International press release: Time to act is now! / Activists from many countries will protest against ECB in Frankfurt

Just few days left to the inauguration of the new building of the ECB. Great participation is expected from all over Europe: social movements, activists, migrants, precarious and industry workers, trade-unions and parties will come to Frankfurt to say no to austerity and contest the authority of ECB and the other EU institutions.

A new phase of European politics is opening up, a phase of uncertainty and confusion brought about by the Greek government which is challenging the doctrine of “there is no alternative to austerity”. The Greek example is for us a signal of hope: there is still space in Europe for asserting the importance of solidarity, democracy and commons against competitiveness and neoliberal order.

We will be in Frankfurt, bringing together many networks, workers, trade unions, to say that we are the alternative: we want another Europe, a Europe which is not subservient to the capital, a Europe which does not use monetary policies in order to establish precarity and to cut social rights, welfare benefits and democracy.

This is not the Europe we want. We don’t want to go back to national sovereignty, nor to claim an empty democracy which imposes hierarchies – exploiting differences of wages, welfare rights, citizenship – throughout Europe and across its borders. The time of crisis regime, the time of the normalization of austerity measures is over. We are not interested in another bailout: we want the ECB and the EU institutions to be accountable for their policies! We will ask: what did you do to Greece? What are you doing to Europe? We will not accept whatever technical answer. European institutions and governments are now confronted with a political choice: they can throw down millions of people who already have been dramatically impoverished by the crisis, or they can avoid to do it.

From the beginning of the Blockupy process we said that Europe is our minimum space of political action and initiative. We established a political communication able to reach people from all over Europe. The day has now come and we will show that Europe is not the institutions and the governments who commit to austerity! Europe means for us a solidarity-based society, a European minimum wage, basic income, universal welfare and unconditioned, unlimited residence permit for the migrants and the environmental justice and ecological transition.
Beside hundreds of individual traveling activists, there is also organised bus travel which bring thousands from all across Europe just in time to interrupt the inauguration and the normal working day of the ECB on March 18 – just check our map: https://blockupy.org/en/18m/journey/

Making blockades and actions in the morning and a rally and a demonstration in the afternoon, on the 18th of March we will show what Europe looks like. Join us on 18th of March!

by Blockupy International Coordination