep ‘trouble makers’ out of the protest. Standing in front of the parliament, like the rightful owners of the demo is such provocation. And divisive. But the tactics used by the black block makes me question their motives too. Something is tactical when the situation is assessed and the best response is found, collectively. Black block fighting cops seems to happen at every demo. Its predictable and this weakens its effectiveness to go beyond just provocation, if the aim is revolutionary.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Anyway. The day is not yet over. As I left the square people were slowly filling it up again. And now a man has died (53 year old guy from inhaling gas), who knows what’s coming next...</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div>Tashahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13276744250703527615noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2783899671239325538.post-46865117889679564202011-10-08T09:20:00.000-07:002011-10-08T09:20:18.589-07:00The London Riots and my idea of class<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">A few nights ago I went to a talk about the London riots by Martin Lux from the <a href="http://whitechapelanarchistgroup.wordpress.com/">Whitechapel anarchist group</a>. His talk was a little like storytelling; the benefits and limits of placing things in an order and making connections. He was clear this was his story; his opinion. It was a good opinion and worth hearing. And it made me make connections to my own story. Let’s start with his...</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The connections begun last winter with the student protests against fees and cuts. Dismissing the student movement entirely (as being a lame bunch of twats, mainly from the middle classes that’s never actually mounted any real threatening movement to speak of), he focussed on the acts of school students in some of the London protests; how they were the ones behaving more unpredictably and wildly, sticking it to the cops the hardest and learning from these confrontations. It was through the violent clashes between the cops and the school students that the possibility and the space for the more violent clashes that happened in the spring and later that summer were created.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">So with this as the backdrop, we move on the riots of July. Again, there’s been lots written about the events themselves, so here’s a little of his analysis... The riots were spontaneous, numerous and diverse expressions of violent anger. This anger came from the build up of generations of being fucked over, of being lumped together as some kind of deserving poor, and of the numerous individual experiences of being reminded of the fact (shit education; crap jobs with shit wages; a benefits system that expects gratefulness; regular and systematic violence from the cops in a prison system that makes it into all spaces in your life from street searches and tags, to curfews and asbos). As with most explosive public order situations, there were acts of anti-social behaviour and the rioters attacked their own neighbourhoods too. You might wanna do that too when you feel that your neighbourhood is more of a ghetto than a home and society thinks that you’re not even human. The rioters looted a lot of stuff too. Again, you might wanna do that when you live in a society that has index linked human value to your ability to buy stuff as completely as the british one, and you can’t get it. Not everyone can have the stuff. That what makes it socially valuable. So they took it and probably had a pretty good time in the process. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">He talked about how the left and the anarchist movement failed to get involved with the riots. In the case of the left they didn’t recognise the rioters as even part of the working class (or the lower class or underclass), defining them as lumpen proletariat and hence devoid of a political dimension and agenda. In the case of the anarchist movement, they failed to see a political message in what was happening too; they didn’t see it as creating space in which they could also express their vision of the world. He criticised the UK anarchist movement for also being mainly middle class, totally alienated from the working classes and totally useless in this situation.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The main messages from of the talk: People. Stop talking your theory and get on the streets! The only way to radical change is through insurrection from the lower class. And, the middle classes suck</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">As the discussion progressed (and blimey was it a long one), it became clear that the Greek understanding of class is totally different. One thing that he explained was the fact that the british working class is made up of british citizens as well as immigrants and people of colour, and many different people were on the streets during the riots, for different reasons. In Greece, the idea of class ), like a caste, as some kind of birthright (or curse) means that social divisions within native society are less clear. At the same time though, mass immigration is a fairly recent thing, so divisions between natives and non-natives are extremely plain. The contemporary british working class on the other hand exists within this idea of class as birthright or curse. It could be defined as the class denied: in social, cultural and economic terms. It’s also the class that fights back. When defined as such, the british working class can be diverse in terms of race or nationality (perhaps this is also one reason why people quickly come to identify - at least to a certain extent and for some - as British, of any class. I have been in countries when people who have lived in a place for 10 generations still don’t identify as – or are accepted as - the nationality of the place they are living in). </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">As someone who is middle class, I don’t feel so comfy ‘defining’ the working class. But seeing as he defined me, as coming from the class that should fuck off and die, I wanna say something, cause I don’t think it’s so black and white. It’s not so black and white because class is more blurry than that, even in the UK. What class am I? Both my parents came from working class backgrounds. Inner city London, poor, immigrant heritage (and active involvement in radical politics too. As a 1<sup>st</sup> generation eastern European Jewish man, my granddad was there on the streets of the east end fighting Oswald Moseley’s Fascists). But I was brought up with middle class values and aspirations. Social climbing was a big motivation for my dad; desire to do better than the working class roots he didn’t value. After my dad became ill and could no longer work, we didn’t have much money and I grew up on benefits. Financially, we were the underclass, but the rest of the middle-class stuff – the cultural stuff - remained. In fact, perhaps we strived even harder to assert the middle class status when we couldn’t back it up in financial terms. Because we were poor I got a scholarship to attend a posh school (nuns, silly uniforms, the works) and my education reinforced my identity as lower middle class; the class with the slight inferiority complex. So when I act, I come from this background. It makes me think of the definition of activism as ‘doing as much I can from where I’m at’. I can’t do more than that. Don’t define me and don’t write me off.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">It’s also not black and white because being middle class and having radical politics is a constant process of struggle too. There’s truth in the fact that radical politics – the theory - is mainly a privilege of the educated. This education comes to form some kind of protective barrier between words and deeds; the tools to see injustice, but an excuse not to act (these riots don’t express this or that theory, so they can’t be revolutionary, etc, etc). We talk the talk, but rarely really walk the walk. Our politics comes before the practice; of direct experience of repression and the struggle against it. So getting involved means becoming a class traitor; and this is our struggle; overcoming privilege – to live out a comfortable, secure life, being socially positioned to take advantage of the system. The challenge is in overcoming a fear of violence and conflict; rejecting and being rejected by our own class. This is the challenge of making the idea of a radical middle class not a contradiction in terms. This is really scary and difficult, partly because it comes from choice, so I can choose not to. I can choose to keep talking and not act on it and be a hypocrite. My challenge is always to stop using theory as a wall to hide behind.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><br />
