AUT: Fwd: Tampere-update #1

[pmargin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Steve Wright)]

this was sent to my local j18 list . . .

__________

> From: Antti Rautiainen <antti.rautiainen@xxxxxxxxxxx>
> To: Multiple recipients of list <j18discussion@xxxxxxxxxx>

>
> This is a subjective report how discussions about and preparations of
> Finnish counter conference during EU topmeeting 15t-16th october are
> proceedig in Finland. This report goes to various lists, thus if you like
to
> comment (please do!), do not send comments to other lists than
> openeurope@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
>
> contents:
>
> 1) Tampere versus Helsinki
> 2) Discussion about themes
> 3) Discussion about program in Tampere
> 4) Shortly on groups organising events in Tampere
>
>
> 1) Tampere versus Helsinki
>
> There will be two topmeetings in Finland, in Tampere 15th-16th of
october,
> and in Helsinki 11th-12th of december. We will organise big (in Finnish
> scale) protests during both of them, and we wish to have as large as
> possible international participation. In Tampere, the topic of the
official
> meeting is security, and topics of the counter meeting will be fighting
for
> the rights of the immigrants, opposing police repression and opposing
> exclusion of the poor and unemployed in European union in general and
> others, propably in this order of importance(see discussion about themes
for
> more information). There will be international activities for immigrant
> rights all around the Europe during the conference, but propably in
Tampere
> we will also keep other themes in program.
>  In Helsinki, the official meeting will be general EU meeting, which
means
> their program is mostly media spectacle (which is more or less true with
the
> Tampere as well). In Helsinki, themes will be roughly same as they have
been
> in Euromarches, "decent work for those who want it", "papers for
everyone",
> "bash neo-colonialism and neo-liberalism".
>   Anyway, the "people's committee" formed to organise events in Tampere,
is
> expecially organising for international participation during Tampere.
There
> is two main reasons:
> -Althought both of the meetings are spectacle, in which real decisions
have
> been made a long time before, Tampere is less. Immigrant rights is one of
> the most important topic in Europe today, and "people's committee" has
> thought it is our duty to help the international movement when
> decisionmakers try to come as far from the movement as possible to make
> unpopular decisions.
> -Another reason is climate, in december there is always a chance that
there
> is a snowstorm and -15C in Helsinki, althought 0C and no snow at all is
much
> more likely. Thus weather may be a bit problematic for participators from
> warm countries.
>
> Thus as a some sort of summary: Please come to both Helsinki and Tampere,
> but in case you can only choose one, come to Tampere.
>
> 2) Discussion about themes
>
> There is not yet consensus about a declaration to be used for the
> Tampere-meeting. Here is a version, which has been sent to various
> international lists, and is already in the www-page
http://come.to/tampere.
> The main problem with this text is that it focuses mostly only in the
> immigrant issues, and not very much to police oppression and
neo-liberalim
> in general. Final version will be made 10th of august, propably the
> immigration part will be quite similar, but some phrases about other
topics
> will be added. It is possible that there will be a different declaration
for
> all-European action day for immigrant rights which "people's organising
> committee for Tampere" will subscribe as well.
>  Of course, we want to keep up euromarch spirit, and everyone are
welcomed
> to come with their own agenda (with some exceptions, such as nazis and
> neoliberals). About blocks, it might be there will be for example a black
> block, block of revolutionary socialists, block of Iraq and Iran
communists
> and PKK block, but it is a bit different in a smaller demonstration like
> this, blocks can not be so clear and state so clearly their own messages
as
> in demonstrations of more than 10 000. But if someone asks organisers why
we
> are doing this, our answer will be this:
>
> SRIKE AGAINST THE EMPIRE, TAMPERE 15-17/10/99
>
> >From the beginning of July to the end of December, Finland will serve as

> president of the European Union. One central aim on this period is
> re-definition of EU's immigrant policies. For this reason there will be
held
> a special European Council meeting (meeting of EU prime minsters and
> presidents) on immigrant policies and internal security in Tampere,
> 15th-16th of October.
>
> Re-definition of immigrant policies mean more control, more expulsions and

> more borders. In the same meeting EU will also give a new development to
the
> Europol project. The EU has be very silent concerning the items of the
> meeting and this mean that police control and repression will increase in

