Dear people. Dear friends of w2wtal.
We need you!
For three years now, we have been organizing breakfast at Café ADA every third Sunday of the month together. The first breakfast took place in February 2015. A lot has happened since then. A lot of good things happened in the beginning: We remember summer 2015, when many of you came to Wuppertal and our meetings afterwards, in the autumn of 2015, when we had breakfast with over a hundred people. We remember your and our hopes for a future in which Europe would take its responsibilities and accept people who are in need because of colonialism, wars and exploitation. And many Refugees initially received an opportunity to set up a new life in Germany.
But by the end of 2015, however, the situation on the escape and travel routes had already deteriorated considerably. We remember the camps in Hungary, the misery of those who are stuck in the Balkans or the camp in Idomeni. At the same time, rightwing activists and racists mobilized against our hopes. More and more politicians made demands for exclusion, deportation and isolation their own business. The situation in many European countries changed. Sweden and Austria tightened up their refugee policy, the camp in Calais was evacuated in France, there was a dirty deal with Turkey and refugees were interned on islands in Greece. Refugees were forced onto the dangerous route through the Mediterranean and helpers who tried to save the drowning people there were turned into criminals. Instead, the EU endowed traffickers and operators of torture and rape camps with large sums of money.
Europe showed more and more the old grimace as a colonial power for which people do not have the same value. The speeches of „European values“ turned out to be a lie and hypocrisy. In Germany it seemed a little different for a while. But those who wanted to see it could already see in 2016 that the public debate in Germany was increasingly dominated by misanthropists and racists. No later than the elections last September, and with the successes of the racist AfD, contempt and ignorance have become the official basis of politics here too. The „decrease in the number of refugees“ is now being celebrated like the decline of a serious infection. And the recent agreements between the major parties show that the new government is willing to move away from deterrence towards an open war against all those who are looking for a new home here. On the day of our anniversary breakfast, the “left-wing“ Social Democratic Party will probably agree to accept „upper limits“ for refugees, to detain people in deportation camps, to replace cash payments with vouchers and to keep families waiting for a reunion with their loved ones. It is finally getting cold in Germany. So it’s time we stand together.
We understand that many people are very busy in their everyday lives. That many are tired, too. But we can’t fight for a human future for everyone on our own. We need you to find ways to protect our common life in this city and country. We need you to remember that it still makes sense to counter hatred in the media, politics and on the streets. We need you for keeping our hopes alive.
„I’m here because you’re here. I’m here because we’re here. I’m here because you’re here. I’m here because there are people who are not afraid.“ (Kien Nghi Ha) Therefore we ask you all to come to Café ADA for our anniversary. Let’s be many this time!
Three years w2wtal breakfast at Café ADA: Sunday, January 21st, 11 a. m., Wiesenstraße 6 in Wuppertal-Elberfeld.
