The Rhine-Main Region and Frankfurt Airport - The Border Within

Information from the Border Camp Preparation Group
von Camp-Organisation - - 22.07.2001 09:36

The fourth antiracist Border Camp will take place from 27th July to 5th August 2001 under the motto "No Person is illegal (Kein Mensch ist illegal)".

As in previous years, this year´s camp is directed against the border regimes of Germany and Europe, and is aligned with the continuous and varied struggle against them. Without false modesty the camp aims to attack the finely woven net of the border fences, Border Police patrols and internment lager, also legal discrimination, bureaucratic hostility, populist speeches and informers in the population. The hunting of "illegals" and their daily deportation must be stopped. The camp involves itself by every imaginable method - from public meetings through solidarity and support to disturbances and actions. We challenge the domination of the racists with German (European) passports in this country.

After three years of camps directly on the borders to Poland and Tschechien, we chose the Rhein-Main Region and Frankfurt Airport for this summer. The focus will be moved to the internal borders of the national policies. The planned activities concentrate therefore on the Airport Processing of migrants and the internment lager at the airport. Our demands for an immediate disbandment of the internment lager and an end to all deportation will again be emphasised at a closing demonstration on 4th August 2001.

Part of this years camp targets are the borders, which make the lives of legal and illegal migrants difficult in the town centres of the region, ranging from "random" identity checks to discrimination in housing and at work. Particular emphasis will be given to the campaign of the organisation for African refugees "The Voice" against the residency rules, which state that asylum applicants may not leave the parish to which they have been assigned by the immigration authorities. Members of "The Voice" break these rules, as soon as they take part in the camp. The legalisation of all "Illegalls" living in Germany is a central demand of the Camp and of the wider campaign.

The challenge for the Border Camp 2001 is to make clear that there is radical resistance to the neoliberal racism of the modernised anti-migration policy - even in the wealthy, worldly, multi-cultural Rhein-Main region. We support all initiatives and activities which seek to disrupt or avoid a system, which seeks to force people in to the categories "useful", "adequately assimilated" or "culturally enriching". The political perspective of the camp does not stop at relief, quotas, Green Cards and humanitarian improvements but rather struggles for the right and the possibility for every individual to travel and live where she/he wishes. With no ifs or buts.

Besides the antiracist and antifascist interactions with those outside, the internal development of the Camp plays a central role. With 500-1000 participants each year, the Camp has come to be an important meeting point for different antiracist groups and individuals. The Camp has come to stand for the challenge and the difficulty of political cooperation. Precisely because the Camp is composed of a variety (every year new) of heterogeneous perspectives and against a background of different daily realities, we are obliged to talk about shared basics, positions and activities. Important discussion topics are the relationship between "German" antiracism and the self-organisation of migrants, between racism/sexism and antiracism/antifascism , last years public debate over state antifascism and changes in the dominant immigration policy.

We urge all those who are interested in these questions to take part in the Border Camp 2001. Inform yourself and others, publish the Camp dates, struggle, mobilise, prepare and and and.

"kein mensch ist illegal" Camp

Contact:

Camp
c/o Dritte Welt Haus
Falkstr.74
D-60487 Frankfurt/M
phone 0049-(0)69-79 20 17 72
(18-22 hours)
fax 0049-(0)69-78 96 03 99

eMail: dwhffm@t-online.de