We have come together today to make our voices heard and our anger felt. We are here to let those in power and those who want to hear our message know:
STOP THE REPRESSION!
STOP THE CRIMINALIZATION!
STOP THE MURDER!
STOP ALL DEPORTATIONS!
It is easy to denounce the deaths in Ceuta or in Amsterdam, the over 6,300 murders of human beings within and on the outskirts of the territory of the European Fortress, secret torture prisons in Poland, Rumania, and elsewhere, the state of siege and racist garbage spoken by French politicians and the brutality of their police, or the murder of Oury Jallow�burned alive�and Laye Kond�forced to swallow a liquid which filled his lungs�at the hands of German police here in this country.
We are living in a world characterized by permanent war and perpetual injustice against the people who are lethally excluded and banned from humanity, their natural born rights to freedom and dignity. It is a colonial Apartheid which began over 500 years ago whose brutality grows each day and with each passing minute.
Thus, by 1918 so-called Europe and the so-called United States were in colonial control of approximately 85% of the world territory, stealing away the natural resources, the land, and the future for the overwhelming majority of humanity. Since then, direct colonial rule has mostly ended and puppet regimes have been put into place in order to guarantee the further plundering of the very �former colonies.�
Fortress Europe is a construction long in the making. Europe as an imaginary entity which began to exist in order to differentiate the people living in this continent from those inhabiting what is now Africa and Asia. It was the creation of us and them on a very perverse level used as the basis to claim superiority. Out of this came the worst imaginable atrocities, such as the forced deportation of over 25 million Africans from the tiny island off the coast of Senegal known as Gore� or the physical elimination of over 90 million people in the Americas.
As a direct result from these genocidal policies the refugee and migrant population, made into the largest human and social group in the world, has historically and perpetually been the uprooted, the forced displaced of this world, those who have been continuously, violently, inhumanly, wrongly, brutally, and cruelly chained, enslaved, beaten, tortured, and then murdered. And all because of greed, because the western governments and their societies don't even want to share what does not --and has never-- belong to them.
But more than just physical borders and a territorial fortress, the creation of Europe as a common imaginary of the people of this continent created a whole series of other borders and fortresses, ideological ones, psychological, and social ones, too.
These internal boundaries which have been created are sinister and invisible, hidden behind the mask of a fake smile, of looking away, of not wanting to know about what is really happening to the people and their feelings. Many people prefer to distance themselves, to take Abstand from the problems which they themselves are benefiting from, one way or the other. And they hide themselves behind it while the Other, the non-white peoples of the world, continue to be massacred and robbed of their dignity.
But when do we reach the point where we collectively say enough? When is too much exactly that? When do our lives lose their importance in the face of such barbarity and cruelty? When do we gain the courage to retake our humanity, without permission and without compromise? If not now, when? How many more deaths, deportations and persecutions will it take before the Europeans finally see the untold quantities of blood on their hands?
For too long now there has been too much silence, too much indifference, too much complicity. For too long now, the same people have had to pay the price of a terrible suffering. For too long now, the countries of the colonizers - who in the name of profit and progress, democracy and modernity, have always preferred to see themselves as conquerors and discoverers and not as oppressors and murderers - have killed and killed, again and again. And they continue to do so, in Germany, in France, in Holland, in Spain, in Iraq, Colombia, Palestine, Afghanistan and the rest of the world.�
We say we want an end to this shameless criminalisation of protest by those who themselves should be brought to justice for crimes against humanity? We say we want an end to the indiscriminate murder and deportation and to the arbitrary destruction of human beings and their environment? No border, no nation? Kein Mensch ist Illegal? Really?
We must begin with ourselves. We must find the courage to take back our humanity, the humanity which has been robbed from us by capitalism and colonialism, greed and violence. We, meaning those of us who believe in change, who believe in justice, and who believe in the possibility of solidarity, must begin to do much more than we have until now.
Yes, it is too comfortable to denounce what is going on while we sit back and watch the news on television, read about Paris burning in the internet, hear about a friend being taken to prison because of Residenzpflicht, become angry about the burning alive of Oury Jallow or eleven people in a deportation prison, or even participate in a demonstration here or there against borders and deportations.
