Border Wars by Mark Akkerman

https://www.tni.org/files/publication-downloads/border-wars-report-web.pdf

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No Border 2016 Program schedule

Wednesday, July 13:

We start setting up the NoBorder Camp.
People can start camping from Thursday, July 14.

Friday, July 15:

Arrivals,
18:00 first plenary
21:00 concert

Saturday, July 16:

1st day of the Networking Meeting Balkan route
11:00: Women*Space (International women*groups and women* from the relocation centers)
During the day: Live mural painting by the NoBorder Graffiti
Crew
Evening: Disruptive Film Festival / Theater

Sunday, July 17:

Morning: caravan to the “relocation centers” around Thessaloniki
13:00: Migrants from the relocation centers address the NoBorder Camp in an open meeting

Midday/afternoon: 2nd day of the Networking Meeting Balkan route
Evening: Short Film Festival – Clips and Videos from external borders and from the Balkan Route

Monday, July 18:

Morning: caravan to the “relocation centers” around Thessaloniki

Afternoon: workshops
20:00 plenary «European‐Mediterranean networking»
Disruptive film festival / Short festival of Alban-speaking movies

Tuesday, July 19:

Morning: caravan to the “relocation centers” around Thessaloniki

Afternoon: workshops
20:00 plenary «Migrants self‐organizing»

Evening: Disruptive film festival / Short festival of Alban-speaking movies

Wednesday, July 20:

Morning to afternoon: protests at the detention centers at Paranesti (Drama) and Xanthi.

Evening: Concert: Baris Bal Trio (Istanbul/Thessaloniki) / Theater: Acts by Rhiad (Tunisia) and Dimitris Samir (Syria-Greece)

Thursday, July 21:

Morning: caravan to the “relocation centers” around Thessaloniki

Afternoon: “Migrants’ Pride” protest in the center of Thessaloniki

Evening: Concert

Friday, July 22:

Morning: workshops
12:00-15:00: open meeting / plenary on the struggle against the goldmines in Halkidiki
Afternoon: workshops
20:00 plenary «Networking of self­‐organized structures»

Evening: Disruptive film festival / Short Iranian film festival

Saturday, July 23:

All day: protest at the Greek/Turkish border at the Evros fence
Evening: Disruptive film festival / Short Iranian film festival

Sunday, July 24:
Closing workshops day / Closing plenary

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Networking Meeting Balkan route program

Saturday, 16th of July

11.00 – 13.00
Opening Plenary – Welcome, Introduction, Inputs, first Discussion
Input 1: “Everything is possible” – the amazing dynamics of 2015;
Input 2: After the EU-Turkey Deal – the new border regime in the Aegean;
Input 3: Back to the Underground railway – new/old challenges of support and solidarity;
Input 4: Between transit and common social struggles – how to connect the various aspirations and realities?
15.30 – 17.30
Workshop Slot I
Back to the Underground railway? Ongoing daily struggles and transnational perspectives on the Balkan route
Five parallel workshops:
1.    The consequences after the EU-Turkey-deal;
2.    Webguides: Welcome to Greece and Welcome to Italy;
3.    Solidarity along the Balkan Route: from financial support to common actions against repression;
4.    Live feed of w2eu as information tool – and Alarmphone Balkan as a new project?
5.    Mapping and other ideas of support along the route.
(1.5 hours break)
19.00 – 21.00
Workshop Slot II
Solidarity and support: Self-organisation, mixed organisation, volunteers, transnationalisation
Four parallel workshops:
1.    Experiences in social centers and squats;
2.    Travelling groups/journeys (back) to the borders;
3.    Multilingual newspapers and online magazine/platforms;
4.    Between empathic support and unpaid crowd management; Ambivalences of the volunteers’ engagement.

