Resistance Against Frontex
27.May.08 – 6 June we will show our opposition to the border regime with a demonstration in front of Frontex headquarters in Warsaw (for the programme of activities
War, economic imperialism, civil conflict, environmental degradation and a host of other factors, combined with the increased technological monitoring and militarization of the borders, means that people will take even great risks to exercise the freedom of movement and settlement, to find safe homes or jobs with even a bit of economic perspective if they otherwise have none. The European Union has made itself a fortress and seeks to control immigration to fit its demands and the demands of world capital. It is, after all, in the interest of business to have captive labour markets in countries with poor wages and no labour organizing, to allow their capital and movement of goods to be mobile but to keep people immobile. In order to better control the flow of immigration, the European Union created Frontex.
What is Frontex?
Frontex is an EU agency with coordinates the activity, training and operations of the EU’s border control. It also coordinates this activity with police, the military and secret services. The Frontex- run RABITs (rapid border intervention teams) carry out military- like exercises with weaponry in preparation for operations against groups of migrants. There is growing likelihood that somebody will be shot dead for trying to cross the border.
Murder by Accident
As migrants are forced into more and more dangerous ways of crossing borders, the people smugglers and mafias are making good business. But the price for migrants is often death in the back of an overloaded truck or at sea. The latter is becoming more and more frequent thanks to the work of Frontex sea patrols. Instead of taking the shorter routes, migrants are choosing longer routes at sea and more are dying. At the same time that dozens of dead bodies of prospective immigrants are washing up on beaches, many of the countries of the European Union complain that there are not enough workers and are busy trying to recruit people from Asia to come to work. By criminalizing migration, the authorities treat these deaths as the responsibility of the people themselves, those who chose to put themselves in danger and who broke the law. But it is the system itself which is murderous.
No One is Illegal
We maintain the idea that the resources of the earth belong to humanity collectively and that people must be free to live, work and to divide the products of their labour, as well as natural resources which must be used, in an egalitarian manner. The borders drawn on the earth to artificially divide us most often serve to protect the interests of those in power, not normal people. People must be free to go where they wish, or to stay home, free from the invasive and predatory policies of the state and businesses which drive people from their land and try to monopolize natural resources for their profits. For hundreds of years, business has gone everywhere, setting up plantations, sweatshops and mines, destroying communities, upsetting local economies, using people for slave or cheap labour. All of these things, and to a lesser extent, natural factors (sometimes caused by excessive use of natural resources), has created a world order with billions of the worlds population inhabiting places of exploitation-induced poverty. Nobody can wonder why anybody would like to leave these places.
We mustn’t allow people to bear the brunt of all of these problems, we must not allow the continual criminalization, repression and deportation of migrants. What needs to be changed is the root of the problem. We will go to the Frontex office with the slogans “No one is Illegal” and “No Borders, No Nations” to confront the migrant hunters with the consequences of their policies and show what it is that this institution is really protecting: misery, poverty, exploitation, racism, imperalism and global capitalism.
SHUT DOWN FRONTEX!
No Borders Poland
Programme:
Thursday June 5 Transnational Conference about the deathly Policy of the European Border Agency (Location: al. Wyzwolenie 18 – on Pl. Zbawiciela in Warsaw):
Frontex, Opening Remarks, Laure Akai
Frontex Operations at the Coast from Westafrica, Amadou Mbow, AMDH – Human Rights Organisation from Nouakchott/Mauretania
Anti-Detention Struggles in Netherlands, Frontex in Mali, Vincent de Jong from “All Included”, Amsterdam
Frontex Role in the Mediterranean Sea, Devi Sacchetto, Frassanito Network, Italy
Frontex Man-Hunting in Eastern Europe, Bernd Kaspareck, Frontex Watch, Munich/Germany
Frontex and Charter Deportations, Marily Stroux, No one is illegal, Hamburg/Germany
Anti-Frontex-Protest in the frame of the transnational Chain of migrationrelated Actions, Hagen Kopp, No one is illegal, Hanau/Germany
..plus Films, Photo-Exhibition and more Information!
Friday June 6
1200h International Pressconference
1400h Protest-Siege in front of the Headquarters of Frontex (Rondo Onz 1, corner of Swietokrzyska and Jana Pawla streets) followed by a demonstration to the Presidential Palace
Plus a party, meeting of activists and possibly more!
Frontex Headquaters in Warsaw
Frontex Headquaters in Warsaw