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</div>Tashahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13276744250703527615noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2783899671239325538.post-31206201730698479072011-09-06T01:12:00.001-07:002011-09-06T01:21:32.167-07:00Some Reflections on NoBorder Camp Bulgaria 2011<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> </span> <br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Last week saw 300 people gather for a long weekend near the border of Greece, Turkey and Bulgaria , on the Bulgarian side. The camp was situated on the edge of the small village of Siva Reka. From a distance, the camp looked like a mini festival scene. I don’t suppose the village had ever played host to such a thing. The people of the village were extremely positive to our presence, but there is still something slightly comical about 300 folks descending on them. It looked like the circus had come to town. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">NoBorder Camp Bulgaria brought together people from across Europe for 5 days of discussions and demos. The main actions of the camp included talks and film screenings with local communities; a protest in the nearby town of Svilengrad, where the Border Police HQ is; carnivalesque protests at the border points of Turkey and Greece and a demo outside the detention centre in the nearby town of Ljubimec. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">The location of the camp was partly a symbolic one. Situated 4 km from the border with Greece, and 11 km from the border with Turkey, Bulgaria (along with Romania) is soon to become the new frontier of the eastern-most Schengen zone. But the camp was also practical, aiming to make connections with the locals who’s lives will be affected by the changes. For the local people who visited the camp, they talked of their vulnerability in the face of decisions that essentially remain hidden from them. There was a sense of confusion; that their region could become the focus of huge flows of sans papiers, but also that little had changed so far. They know that change is coming, but so far it is hard to see, and this creates fear. No information, to consent, no power.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">On a wider scale, with Bulgaria and Romania entering Schengen next year, the new imperialism of the militarised European border regime takes another step outwards; another zone is created from which Frontex attempts its dehumanising border crack down the name of bureaucracy and efficiency drives; another space from which Europe can project oppression through the discourse of protection and security. For people trying to enter Europe and who have to do so clandestinely however, the extension of Schengen is both an oppression and also a new opportunity.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">There have been a number of accounts of what happened during the camp, and you can read them <a href="http://www.noborderbulgaria.org/en/node/49">here</a>. What I want to focus on are some of the themes that arose from camp discussions; some reflections on what the camp created that perhaps will last and enrich the movement. These reflections are based on a conversation between myself and a friend at the camp. They are only our thoughts and cannot be representative of the camp, but perhaps they offer up a little of the feeling of the camp.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><b>Me: </b>When I think about NoBorder camp Bulgaria, I feel that the camp itself was anarchist- it was DIY and it was people working through their ideologies together - but the actions of the camp weren’t. Actually it feels pretty unimportant to make this distinction, since the camp created an autonomous space. Ideologies didn’t matter in and of themselves. At least this is how I think it was by the end.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><b>Them:</b> I was trying to think about whether you can designate an action as explicitly anarchist or not. On the one hand you could look at the kinds of things anarchist generally do and say ‘OK, well they do these direct actions; they fight cops; they’re black block’. Then you could look at the camp and say that it didn’t do those things therefore it’s not anarchist. But I feel there’s something wrong about this way of seeing it. I think what’s missing is an appreciation of the context in which those actions are done.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">The idea of being an anarchist, I think, is to bring about anarchism, or to make an environment more anarchist. So you want to push for some change that might be far down the road. And just because the ‘end’ might be anarchist doesn’t mean that everything that leads to that point is also obviously identifiable as anarchist. Sometimes the definition of anarchist isn’t important.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><b>Me:</b> I can’t help feeling that a lot of what we achieved was very reformist and symbolic though. And I think that many people had a problem with that. Demonstrating outside the border police. Is such an act more than just symbolism? Perhaps the biggest and most positive outcome from our actions was the outreach to the local community and the positive press response. Perhaps this is the foundation for a movement in Bulgaria. That is something to be proud of. But much of the camp was symbolic. Its location was mainly symbolic too, in light of the fact that the changes that will affect the area have not yet come into full force.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><b>Them:</b> I still think the context needs to be understood. The fact that those organisers with local knowledge were saying that nothing like this had ever happened in Bulgaria before, even an action others might feel was ‘fluffy’, you could tell that the authorities were very nervous. There is no movement in Bulgaria. This makes it like special circumstances. A lot of it comes down to risk. If we had done something more radical and had been violently repressed, it could have gone in a way that would have undermined the possibility of establishing a movement in Bulgaria at all.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><b>Me: </b>The aims of the NoBorder network are incredibly broad though. There is a huge variety of understandings about how we should go about achieving a world free of borders. It makes for a lot of conflict within the movement when it comes together. It makes for some very long meetings!</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">For example, there was this conflict between those who wanted more individual autonomy to decide over actions and the wishes of the camp organisers to stick to actions that had limited chances of antagonising. I guess it came down to a divide between individual autonomy versus collective action, but also a tension in how collective actions can reflect the wishes and ideologies of 300 people. There were many who were not happy with the protests we made and were disappointed the camp didn’t create a space for more, radical, creative actions. At the beginning there were accusations of a break of trust. What do you think about this?</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><b>Them:</b> I thought that people were missing the point. In these discussions it was pointed out that it was not trust we had lost. Rather a lack of clarity about where people were coming from; different perspectives. Because everybody seems to come to these things with the idea that everybody must have the ‘right’ and same idea immediately. People don’t give each other the benefit of the doubt. And it can quite easily and quickly escalate into a conflict. We don’t give each other the benefit of the doubt. We are not gentle with each other as a movement! </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">There’s something going on here about lifestyle anarchism and the idea that you can just go to another country, a different context where you don’t speak the language, and you just have to do your thing, which often becomes a kind of acting out of how you see your identity. To me this is saying ‘this is about me’ and it’s not about looking far down the road and thinking ‘what’s it gonna be like here in a years time or 10 years time?’ There were things about the protests I didn’t like. But because of the location and context, we were limited to actions that were public relations exercises. This was a spectacle, but perhaps one with some lasting effects.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><b>Me:</b> I think many of these issues would have been solved simply if the camp had been longer. We were beginning to generate a flow. And then it ended! So many of the conflicts in the camp existed because we didn’t yet know each other, so there was this strange lack of trust between people. A kind of ‘why don’t you already talk in a language that I fully understand?’ If we had spent more time together I think we would have had the opportunity to develop a much greater understanding and solidarity between each other. And this gives me hope for the future. I don’t think we should be negative on this point, because I think there was a learning process throughout the camp. I certainly learned a lot about my own flexibility and understanding of the diversity in the network. You can come out of those conflicts aware of how to do things differently and better the next time.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><b>Them:</b> I have had lots of experience where anarchists are not forgiving and are judgemental. Will people continue to make these mistakes. I think there’s something in the mentality of anarchism that lends itself to judgement like we saw at the camp. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><b>Me: </b>I have great memories from our action outside the detention centre, when we were communicating with the people inside the centre. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><b>Them:</b> Yeah there was a moment when someone shouted – in French – if anyone inside spoke French, and a guy replied ‘Oui’! and everyone roared a cheer. It was a connection.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><b>Me:</b> During that action all the cops were invisible really. They were simply standing there between a conversation they were not welcome to participate in.