> our continent. It is clear that the intention of European governments is
to
> build a machine that will control not only immigrants but also all the
> social movements.
>
> Refugee and immigrant policies are central themes in EU, because the
> prevailing system, while it has given capitals an opportunity to free
> movement both inside EU borders and globally, has caused enormous
migration
> of peoples. Hundreds of thousands of people are fleeing from misery caused

> by globalisation and war, seeking to get in Europe to look for even a bit

> better living conditions for themselves and their families. While capitals

> have had first-rate treatment everywhere, have these people been interned,

> killed, deported and pushed into the arms of criminal leagues who dominate

> illegal immigration.
>
> We have many examples of suffering caused by fortress-Europe: hundreds of

> people die in the sea surrounding Europe in the attempt to come here by
> illegal way. The most impressive examples of the European governmental
> policies are the cases of Semira Adamu and Apo =F7calan. Semira escape in
> Europe from a marriage arranged by his family against Semira=EDs wish. She
try
> to take his own life in his hands and to build a better future in Europe.

> Two Belgian policemen killed Semira at the Bruxelles Airport when they try

> to expulse Semira using forces. The Curdish freedom fighter Apo =F7calan
came
> in Europe asking for refugee status, he was ready to go in front of a
German
> court in order to answer to accusations of terrorism. Apo was not accepted

> as refugee and he was not accepted as a prisoner. Apo =F7calan now wait in=
 a

> Turkish military jail for execution.
>
> European Union will make decisions about these issues in Tampere, Finland
-
> in a country, which has been an example for all about how distressed
people
> are not helped; a country, where the percentage of non-aboriginal
population
> is smallest inside European Union; a country, which has stayed outside
mass
> movements of undocumented immigrants.
>
> To bring up these facts we have decided to convene the whole European
> movement to Tampere from 15th to 17th of October to demand free movement
in
> and to Europe for all; to demand, that the wealth produced by us is used
to
> support people's opportunity to move freely and the right to participate
in
> the wealth, which is all the time being reduced also from us for the
benefit
> of enlargening capitals.
>
> We ask all the people and organizations interested to contact us in order
to
> create a serious counter-summit on the streets, squares and refugee
centers
> in Tampere.
>
> No to internation camps, no to deportations, no to barriers! For free
> movement of people, for international solidarity and everyone's attendance

