On the 3rd October 2013, a few miles from the island of Lampedusa,
368 women, men and children lost their lives in their attempt to reach
Europe.
A few days later and in the same waters, the sea swallowed hundreds of people coming from Syria.
These are just some of the thousands of victims of Europe’s frontiers: about twenty thousand in the last twenty-five years.
However, despite the crisis, the European Union has not stopped
investing billions of euros in the militarization of its borders: in
Lampedusa as in Melilla, through the Evros wall or the Frontex patrols,
to the heart of the Lybian desert, where the Union has outsourced its
control mechanisms.
Yet the frontiers of Europe do not produce only death
The borders – and the laws asserting them – have devastating effects on
the lives of those who cross them as well as on the lives of all of us.
They generate hierarchies between holders of a European passport and
non-European citizens; they affect the mobility of EU citizens; they
distinguish between “economic migrants” and “refugees”, they separate
the “old” poor and the “new”; they give rise to exploitation and
blackmail; they deplete everyone’s rights through the activation of
control mechanisms against anyone who tries to reach Europe; they are
intertwined with austerity policies and thus reveal the causes of what
has now become a chronic and structural global injustice
All this is happening in the light of a radical depletion of democratic institutions, of a continuous prevaricating use of the law, of a constant betrayal of universality and inalienability, principles on which rights are supposed to be founded.
This is why we want to rewrite the geography of Europe and, with it, the map of our rights.
From 31st January to 2nd February 2014 we will meet on the island to write the CHARTER OF LAMPEDUSA: to contrast this state of affairs by counter-posing another right, one that is written from below. A right to life that prioritizes human beings, their dignity, desires and hopes; a right that nowadays no institution is able to guarantee; a right to be defended, reclaimed and achieved; a right of everyone and for everyone.
A right which stems from the demands of the refugees camped out in squares and streets; from the voices of women and men asking for freedom of movement or freedom to stay where they have chosen to live; from the actions against deportations and push-backs; from the occupations of empty houses while millions of people do not have a shelter; from the struggles for an income, for the dignity of working conditions and against the slavery of gangmasters; from solidarity initiatives and the practices of mutual aid and cooperation; from the forcing of existing juridical mechanisms; from the countering of discrimination and racism. A right arising from the struggles against confinement and detention centres, to give shape and body to new, more extensive and plural rights to citizenship, erasing any of the excluding requirements that in recent decades have characterised this institution.
Dozens of European and North African movements and associations, networks and organisations, are working together to meet in Lampedusa and from there to start rewriting the history of the Mediterranean space and beyond, starting by subverting the image of Lampedusa, a frontier-island-cum-spectacle.
Let’s write the CHARTER OF LAMPEDUSA together.
A constituent pact between many and diverse groups, a collective
process, a common space that everyone will be responsible for
preserving, each with their own practices and modalities, an opportunity
to start understanding together how to construct a geography of change,
in order to overcome the borders imposed by Europe and to turn this
manifesto into reality.
Proposed agenda and working tools
Friday 31st January – Sunday 2nd February 2014
Meeting with the mayor and inhabitants of Lampedusa.
To get to know the circumstances of the island, the demands of its
inhabitants, the life of a place doomed by European policies to live a
frontier life.
Discussion and drafting of the Charter of Lampedusa.
Starting from the work begun on the DocuWiki lacartadilampedusa.org (to have access to the writing area write to [email protected] and ask for a password)
We write our collective manifesto, a new right that stems from below to
reverse the languages and the institutions imposed by border policies.
Plenary
So that the Lampedusa Charter might turn into reality. A discussion on
agendas and common actions, for networking and sharing campaigns,
deadlines and initiatives.
To publicize the event
Charter of Lampedusa on Facebook
The hashtag on Twitter will be #cartadilampedusa
Flights
We are working to create group flights to reach the island (soon updated info on departure cities and modalities).
Accommodation
A list of apartments and rooms to rent will be provided soon.
More information Progetto Melting Pot Europa