Sunday, 17th of July
 
16.00 to 18.00
Workshop Slot III
Common social struggles, sensitivity versus criminalisation
Three parallel workshops:
1.    Housing, health-service, education: perspectives of common social struggles for a social infrastructure;
2.    Working, exploitation, rights: how to resist the racist hierarchies in the labour market?
3.    Denouncement, criminalisation, sensitivity: How to break the fear and repression in the border areas?
19.00 to 21.00
Final plenary: Brief conclusions from the workshops, Discussion on Perspectives
Sunday later Evening (22.00…)
Short Film Festival – Clips and Videos from the external borders and from the Balkan Route

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July 18, 19, 22 workshops program

Typical workshops’ day schedule:
8.00-9.30 breakfast
9.30-13.30 caravan to relocation centers
13.30-15.00 rest, snack
15.00-19.00 sessions
19.00-20.00 dinner
20.00-22.00 plenary

Monday, July 18:

Four parallel sessions (15.00-19.00)

A1. State and Hyperstate governmental policies for moving populations (Room 1)

a) Book presentation: Vogelfrei. Three texts on migration, deportation, capital and its state – Antithesis
b) The new state totalitarianism towards migrants and refugees – Antiauthoritarian Movement (AK)
c) The role of charity and of the army in managing migrant populations – Fabrika Yfanet squat / Thessaloniki
d) The latest deal between the EU and Turkey – Migrant Solidarity Network / Ankara

B. Strategies and practices for survival, solidarity and fighting for freedom (Room 2)

a) Pinknoise (Netherlands) – online privacy and safe communication
b) Hackborders project: Presentation of a tool for family members to find each other – http://hackborders.net/‬.
c) WatchThe Med Alarm Phone – experiences of the hotline for refugees and migrants in distress on sea, organized by activists of Alarm Phone
d) Silent University Athens Assembly – platform for knowledge sharing between refugees, mıgrants and locals.
 
C1. Solidarity, networking, communication, mutual aid and commoning of the moving populations (Room 3)

a) Adverse Humanitarianisms: institutional necropolitics and the urge to tame grass‐roots solidarity in transnational migration governance – Sonia Vlachou
b) Your struggle is also mine? Limits and options of fighting together – NoBorder activists
c) Migrants politicization in the radical movement – Genti Guri – Clandestina network
d) Fighting for freedom and living with migrants in Ljubljana – Anti-racist Front without Borders from Ljubljana, Slovenija
e) Interlinking Housing and Migration Struggles – The European Action Coalition for the Right to Housing and to the City

D. Sensing the Borders: affective migrant subjectivities and strategies of (self) representation

Plenary: «European-Mediterranean networking» (Room 1)

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Tuesday, July 19:

Three parallel sessions (15.00-19.00)

A2. State and Hyperstate governmental policies for moving populations (Room 1)

a) The role of the university in managing migrants populations – Fabrika Yfanet squat / Thessaloniki
b) Antifascism as an inseparable part of the struggle for social emancipation – Collective for Social Anarchism Black & Red / Thessaloniki
c) A Social Movement for the Re-opening the Balkan routes. Legimitacy and Public Standing for the Refugee Movement – Joerg Finkenberger, Lisa Thomas
d) Solidarity economy and the refugee crisis: exploring bridges and expanding spaces of social solidarity – Freedom Coop

E. Gender aspects of immigration (women, lgbtq populations, sexism, gender violence, pregnancy) – Age aspects of immigration (Room 2)

a) Atelier Without Borders – Atelier Without Borders (Istanbul) children and activism
b) Book presentation: “In Our Own Words – Refugee Women in Germany tell their stories”, edited by IWSPACE (International Women Space)
c) Living in the shadow – Eliana Kanavelis, “Babylonia” journal

C2. Solidarity, networking, communication, mutual aid and commoning of the moving populations (Room 3)

a) The current situation of migrants in Morocco in combination with EU border politics – No Borders Morocco
b) The consequences of the EU migration regime in North Africa – Noborder Tunisia and Relatives of the disappeared
c) For a Collective Memory on Migrant Struggles – the idea of a multilingual online platform – activists from WatchTheMed Alarm Phone and Moving Europe

Plenary: «Migrants’ self-organizing» (Room 1)

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Friday, July 22:

Morning – 2 parallel sessions (9.00-12.00)

F. Three hour training in direct action skills (9.00-12.00) (concert site)

Action Training for Direct Action – Openborder

G1. Connection between the struggles of the locals and the immigrants (10.00-12.00) (Room 2)

a) Working the border: Pioneer farmers and migrant farmworkers on the Israeli frontier
b) Action logistics and organizing long-term camps and actions – Max Mustermann

12:00-15:00
Open meeting / plenary on the struggle against goldmines in Ηalkidiki (Room 1)  
“The State and capital write the history of pillaging life and  nature, the movements write the history of resistance and freedom” – Beyond Europe: Halkidiki – The Comeback
 
Afternoon – 3 parallel sessions (15.00-19.00)

