hagen's blog

The 5th issue of "Crossing Borders", a transnational newsletter on "Movements and Struggles of Migration", is out again in several languages with a focus on womens migration. One year ago "Crossing Borders!" appeared for the first time as an attempt to foster transnational communication ...Website: http://www.noborder.org/crossing_borders/

»We didn’t cross the border, the border crossed us«. The following text from Fassanito Network about "Movements and Struggles of Migration in and around Europe" was written for and distributed at the 4th European Social Forum (ESF), which took place between 4th and 7th of Mai in Athens/Greece and when migration became the first time an own thematic axis inside the ESF.

The company Gate Gourmet is somehow known after the labor-conflicts in London in august 2005 and the spectacular wildcat-strike of British Airways workers. Now another strike in a Gate Gourmet branch in Duesseldorf persists since 9 weeks! And needs international solidarity-actions, for example at 17th of December!

Following statement was the outcome of a meeting of the frassanito-network
during the fadaiat-project in tarifa, south of spain, in june 2006
(http://www.fadaiat.net/). The text aims to inspire the debates around Euromayday,
to think beyond the event-level and to keep a strong connection between
Euromayday and migrationrelated networking.

Within the Euromayday-process a new proposal just circulate: to create a ring of european precarity websites of research/action projects. The project, obviously, is free and "in progress": the document is only a mean to diffuse the proposal and to open it to multiplicity and different european subjects, groups and network. Clearly, when we speak of research, we are not talking about accademic or sociological inquiry, but about a political and militant research, finalized to action of struggle and action of precarious.

"Flexworkers of europe let's unite! There's a World of Rights to Fight for: Steady Income & Paid Vacation, Access to Housing, Loving, Hacking." Following these introductional phrases the Mayday-parade, which took place a first time in Milano in 2001, was extended 2004 on an european level. The excerpts below are from the call, which is published on http://www.euromayday.org/. Around 80.000 people participated in Milano, more than 10.000 in Barcelona. The Euro-Mayday was born.

During the European Social Forum in London in October 2004 many initiatives from all over Europe met in the autonomous spaces of Middlesex-University to discuss the broadening of the Euromayday-process. The declaration of Middlesex was published a few weeks later, combined with an invitation to the "european precariat" for a follow-up coordination meeting in Berlin. Find both in the following bloc.

The Euromayday-process grows up: Helsinki, Barcelona, Hamburg, Liège, Ljubjana, Sevilla, Milano, Copenhagen, Paris, Amsterdam, Wien, London and Stockholm ... After a last coordination-meeting in Paris last weekend the list of cities, where activities are planned, becomes longer ... Read the common call from Paris.

The following text is the slightly revised version of a working paper. It was
written and distributed by people from frassanito-network for the euromayday-preparation-meeting in Berlin in January 2005. And this paper is still on the move. As known we emphasize the interconnection between the (migrationrelated) 2nd day of action (2nd of april) and Euromayday. Concerning to that please read this lines as an attempt to establish a common debate around political aims in european space. Contact: frassainfo@kein.org"

Are migrants regarded as “victims” of economical determined relationships, that should be advised or protected? Or should migration be regarded as a potentially “subversive” process of crossborder appropriation of a better living and working quality?
Nicholas Bell, member of the European Civic Forum, warned in his contribution in a conference in Crete of a too optimistic view on the “autonomous qualities” of migration, referring to his own experiences with the working conditions in the agricultural business in El Eljido (Spain) and the enormous competition between old and new groups of – often undocumented - migrants, which come there to work.