> to social wealth!
>
> Citizens' committee for free and solidary Europe
>
> 3) Discussion about program in Tampere
>
> Program:
>
> Here is a short summary of first draft of the program:
>
> 15.10 Bus transportation to Tampere and arrival at the school. Workshops.
> 16.10 Press Conference, Demo-info and Demo at 15.00. In the evening a
> concert will be organized.
> 17.10 Public meeting and departure from Tampere.
>
> We will propably plan the program a way that foreigners are expected to
come
> with a boat from Sweden which is at Turku in morning of friday 15th, and
> leave with a boat which leaves Turku harbour 9 pm in sunday night.
> Transportation from Turku to Tampere will take 2 hours.
>  We have planned that most of the indoor program happens in working
groups
> with different themes, because in large meetings with hundreds of people
it
> is very hard to create anything useful.
>  In friday afternoon the program will start with short common welcoming
> program with greetings from participating and endorsing organisations,
and
> working groups may already begin. It might be there is concert in both
> friday and saturday.
>  Saturday morning there is again some space for working groups, demo will
> start at 15.00 and take several hours. Demo is planned to be energetic
and
> confrontational, but non-violent, discussion is going on will there be
some
> responsibles for preserving the order. In saturday evening we have
planned
> to reserve time for meetings of various international networks
participating
> events.
>  In sunday there will still be some time for working groups, and a couple
of
> hours for common program to present shortly results of the working groups
> and so on. If organisers have time to write a resolution beforehand, it
will
> be approved or not. One idea is to publish a short pamphlet about
results,
> discussion and demands afterwards, althought it might be there is not
demand
> for that outside Finland.
>   Some propositions of working groups are:
>  -Struggle for immigrants
>  -Anti-fascism and anti-racism
>  -Europol and police repression
>  -Movement of unemployed
>  -Enviromental struggles (may be dozens of groups)
>  -Work against EU military politics
>
> !!!We wish to have motivated speakers to organise working groups, please
> inform if you
> !!!-are willing to organise a working group about some subject you find
> important
> !!!-want to have a working group about some specific subject.
>
>
> We would like to have information is working groups what foreigners
expect,
> or should there be seminars or something like that.
>
> There will be partly overlapping program by more moderate organisations,
> some kind of international meeting of refugee organisations, and also
> conference for "citizen society" by pro-EU organisations. We try to keep
> people updated about program of these meetings as well. There will be a
> EU-critical seminar in Tampere about immigrancy and control topics in
> wednesday 13th, we will also keep people updated about it's contents.
>
> Costs in Tampere will be humane, accomodation in schools maybe 3-4
> euros/night, and food at most 8 euros/day. Hostel prices will be
announced
> later.
>
> 4) Shortly about groups organising events in Tampere
>
> I present this groups only shortly, I rather let them present themselves
in
> Openeurope-list.
>
> For Finnish organisations, there will be two statuses, "organiser" and
> "endorser". Registered political parties will not be given any of these
> statuses. We have not yet very actively collected organisations for any
of
> these statuses, because our policy defining process has not yet been
finished.
>
> 1) Autonome Offensive 1999, brand new autonomist group, Finnish branch of
> European Counter Network. Autonome Offensive 1999 is responsable to keep
> European autonomist network updated. E-mail  finlandia@xxxxxxx, web-pages
> www.ecn.org/finlandia
> and www.ecn.org/finlandia/autoff99
>
> 2) Finnish Anarchist Federation SAL, 12 years old nationwide network
without
> specific structure, nowadays only works throught projects. E-mail
> sal.hki@xxxxxx, http://www.dlc.fi/~ravelre/sal.htm.
>
> 3) Socialist league, nationwide revolutionary socialist organisation, not
> member of any international but has friendly relations with some.
Socialist
> league is responsable to keep revolutionary socialists around the Europe
> updated. E-mail sl.org@xxxxxxxxxxxxx, http://www.dlc.fi/~sosliitto/
>
> 4) Solidaarisuus, Industrial Workers of the World-associate revolutionary
> unionist organisation, responsable to keep revolutinary unionist,
> anarcho-syndicalist and anarchist networks around Europe updated. E-mail
> solidaarisuus@xxxxxxx, http://www.dlc.fi/~ravelre/solid/
>
> These 4 groups are practically the living radicalism in Finland. Also
other
> groups will be invited to form own part of the demo, such as communist
> parties of Iraq and Iran, and ERNK in Finland.
>
> One problem is that in Finland there is not sans-papiers movement, and we
> have not any regular contacts to immigrant organisations. Thus it is not
> clear how much we manage to activate other immigrants than Kurds, I
really
> hope we do. Althought currently all the organisers are clearly radical
and
> revolutionary, we are trying to get moderate organisations involved as
well
> a way or another, some may be afraid to be co-organisators of the demo,
but
> we will try to have other ways for them to participate.
>
> About foreign groups and networks we have been in contact this far,
> autonomes have already announced that they will send delegations from
Italy,
> France, Germany and Belgium. Euromarch-organisers have been more
interested
> about Helsinki, but no promises this far.
>
> Some not yet mentioned networks we want to invite:
>
> -Sans papiers-network
> -anarchist networks of IWA and IAF
> -J 18 - organisers around Europe
> -PGA (has PGA discussed yet about Tampere?)
> -"No one is illegal"-organisers from Germany and Poland
>
> And many many more, I hope to have contacts of groups which are not in
> Openeurope-list, expecially faxes of networks not connected to internet
at
> all, these contacts are most difficult to have from Finland. I have
> understand that for example a big share of French movements can only be
> reached by fax.
>
> Here are e-mail adresses of organisers together once again:
> finlandia@xxxxxxx, sal.hki@xxxxxx, sl.org@xxxxxxxxxxxxx,
solidaarisuus@xxxxxxxx
>
> And www-page was http://come.to/tampere, if you want to have your page
> linked, let us know.
>
> You can join openeurope-list by sending message
>
> subscribe openeurope
>
> to
>
> lists@xxxxxx, without subject.
>
> There is also a closed version of the list, which will be used if the
fact
> anyone has acces to open list causes trouble. You may join closed list by
> sending a presentation to antti.rautiainen@xxxxxxxxxxx, presentations
will
> be delivered to all list members.
>
> This update was written by Antti Rautiainen, and all the views do not
> necessary coincide with the ones of other organisers.
> Antti Rautiainen - antti.rautiainen@xxxxxxxxxxx
>
> Being a straight is less dangerous
> than being a gay, because it is
> easier to find a cure from it.
>
>





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