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Call by Antirassistischen Gruppe Leipzig (in progress)
:: Antiracist action and discussion? Camp02! ::This summer, the antiracist bordercamp with the motto "no-one is illegal" will take place for the fifth time. Like in previous years, it again focuses on the German and European border regime, targeting it within the frame of a more general and fundamental critique of society. After three camps directly on the border to Poland and Czech Republic plus the camp at the Frankfurt Airport the location we chose to go to this summer Thuringia. Taking up last year's focus of "inner borders" the fifth bordercamp intends to intervene on a wide range of levels in the debate on borders migrants and refugees have to face, like residential restriction (the obligation for refugees to stay within the boundaries of the administrative district assigned to them by the German authorities), the Immigration Act and the "War on terrorism". We also want to continue the discussions that started during the Frankfurt camp.:: racism and capitalism ::At this point we confine ourselves mostly to targeting the relation of racism and anti-Semitism to capitalism because this is where we have to acknowledge a deficit in theory within the antiracist movement. It is important for us to put a greater emphasis on this subject for the discussion within the antiracist left and for our own positioning during the actions of the antiracist bordercamp.By doing so, we do not question the important role nationalism and patriarchy play in relation to capitalism and racism but we find that there has been done a lot more analysis on this topic already. Most approaches to racism treat this form of domination as if it was isolated from other aspects of society instead of embedding it into a general analysis and critique of society. The problem is not only the small number of theoretical positions but also their quality: subordinating anti-Semitism as a mere form of racism or the idea that racism was a form of domination which had existed before capitalism and was simply being used by capitalism but in the future development would be abolished as an obstacle to capital accumulation - are not just isolated positions but quite common opinions in the antiracist discussion. A consistent leftist antiracism absolutely needs a critical analysis of capitalism and of the functioning of racism. Our hope is not only to start this discussion within the antiracist movement but to have this discussion as part of a radical leftist movement. Racism in its modern form developed parallel to the formation of capitalist societies on the basis of already existing xenophobic stereotypes and patterns. It is not just a continuation of those archaic images, it is an integral part of capitalist society. Capitalism at first sight seems incompatible with or at least indifferent to constructions such as gender or race. The capitalist principle of utilisation and the promise of formal equality in principle holds for all humans, being citizens of a particular nation-state or foreigners - but only under the condition that they create value. The ideology of universalism - which claims equality of all humans only in their capacity as free subjects to exchange values in their individual pursuit of happiness - is tailor-made for the capitalist way of production and essential to the endless accumulation of capital. This ideology facilitates the free movement of all goods in the form of products, capital and labour according to the value only the market attributes to them. All existing social differences are put down to different performance and effectivity of the individuals. A society which is based on the achievement principle and tries to give itself a universalist appearance is less stable politically than earlier forms of society where social positions were derived from religion or feudal tradition and firm convictions could be granted. The present society is subjectively perceived as unjust because to the eyes of the individual their personal achievements seem to be underrated and the bourgeois subject, faced with the possibility of its own failure, constantly needs to adjust itself and live up to the demands of the capitalist society. A meritocracy cannot offer the belief in an eternal fixed order and firm convictions anymore. This is the point where racism as an ideology of inequality steps in: formal equality and the promise of happiness as a reward for high performance is inconsistent with the really existing inequality within capitalism that cannot be explained with different performance and effectivity. Ideologies like sexism and racism are attempts to explain and rationalise complex social interrelations by declaring them mere biological developments in order to make them seemingly more transparent. They conceal the actual reasons which are inherent in the capitalist system and stabilise the political order. People adjust themselves into bourgeois subjects who function as thoroughly rationalised labour within the capitalist- bourgeois order and subordinate their own "instinctive nature" to a daily agenda planned down to the last detail. This self-adjustment creates the ambivalent feelings of hatred and fascination when confronted with the imagination of the 'stranger' who seems to elude abstract, dependent work and