Back to work: Exit Austerity – Exit Fortress Europe – Exit Capitalism!

imagesLet’s go on the offensive, let’s come together for the action on 2 September, let’s block the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, let’s mark the policies of pauperisation and austerity – against inner social divisions and external borders

This September, BLOCKUPY will participate in the weekend of actions against racism. We will not only target the AFD (Alternative for Germany). The borders of Fortress Europe, the borders within Europe and the border between top and bottom are all part of a normality which humiliates and kills people every day, and which is kept running with the dogma of TINA (there is no alternative). Together with many others, we will tackle and mark these borders – to finally be able to tear them down someday. We want to set an example: the struggle against the AFD and the general shift to the right also has to be a struggle for social rights, democracy and a radically different Europe.

While thousands of refugees are drowning in the Mediterranean Sea, a new right-wing block is establishing itself in Europe. In Germany, the AFD has become the organizational backbone of this block. It uses the broken promises of happiness and freedom in neoliberalism to defend the privileges of a white Germany with a toxic cocktail of overt racism, social-chauvinist criticism of the system and reactionary anti-feminism. Widespread impoverishment and precarity, which have resulted from years of enforced austerity, are the breeding ground of this shift to the right. For this reason, it is not enough to tackle only the right wing. Racism and nationalism are not marginal phenomena; they extend far into politics and society. The success of the AFD is based on an ingrained everyday racism in mainstream society and on institutionalized racism – visible in the asylum package II, the Merkel-Erdogan deal, in schools, universities and government departments. This is clearly shown by the planned integration law: European internal migrants are soon to be eligible for benefits only after having worked in Germany for five years, and 100,000 Refugees are to be placed in 80 ct. jobs. In this way, competition in the low-wage sector will be aggravated and racially charged. Therefore, it is not only the AFD but everyday and institutional racism that we have to oppose. To do this, the racist and dividing foreign, social and labour market policies of the ruling parties are the right point of attack.

The exploitation of refugees is used to tighten the pressure on wage earners in general. The stimulated competition for benefits is used to undermine the minimum wage and strengthen competition in the labour market. At the same time, the laws of Hartz IV will be tightened even more in the coming weeks. Heating costs are curtailed, allowances are limited. Here institutional racism and the continuation of the neoliberal Agenda 2010 go hand in hand – and this does not only affect the situation in Germany. Berlin is the center of European austerity policies of casualization and redistribution to the wealthy, the exporter of Agenda 2010. The social devastation of Southern Europe and the Loi Travail in France have their precursors in Agenda 2010. Missing paid positions, declining real wages, the lack of affordable housing, the prospect of poverty pensions, youth unemployment, precarious work – all this affects us all in one way or another. Austerity policies aim at the establishment of borders on the inside, at the systematic disenfranchisement and exclusion of so many. Fighting the far right therefore means to stand in solidarity with everyone and to tackle the borders between rich and poor, between the top and bottom, between inside and outside. The struggle for social justice and the fight against racism belong together. A common target for these protests is the Ministry of Labour.

It is now time to make the “block of solidarity” in the center of European capitalism visible and to go on the offensive! Let us question the supposed lack of alternatives to the neoliberal model – before national “solutions” in laws, in parliaments and in the streets take over. Together we must combine our struggles against the European crisis and border regime, which has produced so much poverty and rejection, insecurity and fear throughout Europe. The divisions in Europe run between periphery and center, between top and bottom – and they run through the heart of the crisis and border regime. Together with many others, we can address these borders, mark them, tear them down.

We accept the invitation of the coalition “Stand up against racism” and participate in the nationwide weekend of action against the right in Berlin. Let us work together on the morning of 2 September, for a strong sign at the Ministry of Labour. After than, let us meet at the locations of inner and external borders to mark them. On September 3, let us then add another strong sign – against borders, against the rise of the right wing, and against the policies which make it socially acceptable throughout Europe.

Let us come together to develop our counter project of solidarity further. Let us make the antiracist weekend a further step in a combative cycle till autumn 2017. Let’s start with a European summit in spring 2017 in Berlin and continue with a strong campaign against the G20 meeting in the summer in Hamburg to make the German policies a cross-border matter. Let´s send a strong signal of solidarity against racism, austerity and capitalism!

Back to work: Exit Austerity – Exit Fortress Europe- Exit Capitalism!

Weekend of action against racism in Berlin, 2 to 4 September 2016

September 2 – Blockade of the Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs in the morning; decentralised actions in the afternoon
September 3 – Open block at the large demonstration against racism
September 4 – Welcome 2 Stay meeting

Source: https://blockupy.org/en/back-to-work-exit-austerity-exit-fortress-europe-exit-capitalism/