[Gipfelsoli Newsletter] April 30th 2007, Heiligendamm

[International Newsletter]

April 30th 2007, Heiligendamm

- Call out for No Border Camp in Ukraine 2007
- Bush Visits Countries While on G-8 Trip
- Geldof to guest-edit German newspaper

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Call out for No Border Camp in Ukraine 2007

The camp will take place from the 11th to the 20th of August 2007 in the main
region of transit and labor migration in Ukraine: Transcarpathia.

The eastward expansion of the European Union has resulted in moving the walls of
"Fortress Europe" to the Western border of Ukraine. The Ukrainian region of
Transcarpatia, of which the biggest cities are Uzhgorod and Mukachevo, has
become a new borderline, with increasing militarization and major concentration
of detention camps for refugees from the countries of Global South and former
USSR, who try to escape war, totalitarianism or misery to the European Union
countries. It is hard to find any "open" information about the conditions in
the majority of these camps.

The condition of the refugees in Ukraine is very unstable: freedom of movement
is restricted; it is hard to get a job or medical care, and no social security
is provided. When one gets refugee status, the only support they get from the
state is a single payment of a petty 3 euros.
In recent years Ukraine has even extradited asylum seekers to places like
Uzbekistan, where they were imprisoned for years in the notorious authoritarian
regime's gulags.

The increase of border controls makes a big impact on lives of local people in
the depressed region of Transcarpathia. The region is situated on the
intersection of borders of five countries: Ukraine, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary,
and Romania. Four of them are now in the European Union, but Ukraine will not
be its member in the near future. So "Fortress Europe" strengthens its Eastern
frontiers on the borderline of Western Ukraine. Still, up to half of the
working population of Transcarpathia works abroad. Ukraine cancelled the visa
regime for EU nationals, but the EU has not made the access of Ukrainians to
the European labor market (or even European countries' territory) any easier,
although it would be hard to imagine for example agriculture in the EU today
without Ukrainian guest workers.

At the same time, Transcarpathia has been for a long time a very special region
with its unique blend of local cultures and traditions, and now it turned out
to be one of the main routes for international migration. Therefore, local
border guards, security services and media, using xenophobic language, help to
spread prejudices towards migrants among local population, which resulted in
rising tensions in the region.

We demand the right of free movement for everyone, asylum for all the persecuted
people and the right of people to migrate from depressed areas to work in other
countries, if it can make their lives better. We demand abolishing all visa
regimes. We want to tear down "Fortress Europe" contemporary border regime,
which has lead to the state-sanctioned murder of thousands of people in its
borders during recent years. The "Global Apartheid" policy should be stopped!

We continue the tradition of No Border camps on Eastern borders of the Fortress
Europe, which were organized 1998-2000 on the border of Germany and Poland, in
2000-2003 on the Eastern border of Poland, in 2001 in Slovenia, in 2003 in
Romania, in 2003 and 2005 on the border between Greece and Bulgaria and in
Finland in 2004. The camps have also been organized on the Southern borders of
Europe (on Sicily 2000 and on Tarifa of Spain 2001), inside Europe at airports
and main sites of European surveillance and decision-making system (such as in
Strasbourg 2002), on the border between Mexico and USA and in Australia. This
year our international movement makes a major step forward, as the camp in
Ukraine will be first ever organized on the territory of the former Soviet
Union.

Some of the aims of this camp are:
1) To create a ground for communication between activists from Eastern and
Western Europe and from everywhere else: meeting, establishing contacts,
sharing skills, knowledge and experience, etc. (workshops, discussions,
practical trainings, concerts and much more).
2) To attract the attention of the people in Ukraine (but also in Russia and in
the world) to the racist policy on migration; to address the questions of
contemporary forms of racism and xenophobia.
3) To create contact with local people in the region of Transcarpathia:
anti-racist education, open public events, film screenings, exhibitions,
concerts and discussions, with an aim to improve local people's attitude
towards migrants, refugees and asylum seekers.
4) To exchange information between us: how the authorities in different
countries criminalize migration, what are the situations with deportation
prisons, and to share the experiences of resistance in different countries. One
of the practical results of the camp is going to be the publication of a
brochure with the information from different countries on all these issues to
reinforce our struggle (call-out with approximate questions is coming!).
5) To get more people from different anti-authoritarian collectives and
movements in Ukraine, Russia and other 'post-soviet' countries involved with
the migration-related issues; mobilize people for struggle against racism,
criminalization of migration and deportation camps system.

We will discuss the possible ways and perhaps we will do some actions (but not
in the very region of camp; it has been advised by everybody who's in touch
with the region that any confrontational actions done by activists from
"outside" on such a sensitive issue could make the situation worse, not
better). So first of all it will not be an action camp but a camp for
communication, networking, planning and popular education.

Another event that is going to take place in the camp is an International Food
Not Bombs gathering. There is an explosion of Food Not Bombs activities in
Eastern Europe. In Russia alone there are about 50 groups that are regularly
doing actions.

We already started to form a program of workshops, discussions, practical
trainings etc. But we prefer the program of the camp to be formed by the people
who will come there. So if you've got something to share or contribute - please
let us know now! It can be any topic you are interested in, not only the main
topic of the camp.

Please take into account that Ukraine has cancelled the visa regime for the
citizens of the European Union, the USA and some other countries, so if you
have a passport of some Western country you probably do not need any visa to
join us.

Feel free to spread this call-out through your contacts. More information and
contact: noborder2007 at riseup.net


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Bush Visits Countries While on G-8 Trip

WASHINGTON -- President Bush will visit the Czech Republic, Poland, Albania,
Bulgaria and Italy as part of a trip to Europe for a meeting of the leaders of
major industrial countries, the White House said Tuesday.
The anchor of the June 5-11 trip is the annual Group of Eight summit, being held
this year in Heiligendamm, Germany.
On the way, Bush will stop in Prague to meet with the Czech Republic's leaders
and speak at an international conference on democracy and security.
After the G-8 meetings, the president was making a brief stop in Jurata, Poland,
to see President Lech Kaczynski. He is scheduled to be at the Vatican on June 9
for his first meeting with Pope Benedict XVI and to meet in Rome with top
Italian politicians.
He also was meeting with fellow world leaders during visits to Tirana, Albania,
on June 10 and to Sofia, Bulgaria on June 11.

[http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/politics/wire/sns-ap-bush-industrial-summit,1,7303689.story?coll=sns-ap-politics-headlines&ctrack=1&cset=true]


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Geldof to guest-edit German newspaper

Campaigning rocker Bob Geldof is to overtake the editor-in-chief's job at German
newspaper Bild - for one day. The musician and Live 8 organiser, who is an avid
campaigner against poverty in Africa, will create a special G8 summit issue of
the tabloid at the end of May.
Geldof and the publication hope the project to raise awareness of the problems
in the developing world ahead of the G8 summit at Heiligendamm, Germany, in
June.

[http://www.examiner.ie/breaking/story.asp?j=115298964&p=yy5z99338&n=1152994359