Migrants’ demo in Bologna, 1st of March 2014

Next March 1st we will return to the streets. We do this after the political tragedy of  October 3rd 2013, when the death of hundreds of men, women and children in the sea of ​​Lampedusa highlighted the ruthlessness of the European border regime. We do this after the so-called “refugee emergency” which showed that every ‘emergency’ regime  is used to coerce a ‘normal’ subordination and silence from those who are seeking a better life. We do this knowing that migrants should not be seen only as victims who die at sea or who require assistance, but as a part of our society that is able to fight in solidarity, taking possession of their own lives, reinventing democracy. In Europe, in Italy and in particular in Bologna migrants have struggled with determination: anti-racism for us means struggling side by side with them to demand and affirm the opportunity to live, study, work and move freely, in Europe and in the rest of the world.

This struggle is now all the more urgent, as austerity continues to intensify precarity and institutional racism. The economic crisis and its political management at the European and national level have led to the impoverishment of labour, loss of income and housing difficulties for everyone. For migrants the crisis has increased the possibility of losing their residency permit, of being locked up in refugee camps, of losing contributions paid in years of work, of fatally colliding with the border regime. The recent Swiss referendum and the growing inter-European racism are the effects of these policies and the institutional racism that sustains them. These mechanisms of discrimination and exploitation are devices that do not only affect migrants, but involve ever larger segments of society and aim to further restrict access to income and rights.

On March 1st 2010, in Bologna and many other cities in Italy, hundreds of workers, women and men, migrants and Italians, went on strike against the Bossi-Fini law on immigration. They did this despite opposition from those who argued that the migrant strike was an ‘ ethnic strike “, the same forces that today continue to side with the bosses. This struggle has continued: the battle of the workers of Granarolo continues, with strikes in the logistics warehouses against the exploitative system of cooperatives, migrants have shown that the blackmail of the residency permit and salary and the complicity of the institutions with the system that exploits them are not enough to stop them. From jobs to the squares migrants have said no to the precarization of existence fueled by institutional racism: they have refused discrimination in access to health, are opposed to scholastic exclusion and separate classes, have demanded their right to asylum. From the workplaces to the streets March 1 migrants will loudly re-state that no migrant detention centre (CIE)  must reopened in Emilia Romagna and that all detention centers – starting from Ponte Galeria – must be closed forever.

Stubbornly , in recent years, migrants and Italians, and precarious and factory workers have struggled, sending a clear message to all: raising your head against exploitation, precarity and institutional racism is possible and necessary! On March 1st all the politically active realities of Bologna and province are invited to pick up this message: to reinvent solidarity, for the right to a dignified life for all, to be on the side of the migrants without ambiguity, giving space and visibility to their struggles and their demands.

 March 1st 2014 – 3 PM , Piazza dell’Unità – Bologna

 ° for the breaking of the link between employment contract and residency permit

° for the definitive closure of all centres for the identification and expulsion of migrants

° for citizenship for all the sons and daughters of immigrants born and raised in Italy

° for a law that truly protects the rights of asylum applicants and refugees

° for universal access to health care and education

 AGAINST INSTITUTIONAL RACISM, EXPLOITATION AND PRECARITY, LETS STAND TOGETHER!