appears to be dominated completely by their instincts and needs. The 'stranger' is constructed as the reciprocal reflection of the bourgeois subject and all characteristics the bourgeois subject fears, despises or desires are ascribed to this reflection. Racism has a function of creating community and identity and plays an important role in pushing through the values and secondary virtues the capitalist working process and the bourgeois society demand. We see that capitalism legitimises and constitutes racism. But trying to derive racism only economically from capitalism would be wrong: as an ideology of inequality it tends to gain an independent momentum and continually reproduces itself. But racism is as well constituent of capitalism. It plays an important role in maintaining capitalism and conceals its inherent contradictions. Fighting racism necessarily means fighting capitalism as its essential basis as well. Anti-Semitism contains racist elements, it argues with the constructed 'race' of the 'Jew' and puts down social reality to biological reasons, too, but it functions in a different manner. On the one hand, while racist ideology depicts 'foreign peoples' as inferior to one's own people, anti-Semites describe the 'Jew' as the alleged 'wire-puller behind the scenes' who has certain sinister and frightening powers and the aspiration to gain control over the world. They see the danger in the 'Jews'' alleged superiority. On the other hand, anti- Semitic logic does not go along the lines of 'nation against nation', as racist logic does, which implies a basic acceptance of this category and has a constituent and strengthening effect on one's own identity. On the contrary, the image of the 'Jew' represents a third position outside the dichotomy of 'own' and 'foreign' nations, it represents the 'non-nation'. The 'Jew' is seen as equivalent to universalism and the possible abolition of the concept of nationhood and is therefore mercilessly persecuted. Hatred and fight against the 'Jews' unites even national enemies. The image of the 'Jew' - who does not exist in reality and needs not even to be marked as such to make anti-Semitic arguments work - is constructed in order to find an alleged culprit for the incomprehensible circumstances in a capitalist society onto whom all uneasiness can be projected. Thus anti-Semitism as a cut short criticism to capitalism develops a false capacity to explain the course of history. Dividing capital into honourable, 'creative' capital and 'greedy' capital defined as frightening and devastating splits off the negative aspects of capitalism. Within this logic, doing away with or at least taming financial capital implies the solution of all problems: the things left over would be very pleasant to live with. :: Immigrant Country Germany: The deconstruction of a daydream ::We are the witnesses of a current change in the migration regime. In spite of their pioneer role in the partial aggravation of EU policies, Germany's rigid standards in some areas of policies on foreigners are being adapted to EU norms due to the pressure by industry and commerce and by the EU. Equally decisive is the different political background of the social-democrat and green Federal Government: their politics is determined by the model of Western democracy and civil society as opposed to the specific form of German nationalism and racism. An overly plump and inflexible racism, this obsolete product of German paranoia which is immune to economic considerations and demands must give way to a democratic, capitalist-rationalist form.The 'Act on the regulation and restriction of immigration and on the regulation of residence and integration of EU citizens and foreigners' ("Gesetz zur Steuerung und Begrenzung der Zuwanderung und zur Regelung des Aufenthalts und der Integration von Unionsbürgern und Ausländern") reflects this 'new spirit': it facilitates immigration, but restricts it at the same time according to flexible political and, above all, economic requirements. Linking residence permits (which are only temporary anyway) to particular employers leads to total dependence from employment and to legal insecurity of the migrants that are perceived but in their capacity to work. At the same time, other forms of stay are systematically dismantled: the total abolition of the legal instrument "Duldung" (toleration of stay) illegalises hundreds of thousands of migrants. 'Re-emigration centres' are planned to account for the availability of these people for deportation. Former regulations in the legislation affecting aliens are aggravated. The immigration debate is meant to develop the future regulation of labour migration along the criteria: foreigners are wanted only when useful according to economic requirements. It's no longer nationalist racism and shutting Germany to all foreigners that is the primary principle of politics but control and regulation of migration. This big shift in the discourse, however, prepares the ground for only minimal legal changes where the German nationalist principle remains intact, and is then partially taken back. This means that evidently racism is not even questioned. Migrants don't have the right to free movement. Those of them who want to live in Germany have to prove their usefulness to industry and commerce and even if they have done so they have to integrate and