News from the camp

If you have articles and stories in english and photos, please send them at: noborders.bulgaria@gmail.com

No Border Camp 2011 - first demos at the border crossings with Greece and TurkeyFriday, 2 September

see: http://bulgaria.indymedia.org/article/38025

Memorial space in Greece created – giving back names and dignity to the lost migrants

see: http://bulgaria.indymedia.org/article/38024

NoBorder camp Bulgaria 2011 – expectations and arrival

 see: http://bulgaria.indymedia.org/article/38023

29.8.2011: Demonstration in front of the detention center in city of Liubimetz

Nearly 300 people from around the world outside at showed solidarity with inmates at a demonstration in front of the detention center in city of Liubimetz, in south-eastern Bulgaria. The activists from the No Border Camp met around noon in city of Luibimetz to shape a demonstration. It was held in the area of the Detention Center in Lubimetz. It served as the climax of this year's four-day The No Border camp, near by city of Svilengrad, next to the turkish frontier.
 
The Detention Center was opened in march 2011 and it's designed to detained there around 300 inmates. Since then, 180 people have been arrested and detained there. Curentlly, there are 33 Sans Papiers inside. Many of whom were brought there despite the fact that they had applied for political asylum. The main rascus against them being their illegal entry and the erasure of their citizenship as like the dissolution of the Sowiet Union. Nevermind the Europian Convention of Human rights, migrants were improsened without court decision. Expirience from Detention Center in Sofia suggests that this may be the case for more than one year.
 
Amongst the detainees are citizens from the former USSR and states who lost thei legal status due the Bulgaria joining the EU. In this case, it was not people who moved, but borders.
 
The Camp is a gathering of anarchists, whose central demand is the freedom of movement for everybody. They want to draw attention to the militarization of borders and the ill-treatment and criminalization of migrants. No Border activists think that not being granted equal rights crossing borders is an infigurment on the freedom for everybody to choose where they want to live.
 
Shouting slogans demanding liberty, the protesters walked to an area of Detention Center. Many residents from the roma community joined the protest. The partisipants menaged and establish contact with the inmates, which inabled then to pass on a telephone number that will allow people from the inside to obtain free legal help. Also an action band played music and leaflets were distributed to curious bystanders.
The Police presence was strong, riots cops, special truck for mass demos, despite the peaceful character of the demonstration.
After three hours of powerfull chants and shouts, the activicts and inmates said good buy until next next meeting.

Photos: http://bulgaria.indymedia.org/article/38020

 

28.8.2011, the No-Border-Cats crossdressed the Monument in Svilengrad

“This is an action against Frontex” explains No-Border-Cat Matse.
Frontex is the EU-border-agency, which was founded to tackle the so-called illegal migration on the external borders of Europe.
The Frontex-officers already arrived in Bulgaria. They are training the Bulgarian border-police to build up Fortress Europe. The militarization of the Turkish-Bulgarian border is one of the preconditions for Bulgaria to join the Schengen-zone.
Frontex is also operating with RABITs [Rapid Border Intervention Teams], for example at the Turkish-Greek border. They are hunting refugees.
 
The No Border-Cat Felicitas claims “Rabbits instead of RABITs!”
Freedom of Movement - No Border

Photos: http://bulgaria.indymedia.org/article/38015

"No Border Camp" 2011 - first demos at the border crossings with Greece and Turkey

Some 300 international activists staged various actions on 28 August in protest against the militarisation of the EU's borders and the oppressive behind-the-scenes work of FRONTEX. 

medium_sitin.jpg  medium_fotresseurope.jpg medium_tshirt.jpg medium_copbillboard.jpg

The No Border Camp continues (see the programme for more details on planned events)

 
More pictures available here: http://bulgaria.indymedia.org/article/38012
 
Activists protested in the border area shared by Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey and distributed 'global passports' as part of a long weekend of action. A group of about 300 activists from around the world gathered under the banner of No Borders to demonstrate for freedom of movement, against deportations and racism. They set up a camp near the border-town of Svilengrad from 25 to 29 August from which to launch actions, hold workshops and interact with the local population on migration issues.

The demonstrations, which targeted one of the European Union's southernmost borders, aimed at drawing attention to the human rights abuses against migrants and their ongoing criminalisation.

