[Oberlist] UA* NO BORDER UKRAINE

[oberlist mailing list]

-- 
Moldova Young Artists Association "Oberliht"
skype: us.vladimir
http://www.oberliht.org.md
.   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .
http://idash.org/mailman/listinfo/oberlist
portal informational pentru arta si cultura din Moldova
information gateway for arts and culture from Moldova


---------------------------- Original Message ----------------------------
Subject: [RK] NO BORDER UKRAINE
From:    "monnezza3" <monnezza3 la libero.it>
Date:    Tue, July 24, 2007 14:57
To:      "rekombinant rekombinant" <rekombinant la liste.rekombinant.org>
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

No Border Camp, Ukraine 2007
Start: Aug 11 2007 - 3:00am
End: Aug 20 2007 - 3:00am
description:

No Borders Ukraine

03.May.07 - The camp will take place from the 11th to the 20th of August
2007 in the main region of transit and labor migration in Ukraine,
Transcarpathia.

The eastward expansion of the European Union has resulted in moving the
walls of "Fortress Europe" to the Western border of Ukraine. The Ukrainian
region of Transcarpatia, of which the biggest cities are Uzhgorod and
Mukachevo, has become a new borderline, with increasing militarization and
major concentration of detention camps for refugees from the countries of
Global South and former USSR, who try to escape war, totalitarianism or
misery to the European Union countries. It is hard to find any "open"
information about the conditions in the majority of these camps.

The condition of the refugees in Ukraine is very unstable: freedom of
movement is restricted; it is hard to get a job or medical care, and no
social security is provided. When one gets refugee status, the only
support they get from the state is a single payment of a petty 3 euros. In
recent years Ukraine has even extradited asylum seekers to places like
Uzbekistan, where they were imprisoned for years in the notorious
authoritarian regime's gulags.

The increase of border controls makes a big impact on lives of local
people in the depressed region of Transcarpathia. The region is situated
on the intersection of borders of five countries: Ukraine, Slovakia,
Poland, Hungary, and Romania. Four of them are now in the European Union,
but Ukraine will not be its member in the near future. So "Fortress
Europe" strengthens its Eastern frontiers on the borderline of Western
Ukraine. Still, up to half of the working population of Transcarpathia
works abroad. Ukraine cancelled the visa regime for EU nationals, but the
EU has not made the access of Ukrainians to the European labor market (or
even European countries' territory) any easier, although it would be hard
to imagine for example agriculture in the EU today without Ukrainian guest
workers.

At the same time, Transcarpathia has been for a long time a very special
region with its unique blend of local cultures and traditions, and now it
turned out to be one of the main routes for international migration.
Therefore, local border guards, security services and media, using
xenophobic language, help to spread prejudices towards migrants among
local population, which resulted in rising tensions in the region.

We demand the right of free movement for everyone, asylum for all the
persecuted people and the right of people to migrate from depressed areas
to work in other countries, if it can make their lives better. We demand
abolishing all visa regimes. We want to tear down "Fortress Europe"
contemporary border regime, which has lead to the state-sanctioned murder
of thousands of people in its borders during recent years. The "Global
Apartheid" policy should be stopped!

We continue the tradition of No Border camps on Eastern borders of the
Fortress Europe, which were organized 1998-2000 on the border of Germany
and Poland, in 2000-2003 on the Eastern border of Poland, in 2001 in
Slovenia, in 2003 in Romania, in 2003 and 2005 on the border between
Greece and Bulgaria and in Finland in 2004. The camps have also been
organized on the Southern borders of Europe (on Sicily 2000 and on Tarifa
of Spain 2001), inside Europe at airports and main sites of European
surveillance and decision-making system (such as in Strasbourg 2002), on
the border between Mexico and USA and in Australia. This year our
international movement makes a major step forward, as the camp in Ukraine
will be first ever organized on the territory of the former Soviet Union.

Some of the aims of this camp are: 1) To create a ground for communication
between activists from Eastern and Western Europe and from everywhere
else: meeting, establishing contacts, sharing skills, knowledge and
experience, etc. (workshops, discussions, practical trainings, concerts
and much more). 2) To attract the attention of the people in Ukraine (but
also in Russia and in the world) to the racist policy on migration; to
address the questions of contemporary forms of racism and xenophobia. 3)
To create contact with local people in the region of Transcarpathia:
anti-racist education, open public events, film screenings, exhibitions,
concerts and discussions, with an aim to improve local people's attitude
towards migrants, refugees and asylum seekers. 4) To exchange information
between us: how the authorities in different countries criminalize
migration, what are the situations with deportation prisons, and to share
the experiences of resistance in different countries. One of the practical
results of the camp is going to be the publication of a brochure with the
information from different countries on all these issues to reinforce our
struggle (call-out with approximate questions is coming!). 5) To get more
people from different anti-authoritarian collectives and movements in
Ukraine, Russia and other 'post-soviet' countries involved with the
migration-related issues; mobilize people for struggle against racism,
criminalization of migration and deportation camps system.

We will discuss the possible ways and perhaps we will do some actions (but
not in the very region of camp; it has been advised by everybody who's in
touch with the region that any confrontational actions done by activists
from "outside" on such a sensitive issue could make the situation worse,
not better). So first of all it will not be an action camp but a camp for
communication, networking, planning and popular education.

Another event that is going to take place in the camp is an International
Food Not Bombs gathering. There is an explosion of Food Not Bombs
activities in Eastern Europe. In Russia alone there are about 50 groups
that are regularly doing actions.

We already started to form a program of workshops, discussions, practical
trainings etc. But we prefer the program of the camp to be formed by the
people who will come there. So if you've got something to share or
contribute - please let us know now! It can be any topic you are
interested in, not only the main topic of the camp.

Please take into account that Ukraine has cancelled the visa regime for
the citizens of the European Union, the USA and some other countries, so
if you have a passport of some Western country you probably do not need
any visa to join us.

Feel free to spread this call-out through your contacts. More information
and contact: noborder2007 la riseup.net



-------------------------------------------[  RK  ]
+ http://liste.rekombinant.org/wws/subrequest/rekombinant
+ http://www.rekombinant.org