Stop Racisme en Uitsluiting.Opening Toespraak
Channel: Tantra Movement
Date: 21/03/2011

In solidarity with all migrants. When people leave behind their home and leave for different parts of the world in search for a better future, they don't do this lightly. Different from what the widespread stigmatization of migrants in the Netherlands and Europe would have us believe, these people mostly flee away from war, violent repression, hunger and poverty -- of which Western states and corporations are often (partly) responsible for.

But xenophobia and (ethnic-)nationalism are growing in society. In the Netherlands we find ourselves in the situation where ethnic and/or racist framing of the public debate around migration is accepted, where speaking of "non-western immigration" is met with no criticism and opposition, where populism reigns supreme and where fascism seems to be salonfähig again.

Frontext patrols the borders of Fort Europe along which many people die in their attempt to find a bearable future. Many migrants are pushed into the underworld of illegality with insecurity and exploitation as effect. So-called civil countries like the Netherlands imprison people without papers, amongst them children, in modern concentrationcamps to later deport them. Now and then, people jump up because of a "poignant case" who then opportunistically, with a lot of crocodile tears, has to be saved. But the structural, institutionalised violence against and exploitation of migrants most of the times is left out of the picture. The whole bandwidth of party-political colours is more or less agreed with the current anti-immigration policy. Its therefor a mistake to think we should only focus on the PVV of Wilders. Or to think that anti-immigration policy is the business of the individual memberstates of the EU -- the practice in context of migrants in for instance Greece cannot be seen seperate from EU-policy.

We believe that everyone should have freedom of movement, the freedom to migrate in search for a better future. We are in solidarity with all migrants and their struggle for a better life. Only through the direct open struggle possibilities emerge to improve their own lives, but solidarity is important for their struggle and actions to succeed. Like with the struggle of the migrants who were on hungerstrike in Greece and who after 44 days, on March 9th, gained a victory. An important part of their demands was legalisation: acknowledgement of their existence. And this they gained. With them, we demand the legalisation of and equal rights for all migrants!

We are in solidarity with all those who are locked up while they have done nothing wrong. In solidarity with those who are locked up in humiliating and harsh conditions because they have no papers. We therefor also call on you to join the noise-demonstration at Kamp Zeist tomorrow, sunday March 20th, to let the people without papers who are locked up there know that we haven't forgot about them.