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Camp 02 - a new challenge!

For Free Movement!

No one is illegal!

From July 12th till July 19th 2002 the 5th Antiracist No-Border-Camp will take place in Jena/Thüringen. We will honor Jena with our one week´s visit in order to attack - theoretically and practically - the racist conditions for the 5th time now.
On the schedule are confrontative actions, discussions on perspectives of antiracist and radical left politics, dealing with different life-realities, their relation to societal power relations and last but not least the joint organisation of camp everyday life. It will be "Reclaim the highway" after the camp, as a convoy will start out from Jena to Strasbourg to the international No-Border-Camp.

After last year´s camp in the "western metropolis", in the immediate surroundings of the Frankfurt airport, this year the camp will return to the "eastern province". "Aiming at inner borders", this slogan, created for Frankfurt, will still be valid: Because one focus of the activities in Thüringen will be the everyday isolation and exclusion of refugees, their precarious life situation in the so called homes and the continuous racist controlls - mostly based on the so called "Residenzpflicht" residential restriction. Especially in the rural Thüringen with its relatively homogenous, "mehrheitsdeutscher" (hegemonial german) population the densitiy of control and the isolation is more repressive compared to the metropolitan areas, which have a longer history of migration, and therefore offer at least a relative degree of protecion. The normality of refugees´ and migrants´ isolation, criminalisation and marginalisation should be broken and confronted with our opposition for one week. Aims of our intervention will be the exclusion from human rights such as freedom of movement and the right on political activism, everyday´s symbolical and physical violence against refugees and migrants as well as the exclusion from societal wealth.
Of course we won´t lose sight of the racist conditions in general, since for us racism is not reduced on state restrictions. Importantly, there is a mutual dependancy of stately and societal racism that is fundamental for the creation of the racist hegemony, i.e. the condition in which racist patterns of perception and action meet so much approval and so few opposition; that a fine-meshed racist net on the individual, structural and state level is woven. This is visible in various forms:
Inactivity on the side of passengers and air crew in the case of deportations on scheduled flights, petition campaigns against dual citizenship, denunctiations at the border, racist discrimination at the housing and labour market, dependancy of the residential status on german marriage partners and, often connected, domestic relations of power and violence, especially for women. Another element of this racist net is the connection of racist classifications with the categorisation of people according to their usability in the frame of the so called immigration debate. With the new immigration law the GFR (German Federal Republic) sets an european example for the combination of selection of migrants according to criteria of usability and simultaneous closing of the borders. The regulation of work migration is oriented towards economic, meaning capitalistic, requirements. When needed Some receive a strictly temporary residence permit with various restrictive conditions. For the Others entry or the reception of a secure status of residence is rendered even more impossible than now: so called exit centers (Ausreisezentren) are planned (which equals the expansion of remand pending deportation (Abschiebehaft)), toleration (Duldung) will be abolished, political asylum will be only temporary i.e. permanent menace of deportation in form of continuing reexaminations and so on. The consequence of this politics is an increased illegalisation of migrants, which are rendered even more exploitable by this.

The decision for Thüringen for this year´s camp ist to be seen as a step to break the dominance of white, majoritarian German antiracists, to promote antiracist transidentitarian organisation in cooperation with selforganised refugee groups. Which means:
On the one hand we do not want ot neglect the different backgrounds of experience, as refugees, german whites and migrants are exposed to different circumstances due to the racist conditions. On the other hand, we do not want to simply accept the different identities that are co-created by this process. Because, as mentioned, the racist conditions, i.e. racist in- and exclusion mechanisms are responsible for these circumstances. What is important, is to attack the walls of identity, to seek for mutually overlapping interests, to look, where common political work can open up spaces – and this far away from instrumentalisation ( be it charity, paternalistic, or by projection...). This means, we try to do our best this year to reach a higher level of equality in the preparation and organisation of the camp.
Topics could be distances (and communities) between refugees and nonrefugees as well as the continuation of the debate about the crossing of racism and sexism that was intensified on the last camp in Frankfurt/Main. At the same time the decision for Thüringen picks up the campaign "for free movement" against residential restriction/Residenzpflicht and for equal rights of refugees and migrants. The abolition of Residenzpflicht is part of the base for a more equal political cooperation between majoritarian Germans and refugees. As such it is to be seen in context of the resistance against inner borders and globally inequally distributed freedom of movement.

As in the past years we will dare to look over the plate´s rim/ we will broaden our perspectives in order to grasp the crossing of different relations of power and domination, to develop joint political strategies and to relate the various fights. Starting points could be e.g. the antiracist fights in Europe and worldwide:
Be it the destruction of the fences of the internment camp Woomera in Australia and the support of the subsequent collective escape, be it the caravan for the rights of refugees and migrants, the No-Border-Camps in Bialystok/Krynki East-Poland, or Tarifa, Southern Spain, or the rennaissance of anticapitalist politics in the lee of the so called antiglobalisation movement, antisexist fights for the rights of illegalised female (sex-)workers, antifascism and actions against antisemitism.
This variety is our advantage, since, like to the last camps, people from different political spectrums will come to the camp, who should ask themselves in what ways they can connect with each other. This year there will be a focus on developing a more common communication instead of the often complained about contactless coexistence of different groups or sub-scenes. Therefore we will use a language understandable for as many people as possible, in order to dismantle difficulties of communication and the ensuing hierarchies of knowledge and power. That´s why we propose english as camp language or bilinguality. Nevertheless we will try to organise translation for all lanuages needed. Additionally the camp creates and offers manifold places and spaces to communicate both inwards and outwards:
By planning common actions, almost at every time in the plenary tent, during "reclaim the street" in the cities, at pink-silver happenings, during public events and workshops, while chilling in the camp bar, at communication guerrilla notifications, of course all around the info tent, while beheading "Gartenzwerge", while cutting vegetables in the open air kitchen or wherever you want to.