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Maybe we need to have more realistic expectations about what can be achieved in a camp. For me, the most useful thing is the chance to meet and share ideas with other people. To learn from each other. To make a temporary autonomous zone! For some this is not the point of the camp, but we are a diverse network. A NoBorder camp doesn’t exist in isolation. It exists as one type of strategic action in a whole series of actions by people connected to different networks. Perhaps there are scenarios where the local context, and the political situation and the targets exist in a way that means that other things are possible at a camp. For me Brussels was an example of when being so close to decision making powers was a perfect opportunity to really show our power. We were violently repressed but even that is a sign that we hit them where it hurt! In the context of Brussels, more antagonistic actions made sense. In somewhere like the border region of Bulgaria, there’s not those decision making powers. It’s site where decisions are acted, but not made, so the type of action in the context is different. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">A large proportion of the camp came from western Europe. I think this generates a very specific way of conducting politics and making decision. A specific way of valuing, of keeping watch over racism and sexism that had a very distinct character to it. I think that if you already understood this way and were familiar with it, you would could feel very included within the camp, but if you weren’t familiar with it, it could have been very easy to have felt like an outsider in the camp, like you were doing it wrong.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><b>Them:</b> We also had the conversation about it being a privilege to go to a NoBorder camp and this is true in a lot of cases. But I definitely see the value in doing activism inside the borders. That’s where a lot of the power is. And then means that many people will be excluded. But I don’t necessarily think that this makes it a bad or valueless thing to do, because these camps are a part of a diversity of tactics. NoBorder camps are an opportunity to use our privilege. Some camps have been in the places of migrants and have generated a lot of solidarity. This location did not allow for that, but it was an opportunity for us to use our privilege to do something. Being aware that it is a privileged thing is important, but it is only one type of thing. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><b>Me:</b> OK, so we had some difficult conversations and pissed each other off a little, but in the end, a lot more was learnt and shared. What I love about camps like this is that, for a few days, everything you do is self-organised. From the showers to the dinners to the action of the camp, everything is DIY, collectively run and collectively agreed. Being a part of it is an experience which makes me feel that little bit more powerful. That little bit more positive about the future. Bring on the camp(s) in 2012!</span></div>Tashahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13276744250703527615noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2783899671239325538.post-1796262671503790882011-08-12T12:33:00.000-07:002011-08-12T12:41:44.264-07:00Some thoughts on the UK riotsOK, this is nothing to do with migration and stuff but I wanna say something about the UK riots. I'm here in Athens. Everything I see, read or hear about the riots is second hand, so my perspective is partial.<br />
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I've just retured from a talk about the riots at a squat in Athens by <a href="http://www.occupiedlondon.org/blog/">Occupied London</a>. We saw images and videos. We saw maps displaying where all the riots tok place and how they spread. Tottenham, Brixton, Croydon, Nottingham, Birmingham... poor neighbourhoods across the country. People venting anger on the streets, raging against the system (global capitalism propped up by states). Rage that comes from alienation. Alienation that comes from being treated as unneccesary to this sysem of ours.<br />
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And the general response from many sectors of the community is anger at the looters; at the disgraceful response. More distancing of 'us' from 'them'. As if we are not also alienated! In a system that values consumption like a religion; where having stuff is the equaivalent of being somebody. We are all alienated!<br />
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There is not a 'them' who loot and an 'us' who dont. We are all affected by the same system. Why are we also not angry? Cause we are not separate or disconnected from what has been unleashed by the last weeks acts. There is not an us and them. <br />
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Tashahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13276744250703527615noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2783899671239325538.post-50705653073081290972011-06-30T13:07:00.000-07:002011-06-30T13:07:55.752-07:00The strike of June 29th in Syntagma Square<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves/> <w:TrackFormatting/> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:DoNotPromoteQF/> <w:LidThemeOther>EN-GB</w:LidThemeOther> <w:LidThemeAsian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian> <w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> <w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/> <w:DontVertAlignCellWithSp/> <w:DontBreakConstrainedForcedTables/> <w:DontVertAlignInTxbx/> <w:Word11KerningPairs/> <w:CachedColBalance/> </w:Compatibility> <m:mathPr> <m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/> <m:brkBin m:val="before"/> <m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/> <m:smallFrac m:val="off"/> <m:dispDef/> <m:lMargin m:val="0"/> <m:rMargin m:val="0"/> <m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/> <m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/> <m:intLim m:val="subSup"/> <m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/> </m:mathPr></w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Yesterday was a bit of a blur and it seems to make more sense to focus on the experience of being in the square for 7 hours, rather than to describe it in terms of ‘what happened’ (there are enough reports out there that give a fairly good overall view, for example, <a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_251381546">C</a><a href="http://www.contrainfo.espiv.net/">ontrainfo</a>). So, here is my experience...</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Lazing in a peaceful but busy Syntagma square, recovering. Already quite exhausted from the first waves of tear gas (a few hundred of us began the day with a blockade of one arterial road to parliament. Faced with large numbers of riot cops, the blockade had turned into a march to Syntagma). The square is peaceful and a joke about how all revolutions probably begin with frappe coffees and cigarette breaks repeats in my head. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">But firing begins. The sound bombs the cops use remind me of war movies. Nothing to see, but my eyes sting with gas. Unanimously, united, we all in the square put on masks and goggles (it would be impossible to be there without these things). The butterflies in my stomach return as we head in the direction of the booms. The next hour or so is ducking and diving, keeping moving, powerful from the adrenaline in my body. There’s nowhere to settle (pissing in the square’s portaloos feels like being in the toilet of a plane as it begins to crash). The desire to hide is vastly outweighed by the desire to resist the onslaught of chemicals. The kind of reactionary anger I feel when a fly won’t stop buzzing in my ear. It feels safer to be on the streets than it does to be directly in the square with the main crowds; more honest too. On the streets there is a kind of symmetry between the actions of the protesters and the cops that constantly repeats itself: the cops fire a volley of gas and bombs, advance down the street as the protesters retreat. Unable to hold their positions, the cops move back, ducking under a wave of stones hacked out of the facades of buildings.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">We escape from the square for some respite, a few bananas and some water. Some people are sitting at the table of a cafe, leisurely eating a full lunch of various dishes. Like everyone, their faces are stained white with Maalox, an antacid that counters the effect of the gas. A hundred metres down the narrow street is more gas and confrontation, but they don’t pay any attention. And neither do we for a while. The rest calms me down, also replaces my adrenaline with fear. The rest of the day is a fight to turn my fear back to courage again. People say that occupying the square is courageous enough under such attacks, but it feels like doing nothing.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">At around 5, the police launch an attack on all four corners of the square, enter the space itself, I think for the first time, and the place almost disappears in the gas. A mass exodus into the metro, and we are surrounded by people coughing, retching, being carried down below. The stampede and panic from the crowd is scarier than the attack itself. I can see little, in fact the whole day has been like wading through a thick fog; an internal misty environment created by wearing goggles nonstop, but I manage to control a shallow breathing that gets me out of the square to the shelter of the metro. I can’t bear to stay any more. We head home, to a ‘normality’ that seems bizarre, vacant and futile in comparison with the fight that continues a few miles away.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">After the day, adrenaline fuelled jubilation for a while, but then exhaustion (there’s something in that gas that wipes you out). And some kind of feeling of dread; a fearful sadness that comes from sensing your own mortality. I lie in bed that night thinking it would be so easy to get unwell and die. And a real sadness too. The reports on the TV that evening were quite horrific. Many people injured and arrested, random attacks on bystanders and resting protesters in other parts of the centre.