Below are the details from last month's Blockupy coordination meeting in Frankfurt - of interest to anyone who is following the development of anti-austerity movements in Europe.
Minutes of the European Action Conference
- From November 22nd to November 24th 2013 in Frankfurt -
The following decisions were made in two big plenary-discussions on
Saturday evening and Sunday noon. These were not only the results of
three days of intense discussions in the assemblies, dozens of workshops
and four working groups in Frankfurt, but they also take up suggestions
and ideas which were made on previous transnational meetings like the
"strategy meeting" in Amsterdam and the Agora99 in Rome. Each of the
plenary discussion was attended by several hundreds of people from all
over Europe and beyond. By agreeing on these common measures and
actions, the attendees also declared that they themselves are going to
use the following month to implement these decisions and bring the
transnational movement against austerity and capitalism in 2014 to the
streets of Europe in general and Frankfurt in particular.
To substantiate these plans, the assemblies agreed that we will have an
international work meeting to coordinate and plan the European wide
activities on January the 25th and another one for the German
Mobilization ("activist meeting") on January the 26th in Frankfurt.
With this in mind the European Blockupy Action Conference decided:
1.)
The opening of the new ECB-Building in the end of 2014 will be the place
for a transnational action of massive protest and civil mass
disobedience. Regardless of how the weather and what the exact date
might be: We will be there - from all over Europe and beyond. Our common
aim is to prevent the opening ceremony of the ECB and set a strong sign
of resistance against the policy of the Troika. It is our party and we
will make it "a special event". Our action therefore will consist of
several days of protest and resistance, which will include:
· The effective blockade of the opening ceremony of the new ECB
building with the means of mass actions and civil disobedience. That
includes actions in the whole city of Frankfurt to prevent or at least
massively disrupt the arrival of the leaders of the European crisis
regime.
· A camp (or a similar structure for accommodation) with spaces
for assemblies and discussions and to host the preparations for our
protest.
· A big demonstration on one of these days of action.
· An action-day on which we will take actions of civil
disobedience to connect our struggles, confront the Troika-policy and
show the different aspects of the struggles against capitalism and for
the commons.
Question and points which need to be dealt with (among a lot of other things) in the future process are:
· How can we support coming to Frankfurt and joining the protest
by people from all over Europe and beyond? Are there possibilities for
financial support? How can people participate, who won't make it to the
(non-)opening of the ECB in Frankfurt?
· What is the exact wording for our action plan? How do we
coordinate our different actions in Frankfurt in a way that we reach the
goal of effective resistance and creating safe spaces at the same time?
What is our common claim and consensus?
· What is our common perspective after the (non-)opening of the ECB in 2014?
· How do we integrate more people into the Blockupy process?
2.)
We call for an international week of action in May 2014, starting the
15th of May until the last day of the European elections on 25th of May.
There were some objections from activists from Greece that actions
right before the elections might be difficult for them. A transnational
work group has been founded, which is connected through an e-mail list
and will deal with this question and substantiate the plan of the week
of action.
Our common aim is to show that democracy does not happen in the
institutions of the state, but that democracy is created in the fights,
the actions and the assemblies of the people in the streets.
The action week shall consist of the following features:
· We want to have decentralized actions on a local level during
the whole week/time frame - including different struggles for the
commons (i.e. healthcare, housing, migration, care work, education,
labor conditions in the textile industry) as well as different forms of
actions and civil disobedience like assemblies, demonstrations,
occupations and other forms of direct actions.
· There will be one common, central day through which we send a
strong sign by focusing our efforts on several big actions on a regional
or national level. The date of this common, central day of action has
to be decided yet.
· We invite everybody to participate in the coordination and
mobilization for the week of action. Blockupy considers itself as a
driving force in the process towards the action week, but of course not
as the only political actor. The week of action is an open process.
· In this open process we will agree on a common slogan, hash
tags or key words for the week of action which express our common goals -
such as the commons, solidarity, democracy...
A question which has to be answered (among a lot of others) in the future process is:
- What is the exact date for the "centralized action day"? Suggestions
so far were the 17th or 24th of May or just "the day before the
elections". The decision should be dependent on the region's and
movement's ability to mobilize as well as on our efforts to coordinate
the best date for all.
3.)
As we want to form a transnational social movement coalition (or even a
coalition of coalitions), we aim to build a European-wide
Coordination-structure, that will help to realize the plan for a truly
transnational, participatory and transparent mobilization process. It
shall not be the place for top-down decision making or a closed shop,
but a clear and continuous structure, enabling and supporting the
organizing process.
The coordination structure will be formed finally on a meeting on the
25th of January in Frankfurt. It needs to be built up by all networks
and organizations from every country, who want to participate in the
Blockupy 2014 mobilization (meaning the ECB Opening and the action
week).
· Therefore it is necessary, that different groups and networks
etc. from all the participating countries/regions should think about
sending delegates to the Europe-wide structure. In some countries own
regional/national coordination structures will be formed, in order to
integrate more groups in the Europe-wide process.
· Our perspective is to work together even after the
(non-)opening of the ECB in the end of 2014 - how so and if, will be
only decided after Blockupy 2014.
4.)
Finally we took some decisions about a possible platform of content:
· The main focus remains on the fight against the ECB and the Troika policy.
· As Blockupy is on the way to become a transnational process we
will change the wording in our calls, claims and on our websites
accordingly.
· We will focus on the keywords of Commons, Democracy and
Solidarity to frame the perspective of our protest. This list of
keywords is open to additions which may be agreed in the coming
discussions and meetings.
· Moreover we will formulate a clear critique of nationalism,
anti-semitism and racism and all reactionary forms of Euro-skepticism.
We will make clear that nation states, the national governments and the
border regime are equally targets of our struggle as the institutions of
the Troika.
Question and points which need to be dealt with (among a lot of other things) in the future process are:
- Do we want to formulate more concrete demands like a European basic
income, a minimum wage, a reduction of the weekly work time or the -the
expropriation of certain corporations or branches?
We welcome comments, remarks, and additions. Please write to
international@blockupy-frankfurt.org; or subscribe to the international
Blockupy mailing list at international-subscribe@blockupy-frankfurt.info
and get directly involved.
The Blockupy coordination group
