this is our 12th protocol to form a “lager mobilisation network” in berlin. again, around 25 people were there – thanks to u all. please add, correct and criticize in the comment section.
protocol #12 – forming a ‘lager mobilisation network’ in berlin
1. introduction of the network for our new freedom fighters
2. reports from our lager visits
3. networking
4. demo
5. internal discussion and refletions
6. next central and decentral meetings
1. introduction of the network for our new freedom fighters
our goal is to have a decenteralized lager-mobilisation in berlin and hopefully one day in brandenburg. we already visited some lagers, did some research about the shit living conditions inside and how they are built to make money off of illegalized and isolated human beings we label as “refugees”. right now there are over 23.000 people (official number by lageso) just in berlin in lagers.
the lager-mobilisation-network is an open network with decenteralized working groups against the slavery which taking place inside the lagers – so join like u want and your personal scheduele allows u to participate; plus we do not do anything “illegal”. we are people from all over the world and speak english during our meetings, but german translation is always possible, for other languages hit us up please – or if possible bring your friends with u.
after some re/thinking rounds, practical action and personal connection we developed two guidlines for the coming steps, but these ideas are dynamic and realated to our possibilites and the exprience we gain, a short summary:
i. short and mid-term:
a. we will go and talk with groups who know and can teach about the legal problems and educate ourselves in this direction and then visit again the lagers in small groups and spread this hardly needed information as the people asked us when we were visiting them; in addition to this we take info flyers etc. with us about the legal situations. we also invite (not force…) the so-called refugees living in those lagers we visit to be part of our group.
b. we want also be part of the “neighbourhood/welcoming-initiatives” and bring some alternative ideas and information from the self-organized struggle additional to their great charity work.
–> therefore we need some more people who speak different languages like: arabic, albanian, dari/farsi, serbo-croatian, tigrinya, urdu etc. – every languages is needed.
–> decentral working activists: people who are interessted to take care of the lagers in their around their living places like the districts they are living in and contact the people inside of lagers and participate in “neighbourhood/welcoming-initiatives” there – we (will) start very slow but very focused idea on this.
ii. long-term:
we are searching for rooms all over berlin outside but next to the lagers to build up small communities so people can organize themselves for the time they are forced to live inside of lagers. plus we will accompany them and try to bring alternative content like workshop etc. to those places – if its needed!
–> if u have a room or contact for such rooms (house projects, meeting-rooms), please let us know
–> if u know people for such content/workshops, please connect them to us
2. reports from our lager visits
a. tempelhof
* huge problems with the shower issues are still not fixed. 1 shower per 200 people, also the busses that bring the people to the public
shower opportunities at the pools are not sufficient (15 min for 20-30 people to shower)
* no cooking facilities- the administration uses catering services in order to avoid paying people
* some people were transferred from hamburg
* individual people complained that they did register at the lageso but lageso says the registration did not work => no support (monetary, health) at all
* lacking translation, if covered then only turkish/arabic because of the securities’ backgrounds – there are speakers installed in the camp. when an
announcement is made, to inform the people, who has to go to lageso, they are held in arabic only, not even english
* some people criticized their current situation at tempelhof and were kicked out
people demand equal and human treatment
securities are accused to confiscate and block information from the people in the camp
b. marzahn
* one deportation case, he has his finger prints in hungary, already in contact with the stop deportation group
* people are threatened: if they complain, the securities will take their wristbands and kick them out of the camp (bitterfelderstr)
c. wedding
a. 2nd local meeting on sunday
* independent meeting room is organized
* the people from no border berlin reloaded offer their space too
emergeny lager inside a gym:
* securities threaten the families in the new emergency accommodation: families are not allowed to leave the camp more frequently than one time per day
* emergency housing allows the ngos to care less about regulations and gives more opportunities to violate human rights in terms of human dignity
* infos from the ‘neighborhood-initiatives:
awo wants to install ‘house delegatons’ as a position (maybe even job?) offer to the people in the lagers => problem: this idea will influence the division of the people a there is a lot bad expirence with these kind of “democracy supported by the rulers (lager direction, goverment)” for example at oplatz-occupation or the protest camp in hannover
inside of the lager even more and cause more problems between the different ethnic groups. it serves the administration to have better control over
the people.
d. tempelhofer ufer
* gym divided into two parts families and men only
* 3 showers, toilets are in terrible conditions => people are not even allowed to clean themselves
* approximately 180 people live there
* children are not allowed to play outside for insurance and safety reasons
* 1 social worker in the administration, usually they should be more, the staff is very young and unexperienced (low qualification)
f. seelow
* broken showers
* one person is separated from his family – he wants to live with his wife and children
* people get nervous because of all the negative news they receive via fb – especially on the deportation problem for afghan people
* translation issues: especially when there is need to go to the doctor (translation sheets are on crabgrass for the groups to print and bring them to the lagers)
and also when visiting the ausländerbehörde
g. hoppegarten
* the administration turned strict, since they already know us: we are only allowed to meet people in one specific room in front of the administration’s office
and under a security’s watch
* as a result we invited so many people to see us in the room, that it became too chaotic for the administration to follow
* we wrote a list of the peoples’ demands with the date on the paper to hand it officially to the administration – also one copy/photo for ourselves, so that they
cannot pretend that they did not know about the problems in the camp
* one family needs help with the train tickets. they have one daughter (age 3) who needs to go to the hospital in virchow 3 x per month. problem: since the family is
registered in frankfurt oder the sozialamt in seelow is responsible. public transport tickets are covered to travel in brandenburg, but not for the berlin public trans-
port. in frankfurt o. they were offered transport with an ambulance to the local hospital – virchow may provide better medical treatment, but it is not accessible.