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">It seems that much of the mainstream media focussed on the realities of the police repression (according to friends this was unique for the Greek press and something that is usually ignored). However, still the reports suggest that the violence was generated by an ‘anarchist minority’, with the police defending themselves. But their actions are a million miles beyond self-defence. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Who started it? Who cares. Out on the streets, people were attacking the cops, for sure. Of course. But when faced with that much repression, by a force so vastly more powerful, it’s the best defence. And without it, Syntagma would have been evacuated and over long ago.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">I think that the anarchists – the ones using black block tactics - were doing what a lot of people wanted to do but were too afraid to. Out of all the thousands of people in and around the square, I felt that their response to the violence of the cops was the most positively proactive and also the most organised. Everyone in it seemed to work more instinctively as a group – a block. Aware of the necessity to stick together, acting in similar ways, watching and signalling each other, protesting the group. A stark comparison to the square itself, which seemed to interpret safety as escape. The movement of people in the square like a huge shoal of fish as sound bombs went off and gas came in.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">I am left thinking what was the end result of the last few days. What was its value? What will come next? Today all is quiet (so far). People spent the day cleaning the square; re-erecting their tents, stands and banners. The massive energy and courage shown by thousands of people yesterday will need to grow and be repeated over and over as the austerity measures they were fighting against begin to squeeze Greece even harder. The people are united against the police now, and they have experience of being in the streets under their attacks. The last days in Syntagma were practice. I guess that was the value of it.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
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</div>Tashahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13276744250703527615noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2783899671239325538.post-69770887568120790512011-06-28T07:15:00.000-07:002011-06-28T07:15:22.215-07:00Pics of banners in Syntagma Square<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvWqVaeC0UxmuihbvnPtqZKPFUygx09OGpN4e_28GSmyYpAt0k_V4Rqyl-UhKUJlWdxPsZDUjzYRvhbsj1CCpM0icbxeTSDJoo1SwUdBKewgVZ506_FN0lzkRjg_KQtDMafXtDCY3k3EU/s1600/28.06.11+281.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvWqVaeC0UxmuihbvnPtqZKPFUygx09OGpN4e_28GSmyYpAt0k_V4Rqyl-UhKUJlWdxPsZDUjzYRvhbsj1CCpM0icbxeTSDJoo1SwUdBKewgVZ506_FN0lzkRjg_KQtDMafXtDCY3k3EU/s400/28.06.11+281.JPG" width="400" /></a> </div><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdyIK7zE0DfdZnk1aYf4vTYkOIFrqKmULVNon4aMEKfNNq50rn059RHquDNAUvy-7z8yok_aCAtYqOj1z5E049oWpi2CjyKTliS7-wcouCiQUHDKzWcQpi7dmcgP1V8SFF9kQTmPG3-4o/s1600/28.06.11+274.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdyIK7zE0DfdZnk1aYf4vTYkOIFrqKmULVNon4aMEKfNNq50rn059RHquDNAUvy-7z8yok_aCAtYqOj1z5E049oWpi2CjyKTliS7-wcouCiQUHDKzWcQpi7dmcgP1V8SFF9kQTmPG3-4o/s400/28.06.11+274.JPG" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Some of the organisation of Syntagma working groups</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAVNmlslEjvuUlybPUyHVXnRff0TnGbqCg8z3kHwwRi6uZGnfru4O2ZtU6tfky3re0xIBsPflr1FFnuOc87vceVHlk-570ToZTvCfvtMQa3FgXAZ73a36vlDz98TzGnFnlHohaH5PHDVw/s1600/28.06.11+267.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAVNmlslEjvuUlybPUyHVXnRff0TnGbqCg8z3kHwwRi6uZGnfru4O2ZtU6tfky3re0xIBsPflr1FFnuOc87vceVHlk-570ToZTvCfvtMQa3FgXAZ73a36vlDz98TzGnFnlHohaH5PHDVw/s400/28.06.11+267.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"End the apathy. Direct democracy"</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg48xSJzVFfnqSErKJMGHvsdSp2BX2Vd0v87RZZavrszEY9NOKC9COfVperp2Ux6NFEdxIqwkeC8la1bO3RL5BWIHu59SA3zsySaOrPNbZfBRdMdxlYUYTjA3GGE93vXvPPlOnKArOAvPo/s1600/28.06.11+268.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg48xSJzVFfnqSErKJMGHvsdSp2BX2Vd0v87RZZavrszEY9NOKC9COfVperp2Ux6NFEdxIqwkeC8la1bO3RL5BWIHu59SA3zsySaOrPNbZfBRdMdxlYUYTjA3GGE93vXvPPlOnKArOAvPo/s400/28.06.11+268.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Banner from one of the Greek as a foreign language schools</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZY4eVu3OojuWHEFDHnwogrz37Bgir5epEPScuSv1nJICfqha2AVfp9icixxHv8s_mH9HWyXYsAR3w-b043WUos2zoDDEGv-JbDDtwd6SYme5AT6p-81weTI76Tuo-EGkzETdRGeoLJ3k/s1600/28.06.11+270.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZY4eVu3OojuWHEFDHnwogrz37Bgir5epEPScuSv1nJICfqha2AVfp9icixxHv8s_mH9HWyXYsAR3w-b043WUos2zoDDEGv-JbDDtwd6SYme5AT6p-81weTI76Tuo-EGkzETdRGeoLJ3k/s400/28.06.11+270.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Long strike to victory¨The solidarity syndicalists and syndicate</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9KksPCp49FbNA1YY_2GLVJi3AJmx7vqqY3YtToRT4Oi6dl6Xh8sq0Y6FX8Ch29q6EsiXTwd8nkz6AvH8dbZiH3-7FjIBD7yEgJA2Ls2-gCZMiSQn-Q5o8u1zJv4qh9rQfVKncNSPq9F4/s1600/28.06.11+271.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9KksPCp49FbNA1YY_2GLVJi3AJmx7vqqY3YtToRT4Oi6dl6Xh8sq0Y6FX8Ch29q6EsiXTwd8nkz6AvH8dbZiH3-7FjIBD7yEgJA2Ls2-gCZMiSQn-Q5o8u1zJv4qh9rQfVKncNSPq9F4/s400/28.06.11+271.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">We're not selling, we're not buying, we're doing</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwFqirBhRYcxPFPwE-iG9RINU-FHZvxkABRaH0ra2gcjKyAy7iNxkOeQ7RGcCUnhzmo7tWJIvwjKJBOGy19JRw9TJhyL1x_52BOKSiTjVkAFXarZJiNEiiCnVY63HB1tg7BEogkrWUOD0/s1600/28.06.11+276.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwFqirBhRYcxPFPwE-iG9RINU-FHZvxkABRaH0ra2gcjKyAy7iNxkOeQ7RGcCUnhzmo7tWJIvwjKJBOGy19JRw9TJhyL1x_52BOKSiTjVkAFXarZJiNEiiCnVY63HB1tg7BEogkrWUOD0/s400/28.06.11+276.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The great US circus last performance</td></tr>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglW466x9g8EAZxAxkHUMeRXyltXkQKYpXlbglgJYRuJpKG_LZ-AG8sbZils2xOb_m4KDAf_tpdC-EkaFhl8wLaIj8PMZIhDB9ueYrSIDzV-5pcLWxX00Cq1VYps7XRH8Z3QaODpxzHJro/s1600/28.06.11+293.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglW466x9g8EAZxAxkHUMeRXyltXkQKYpXlbglgJYRuJpKG_LZ-AG8sbZils2xOb_m4KDAf_tpdC-EkaFhl8wLaIj8PMZIhDB9ueYrSIDzV-5pcLWxX00Cq1VYps7XRH8Z3QaODpxzHJro/s400/28.06.11+293.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">You took 30 peices of silver. How much was for yourselves?</td></tr>
</tbody></table>Tashahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13276744250703527615noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2783899671239325538.post-87581123203092933212011-06-28T06:42:00.000-07:002011-06-28T06:42:32.311-07:00Is Syntagma racist?<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves/> <w:TrackFormatting/> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:DoNotPromoteQF/> <w:LidThemeOther>EN-GB</w:LidThemeOther> <w:LidThemeAsian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian> <w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> <w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/> <w:DontVertAlignCellWithSp/> <w:DontBreakConstrainedForcedTables/> <w:DontVertAlignInTxbx/> <w:Word11KerningPairs/> <w:CachedColBalance/> </w:Compatibility> <w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> <m:mathPr> <m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/> <m:brkBin m:val="before"/> <m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/> <m:smallFrac m:val="off"/> <m:dispDef/> <m:lMargin m:val="0"/> <m:rMargin m:val="0"/> <m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/> <m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/> <m:intLim m:val="subSup"/> <m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/> </m:mathPr></w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjbjvXssP20uURy0cTuTTua7s0tXl9i6WX1gKQwWPOfOXh5FsAiNDiRoYkBr89oZ0O-0_0FDVTxZe25N6y4ld4Mof67uvy6rp-6aJ2IX2ctrrB0sXzjvr4S8PRh5QW93DecNICqpnVk24/s1600/28.06.11+269.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjbjvXssP20uURy0cTuTTua7s0tXl9i6WX1gKQwWPOfOXh5FsAiNDiRoYkBr89oZ0O-0_0FDVTxZe25N6y4ld4Mof67uvy6rp-6aJ2IX2ctrrB0sXzjvr4S8PRh5QW93DecNICqpnVk24/s400/28.06.11+269.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Syntagma feels like something of a political sun. On the up side, the events in and around the square have fully entered the public consciousness. Everyone – everyone – is talking about it, and/or going there and framing their politics in terms of what’s going on there. On the down side, politics and Syntagma seem to have become interchangeable, despite the scepticism. You get the feeling that if it aint connected to, or going on in the square, then right now, nobody has the time for it; nobody considers it politics.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Syntagma represents vast sections of Greek society, but its still a very white and Greek space. I don’t know how to participate there, and the only way that non-white migrants appear to be participating so far is in selling the green lasers that people are using to shine on the Parliament.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Since the decision was taken to cancel the annual anti-racist festival in the city, Saturday in Syntagma Square (day 33 of the occupation) was dedicated to a celebration of migration. I guess the logic was something like (for want for a better phrase!) if the mountain won’t come to Mohammed, then Mohammed must go to the mountain.