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Wanneer: 16/09/2017 - 10:09

September 16th – Antiracist Parade / commUNITY-Carnival in Berlin

There are many more of us than we guess. One week before the German elections we will show up on the streets, loud and confident. We want to tell our stories – stories of flight and deprivation of rights, of officials and racism, of welcoming and staying. We’ll come united: For politics of solidarity. Together for all – on September 16th in Berlin!

We won’t get used to what is happening right before our eyes and what is declared as normal: The situation is not getting better. Suffering and death are no exceptions anymore. They shape the daily lives of all those who still do not belong to this country and of those who still seek to come here. People are being insulted, spat on and beaten. The solidarity of hundreds of thousands is mistreated and stamped on. We are looked at with a lot of suspicion. They build fences to prevent us from entering. They deport us to make us disappear. But we are here. We will stay. We have our hopes. We have our dreams. We live. Welcome united.

The memory is fresher than ever
We will not give up. We remember the summer of 2015. Hundreds of thousands opened Europe’s borders. No one could stop them because they didn’t let anyone stop them. They just began to walk. They started moving in order to arrive somewhere. From the train station in Budapest to the Austrian border. Freedom of movement did not remain a demand anymore. The movement took its freedom. For the right to have rights, for the right to presence, to protection, to help and to a future. The “march of hope” remains an unforgettable event in the long history of struggles for the right to escape and migrate.
Still today, we are many. We are still here, and maybe our number even grew. Day in day out, we seek to resist the injustice of the current order. The small and the large protests have become part of our lives. The hopes of 2015 have not yet been suffocated. These hopes have found expression in the acts of solidarity of thousands of people in Germany and Europe. We continue to fight for the refugees’ and migrants’ right to presence, and also for the right to our presence. We provide everyday support. We protest state persecution and deportation. We rise up against the new right-wing populism and old forms of fascism. We are here and we stand with those who came. We are the ones who arrived. Welcome united!

From solidarity to politics!
Existing migration policies have to change – this is non-negotiable. This is and will remain the central position from which we conduct our political work. And this goes out to all politicians:

– For the right to leave and to come: Stop the dying!
The dying in the Mediterranean Sea has to stop. Now. Immediately. There’s nothing to discuss about that. We refuse to accept the normalization of death and suffering at this murderous border: Who drowns is being killed! The deaths of thousands could end already tomorrow if people could board a plane or a ferry to Europe. But instead the oppressors persecute those who help and support. We demand a reversal of Europe’s migration policies! For safe passages, freedom of movement and a welcoming Europe!

– For the right to stay: Stop the fear!
Over the past few years, hundreds of thousands have made it to Germany. But hundreds of thousands still don’t know if they can stay. Without the right to stay they still encounter fear, insecurity and uncertainty instead of being able to start and to create a future. This also includes that we as women don’t have to experience discrimination and violence any longer. Or that the countless families who were torn apart can live together again. We call for a clear stance of all those taking part in the political decision making process: an unconditional right to remain and an end to deportations – now! All those who are here, are from here, and will stay!

– For the right to solidarity: Break the silence!
The law differentiates between different countries of origin and classifies us accordingly: those with a good and those with a bad perspective of staying. Countries are constructed as safe, unsafe or half-safe. The ones affected the most by this exclusion, members of minority groups such as Roma or people who don’t fit the norms of society, are left to stay in a waiting loop of non-approval. We demand the extension of a solidarity which doesn’t make any divide based on ones origin.

– For the right to equal rights: Stop racism!
For hundreds of years now, and not only for the past two years, our society has always consisted of a diverse multiplicity. Who actually still lives where their ancestors were born and who actually still works at their place residence? People have always been coming. People have always been leaving. There is no justification for unequal rights. Whether you are from Syria, Greece, Macedonia, Nigeria, Morocco or Baden-Württemberg. Whether it’s about the right to housing, education, work, mobility or the right to health care. Social and political rights exist for all those who are here. Without exceptions and from the very start.

– For the right to stay: Let’s put an end to global injustice!
For hundreds of years, some countries have robbed other countries’ resources. Slave trade, natural resources, appalling labor and corrupt governments. The wealth of the west is built upon exclusion and exploitation. Europe continues to export a rampant predatory capitalism which kills every day. People escape to Europe because they are left with nothing and want to save their lives. We demand equal rights for all. Everyone has the right to physical integrity, to happiness and a future – everywhere in this world and not only in the west. Nobody wants to have to escape.

Our voices count!
A week ahead of the general elections, we want to show our face. All of us, united on the streets of Berlin. We want to create spaces for all those voices and stories that are usually not heard or that are supposed to remain unheard. These stories remain hardly audible, even in this current ‘electoral campaign for social justice’ , not least as many still do not have the right to vote. We say: Welcome United!
When we take to the streets, we want to be many. Everyone who cares about the common good and solidarity should come out. Everyone who can no longer bear that people are forced to stay in miserable conditions or left to suffer and die at Europe’s borders, should come out. We know well that many have fought for years for their future. Now is the time to raise our voices together. We are more than we think! We’ll come United!

