Make Europe, open borders!
Call for a European Open Borders Caravan
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(EN)
Since past weeks a two-fold scene has been catching general attention and will mark the history of Europe. On the one hand, police or even army on EU borders are either violently and aggressively pushing back migrants and their children, that are fleeing away from poverty and wars (that often Western countries have caused or encouraged), or are trying to subject them to authoritarian registration procedures, while aiming to deny them rights allowing full and free life. On the other hand incredible persistence and courage of refugees and migrants driven by desire for freedom and great, self-organized response of grass-roots solidarity expressing that Refugees are welcomed, shape new reality on EU borders, suspending in practice the Schengen rule and Dublin Regulation, border regime often named fortress Europe.
The images that dominate the media are those of migrants in humanitarian need, while they are above all fighting for freedom of movement, resisting the border regimes, and practicing disobedience of the laws that exclude and criminalize them. On their journey to freedom and dignified life they reject to be dumped and forgotten in various detention facilities and remote refugees camps, to become permanently undocumented and illegal subjects trapped in buffer zones. They build and defend social ties and networks, that give power to cross borders and power to get inserted into societies of destination while the state is trying to individualize and isolate them. To stop such movement driven by aspiration for freedom and dignified life, national and European ruling classes are raising fences and walls on the borders, deploying massively police and military, criminalizing solidarity, suspending the rights of refugees and citizens, introducing police state. The attack on freedom of movement affects all the people living in Europe, both EU and non-EU citizens. While the attempts to stop or filter the arrival of refugees and migrants lead to violence and suffering, there are ongoing debates in several EU countries to introduce new obstacles to the freedom of movement of the same EU citizens consolidating growing inequalities and exclusion resulting from dictatorship of austerity.
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It is now the time to act, supporting the movement of refugees, fighting the Europe of technocrats and austerity, and the growing of nationalism and fascism in all the European countries. It is now the time to demand a Europe without borders, of social rights, equality and dignity. For those reasons citizens should stand side by side with refugees and migrants that are neither victims nor villains, but rebels and fighters. It is time to show concrete support for the liberation struggle of refugees and migrants regardless their country of origin. Thus we believe that we must do whatever is in our power to open the borders, to construct paths, corridors and passages. For this reason we call for transnational caravan for open borders.
We are calling on all activists, collectives, affinity groups, migrant solidarity initiatives and citizens in the region and all over Europe to join the Open Borders Caravan, starting in Ljubljana on the 26th of September at 10 am, and going to the border at which migrants will be struggling for freedom of movement (depending on where the migrants will be stopped by the police or military), to build solidarity with refugees and migrants and act together for an opening of the borders.
We also invite everyone to come to Ljubljana one day before, on September 25th, to participate at festival and demonstration for open borders for everyone.
Let’s build the European Open Borders Caravan showing that Europe can be a land of rights and dignity for all despite European Institutions’ hypocrisy and xenophobic propaganda. Against EU and governments policies, fences, Frontex, deportations and quotas of relocation, our common action wants to open authorized paths for everybody’s safe arrival to desired destinations, full citizenship for all and the end of the Dublin Regulation.
Join us for this cause!
Nothing can stop the will to live and the desire for freedom!
Let’s support all together refugees and migrants!
Because their fight is our fight and their future is our future!