to adapt without criticism to the norms of the 'host Germany'. The supporters of multiculturalism advocate for an enrichment of German mono-culture, while conservatives want to prevent the undermining of the German 'Leitkultur'. All 'others' are primarily seen as a financial burden or as a danger because - according to the respective point of view - they are supposed to be either criminals or fundamentalists, and Germany is trying even harder to cut itself off from this 'peril'. The new immigration act will substantially improve the situation of a few but for the majority of migrants a definite aggravation of their living conditions is to be expected. The social effect of the shift in the immigration discourse, however, holds true for all: it makes an essential difference for the migrants living in Germany whether they are persecuted and beaten up by nazis for being 'perilous foreigners taking advantage of the German welfare system' or they are regarded as potentially 'useful experts'. It determines their social situation and their survival under German conditions. :: Terrorism, migration and West European bananas ::In the debate on the "War on terrorism", the capitalist logic of utilisation and racism once again complement each other.The surveillance of migrants is intended to frighten them off, to stigmatise, criminalize and discipline them. It is obvious that surveillance of migrants is much more extensive than the surveillance of Germans. Institutions such as the Central Aliens Register, the Schengen information system and European fingerprint files primarily or exclusively target non - EU citizens. These mechanisms of control and exclusion work according to a logic of dividing humans into useful and useless ones. The data collected in the Central Aliens Register as an information partnership of Foreigners Offices, the Border Police, customs, judiciary, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, and the police are information on the migrant's state of the asylum procedure, residence status, previous convictions, efforts of naturalisation up to the size of the flat they live in. The extent of integration and the way in which they earn their livings helps to complete this selection. The monitoring of the individuals to enforce behaviour according to the norms plays an equally important part. A constant rise in technical monitoring can be observed as well as a progressive differentiation of actual repression. Where the average German population keep themselves under surveillance by the means of social self-control and borders within Europe disappear for them, marginal groups regarded as endangering the system are subjected to more and more repressive restrictions. Racism enters the game where the social group of "foreigners" is constructed and people are considered non-conform, unwilling to assimilate and, as such, "perilous", just because of their nationality. And this was exactly the reason why the Central Aliens Register was built up in the fifties: the Federal Ministry of the Interior had stated a "necessity of an enhanced surveillance of foreigners on federal territory". Germany's second anti-terror law (Terrorismusbekämpfungsgesetz) follows the same logic. It mainly aggravates already existing regulations, expands competencies and in general sounds like a declaration of suspicion against refugees, migrants, and their supporters. The aim is obviously to deport people who are denied asylum and illegal migrants as quick as possible and to make "search work" easier. Another part is aimed at rendering work and function of the Central Aliens Register more effective. Being a collection of personal data on non-Germans, the Central Aliens Register is a perfect instrument for computer-aided profiling and search measures. The latter, by its racist profiling, enhances the stigmatisation of particular groups of the population and enhance an according social climate which, paralleled by amendments in the asylum and foreigners legislation and the new Immigration Law purposefully tries to prevent migrants from political activity. There is the quite common assumption that migrants serve as "guinea pigs" of security policy in order to find out how much surveillance can later be imposed on the whole of the German population. In the face of the special registration of migrants that rather provides advantages to German citizens than they have to be afraid to be subjected to the same treatment one day, this assumption seems more and more questionable. Monitoring of migrants is done so that the citizens of the Fortress Europe don't have to give up their privileges. There is a progressive expansion of certain mechanisms of control and surveillance concerning German respectively EU citizens, too. However, this repression only targets socially marginalised groups or groups that are categorised as "criminal" while all migrants are regarded as belonging to these groups only because of their origins. Since September 11, 2001, the premises of the public debate on immigration, the following computer-aided profiling and search measures targeting male students of Moslem faith, and the constant call for an aggravation of the legislation affecting foreigners have changed. Now, the primary subject of the discussion is not only whether and if yes, how many highly qualified or cheap workers should be recruited in