Call for a demonstration in Wuppertal on Saturday, May 14
(Deutsch)
w2wtal calls for participation in the «Open Borders» demonstration on next Saturday in Wuppertal-Elberfeld (May 14, 14 CET, Alte Freiheit, City-Arkaden). The demonstration is part of a global day of action for the rights of refugees, safe travel-routes and against «Fortress Europe». The demonstration will also take place in solidarity with the people of Aleppo, who suffer from the ongoing bombings of their city.
After a short era of welcoming refugees, right-wing politicians and racists succeeded in turning everything back to normal. A lot of things are even worse than before the so called «summer of migration». Their continuing hatred speeches led to an almost completely «closed shop» at the EU-borders: The European Union decided to turn its back on the fault of people who try to escape from war or poverty. Now they are talking about «illegal immigration» what formerly was called an escape from death and terror. The racists triumph, the refugees suffer. By outsourcing the refugee-camps in outer areas as Greece or Turkey their suffering almost disappeared from public interest. Just a few groups, like «Cars of Hope» still care for the people who are trapped at the borders. At the same time, more and more people in Germany are threatened by deportations, which also just gains few attention, because the threatened are accommodated in special camps without contact to the public in Germany too.
Our reaction on this has to be diverse. There has to be concrete solidarity with the people who are stucked outside of Central Europe or threatened by deportations as well as direct actions against new fences and walls and ongoing fights for a change of the public discourse. w2wtal tries to take influence on the public debate in several ways. On the one hand, we try to enforce a political discussion i.e. by demanding the acceptance of refugees from Idomeni in our town, on the other side we keep trying to take the streets.
So we – activists and Syrian refugees of welcome2wuppertal – decided to call for the demonstration on Saturday, together with different groups from Wuppertal. We want to increase the pressure to accept refugees in Germany who are stranded in Greece, because there are more and more unused infrastructures and personal resources in Germany and it would just need a political decision to end the suffering of the families in Idomeni. But we also want to turn the focus on the reasons for searching refuge. This topic was a big fuzz in the media last year, but never was discussed seriously.
While most Europeans got used to the news from the Syrian war, the war still is one of the most important reasons for searching refuge. And while many people felt relieved with the news of a so called ceasefire in Syria, the fighting i.e. undiminishedly went on in Aleppo, formerly the biggest city of Syria. During the last weeks the sitution for the people who still live in Aleppo even went worse by a continous bombing of the ruins and by direct attacks on hospitals and medical care stations. We are solidary with the people in Aleppo, who often are relatives or friends of our friends. We accuse the groups and forces who are responsible for this – no matter who they are.
But the responsibility is not limited to the active fighters on the ground. We also should accuse the profiteers of war. One of the most important war-profiteers i.e. is «Heckler und Koch» in Oberndorf, where the company produces and sells the «G3» assault rifle, which is one of the most common weapons in the Syrian war. Experts believe, it costed more lifes than any weapon of mass-destruction. This reason for the need to flee is handmade in Bavaria and as long as this is accepted and not stopped, the causes to flee can be found, among other things here, right in the middle of «Fortress Europe».
To continue with profiteering of war and the exploitation of other continents while closing the doors to our «safe haven» Europe and our well-equiped supermarkets at the same time, is a doubled moral breakdown. We should not tire of pointing this out. Join our demonstration on Saturday at 14:00 CET Wuppertal-Elberfeld!
Open the Borders! Stop the EU/Turkey agreement!
Stop distribution of weapons now!
Solidarity with the people in Aleppo!