Friday 26 August Svilengrad was the stage for the first protest with music and chants supporting freedom of movement and decrying the brutality of the European border regime enforced primarily by coordinating EU border control agency FRONTEX. It culminated in the symbolic placing of worn shoes at the entrance of the Bulgarian border police station in recognition of the migrants who have died on their way to the European Union.

The next day demonstrators focused their attention on the borders themselves. Symbolic global passports were distributed in Svilengrad and rejected at the border. Other actions ranged from street theatre presenting border police brutality and a collective die-in to a minute of silence thinking of all those facing struggles because of the European borders and racist politics.

“Racism is everywhere, it is a mainstream problem and it even affects our camp, as there are only few People of Color who were able to come here” said one Woman of Color attending the camp.

The demonstrations, which were all non-violent, were met by a strong police presence, which made the situation edgy at times though no arrests were made and everyone got back to the camp peacefully.

“Segregation politics are also present in the country I live in, where people are being deported or have to live in isolated refugee camps. Racism is enshrined in national laws, for example in dramatically limiting freedom of movement for refugees”, said activist Nora Bird.

Actions continue until Monday when the activists plan to demonstrate in front of the migrant detention centre in nearby Lyubimec to show solidarity with those locked up in these 'prisons'. Humanitarian organisations are continually condemning conditions at these establishments where people can be detained for months before a possible deportation, leading to suicides and hunger strikes across Europe.

In order to join the Schengen area in 2012 Bulgaria had to meet certain conditions like strenghtening the border and building detention centers. FRONTEX has extended it's activities in Greece and Bulgaria along this southeastern EU frontier.

 

A personal story: Let's Build the Spaceship Peace

Spaceship Earth

We all were born on this spaceship called planet Earth, and this spaceship doesn't know any borders. To understand this, step back and try to watch this spaceship from the outside. You will see that rivers don't know any borders as well as the birds flying in the air. The sun is shining every day on the whole earth, not only on a special country, and all inhabitants of this spaceship share similar experiences, feelings and emotions. We all breathe the same air, and the flow of energy is universal, ignoring all borders. But there are other things which don't know any borders: the pollution of the environment, climate change/global warming with all its consequences, the spread of diseases and epidemics, famines, homelessness, natural disasters like hurricanes or earthquakes and other evil things still existing on our spaceship. People displaced and dispossessed by war or environmental disasters don't know any borders.

Borders

In a physical sense borders simply do not exist, only in the imagination of often corrupt politicians or other so-called leaders who want to stay in power, and in the imagination of those human beings who follow these "leaders" without questioning their actions (or non actions). We live in an age of competition, and borders are symbols of power, to keep the "others" out, people with other religions or cultural backgrounds, people who speak other languages, people with different behaviour..., and they are symbols of fear as a weapon to control the "others". As long as these borders exist in our imagination, creativity and the power to act are limited, and the danger of conflicts is considerably higher. Such borders lead to intolerance, suppression, hatred, slavery, exploitation and, in the worst case, to the destructive power of war. Authority creates chaos. It is our duty to overcome these destructive powers to guarantee our survival on this spaceship Earth. We must realize that only one human race exists on our planet, that we are all one people. We don't belong to any country, we are free citizens of this spaceship Earth.

"In the very end, civilizations perish because they listen to their politicians and not to their poets." Jonas Mekas

Spaceship Peace

To survive on our spaceship we must activate constructive powers. That is only possible when we change our attitudes and replace competition with cooperation, when we overcome our differences and respect each other, and first of all, of course, our Mother Earth and all these wonderful things this mother has created in billions of years. We have dreams and visions. The forgotten wisdom of our ancestors must be only reactivated. We have an advanced information technology at our disposal to share our ideas and experiences. These facts, combined with education and tolerance, give us the power to improve our knowledge and evolve our consciousness, the possibility to look to a better future without any borders and destruction, to ensure the survival of the human race and the whole planet in all its diversity. We are one global family. Don't be afraid to be confronted with different cultures, views and opinions. Let's act to build the Spaceship Peace now! Let's share this dream and let it become reality before it might be too late, otherwise we could end up in a high-tech stone age. We can't wait any longer for ignorant politicians and all the other "leaders" who always only react. The time for change has come, we need order without authority.

"A dream you dream alone is only a dream, a dream you dream together is reality." John Lennon

http://nextstopjupiter.hubpages.com/hub/Spaceship-Peace