* the security is tired of their job
as most of them speak arabic the administration ‘abuses’ them as translators when they want them to, but, if people ask for support and translation the security is not
allowed to give any aid
h. friedrichshain
* 200 people, families and women
* the camp officially has a capacity for up to 85 people (former hostel). ethnic groups range from afghanistan, balkan states to syria
* translators are needed
* it is difficult to enter, but the administration is ‘cooperative’ in the sense of accepting volunteers, because they need them
i. lichtenberg
* fomer stasi-prison; close to u-bahnstation magdalenenstr.; there is one house project near by, who support the people in the lager
3. networking
the brandenburg-group started to organize their own network to make the lager-monitoring in brandenburg easier
– contacts to kib, flüchtlingsrat-brandenburg, refugees’ emancipation, jugend ohne grenzen
4. demo
a. demo from the lagers:
a. contact with corasol established
direct action week from nov. 30th to dec. 3rd
december 4th rally also with the people from the refugeeschulstreik
invitation to join them on their info-event following tuesday from 9 pm on, or come to the plenum on wednesday to consider and debate how to involve the self-organized freedom fighters
either they use one of the direct action days for creative public actions and/or participate at the demonstration and hold a speech there
b. reports
1. report from schulstreik
next meeting with the students on friday – reflection and how to progress further cooperations
positive: it was the first time that the current issues concerning the deportations of afghan people were publicly addressed
2. carnival (organized by myrightisyourright! impulse club etc.)
december 9th >>>> first planning meeting to form groups and divide work
how to get 200 – 300 people from brandenburg to the berlin demo??? (suggestion: contact refugees’ emancipation and jugend ohne grenzen in potsdam)
non-arabic people are needed and more than welcome to join the organization of the carneval
3. silvio-meier-demo:
not noticed by the people who live in marzahn – would things appear differently if there were no demonstrations and nazi-blockades in the area?
reported were nazi attacks after the demonstration but luckily no-one was hurt and the report came from outside the lagers
the demo was peaceful without riots/ escalations (probably due to the amount of police), nazis were assembling on the same day in weilheim (baden württemberg)
critique: there are many more nazis in different places where no one notices them e.g. zehlendorf, also people who hide better, because of a better established position in society/wealth
answer: when we speak of nazis, in particular it means the people who actively threaten the people who live in the camps, attack them and set fires; structural racism expresses itself differently
5. internal discussion and refletions
a. ethical considerations
do/should we help in the lagers or are we supporting the ngos to make more profit?
– what we (can) do is to support the people through information, we do not donate, clean, teach etc.
– these actions are already undertaken by the neighborhood-initiatives and we have to communicate that with them too how everyone who is heping (for free) misused by the lager-industry
– we also document! (the documentations can/should be forwarded to the flüchtlingsrat if we want to put political/public pressure on the lager-administrations without losing the opportunity to
further go into the lagers)
–> to act against, one could offer ‘work shops’ to the neighborhood-initiatives and let them reflect on the current financial situation, their personal exploitation through the ngos and whether
they want to further support that system
* this discussion is postponed for the next meeting, next time we go deeper into this topic
proposal:
– keeping the next meeting as a structural meeting to discuss future goals and agendas of the group; also forming a finance-ag
– lager reports should be prepared in advance to keep them short and discuss content and actions less talking!
b. rooms: decentral free spaces organized by the local groups
decentralized groups should start focusing more on the establishment of free spaces where we can meet, offer open meetings for the neighborhood and further exchange with the people outside of
the lagers – wish to focus more on that part of the group’s agendas!
6. next central and decentral meetings
please read some of our previous protocols too, we dont want to repeat ourselves every time from zero:
https://www.oplatz.net/2015/11/22/protocol-11-forming-a-lager-mobilisation-network-in-berlin/
https://www.oplatz.net/2015/11/16/protocol-10-forming-a-lager-mobilisation-network-in-berlin/
https://www.oplatz.net/2015/11/08/protocol-9-forming-a-lager-mobilisation-network-in-berlin/
https://www.oplatz.net/2015/10/31/protocol-78-forming-a-lager-mobilisation-network-in-berlin/
https://www.oplatz.net/2015/10/15/protocol-6-forming-a-lager-mobilisation-group-in-berlin/
“if u are interessted to join and help us instead of talking blabla or “attend another meeting with no practical result”, please come to our next meeting and get active – put it!”
a. central meeting
next tuesday/dienstag
01. november 2015
7pm / 19 uhr
at migrationsrats office – http://www.migrationsrat.de
adress:
oranienstr. 34
10999 berlin-kreuzberg
right backyard, 2nd floor, there is an elevator
please ring the bell, if the door is closed
next to u-station kottbusser tor
b. decentral meeting:
– berlin-wedding, sunday/sonntag, 28. november 2015, 5pm: https://www.facebook.com/events/1497503813912770/
berlin, 24. november 2015 – www.oplatz.net
we are one