Syndicate: 29 JANUARY DEMONSTRATION IN MILAN - LET?S CLOSE VIA CORELLI]

[florian schneider <fls@ibu.de>]

Hello,

In view of the January 29 national demos in Italy, we ask to all people
willing to help to send this message together with the Italian flyer
calling the demos to the Italian embassies/ consulates in your city or
country.

Please inform us about your supporting initiatives, so to report them in
Italy.

Here's the message:

--------------------------------------

STOP NOW THE MURDEROUS POLICY TOWARD MIGRANTS!

Sirs,

We have learnt from direct sources in Italy the Christmas results of the
migration policy adopted by the Italian government in full agreement
with
the others EU countries enforcing the Schengen Agreement..

9 documented deads from December 25 to January 7 (list attached),
rumours
about a ship with more than 50 migrants on board disappeared in the
night
between Dec. 30 and 31, the recent, strange death of mr. Baffa, the
lawier
defending the relatives of the Albanian victims of the ship "Kater I
Rades"
-- sunk in other uncleared circumstances by the Italian Army ship
"Sibilla"
on March 27, 1997 (86 casualties): concidences? We don't think so. The
implementation of the current Italian policy on migration recalls more
and
more those "final solutions" so frequently adopted in history, with
their
long lists of deads and misteries.

We consider all this as the result of a blindly repressive migration
policy
not aimed to integration or even tolerance for those who must be
considered "Economical Refugees", but aimed to exclusion, fear, and
ultimately violence against men, women and children whose only crime is
to
be born outside the precinct of rich countries.

On top of this, there's the stated intention by the Italian Government
to
open up a huge prison camp for foreigners directly in Albania, thus
moving
a set of already undemocratic practices to a country where democratic
day-to-day control -- already very difficult -- will be almost
impossible.

As human beings, we feel deeply outraged by all this.

In expressing our support to the national demonstrations which will take
place on January 29, Saturday, in Milan and Florence, we ask to Your
Government a full review of the migration policy adopted to-date, the
closure of all prison camps for migrants currently opened in Italy, the
respect of the rights of free information for the public and of legal
assistance for the emprisoned migrants, the issue of reliable data about
the migration phenomena, i.e. the number of "hosts" currently emprisoned
in
the Italian camps, the number of deportations, etc, and the admittance
by
law of alternative monitoring organizations in the prison camps until
their
definitive closure.

You get no greetings from us -- just the list of 9 deads by your policy
and
the text calling the Italian demonstrations on January 29.

List of deads from December 25 to January 7:

Dec. 25: Rome: Mohamed Ben Sahid, Tunesian, 39, married with an Italian
woman, dead in the prison camp "Ponte Galeria" for lack of medical
treatment after being illegally kept there for 14 days "to check his
position".

Dec. 26: Taranto: Tanzanian migrant (name unknown) frozen to death while
swimming from the Cyprus ship "Poseidonia" to shore.

Dec. 29 - Trapani: 3 deads (names unknown) after fire in the prison camp
"Vulpitta". The doors where locked from outside "to prevent possible
escape". The camp doesn't have running water for its 85 "hosts".

January 1 - Sicily: dead of another migrant (name unknown) wounded in
the
fire of Dec. 29 in the prison camp "Vulpitta".

Juanuary 2: dead of a young Chinese migrant (name unknown) by the
Italian
shore of the Straits of Otranto.

January 5: dead of a young Kurdish migrant (name: Vedat Yuksel) by the
Italian shore of the Straits of Otranto.

January 7: Sicily: dead of another migrant (name unknown) wounded in the
fire of Dec. 29 in the prison camp "Vulpitta".

-------------------------------------------------------------

January 1999, ten Milanese die in ten days:
immigrants (falsely) accused

December 1999, five migrants die in three days:
our detention camps for migrants without documents are (truly) guilty

29 JANUARY 2000,  LET?S TAKE ACTION AGAINST THE ITALIAN DETENTION CAMPS.
CLOSE VIA CORELLI IN MILAN.

The detention camps for migrants without documents are taking their toll
of
victims in our country.

In the Europe of Schengen Italy, for years the home of ?sans papiers?
from
all over the world, is changing its role to that of an armed sentinel on
the
southern border of the ?civilised world?.
Now those without papers do not leave our country, they try to reach it,
drowning because of the ships that hunt them down, dying at work,
exploited
by small-time bosses, dying in our prison camps, that intern and then
deport
them.

The list grows longer:  Jerry Masslo, the victims of Kater I Rades,
Semira
Adamu, Ben Said - these are only a few of the better-known names, the
murders we know about, the tip of the iceberg of concealment and
indifference.

The possible alternatives to all this start with point-blank refusal of
the
propaganda regarding the endless emergencies (from the ?clandestines? to
public security, to drugs old and new, to gangs, to political dissent) 
and
proceed with battles for universal guarantees: freedom of movement, a
minimum citizen?s income, dignified and safe living and working
conditions;
with anti-prohibition, damage-limiting,  multiracial and anti-racist
practices;  valuing those experiences of self-organisation that conduct
these battles and practices and carry out just disobedience.

But for months, on entering the prison camps for ?sans papiers?, we have
met
women and men awaiting expulsion orders, caged up like animals in a zoo,
people who have lost all rights to assistance, respect and dignity,
abandoned in a twilight-land of isolation, desperation, sickness and
fear.

And the machinery grinds on, despite criticism, protests, indignation.
In Luxemburg they suspend the terms of the Schengen treaty for
?emergency
traffic?, in Germany they arrest and search the companions who were with
us
in Albania, because they defended taxi-drivers accused of not checking
the
documents of passengers who were ?clearly foreign?, and in Italy they
now
even plan to export camps of 25,000 people over the border to Albania.

Our reply to this routine indifference is a national day of action on 29
January, with the meetings that the movement for the closure of the
camps
has established, each meeting  independent and with its own route, but
sharing the main objective - to close the camps - on the same day that
it
will again be necessary to express firm opposition to neoliberism
against
the meeting at Davos of the World Economic Forum: in Italy as at Davos,
in
Italy as at Seattle.

A day that must give answers:  in Milan with a demonstration against a
prison camp that has already been open for a year, in Florence against
new
camps that are supposed to be opening, and in all the towns that decide
to
take part in this national day of action, joining the initiatives
already
planned and promoting new initiatives.

On this day our opposition will break the routine of verbal criticism
and
dissent that never becomes civil disobedience, as we oppose bodily
resistance to this unacceptable  imprisonment.

To free the prisoners in Milan who are risking their lives in a prison
camp.

To free the women and men in the Via Corelli centre and close the prison
camp in our city.

29 JANUARY - LET?S CLOSE VIA CORELLI
DEMONSTRATION IN MILAN


support to yabasta@tin.it
Tel.++3926705185
fax..++3926705621
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