That’s why we call for decentralized actions and local meetings around the anniversary of the march of hope, starting from the 2nd of September 2017 – in your city, your village, your district. Be creative!

We call for a national demonstration on the 16th of September in Berlin – come and join a large parade struggling for societal participation, equal rights, and solidarity.
Welcome united! We’ll come United!

More info: http://www.welcome-united.org/en/parade-2/

Club Al-Hakawati and others call you to join this Carnival! We want to organize a broad and inclusive artistic and political demonstration – we want to bring refugees’ stories and perspective into the public debate!
This Carnival is a time to express unity against racist attitudes, against objectification and de-humanization of people, a safe space to share our stories. CommUnity carnival is conceived as a platform for as many activist groups as possible to come together — to create strong stories, images and experiences of solidarity and hope against fear!
More than ever we must stand up for equal rights, we must stand together in solidarity and fight for a better life. We call for unity and want to come together to fight right-wing movements, to smash prejudices, to strive to build a better society where everyone can express her*self or him*self and participate fully in the community. The growth of right-wing movements, European migration policy, the spread of hatred and fear — all these challenges demand a common and shared strategy. We need a large alliance based on solidarity and active participation.

Is my right your right? We want equality!
Last year more than 5,000 people took to the streets of Berlin for the first Carnival of Refugees and raised up their voices in support of unity, protest and joy. Several activist groups and art collectives came together on the “International Day Against Racism” to support refugees’ demands and carry refugees’ stories into the streets in order to influence the public debate and change current policies on migration.
We believe that our focus must be on reclaiming rights and raising awareness of how rights are limited in politics and practice. We want to call for more than just improved living conditions for refugees in Germany: that is essential, but it is not enough. We demand equal rights! we demand citizenship rights for everybody who lives here!
The history of the world is the history of migration. People flee from war, from poverty, they flee from countries exploited by colonialism, imperialism, and capitalism. That is why we are not begging for charity but calling for solidarity. Migration is a human right without upper limits or quotas, transit zones, third-country regulations, Frontex, Schengen, without work bans, barriers to education, and so on. We want to stop deportation immediately! We want people to be treated with dignity!

The culture of Carnival
Mikhail Bakhtin (Russian philosopher and literary critic, 1895 – 1975) analyses carnival as a popular ancient tradition where art and life meet. It is a collectively performed play, allowing moments of acute exaggeration and grotesqueness. Blurring borders between actors and spectators, it reveals a rich variety of voices that join to deny tradition, disobey rank, and stimulate real human exchange. Rather than being isolated atoms, our bodies are part of an ever-evolving, ever-expanding collective participation “in the potentiality of an other world”. Carnival festively exposes the present system as transitory, changeable and clearly labelled with a sell-by date. The carnivalesque is polyphonic; it has many voices. And many languages. The carnivalesque promotes a culture of laughter, directed from the grassroots at those with power and privilege.

Fear and Carnival – “Angst isst die Seele auf/ Fear Eats the Soul”: playing with fear to mock power
Who is afraid of what? All over Europe we witness right-wing and populist movements emerging, spreading and growing stronger day by day. We view these movements with concern, in particular the way that they promote racist attitudes, use fear in their programs and spread anti-Muslim racism in order to gain supporters.
Fear is a tool of power; it has always been used to justify right-wing politics and to keep people under control. Fear is used to construct “public enemies”. History shows us how easy it is to create a scapegoat and to deflect attention from real problems.
Whose fears are taken serious and whose fears are ignored? What is called “fear” and which fears are not mentioned? Those “fears”, which are used in mainstream discourse, are mostly based on ignorance, on the idea that the “others” are intrinsically different from us and hostile. Sometimes, we fear what we don’t know, what is kept away from us. Fear makes us stop moving!
We can use the grotesque to mock fear, to reveal real contradictions and inequalities. We shall support critical thinking to overcome false differences and to de-construct public debates and discourses of hate.

Let us TELL OUR STORIES, let us DO POLITICAL ART AND POLITICS THROUGH ART. Let us PLAY WITH FEAR TO TURN IT UPSIDE DOWN.
Under the motto WE ARE HERE BECAUSE YOU ARE THERE, we want to undermine and move beyond the mainstream concept of “integration”. “Integration” implies a de-politicization of our activities here: colonial and post-colonial perspectives cannot be eradicated from political analysis of the current situation in Europe!
Instead of refugees, we want to be called newcomers and storytellers. Different stories can address different problems and then demand different rights. We want to de-colonize our minds and bodies — let’s re-mix cultures!