Hoping that, through coming together for these 8 days in summer, we can gain greater capacity to act politically, build up networks and possibly take back new approaches into the cities and regions, we invite all interested to take part and be involved in the No-Border-Camp 2002. Inform yourselves and others, publish the date, join the fight, mobilize, prepare own actions and whatever you can think of!

History of the No-Border-Camps

In the summer of 1998 activists of "no one is illegal", autonomous and antifascist groups called for a common action camp at the german-polish border near Görlitz. About 200 people from east and west participated in actions against a border regime, where a highly technified BGS (German border police) and the eagerness for denunciation of a major part of the population combine to a sometimes deadly manhunt against illegal migrants. Another major focus were actions against regional (neo)fascist structures.
1999 a follow-up was organised in Zittau, at the border triangle of Germany, Poland and Tschechia, in 2000 a third camp in Forst close to Cottbus. In the last year for the first time the outer borders in the east were abandoned for a siege of the German deportation airport no.1 at Frankfurt/Main. The camp was increasingly organised and consisted of people from various spectrums as well as self-organised refugee organisations and there was a temporary participation of polish activists.

There is no quiet hinterland

In Jena two companies, Jenoptik and Carl Zeiss are situated that are involved in the "optical-electronic" weapons industry. Carl Zeiss sells their precision technology not only to "army, airforce and marine", but also to the "Bundesgrenzschutz" (German border police). "For surveillance of borders and huge areas border-control-vehicles of the Zeiss Optronic GmbH are used internationally" they proudly proclaim on their homepage. Insofar Zeiss is an ideal symbol for the connection between exterritorial war and internal control. The image of the economic area Jena is not the least mediated by the "Friedrich Schiller-Universität". Jena is one of the four locations worldwide responsible for the "decoding" of the human genome. In this respect the university can relate to its fascist tradition durig national socialism, when "Menschenforschung" ("scientific analysis" of the humans) was carried out. Up to now the university has not found it necessary to reevaluate its past. Thus, it is no wonder, when the Professor of Philosophy Günther Zehm is a writer for the "Junge Freiheit" – a publication of the New Right.
In Gera, the "Kameradschaft Gera" stands undisputedly for "German order": in Jena young members of the NPD (neo-nazi party) in white woolen pullovers with a tidy crewcut try to establish an explicitly nationalistc youth centre as members of the city council.
Far from Jena in the forest and almost completely isolated due to shortage of public transport, is the so called "centralised first reception institution for refugees" (abbreviated ZAST) Jena Forst. Directly beside the Federal Department for the Acknowledgement of Refugees is situated. The approximately 300 refugees at ZAST are subjected to the arbitrariness and harassment of the security service – a company located in Jena. If they are distributed to the homes of the area, they are in danger of attacks by the local nazis.

For an anti-racist summer

Besides the Camp in Jena, there is the opportunity for all people interested to participate in other radical left events:
"reclaim the highway": convoy/caravan from Jena to Strasbourg with a stop-over at Frankfurt airport after the end of the camp in Jena.
"No-Border-Camp": from July 19 to 28 an international camp will take place in Strasburg (France) organised by the europe-wide network. It is aimed against a more and more unified border regime with its Schengen-Information-System, located in Strasbourg.
"Summercamp": (it originated from the cross-over-conference in Bremen) it most likely will take place from the August 3 to 11 close to Cottbus. Main topics planned so far are: gender/migration/labour, border-prostitution/sex-workers and biotechnology.
"Land-in-Sicht-Tage": a camp located in Hamburg starting after August 16. Topics are "Innere Sicherheit" (restrictive security regime), right wing populism, "authoritarian formation and connection to racist and sexist structures".
"Karawane tour 2002": a caravan for the defence of the rights of refugees and migrants will take place under the slogans: "right of asylum is human right" and "we are here because you destroy our countries". August 17 the caravan starts with inner city actions in Oldenburg; next stations are (among others) Bramsche (deportation center), Bremen and Hamburg.

Camping means camping – structures and organisation

Like the years before, the plan to attend the camp requires the readiness of all to self-organise and give a thought on certain things already on forehand. This means, bring thermomat, sleeping bag and a tent, if possible even more of each, because not all participants will own one. The food will be organised by a Vokü, but this only works out if all that can afford it pay their camp fee and help with cooking and so on. There will be some big plenary sessions, one daily meeting of delegates, an info tent and a women/lesbian area. Furthermore ist has proved useful to bring cars, bikes and other means of transportation. It is explicitly welcomed if people bring equipment for actions, e.g. fabric for banners, paint, megaphones. The exact location of the camp will be announced, thus, stay tuned and alert. See you.
05.05.2002