G2. Connection between the struggles of the locals and the immigrants (Room 1)

a) Participation and integration of refugees in the Initiative for a Self-organised School of Integral Cooperation / Freedom Coop as a tool for refugees and the No Border movement – Freedom Coop
b) Solidarity economies as an alternative for the labor exploitation – Istanbul migrant solidarity kitchen
c) The Paradigm Shift in Political Participation and Debates about the self‐organization of Migrants from Syria in Turkey – Hamisch – Istanbul Syrian cultural association
d) Solidarity and self-organizing against the new totalitarianism – Collective for Social Anarchism Black & Red / Thessaloniki

H. Living together and struggling together (Room 2)

a) Solidarity and self-organization against the french border in Ventimiglia (Italy): perspectives and strategies for future struggles – No Borders Italy
b) Living together and struggling together – Calais Migrant Solidarity
c) Towards a Transnational Social Strike – Workshop about Labour, Precarity and Migration – PrekärLab / Frankfurt
d) Presentation of the squat for migrants Dervenion 56 (Athens)

I. Solidarity structures, squats-social struggle centers (Room 3)

a) Perspectives on antiracist self-organization and squatting – A Beyond Europe discussion with activists from Athens, Milano, Frankfurt and other places.
b) Perspective and Organising in Izmir – Kapılar community center / Izmir
c) #Overthefortress / Agire nella crisi / Globalproject – Meltingpot

Plenary: «Networking of self-organized structures» (Room 1)

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Artistic program

Friday, July 15:

Documentary “People without faces”
Concert:
Unshaped Ahead (loops &violin-based storytelling)
Lostre (ska punk)
Electro Vampires (atmospheric goth & glamor rock)
Turi Beri (jazz punk)
Guts Pie Earshot (deep cello trip hop)

Saturday, July 16:

Disruptive Film Festival (Sherry Millner & Εrnest Larsen, N.Y., USA)
Theater Performance by ΤΟ ΣΠΙΡΤΟ (The wooden match – Athens): Coriolanus, William Shakespeare

Sunday, July 17:

Short Film Festival – Clips and Videos from the external borders and from the Balkan Route
Film projection: “Detention Without Walls” (Bridget Holtom, “We Will Rise” – UK)

Monday, July 18:

Disruptive film festival
Short festival of Alban-speaking movies: (1) Kukumi (Isa Qosja, 2005)

Tuesday, July 19:

Disruptive film festival
Short festival of Alban-speaking movies: (2) Time of the Comet (Fatmir Koçi, 2008) (3) Tirana Year Zero (Fatmir Koçi, 2001)

Wednesday, July 20:

Two one-act plays, Arab poetry recitation, Kurdish songs – a compilation by Dimitris Samir, playwright (Syria-Greece)
Theater performance by Rhiad (Tunisia): “Huuriya Means Freedom”
Concert:
Baris Bal Trio (Istanbul/Thessaloniki) (traditional oriental & Ottoman court music),
Interrail (ethnic & Balkan tunes)

Thursday, July 21:

Concert: Λ.Ο.Σ.,  Dysfunctional narrations (rap), Katachnia (deep art crust), BMW Rockers 57 (speed ’n’ roll)

Friday, July 22:

Disruptive film festival
Short Iranian film festival: Morteza Jafari (a) Dreaming of Life, 2016 (b) Dreaming of Democracy, 2013

Saturday, July 23:

Disruptive film festival
Short Iranian film festival: Morteza Jafari (a) Dreaming of Life, 2016 (b) Dreaming of Democracy, 2013

* All days: Photo exhibition by Morteza Jafari (Iran)

https://alarmphone.org/en/2016/06/26/weekly-reports-where-is-europes-outrage-continued-border-transgressions-and-struggles-in-times-of-mass-drownings-push-backs-and-europes-silence/?post_type_release_type=post

http://moving-europe.org/report-on-police-violence-during-push-backs-from-hungary/

Currently, there are around 300 people per day arriving in Serbia. They
come either from Turkey through Bulgaria or from Greece through
Macedonia. The accounts we hear from people stopping over in Belgrade
are of difficult journeys, often with violent encounters with
authorities or gangs. In Belgrade, many people rest for a few days
before they continue their journey to the Hungarian border. There are
two transit zones where people can legally enter Hungary. However,
people often have to wait for weeks before it is their turn to enter.
The conditions of the camps at these transit zones are miserable.
Therefore, many people try to cross the fence into Hungary on their own.
After having entered Hungary, people face three scenarios. They are
either pushed-back to Serbia, detained for some time or sent directly to
open camps. From the open camps, most people try to continue their
journey towards Austria.