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbc7qy0qYoxEkYCBk04MFek-MaMrH3W2fzXUoXD2VKgqZomCSLn7EzRYeqWlNuKGGewwjAPg6a9bB0pZ_7LXCVRNMGFdZXJ-KrhIYxiZWIvOlEiAKfrbjx6bpRSm07DWC3MfLEBu2Ue7c/s1600/28.06.11+272.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbc7qy0qYoxEkYCBk04MFek-MaMrH3W2fzXUoXD2VKgqZomCSLn7EzRYeqWlNuKGGewwjAPg6a9bB0pZ_7LXCVRNMGFdZXJ-KrhIYxiZWIvOlEiAKfrbjx6bpRSm07DWC3MfLEBu2Ue7c/s400/28.06.11+272.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">The migrants’ social centre (Steki Metanaston) had discussed ensuring a good turn out to the events and as I scanned the crowed, it was funny to identify half the people as steki Metanaston regulars. Like a ‘Where’s Wally’ with half the crowd made up of Wally’s. And it was nice to feel an affinity with them too. People gathered for some songs, performed by people from the steki. The warm up act equated to blasting the crowd with feedback, but the performance itself was nice, jovial, meaningful: the songs were songs of protest and rights.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Afterwards came a Syntagma assembly on migration issues. There was a panel of speakers: of Greek natives and people who had migrated to Greece. It amounted to an informed, impassioned and biased avocation of migrant rights (some spoke of their own experiences of violent exclusion as a result of their identification as ‘migrant’). The overall theme of the panel I think forms a pretty nice and concise response to anyone who comes at you with a variant of the argument: ‘I’m not a racist, but migrants have created the social/economic crisis here’:</span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-left: 18pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12pt;"><span>·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Capitalism is a system that pits workers against each other, these days on a global scale</span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 18pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12pt;"><span>·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">With this in mind, poor people/workers beating on poorer people/workers makes no goddam sense.</span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-left: 18pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12pt;"><span>·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Actually it is doubly dangerous by a) creating and reinforcing exclusions and b) distracting attention from the real culprits: those that wield power in the global system of capitalism.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Apart from an occasional slanging match, or a few old gits shouting at the gathered crowd: “where are the Greeks to speak about the situation! I wanna hear from Greeks, not migrants” even as the assembly entered into an open discussion, the biased nature of the discussion remained unchallenged. The space created by the assembly did not – and was not intended to – create a space for a ‘gloves off’ discussion as some might have hoped. But in a space where the possibility of extreme racism is possible, what is wrong with that? Migrants have so far been given virtually no means and very little encouragement or motivation to join Syntagma. This day’s events essentially amounted to a vastly inferior gesture to open the space to other communities.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">And the racism in Syntagma was present that day too: Firstly, one of the invited speakers, a woman representing a community of African women, had been phoned and threatened that if she attended the assembly she would be killed. She didn’t attend the assembly.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Secondly, as one of the day’s events, a cricket match had been planned between the Pakistan community and natives. The match had not gone ahead, because racists had attacked those who had gathered to play.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Syntagma has an active racist minority within it. Syntagma has formed as a space that can<span> </span>not prohibit such behaviour. Indeed, I would suggest that people are so afraid of partisanship, that any restriction of political view – as long as it can be presented as personal, rather than party political – is deemed unacceptable; the ‘I will fight for the right to share a platform with racists’ kind of argument. In a space that is free for anyone – to the extent that Syntagma claims to remain free of political parties - it remains brim full of politics: Fascism, liberalism, anarchism, -ism, -ism, -ism; all alive and well.</span></div>Tashahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13276744250703527615noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2783899671239325538.post-60893638321946482932011-05-31T06:50:00.000-07:002011-05-31T06:50:20.192-07:00Real Democracy Now! The call from the Athens occupation of Syntagma Square<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">“Being in Syntagma these days is like being at a festival! And that makes me feel uneasy.” My friends sentiment sums up a lot of what’s amasing, and also uncertain, about the Syntagma Square occupation, now in its sixth day.</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMqKXg0xQYYWOiDrWx4FEtvbMcfRVDHarT47Gioq0vX1GLzAj4mNceON2iP0dJhMKmHWRePJjWiTseDzEnf8AXHBXAjDngekxN5hVVQu-ggvCoxfMJo8Uh6g0NFLQZWipCyQdoOw3RrYs/s1600/IMG_1703.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMqKXg0xQYYWOiDrWx4FEtvbMcfRVDHarT47Gioq0vX1GLzAj4mNceON2iP0dJhMKmHWRePJjWiTseDzEnf8AXHBXAjDngekxN5hVVQu-ggvCoxfMJo8Uh6g0NFLQZWipCyQdoOw3RrYs/s200/IMG_1703.JPG" width="200" /></a></div></div><br />
<div style="text-align: left;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Inspired- or perhaps egged on? – by recent occupations across Spain (rumours have it that a message from Spanish protesters about the inactivity of Greeks spurred on the creation of the campaign to occupy the square), the occupation of Syntagma Square (and now at an estimated 120 other sites across Greece) came about initially via a Facebook group calling for “<a href="http://www.real-democracy.gr/en">Real Democracy Now!</a>” The intentions that brought people together are broad: a general sense of anger that the social fabric of the country is being torn apart after a year of extremely harsh austerity measures, a complete lack of faith in politicians to make things any better, and a need for some drastic changes. The idea of real democracy offers a powerful image with a multitude of interpretations.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6dVaE-k2dP4GopXtwWV9AdywGNDvyUK3_rRfO6XRbSZt_vL9pAlmpIbhEEnKsTNgow_ysAaJBvfvbpzmkwovj-sK44i1VJZ6EINidbAoA5Q4B_o5O8EKLvN-gJAaj4yIfkZw_QMyW7AE/s1600/IMG_1708.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6dVaE-k2dP4GopXtwWV9AdywGNDvyUK3_rRfO6XRbSZt_vL9pAlmpIbhEEnKsTNgow_ysAaJBvfvbpzmkwovj-sK44i1VJZ6EINidbAoA5Q4B_o5O8EKLvN-gJAaj4yIfkZw_QMyW7AE/s400/IMG_1708.JPG" width="400" /></a></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">When the occupation begun last Wednesday it was interesting that the people I spoke to about it were dubious; An ‘I’ll go if you go’ kind of attitude. I felt the same. Lots of people remain dubious, but now many of those same people are becoming more interested in what’s going on there. They have more interest and faith in it. More people are offering help and are getting their tents out to join the increasingly established crowd. More people have invested something of themselves in the process.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The momentum is growing and things are getting more organised. Solid outcomes are still thin on the ground, but then reaching consensus with 150 000 people of all political stripes was never going to be easy. Syntagma remains a non-partisan space and there is collective agreement to keep it that way (all-out scuffles between protesters and those who have attempted to erect banners or distribute propaganda have occasionally broken out). There is a strong feeling that all the partisan politics of Greece has contributed to – rather than eased – the mess that the country is in.</span><br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIPuFBICQ-HrEJ8CBbDHZg1vT8NCIAGP6pMfmrUYL6zXR9XfCVi1NrpHM2C-wZULYecJURWv-bkWkm0Zorbov3QhotQBcvDFQEeV2gkPlPSCCBDZ6ovMdig1DmxLhzhHZnEKsDWU3vW2A/s1600/IMG_1701.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIPuFBICQ-HrEJ8CBbDHZg1vT8NCIAGP6pMfmrUYL6zXR9XfCVi1NrpHM2C-wZULYecJURWv-bkWkm0Zorbov3QhotQBcvDFQEeV2gkPlPSCCBDZ6ovMdig1DmxLhzhHZnEKsDWU3vW2A/s200/IMG_1701.JPG" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Performers entertain the crowds at Syntagma</td></tr>
