Kompass-newsletter No. 119 - 11/2023
Against massacres, war and racist agitation +++ 26 November in Berlin: Stop GEAS demonstration +++ 30 years of the Asylum Seekers' Benefits Act, 30 years of ex officio discrimination +++ Alarm Phone: interview, report and fundraising campaign +++ CommemorActions in Kythira and Lampedusa +++ New migrant caravan in Mexico heading for the USA +++ Review: Transnational Social Strike Conference in Bologna
Dear friends.
In view of the cruel massacre in Israel and another cruel war in Palestine, in view of a new wave of racism and a competition to outdo each other in terms of migration control in Europe and in Germany, we get by in this intro on quotes from texts that seem worth reading in times of simplistic positioning and polarisation:
"The left must resist anti-Semitism in the name of the anti-colonial struggle as well as racism in the name of so-called solidarity with Israel.“
"Because without a right to rights for all people in Israel and Palestine, in whatever state form, there will be no end to violence and therefore no security for Israelis and Palestinians alike."
https://www.akweb.de/politik/israel-palaestina-gaza-eskalation-der-entmenschlichung/
"I was a Zionist because I had the impression that it was necessary to establish a Jewish state after 1945. But today I can no longer be a Zionist, because Zionism has turned out to be what it has always been: racist and expansionist. All Israeli governments since 1967 have ensured that Zionism has become an occupying regime by colonising the West Bank."
„Neither Hamas nor Netanyahu. The people of Israel will prevail. The people of Palestine will prevail.
They only need to give themselves a chance and work hard at it.
Meanwhile, each war will continue to be only the prelude to the next, more ferocious, more destructive, more inhumane.
From the mountains of the Mexican Southeast,
Subcomandante Insurgente Moisés.
Mexico, October 2023.“
https://enlacezapatista.ezln.org.mx/2023/10/19/of-sowings-and-reapings/
"Anti-Semitism and racism must not be played off against each other or used as justification for racist policies of exclusion and deportation.... We will not allow the open society and the rights we have fought for in it to be taken away from us. Our solidarity is and remains indivisible."
https://www.medico.de/die-offene-gesellschaft-verteidigen
"Not a day goes by without the fear of refugees being fuelled. The debate is often no longer about actual solutions, but only about deterrence and deportation. Refugee policy issues are misused in order to shift responsibility for the failings of society as a whole and infrastructural deficiencies onto others....The successes of refugee reception after 2015 or the reception of one million people who fled Ukraine in 2022 are also forgotten. Yet these examples show that society can do a lot if politicians create the right framework conditions."
https://www.proasyl.de/thema/fakten-zahlen-argumente/
"You have to plan well in advance. If I only ever operate at the limits of my capacity and work with expensive temporary solutions - another container here and another hotel there - then I have a problem. We often can't manage without the odd temporary solution either, but our accommodation for refugees is designed for 15 years, after which it becomes social housing...Yes, a breathing, resilient, sustainable system that has a memory and doesn't simply erase the experience gained, but ensures that skills are retained even during periods of calm."
With solidarity greetings,
The Kompass team