In the last days we witnessed an increased number of people who left for
Hungary returning to Belgrade. They crossed into Hungary, but were
caught by the police and pushed back to Serbia through a hole in fence.
Many people reported violent behaviour by the Hungarian police,
including pepper spray, electrical shocks, beatings and setting dogs on
them.

On Wednesday 22 June, at least 50 people returned from the border. We
spoke with people from a group of twelve and another group of 23 who
testified having had similar experiences. This is the recorded report of
one of them. It is representative of the experiences of many others. It
contains explicit details and images of physical violence.

“I went to Hungary three times. The first time after a walk of five
minutes the police came with dogs and beat me and then we were brought
to the border again and they sent me back. The second time I walked for
half an hour and they came and beat me again and they sent me back. The
third time I walked ten kilometres in three hours and again they beat me
and sent me back. So the Hungarian police is a big problem for refugees
because they beat them.

I walked for ten kilometres in Hungary and the police came and beat me.
They cut a hole in the fence and pushed us through the fence. We were
twelve persons and the police beat all twelve persons. One had a wound
on his head with blood. They had a helicopter. And they also used
electric shockers. And they also had pepper-spray. This is very
dangerous. If the refugees go back to Serbia they can not see anything.
They go there and fall in the fence with razors so they have a lot of cuts.
(shows wounds on a friend’s arm, right)

(shows a wound on a friend’s leg, left)
This is from a dog. The dog bit him. This was five days ago.

(shows his swollen and bruised foot)
My foot is hurt. I cannot walk. And this is also a problem, I cannot
walk and they beat me again and again. I could not walk very well all
the time because this was five days ago. If you can see this, my foot is
big and swollen.

I tried to cross the border three times in four days. No sleep, only
running and walking. We walked through dirty water like this (points up
to his neck) two times. We had nothing to drink, we drank the dirty
water from the ground. No food. The third time I walked ten kilometres
without water. And I have also kidney problems. I told the Hungarian
police that I have kidney problems and they beat me again. I told them
‘give me water’ but they didn’t give me water. And we had one family
with us. They beat one of the family one the head and broke another
one’s bones (points to the arm) and there was also one sleeping child,
five or six years. And the family and women, they beat them on their head.

Why do they beat us? They can bring us back but why do they beat us?
That is the problem. The same happens to a lot of other people. Maybe
one hundred. And they beat me only a little, but other people have their
heads broken.

We don’t want to stay in Hungary! We want to go to France, to Germany,
to Italy, to London. We just want to pass Hungary. Please, I am going to
Italy or London, but all misafir1 have problems in Hungary. Nobody wants
to stay in Hungary!

Why do they beat us? At first we all face the Bulgarian police and they
all beat us. The Serbian police they are very good. When they caught us
they did not touch us and said ‘go to the border, go to Subotica’ and
‘go to Belgrade’. They do not beat us. But why did the Hungarian police
beat us? And what is the rule of that ten kilometres? Why can they beat me?

They also beat children and women. We are men, but why do they beat
children? A lot of people said the Hungarian police is not allowed to do
that type of beatings. Why do they beat now?

My message is that: They cannot beat the refugees. Because refugees have
no food, no water. Then they beat them so they have even more problems.
My message to the other EU countries is that they should force Hungary
so they do not beat the refugees. Because they had a lot of problems,
that’s why they came in this country. They are not a million, not a
billion who come there. We had a lot of problems, that’s why we have to
come to Europe, Germany, France, Italy or Austria. If they have a new
law, that’s ok. But they can not beat us.

So my message is that all European countries should force Hungarian
police and Bulgarian police to stop beating us and they should help all
misafir.”

Alf is going to Thessaloniki in Greece.

Meeting places for the caravan:

1st of July 16; 11 Uhr; motorway service area Weiskirchen South on the motorway A3 around Frankfurt/Main
Estimated departure: 11:30 am.

2nd of July: Munich

The further route will probably be:
Vienna, Ljubljana, Skopje, Salonika

http://alfpartoutenglish.blogsport.eu/2016/06/10/planning-ticker-caravan/

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