</tbody></table><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The people facilitating its progression so far seem to be doing a good job at guiding people through a practical process of organising whilst also limiting the creep of political bias (one side effect of the momentous amount of protest among Greeks over the last 3 years, especially from the 2008 riots, is experience among many of how to practically organise).</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The occupation is developing its own geography. The protesters who gather in front of the Parliament building itself make the most noise, but the feeling is that these are the less politicised and committed participants. On the right hand side you have the right wing supporters. Here you find the Greek flags (although most of these flags remain on the stalls of the people selling them, rather than in the hands of protesters). On the left hand side you have the left wing supporters. I guess this is a predictable split.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Moving into Syntagma Square itself, the space is a mishmash of tents, people and souvlaki stalls, all arranged around the street furniture of the squares fountains and cafes. Camps are divided into a barrio system, whereby each barrio fulfils a specific task for the occupation. Representatives from each barrio attend daily assemblies to feed back and contribute to the decision making. So far, the occupation is exhibiting the direct democracy they are ultimately calling for. There is a real sense of possibility at Syntagma; that something more lasting could be nurtured out of this collective anger. There is also awareness that what exists so far is fragile.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The support and success of Syntagma so far lies in its broad supporter base. But how do you make something specific and concrete out of something so broad? What can everybody participating agree on? It’s the age old dilemma of depth versus breadth.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The occupation has been praised for its diversity, particularly in terms of age and class. But the occupation is also incredibly white. Talking to a friend from Bangladesh who has lived in Athens for a year, he said he had no interest in Syntagma. Why would he? His experience of Greece has so far been one of unemployment and harassment. Why should he show interest in problems affecting Greeks? In that sense, there remain parts of the community – especially those who might consider themselves excluded from it, such as ‘illegal’ migrants and refugees – who don’t see an opportunity in Syntagma; that this thing doesn’t speak for them. Syntagma is diverse, but within certain boundaries, primarily of nationality and race.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">As a (white) brit living in Athens, the occupation feels Greek. Indeed, it is an outcry of anger to some definitive Greek problems (regaining Greek sovereignty from the IMF, World Bank and EU, for example, or the specific nature of Greek clientalism and political corruption). But issues of debt and fraudulent democracy are issues that extend beyond Greece and are shared with the wave of occupations across Europe and North Africa. The occupation currently feels like it has enough nationalism in it to exclude those who don’t identify themselves as Greek and to limit its connection to these other sites of protest. There needs to be more space within the discourse of Syntagma for the global dimension of its crises, for Syntagma to link up with the other occupations across Europe and Africa and really embrace the global nature of these protests.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><br />
</div>Tashahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13276744250703527615noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2783899671239325538.post-30368447748917666032011-05-24T01:58:00.001-07:002011-05-24T01:58:49.245-07:00'Activists' 'migrants' 'natives'<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves/> <w:TrackFormatting/> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:DoNotPromoteQF/> <w:LidThemeOther>EN-GB</w:LidThemeOther> <w:LidThemeAsian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian> <w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> <w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/> <w:DontVertAlignCellWithSp/> <w:DontBreakConstrainedForcedTables/> <w:DontVertAlignInTxbx/> <w:Word11KerningPairs/> <w:CachedColBalance/> </w:Compatibility> <w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> <m:mathPr> <m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/> <m:brkBin m:val="before"/> <m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/> <m:smallFrac m:val="off"/> <m:dispDef/> <m:lMargin m:val="0"/> <m:rMargin m:val="0"/> <m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/> <m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/> <m:intLim m:val="subSup"/> <m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/> </m:mathPr></w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">The last few days Sally has been staying at my place. She is interested/involved in migration issues in a way similar to me and is here in Athens for a few days before spending a month in Patras as part of her studies and activism. So, we are having some interesting chats about stuff!</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Yesterday we continued talking about how you overcome the hierarchies that exist between ‘migrants’ and ‘natives’ and ‘activists’. Exarchia is very much a little bubble of ‘activists’, but it is also a district isolated from the violence migrants experience in Athens. Exarchia is a fairly white neighbourhood. So one of the ways that hierarchies are perpetuated is through a physical separation. This got me thinking about my Greek class, and also about the Afghan occupation...</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Talking to a friend after my Greek class earlier that day, I was saying how I wished we could find some practical way of showing solidarity to those students who still aren’t coming to class these last weeks. He said that he didn’t think there was anything the centre could really do; too little resources and too little free time; That also this was their struggle and they needed to organise themselves to find a way to overcome it.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">But after our conversation I was thinking how that is exactly the way of looking at it that perpetuates the hierarchy / divide between ‘us’ and ‘them’; it’s an issue that <i>we</i> can choose to engage in or walk away from. The people living in Omonia or Victoria or Agios Pantelimonas </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">don’t have that choice. Every day there is the violence of poverty and physical attacks and they don’t have a choice to ignore it. So far, many of the students at the Greek class seem to have ‘chosen’ to stay at home. The real conflict between migrants and natives in Athens is the result of a whole multitude of processes. The presence of migrants is a visible part of it. But this act is far from the beginning or the end of the processes that led to it. It’s not just their struggle because we are also a part of that process and to view it that way is also to perpetuate the idea of ‘migrants’ as scapegoats. They get the rough end of a stick that we are complicit in creating.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">We all contribute to creating the situation that migrants and natives face on the streets of Athens, and Exarchia, as a place central to creating the idea of an activist community, actually feels very isolated from the realities of life for them.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">So the more I turn these ideas over in my head, the more I come to the conclusion that in order to show solidarity you need to ditch your ability to walk away from it all and remove the spatial divide between yourself. Why am I living in Exarchia? Why am I not living in Victoria?</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Does this bring us a step closer to true solidarity? Is solidarity similarity? Is this a step towards breaking down – as much as possible – the barriers between us?</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div>Tashahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13276744250703527615noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2783899671239325538.post-48827989369927937342011-05-16T12:33:00.001-07:002011-05-16T12:33:34.035-07:00<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">I have been attending Greek language classes at the migrants social centre for about 6 weeks now. Normally its attended by about 20 or so people from all over the world. I have talked about it in previous posts. Anyway, today there were only three of us; me and a Romanian couple. We are also usually the only white students. We three students and the 2 teachers sat in the centre and talked about why the turnout was so amazingly low. We were certain it was because of fear after the recent wave of random fascist attacks on anyone who looked like a migrant in central Athens. It was so sad and disappointing to be sitting there, the white skinned students able to attend class, the black skinned ones afraid to come. I suggested organising some kind of car pool, to bring people to the centre. Let’s see if it’s possible. Constant participation seems like a very positive form of resistance to people who think the colour of your skin a) identifies your nationality b) is in some way important.</span></div>Tashahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13276744250703527615noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2783899671239325538.post-24484639388718823092011-05-15T07:55:00.000-07:002011-05-15T07:55:48.853-07:00It feels like a war in Athens<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves/> <w:TrackFormatting/> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:DoNotPromoteQF/> <w:LidThemeOther>EN-GB</w:LidThemeOther> <w:LidThemeAsian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian> <w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> <w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/> <w:DontVertAlignCellWithSp/> <w:DontBreakConstrainedForcedTables/> <w:DontVertAlignInTxbx/> <w:Word11KerningPairs/> <w:CachedColBalance/> </w:Compatibility> <w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> <m:mathPr> <m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/> <m:brkBin m:val="before"/> <m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/> <m:smallFrac m:val="off"/> <m:dispDef/> <m:lMargin m:val="0"/> <m:rMargin m:val="0"/> <m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/> <m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/> <m:intLim m:val="subSup"/> <m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/> </m:mathPr></w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">So, lets look over what happened in Athens this week...