On December 13th, the party conference of the SPD Hamburg will take place at Bürgerhaus Wilhelmsburg. There, the governing party of Hamburg wants to adopt its program for the upcoming elections in February 2015. Up for election is a senate who thinks it did everything the right way. We disagree!

A lot of people are living on the streets or under terrible conditions in this city. Refugees who fled from war are excluded from social rights and declared as “illegals”. People have no right to work because they have the wrong papers, while employers profit from their unprotected status. The rents are rising and many people are pushed out of their neighborhoods. 

Our demands are:

- A work permit for everybody who lives in Hamburg! 

- The right of housing in humane living conditions – flats for everybody instead of “Lager”! 

- The right to stay for all people who live in Hamburg – no more deportations!

We are all part of this city – we all have a right to the city. On Saturday and in the upcoming weeks we will raise our voices and put as much pressure on the senate as we can to change this refugee policy. 

Saturday 13.12.2014
11 h meeting point at the tent of the Lampedusa-group (Steindamm 2, near central station)
12 h manifestation in front of Bürgerhaus Wilhelmsburg (Mengestraße 20, S Wilhelmsburg)

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516 days have gone since the first protest-tent of the war refugees from Libya “Lampedusa in Hamburg” was set up on May 22, 2013. Today it is the third tent. ” We are not weak, but the old tent was weak”
The “Lampedusa tent” near the main station is a permanent protest against state abuses of refugee rights. It is the first selforganised meeting point and information center in Hamburg where refugees get useful information to orient themselves – 24 hours day, 7 days a week. In the situation of the racist persecution in the streets the tent is a call for solidarity.

Lampedusa in Hamburg presents: Emancipation Days
Friday 10 to Saturday 11 October

Invitation to a debate on war – migration – democracy. Movements between Africa and Europe. Saturday 11 October 2 – 6 pm. Panel; discussion groups; plenary session at the Ex-HWP, Von-Melle-Park 9 (University)

Since more than 1 ½ year now, more than 300 migrant workers who had to flee from Libya because of NATO-intervention and persecution fight for the recognition of their Italian papers in Hamburg – the right to stay and work. There are elections in this town in February 2015. The Socialdemocratic Party may lose the general majority and need to go into a coalition (e.g. an alliance with the Green party). The Green party and the Left have positioned themselves on the side of Lampedusa in HH. Together with the refugees we should use the election-campaign to bring all those together who do not accept the strategy of ignoration the Senate is perceiving and create an atmosphere which makes this question to an essential:

No new government without a political solution for the people of the group Lampedusa in Hamburg!

This is a realistic aim. It needs the power of all of us – however, within a limited time-window. And: A victory of the group Lampedusa in Hamburg would also give great courage to other refugees. It would not overrule the hegemonic agressive European regime against refugees. But it would show that this regime can be attacked.

Please think for yourself how you can contribute to this fight and participate in the Emancipation Days of Lampedusa in Hamburg:

Friday 10 October

5 PM peacemarch from the tent through the city to the Ex-HWP/university

7 PM food

8 PM theatre: The Lampeduzans

10 PM concert: Pure Fruit Orchestra (Reggae/Dub); Liedermacher Polit Act

Saturday 11 October

12 AM Exhibitons: ‚Lampedusa in HH’; Hanni Jokinen: fotographs from on that third of october’; Joe Sam-Essandoh: ‚Mediterranean Blues 2014’; Marily Stroux: Lampedusa in HH and their professions; trades and crafts live.

2 PM Debate: war – migration – democracy.: Movements between Africa and Europe. Panel; discussion-groups; plenary session.

7 PM Food

9 PM Concert: African live-music and dance from Eritrea and Ethiopia

Participants in the debate are:
Aissatou Cherif Balde (political-scientist, Hamburg, originally from Guinea-Conakry, on the social-economic instead of ethno-religious causes of war and the conduct of the political elites during the transitory processes in Africa)

Dr. Sybille Bauriedl (geographer; researcher at the Academy of Advanced African Studies at the University of Bayreuth/Hamburg on ‚carbon-colonialism’/emissions trading and the connected land-grabbing in Africa)

Dr. Ulrike Borchardt (political-scientist, University of Hamburg, on the connection between war and migration and the opposing perception of migration in African and European societies)

Prof. Norman Paech (international law and peace-politics; on the NATO-intervention in Libya 2011 and its jugdement in the criteria of international law)

Charlotte Wiedemann (journalist, many research-stays in sub-Saharan Africa/Mali, particularly on the position of the population of Mali towards the French intervention and the connection between poverty, migration and Djihadism)

and Members from Lampedusa in HH

Discussions will be organised around questions as:

- Causes and backgrounds of war in Africa, e.g. interests of European governments, companies and (parts of the) populations and counter-movements.

- Connections between war and migration, conditions, consequences and opportunities to act here, too

- Democracy-from-the-bottom-movements against this politics in Africa and here and opportunities for fighting together.

At the plenary session we will bring these discussions together and develop joined demands and steps how to act together, if possible.

This format should give many participants space for questions and discussion. We ask for lively participation, critical comments and great ideas for a further networking between refugees and citizens, transnational refugee struggles and democracy-from-the-bottom-movements in Africa and Europe.

As Thomas Sankara, former revolutionary and president of Burkina Faso, said:

We must dare to invent the future!

The group Lampedusa in Hamburg is still in urgent need of sleeping-places; contact can be made via the info-tent/main-station Steindamm, the Schanzenfest and the Emancipation Days.