No. We must do much more. We must overcome our fears and prejudices, we must overcome our inner-fortresses of exclusion and indifference. We cannot wait any longer, neither for an answer from above nor for the right moment to come. Because we have been too quiet and too calm for too long. It is not enough to stand around and shout slogans while the violence continues - as do our normal, relatively comfortable lives.
We do not need to wait for anybody to be able to resist injustice. We must do something ourselves. In other words, it must affect us directly.
It is a personal decision of sacrifice, of being willing to see our very own lives not more important than the person who is being criminally deported, the family being massacred by Western imperialism in Iraq or Colombia, or Ziad and Banou, the two young boys killed by the racist French police.
As the North American indigenous poet John Trudell said in his poem Rich Man's War:
What we take is hard to do
What we do is hard to take
Somebody is crazy
or maybe we take turns
dreaming about some kind of life we say could have been different
but it wasn�t
because we weren�t.�
We must fill our words with meaning, and do more than just say what we are for or what we are against; we must engage ourselves so deeply that we share our suffering, our anger, our rage, turning it into something new, something that shows that all of us are willing to stand up and fight together, side by side, without paternalism, without arrogance.
So this is our challenge today. To transform our lives into what we want them to be, to overcome our mutual colonial heritage, and to find direct means to stop their mad killings and exclusions, deportations and criminalisation. Because to resist is to live; because nobody can free themselves alone and nobody can free the other. It must be done together�however hard and difficult this may result to be�and it must be done with respect, dignity and justice.
But remember: only by removing your internal borders and fortresses will this ever be possible. If not, the hatred which many millions of people have inside of them against the perpetual colonial tyranny and the decadent societies which benefit from it will not be able to tell the difference between those in power and those who look like them, between those whose intentions are good, and those whose intentions are bad.
Finally, a last word both for our friends as well as our enemies: We will not be silenced nor will we be stopped. No matter what you do, we will no longer take your insults and crimes. We will no longer overlook your ignorance as if it was due to that and not to complicity, as it truly is. We will never stop denouncing neither the continuity of your colonialism nor the racist attacks of the police and the neo-nazis.
We demand you: stop the killings, stop the crimes, stop colonialism!!!
We don't want your mercy or pity and we definitely don't need your permission:
STOP STOP STOP!!!
STOP STOP STOP!!!
STOP STOP STOP!!!
STOP STOP STOP!!!
STOP THE REPRESSION!
STOP THE CRIMINALIZATION!
STOP THE MURDER!
STOP ALL DEPORTATIONS!
It is easy to denounce the deaths in Ceuta or in Amsterdam, the over 6,300 murders of human beings within and on the outskirts of the territory of the European Fortress, secret torture prisons in Poland, Rumania, and elsewhere, the state of siege and racist garbage spoken by French politicians and the brutality of their police, or the murder of Oury Jallow�burned alive�and Laye Kond�forced to swallow a liquid which filled his lungs�at the hands of German police here in this country.
We are living in a world characterized by permanent war and perpetual injustice against the people who are lethally excluded and banned from humanity, their natural born rights to freedom and dignity. It is a colonial Apartheid which began over 500 years ago whose brutality grows each day and with each passing minute.
Thus, by 1918 so-called Europe and the so-called United States were in colonial control of approximately 85% of the world territory, stealing away the natural resources, the land, and the future for the overwhelming majority of humanity. Since then, direct colonial rule has mostly ended and puppet regimes have been put into place in order to guarantee the further plundering of the very �former colonies.�
Fortress Europe is a construction long in the making. Europe as an imaginary entity which began to exist in order to differentiate the people living in this continent from those inhabiting what is now Africa and Asia. It was the creation of us and them on a very perverse level used as the basis to claim superiority. Out of this came the worst imaginable atrocities, such as the forced deportation of over 25 million Africans from the tiny island off the coast of Senegal known as Gore� or the physical elimination of over 90 million people in the Americas.
As a direct result from these genocidal policies the refugee and migrant population, made into the largest human and social group in the world, has historically and perpetually been the uprooted, the forced displaced of this world, those who have been continuously, violently, inhumanly, wrongly, brutally, and cruelly chained, enslaved, beaten, tortured, and then murdered. And all because of greed, because the western governments and their societies don't even want to share what does not --and has never-- belong to them.
But more than just physical borders and a territorial fortress, the creation of Europe as a common imaginary of the people of this continent created a whole series of other borders and fortresses, ideological ones, psychological, and social ones, too.