</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Monday – A demonstration of Afghan and Iranian refugees, blocked from reaching the Ministry of Citizens Protection by riot cops, then granted a meeting with the minister only to later find out he wasn’t even there.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Tuesday – One man stabbed to death over a stolen camera. It is assumed that the murderer is an immigrant.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Wednesday –A general strike is held. Shops are closed and people demonstrate in the city centre. 67 demonstrators are hospitalised by police, one guy remains in a coma. Later that evening two anarchist squats (Skarramanga and Villa Malias) are attacked by fascists but defended. Fascist mobs roam around central districts of Athens attacking anyone who looks like a migrant. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFFJgrvlhaM">17 are hospitalised.</a> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Thursday – A Bangladeshi man is stabbed to death. Unplanned protests from anarchists against the extreme violence shown by police during Wednesdays demo are held.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Saturday – A car bomb goes off outside the police station in Exarchia, and across the street a motorbike, mistaken for a police bike, is molotoved, sending a massive plume of smoke down the packed Kalithromio market. One woman is treated for burns. Greek language schools gather for a celebration in Kipseli market. Anti-fascists turn out to show solidarity, but many migrants stay away.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">The weeks events have left a lot of people in shock. Yesterday, having just been in the market when the bomb went off, and feeling a little bit shaken up, me and Kostis reflected on what had gone on during the week.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">On the one hand you had the actions around the general strike. Anarchists and police fighting each other. This didn’t seem like anything new, but what was new, Kostis said, was the level of violence meted out against marchers on the day. Apart from the physical attacks, police used so much tear gas, that the demo was virtually inaccessible for anyone without a gas masks. And it’s illegal to mask up, so if you do try to protect yourself from gas, you’re equally liable to be arrested. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">On the other hand you had clashes between fascists and migrants and activists. Kostis thought this level of public, violent presence by the far right was something new too. Talk in the newspapers is of dirty immigrants, worsening the economic situation, who need to be sent home. There is a tangible shift in support for anti migrant sentiment, which made the attacks of this week some kind of watershed. How did it get to a point when fascist thugs can roam neighbourhoods stabbing people?</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Mainly the clashes here have been between fascists attacking black people. While anti-fascists made a visible presence at Kipseli market yesterday, what were the fascists doing? There needs to be a different tactic that turning up at known events. Fascists don’t come, cause they don’t wanna fight people who are ready and prepared to fight them. Kipseli market is protected. In the meantime, the people who are really being targeted remain vulnerable</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">I feel a sense of helplessness and dread. I’m sorry to say that I’m afraid of cops, but I’m more afraid of Fascists. How it must feel to be black in this city right now... </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><br />
</span></div>Tashahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13276744250703527615noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2783899671239325538.post-9812717584624742652011-05-09T11:06:00.000-07:002011-05-09T11:09:04.284-07:00The hygienic wall that makes me sick<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";">I<span style="font-size: large;">'m fucking angry.</span></span></span></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";">Having just come home from a demo with the Afghan refugees who have been campaigning for the Greek government to respond to their claims for asylum, I start reading the news online (OK. I admit. 1 source. The Guardian) and there are 2 headlines: “<a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/08/nato-ship-libyan-migrants" style="color: blue;">Nato units left 61 migrants to die</a><span style="color: blue;">” <span style="color: black;">and</span> “</span><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/may/08/arabic-exodus-border-controls-europe" style="color: blue;">Arabic exodus likely to lead to stricter border controls in Europe</a>”. This second article is about Europe proposing to re-introduce its internal borders in an effort to block refugees from the Arab Spring. </span></span></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";">3 examples of how European politicians are willing to sit back and continue to erect a wall to protect its wealth and privilege whilst others die. And 3 examples of how Europeans are prepared to sit back and let it happen. It happens because we are able to keep the realities of the effects of such decisions at a distance. There is a hygienic wall between 'us' and 'them'. But the idea of 'us' and 'them' is what’s wrong, and is caught up in the idea of 'our nation' and 'their nation'.</span></span></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";">I am angry because the realities for the migrants that those articles portrayed was made real for me at the demo today.</span></span></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";">The demo was organised by the Afghan Refugee community of Athens and attended by maybe 150 Afghans and Iranian refugees, many of whom have been in Greece years awaiting a decision on their asylum claims. The Afghan refugees have occupied a space outside the university in the centre of Athens for over 5 months now. Since the beginning of their occupation they have suffered numerous attacks from police and fascists. Back in December, 9 of them begun a hunger strike, sewing their lips together in protest and desperation. 5 months later, and the hunger strike long over, the occupation still continues.</span></span></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivaeJzGlYFZN7VSzLlwLMzMvM356eLfWEHlbjFbe3y3uP01lTDSE26WZ-adNtBVdBehvAGd07wVF5zcZYZ8kEyTCh6d4MnbYUw4BXT5tOGg4t2t1C4j87556K9kC15oP_T0bOTcIDS2Go/s1600/Afghan+demo+026.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivaeJzGlYFZN7VSzLlwLMzMvM356eLfWEHlbjFbe3y3uP01lTDSE26WZ-adNtBVdBehvAGd07wVF5zcZYZ8kEyTCh6d4MnbYUw4BXT5tOGg4t2t1C4j87556K9kC15oP_T0bOTcIDS2Go/s400/Afghan+demo+026.JPG" width="400" /></a></span></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";">It continues because they have still not had a response from the government. And perhaps this is the most shameful thing. That the authorities do not even bother to address them; those that are losing their marbles after 5 months of waiting and fighting and still trying to support themselves and their families. So once again today the campaigners and their supporters headed for The Ministry of Citizen Protection (the name says it all) to demand a response. And they were stopped from reaching the building by lines of swaggery riot cops smoking fags. Were the campaigners breaking the law? No. They are trying to claim asylum. Were the campaigners violent? No. But they sure have a right to be. Why were they forbidden from reaching the building? </span></span></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";">After a fairly brief confrontation with the cops, we retreated to a distance away from the cops (who had threatened to start using force. And there were kids there, for God’s sake) as a delegation of campaigners went into the ministry. A meeting with the minister was what the campaigners were aiming for (unfortunately if you wanna get their rights, they still have to ask the state!) so spirits were high, So, a few hours after the protest began, me and Phil headed home and will await the result. </span></span></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";"><br />
These 3 things: the treatment of these campaigners by the state; the reintroduction of borders to keep people out, and the wilful killing of so many refugees. It’s disgusting. It’s shameful. I am ashamed.</span></span></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";">Reinforcing and increasing an uneven division between wealth and right is damaging for everybody.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div>Tashahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13276744250703527615noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2783899671239325538.post-18339994200109730112011-05-01T07:07:00.000-07:002011-05-01T07:07:39.263-07:00International Workers day in Athens<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves/> <w:TrackFormatting/> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:DoNotPromoteQF/> <w:LidThemeOther>EN-GB</w:LidThemeOther> <w:LidThemeAsian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian> <w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> <w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/> <w:DontVertAlignCellWithSp/> <w:DontBreakConstrainedForcedTables/> <w:DontVertAlignInTxbx/> <w:Word11KerningPairs/> <w:CachedColBalance/> </w:Compatibility> <w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> <m:mathPr> <m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/> <m:brkBin m:val="before"/> <m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/> <m:smallFrac m:val="off"/> <m:dispDef/> <m:lMargin m:val="0"/> <m:rMargin m:val="0"/> <m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/> <m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/> <m:intLim m:val="subSup"/> <m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/> </m:mathPr></w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