order to benefit the German economy, but how migration and asylum policy can be linked with the combating of terrorism. The measures introduced now follow exactly the logic of developments on a national as well as European level that have characterised the 1990s. Of course, after September11 it was much easier to finally push through the ideas of intelligence services and security technocrats, with the whole liberal public surrendering to the shock of the attacks, crying out for more safety measures or simply staying silent. The alleged threat to Western society helped justify a lot of measures which would have been much harder to put through otherwise. Especially since they obviously do nothing to combat terrorism Examples are voice recordings and analysis to "establish the identity [of refugees] by determining what region they originate from" which, as the explanation of the law says, is a measure designed to make deportation of persons obliged to leave Germany easier. And there is another aspect in the Terrorismusbekämpfungsgesetz that should not be overlooked. The attacks of September11 seem to have shaken the belief of the citizens of the prosperous Western states in maximal safety and freedom of movement substantially. Perfect socially and economically integrated migrants suddenly became terrorist sleepers. The call for more safety, surveillance and exclusion has led to measures which within this context can hardly be the product of the logic of the immigration debate but rather a reaction with racist connotations to a threat perceived as real. Instruments such as handing out visas or computer-aided profiling which particularly affect highly qualified and hence potentially useful foreign students or scientists damage the image of the industrial area Germany. Even government-sponsored anti-nazi campaigns don't help when those very sought-after experts are confronted with a state racism which before only affected the "useless" refugees - a fact sharply criticised by the Federal Foreign Office as inconsistent with Germany's economic interests. Such irrational measures probably will be applied to a lesser extent after the turmoil caused by the electoral campaign has eased off. But: who has access to which territory and which rights he or she will be granted - this is the crucial question both seen from the rational economic and from the supposedly irrational "safety first" point of view. And the answers of both are rooted in racism. :: let's get organised together ::Antiracist politics in Germany should not be politics for refugees, but primarily politics against Germans and their racism, against German authorities and German policy on foreigners. We must do away with the myth that both 'German' leftists and refugees / migrants are equally affected by this racism: white 'German' leftists are not exposed to racist repression and violence. Racism, however, not only contains a pejorative ascription of qualities by the racist, but also a restricting self-definition. Although a 'German' left within the given social circumstances profits from racism it would be wrong to open up a dichotomy of perpetrator and victim that can only paralyse ourselves. The forcible adjustment of humans into racist categories alone should already be motivation enough to strive for liberation from racist conditions.It was in the middle of the eighties when the issue of racism was first targeted by the West-German left. Most anti-imperialist or social-revolutionary groups regarded refugees and migrants as the new revolutionary subject succeeding the working class, as an extension of the liberation movements in the Third World, and as victims of the capitalist world economy. Refugees were seen as political subjects and partners but at the same time they were idolised and misused. At the beginning of the nineties, against the background of the racist pogroms and the factual elimination of the right to asylum, this view was reversed: since then, an instrumentalising perception to refugees prevailed within the mostly white, German antiracist movement, reducing them to mere victims of racist policy on foreigners and national racism. Accordingly, antiracist politics was done in the form of assistance to refugees and leftist social work as well as politics against the racism of the state, but it hardly ever targeted racism within the German population. Attempts of joint organisation of refugees and German antiracists mainly failed due to the lack of transparency of the different approaches and ideas and due to the 'German' antiracists' paternalistic attitude. Migrants' groups accused them of reproducing racist cognitive patterns and of insufficient confrontation with their own racism while the German antiracists alternated between unconditional solidarity and acceptance without criticism of refugees' and migrants' political agendas, trying to avoid to force upon them any German points of view marked by racist socialisation, on the one hand and, in the other extreme, demanding identical political aims and methods without taking into account and discussing the specific conditions and approaches on an equal political basis. The solution to this conflict was mostly seen in tending one-sidedly to one of these extremes instead of constantly exploring and enduring it. But neither paternalism and pity nor the wishful imagination of a