These internal boundaries which have been created are sinister and invisible, hidden behind the mask of a fake smile, of looking away, of not wanting to know about what is really happening to the people and their feelings. Many people prefer to distance themselves, to take Abstand from the problems which they themselves are benefiting from, one way or the other. And they hide themselves behind it while the Other, the non-white peoples of the world, continue to be massacred and robbed of their dignity.
But when do we reach the point where we collectively say enough? When is too much exactly that? When do our lives lose their importance in the face of such barbarity and cruelty? When do we gain the courage to retake our humanity, without permission and without compromise? If not now, when? How many more deaths, deportations and persecutions will it take before the Europeans finally see the untold quantities of blood on their hands?
For too long now there has been too much silence, too much indifference, too much complicity. For too long now, the same people have had to pay the price of a terrible suffering. For too long now, the countries of the colonizers - who in the name of profit and progress, democracy and modernity, have always preferred to see themselves as conquerors and discoverers and not as oppressors and murderers - have killed and killed, again and again. And they continue to do so, in Germany, in France, in Holland, in Spain, in Iraq, Colombia, Palestine, Afghanistan and the rest of the world.�
We say we want an end to this shameless criminalisation of protest by those who themselves should be brought to justice for crimes against humanity? We say we want an end to the indiscriminate murder and deportation and to the arbitrary destruction of human beings and their environment? No border, no nation? Kein Mensch ist Illegal? Really?
We must begin with ourselves. We must find the courage to take back our humanity, the humanity which has been robbed from us by capitalism and colonialism, greed and violence. We, meaning those of us who believe in change, who believe in justice, and who believe in the possibility of solidarity, must begin to do much more than we have until now.
Yes, it is too comfortable to denounce what is going on while we sit back and watch the news on television, read about Paris burning in the internet, hear about a friend being taken to prison because of Residenzpflicht, become angry about the burning alive of Oury Jallow or eleven people in a deportation prison, or even participate in a demonstration here or there against borders and deportations.
No. We must do much more. We must overcome our fears and prejudices, we must overcome our inner-fortresses of exclusion and indifference. We cannot wait any longer, neither for an answer from above nor for the right moment to come. Because we have been too quiet and too calm for too long. It is not enough to stand around and shout slogans while the violence continues - as do our normal, relatively comfortable lives.
We do not need to wait for anybody to be able to resist injustice. We must do something ourselves. In other words, it must affect us directly.
It is a personal decision of sacrifice, of being willing to see our very own lives not more important than the person who is being criminally deported, the family being massacred by Western imperialism in Iraq or Colombia, or Ziad and Banou, the two young boys killed by the racist French police.
As the North American indigenous poet John Trudell said in his poem Rich Man's War:
What we take is hard to do
What we do is hard to take
Somebody is crazy
or maybe we take turns
dreaming about some kind of life we say could have been different
but it wasn�t
because we weren�t.�
We must fill our words with meaning, and do more than just say what we are for or what we are against; we must engage ourselves so deeply that we share our suffering, our anger, our rage, turning it into something new, something that shows that all of us are willing to stand up and fight together, side by side, without paternalism, without arrogance.
So this is our challenge today. To transform our lives into what we want them to be, to overcome our mutual colonial heritage, and to find direct means to stop their mad killings and exclusions, deportations and criminalisation. Because to resist is to live; because nobody can free themselves alone and nobody can free the other. It must be done together�however hard and difficult this may result to be�and it must be done with respect, dignity and justice.
But remember: only by removing your internal borders and fortresses will this ever be possible. If not, the hatred which many millions of people have inside of them against the perpetual colonial tyranny and the decadent societies which benefit from it will not be able to tell the difference between those in power and those who look like them, between those whose intentions are good, and those whose intentions are bad.
Finally, a last word both for our friends as well as our enemies: We will not be silenced nor will we be stopped. No matter what you do, we will no longer take your insults and crimes. We will no longer overlook your ignorance as if it was due to that and not to complicity, as it truly is. We will never stop denouncing neither the continuity of your colonialism nor the racist attacks of the police and the neo-nazis.
We demand you: stop the killings, stop the crimes, stop colonialism!!!
We don't want your mercy or pity and we definitely don't need your permission:
STOP STOP STOP!!!
STOP STOP STOP!!!
STOP STOP STOP!!!
STOP STOP STOP!!!
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