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</style> <![endif]--> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3MMjy8ZitZrUOQ6jfW5RYJDD84NItIzG44yvWvplX-SsbGE0BY-ltjl3sVnMOLPJnaAaM-6PllNAw5n9i6GofsCTh8eIgVxS0ux4u6jFmuefOMffUR2OHUdk3gMJZI1p7FN3n69CxvcA/s1600/May+first+004.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEie8zJFIehUAlT0beY8ih5rzeEIPmZGnvv06383MjB9DbiVMeHBASgVW_s64mFwcSTxqaMSpAw8Ot9LwtTgIO5FF46bG_1P5a4ThMO8vjrmtiqHYDyrUPG18bGg322lrWf8uP3FRlFKr-o/s1600/May+first+006.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEie8zJFIehUAlT0beY8ih5rzeEIPmZGnvv06383MjB9DbiVMeHBASgVW_s64mFwcSTxqaMSpAw8Ot9LwtTgIO5FF46bG_1P5a4ThMO8vjrmtiqHYDyrUPG18bGg322lrWf8uP3FRlFKr-o/s320/May+first+006.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3MMjy8ZitZrUOQ6jfW5RYJDD84NItIzG44yvWvplX-SsbGE0BY-ltjl3sVnMOLPJnaAaM-6PllNAw5n9i6GofsCTh8eIgVxS0ux4u6jFmuefOMffUR2OHUdk3gMJZI1p7FN3n69CxvcA/s1600/May+first+004.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3MMjy8ZitZrUOQ6jfW5RYJDD84NItIzG44yvWvplX-SsbGE0BY-ltjl3sVnMOLPJnaAaM-6PllNAw5n9i6GofsCTh8eIgVxS0ux4u6jFmuefOMffUR2OHUdk3gMJZI1p7FN3n69CxvcA/s320/May+first+004.JPG" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">A few weeks ago I read an article in <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/apr/17/greece-debt-default-bailout?INTCMP=SRCH"><span style="color: blue;">The Guardian</span></a> talking about the real possibility of Greece defaulting on its loans, and about how civil unrest is also on the rise. The article featured a photo of the riot cops up against the powerful and ongoing protest of activists, fighting against the building of a Euro-dump in the Athens suburb of Keratea as one of several examples of civil unrest right now. It suggested that the country was reaching boiling point and post article comments said this was the chance for the Greeks to sod the banks, sod the politicians, make the default and begin making their own destiny. My hopes were high that Mayday might be the day to galvanise all these dissenting voices and really make a play for a popular uprising and new possibilities.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">So, this morning, bright eyed and bushy tailed, me and Phil headed down to join the migrants rights block of the radical left demo (in another example of how "The Life of Brian" is the prophet of real life on film, there were 3 major meet ups put out, each by a different kind of leftist political group and each in different locations at different times). We got there late and I just assumed the heaps of crowds were behind us. But then we - the 5000 or so demonstrators - started marching. Through the city centre, up to the Parliament. Sombre drum beats, a few chants and speeches marking our way, our path pre-emptively walked by lines of riot cops. All was as a demo is. Still I had some expectation that something would happen.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">And then the march disbanded. And everybody left. And that was the one thing I didn’t expect!</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Of all the things, I really didn't predict that nothing would happen. On Mayday. In Athens. In the middle of the worst of financial times this country has seen for who knows how long. In a country that's like the European version of the mothership of public protest. Why was the turnout so small and so weak?</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Talking to a guy from a Filipino migrants association, he said that their turnout had been low (around 20 or so) because despite the large Filipino community in Athens, many were afraid to demonstrate for fear of losing their jobs at a time when everyone is losing work, but migrants are being hit first and hardest. So, people are afraid and their looking to protect what's theirs in times when many are losing out. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Retreating back to a cafe in Exarchia afterwards, me and a friend - Alex - talked about it. He was really disappointed but had expected things to be small and uneventful in the end, because people were depressed. At the same time, all this political splitting (to reference "The Life of Brian" again) meant that the Mayday marches hadn't got the backing of the major unions, themselves in the pockets of the politicians and so untrusted, who have called for a separate general strike on May 11th. On the one hand people don't trust the unions, but what remains is fractured and uncoordinated. People have no faith in popular politics here, but they also have lost faith that taking to the streets will do anything either.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">For sure, marches can be symbolic and hollow, simply demonstrating weight of opposition rather than actual ability to change that which they oppose. But, like the recent student demos in the UK, they can also be the culmination of lots of smaller, diverse actions and can mark a watershed when new things really are possible. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">If it is the case that civil unrest is growing in Greece in small and diverse ways (such as the huge support for Keratea, or the growing won't pay movement), then perhaps the poor turnout today is just a sign that people have lost their faith in marches, but not in creating alternatives. Perhaps it’s also a sign that the alternatives offered by the groups that organised the marches are themselves hollow.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">I sat in the square, it slowly filling with returning protesters (and a little tear gas. Obviously something had happened somewhere), thinking that what I witnessed today was a disappointment, but that there still feels like the possibilities for dissent and change still exist here. Mayday so far has been disappointing but that in itself is not an accurate measure of things. And the day is also not over yet.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
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</div>Tashahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13276744250703527615noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2783899671239325538.post-52236254627044002522011-04-11T11:08:00.000-07:002011-04-11T11:34:19.733-07:00Learning GreekLearning Greek is not an easy business. It's all about the syllables - the more the better - and the tongue twisters. 'Mia Beera Parakalo'. It beats 'A beer please' by 5 syllables (and 'Yes - Nai' sounds like no, so Im still slightly incapable of even demonstrating agreement). But I recon you can get a long way knowing how to correctly, convincingly and loudly say 'Endaxi' (Okay).<br />
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So, we have been having weekly lessons at the migrants social centre as part of a group of around 20 beginners. We were warmly welcommed to join the free classes and 3 weeks in, we can string a few sentences together.There's people from all over the world (including from places I'd never heard of, like Comoros Island, which I now know if off the coast of Africa, right near Madagascar). There's quite a lot of banter and blank faces (there's universal agreement in the rock hard nature of Greek).<br />
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But as much as I enjoy being in the group, I have to critique it! At least a little bit. I enjoy being in the group, but to what extent am I in it? We smile and chat with our classmates. They sometimes ask us what the words are in English. Our teachers do sometimes too. But I feel a little bit outside. Everybody seems to talk to each other a bit more, to laugh and joke a bit more. I have the feeling we are set very slightly apart because we are different. We are the only 2 Western Europeans in class.<br />
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For sure, the people who speak to us the most are our 2 lovely, patient teachers (one of them is learning English so we are a useful source of extra tuition for her). We seem to get a disproportionate amount of their attention. And quite a porportion of the lesson is now translated into English (when we first arrived it was entirely in Greek), which aint that useful if you're an Eritrean woman who doesn't speak the 'Universal tongue'.<br />
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I think we're slightly apart because we know and they know that our lives are different from theirs. Perhaps this difference is in terms of how we view choice (we had a free choice to come to Greece, I imagine they had much less), in terms of how we view what we do (we don't work, I think they probably have to work shit jobs illegally) and in terms of how we view our freedom (I was gonna write that I think we are more free, but that's too much of the truthless bullshit).But these are indeed my views, not theirs. I'm just giessing that they would agree.<br />
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The attention from the teachers. I wonder whether there is some feeling that because we are English, our nationality carries more respect in their eyes (I ahred this view with a friend and she thought it could well be like that).<br />
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Does this mean that through this view of mine, I consider myself better than them? <br />
How much does the way I act reinforce these views?<br />
I think I just go with the flow, but should I act differently?<br />
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Perhaps this is all my creation and a happy conicidence of teacher-student cooperation because we speak English. Anyway, over the course of the next months lets see how we get to know each other..Tashahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13276744250703527615noreply@blogger.com0