common suffering under the given racist circumstances can provide a stable basis for antiracist politics. The antiracist bordercamp offers the opportunity of a joint political co- operation between 'German' antiracists and refugees / migrants that goes beyond a mere showing of solidarity and that is free of any paternalism. Self- organised groups and individual refugees and migrants not only are present but involved and actively participate in the preparation of the camp as well as during the camp itself. So the camp will be an place to experiment with political co-operation on an equal basis and to discuss and convey different political ideas. The camp offers the opportunity to seriously take into account and put into practice the claims formulated by both refugees / migrants and antiracists and last but not least to undermine the political split between 'German' and 'migrants' groups, the criterion being no longer the social status (e.g. 'refugee') but common political interests such as the fight against the racist consensus and the policies of the German state. Beyond this, solidarity with each other's struggles will be possible. :: Grenzcamp goes Thüringen ::Antiracism at the antiracist bordercamp does not just mean German antiracists and refugees and migrants spending some time at the same place and German antiracist groups unilaterally committing themselves to supporting the interests of refugees. What is meant is a real co-operation with self-organised migrants, the absolutely necessary discussion of each other's ideas and approaches. Only from here a long-term co-operative political practice can arouse that grows beyond the frame of a bordercamp on the basis of common political aims. From the beginning, one aspiration of the bordercamps has been to strengthen local, regional and German-wide organisational structures. This applies to Thuringia as well. In Thuringia, there is a strong self-organisation of refugee groups. The bordercamp can improve co-operation between them and regional German leftist and radical leftist groups and can enhance networking between refugees. We want to continue several internal debates that were started during the Frankfurt bordercamp, e.g. about the interrelation of sexism and racism, the interdependence of form of domination as seen in the example of work or the shift in paradigms in immigration policy under the social-democrat and green government. The living conditions of migrants in the homes of refugees in- and outside of Thuringia will be emphasised, as well as the struggle against Residential restriction. Our interventions will target the ZAST in Jena-Forst and the related transit camp where about 400 people are forced to live under prison-like conditions.Residenzpflicht restricts migrants in their freedom of movement and thus in their ability to political activity. As an inner border Residenzpflicht is part of an institutionalised racism built around immigration acts, internal security and "war on terrorism", and as such we want to make it a subject of our discussions and actions. Other than in Frankfurt / M. where last year's bordercamp took place, the camp in Thuringia will again be the place of a stronger and badly needed confrontation with the local population. Instead of a culturally racist population of which 20-30% live without a German passport, the camp participants will find a racist consensus in Thuringia which, coupled with the local fascist structures and right-wing hegemony, strongly determines living conditions of the refugees there. The camp in Thuringia, although meant as a 'back to the roots' of the bordercamp idea, is not supposed to remain constricted to antiracism as a partial struggle. As in the years before, we will single out and target racism as a form of domination in order to formulate a radical social criticism and to explore the interrelation to other forms of domination. This year, we will put a particular emphasis on the immigration debate and the resulting discussion of the capitalist principle of utilisation. Especially in Jena the splitting of migrants according to their utility for the industrial area Germany is very obvious. On the one hand, refugees are being terrorised, stigmatised and rendered invisible, on the other hand a spoonful of antifascism is supposed to save the town's image damaged by the attacks on visiting professors at the Jena University. With regard to the attacks on the World Trade Center and the War on Terrorism that was proclaimed subsequently, another issue dealt with the bordercamp 2002 will be war. In Thuringia, our antimilitarist actions will particularly target Jenoptik as the example of an enterprise that, among other things, produces military equipment. Our intention is to link the tactical demand for an improvement of the living conditions of refugees with a radical criticism to society. The factual situation in Thuringia leaves the orientation of the camp open to various options. In the end, the fifth antiracist bordercamp will be fuelled by the wide range of political approaches and ideas within the left and left-wing radical spectrum. Strawberry champagne for ever! Für eine radikale Linke! For free movement – smash capitalism! Ninguna persona es ilegal! Détruyez la societé bourgeoise ! Antirassistische Gruppe Leipzig |
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| 31.05.2002 |