On the first stop we met with “Lampedusa in Hamburg” and other self-organized refugee activists, anti-fascist and anti-racist groups. More than 100 people attended the discussion.
At first a short movie from the last bus tour was shown, then different initiatives introduced themselves. We presented our experiences from the protests of the last 3 years: the protest march from Würzburg to Berlin, the Oplatz-history and the story of the occupied Gerhard-Hauptmann-Schule.
For 3 years our experience is, that the government, whether Senate or district, first makes promises and acts cooperative, but then the negotiations and agreements become senseless and effectless. That is a tactic.
In Hamburg the government proceeds with the same tactic: The government approches the people of the movement, starts to make offers of Duldung and humanitarian proposals. Afterwards it turns out that this strategiy – as in Berlin as well- is a project of Duldung and eviction – an afterwards of deportation.
The new law even supports this strategy. It becomes easier to imprison -and by that isolate- refugee activists and then deport them directly.
We organized this Bus Tour, because the situation of refugees in Europe has gotten worse: At the European external borders with more than 1000 deaths in the last days; politically through tightening of laws and socially by systematic agitation, criminalisation and isolation.
The Bus Tour wants to give self-organized refugee groups the possibility to exchange about the protest and about the situation of refugees in their area and develop a political strategy together.
On 18th April, one day before the Bus Tour and the anniversary of the Oplatz eviction, more than 10.000 people were on Oranienplatz for a concert against the tightening of the asylum law.
So we are still fighting against the racist laws and the seperation of people.
Today we drive to Rostock and visit Güstrow, where a militia against refugees and migrants has formed. There we will meet in a safe place with refugee activists from the Lagers and exchange.