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autonomy
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new actonomy

download the expertenzeitung [in german] as a pdf file

Autonomy

Countless people have failed to cross borders, despaired, lost their lives or had to stay behind in the attempt. Many do manage to reach fortress Europe on their own or with the help of their communities. They are experts in fighting for survival not in new Economy start ups.

"There is only one possibility to halt the world-wide movement of capital and goods that is not merely defensive: the self-determined mobility of the people." This statement by Yann Moulier Boutang from the beginning of the 1990s seems to be more up-to-date these days than ever. To find guidelines for controlled immigration into Germany was the task of a commission of experts which was composed of the lobby of the German parliament. Experts on migration, however, did not get a hearing in this body at all. The aim of this kind of politics is to conceal the fact that the current debate on immigration had been initiated by those who have been fought against for the last three decades: namely legal and illegal immigrants who had taken the right to freedom of movement into their own hands.

Being German is not Enough

But let's start at the beginning: Already a few weeks after the Social Democrats and the Green Party had taken over power in Germany they saw themselves faced with millions of German citizens who acted as "experts" on the issue of citizenship. This was to have tremendous repercussions on the content of the eventual bill on dual citizenship. By signing a petition initiated by the Christian Democrats (CDU) against dual citizenship German citizens made a fundamental reform of the old law impossible. One year later, at the opening of the Cebit 2000, the German chancellor scared the voters by announcing that jobs from then on had less to do with nationality than with qualification. Qualifications that companies in the 21st century have to search for world-wide. Identity politics have been discredited - being German is obviously no longer enough. To make it easier for German citizens to cope with those bad news, the chancellor's spin doctors have brought up the most favourite issues of the German public: namely pensions, progress and productivity. In order not to let nationalist ressentments jeopardize Germany's adjustment to global economic standards those issues had to be presented to the people .... During the so-called Antifa Summer in the year 2000 (the German government presented itself as antifascist) campaigns for Germany being in the pool position in the formula 1 of technological progress, against anti-modern resentments and terrorist neo Nazis were most popular. Already in 1984 Germans were threatened with extinction. But it was only in 2000 that the danger could be warded off: the country needs experts so that our pensions remain stable. The WTO, IMF and the World Bank don't just rule in the "Third World" but also put pressure on established European economies and social security systems to modernize. Deregulating social and tariff standards is on the agenda in Europe, too. Transnational financial markets demand a share of insurance companies of wage labourers and their privatization. New cycles and processes of production demand mobile international employees who are able to cope with the increasing capitalist competition easily. The majority of unionists and union officials, however, have neither recognized nor accepted the internationalization of labour relations yet. Unionists still tend to view German worker's rights as most important instead of referring to migrants as working class heroes of the globalization, as the working poor and immaterial workers. If open orders are not to mean the right to exploitation and competition for everyone a radical critique of the Ford... work ethic is necessary; social productivity and interactivity have to be newly defined on this side and beyond the fluent borders of capitalist exploitational regimes; networked struggles of employees world-wide, communities and movements have to bring about the globalization of rights. The assumption that everything is going to remain the same while the basis of the old order has been eroded or cleared away may be the main reason why nothing much has changed with regard to the social reality in this country.

Globalization of Rights

Countless techniques of differentiation, discrimination, oppression and exploitation sort people of this world into allegedly useful and useless, into shareholders and those who own no property. Consequently is should go without saying that solidarity with migrants is just as important as a critique of institutions of the world economy. The People of Seattle, experts of revolt/uprising, are the forerunners of global fights for political, social and human rights. Not to mention the abolition of conditions that make every human being the foe of another. Globalization of rights and freedom of movement are important issues in the international communication between social struggles. The big question remains: Where and when are the experts of pure survival and experts of protest going to meet, how are experts on information and communication going to get in touch with experts on strikes and revolts, what kind of utopian and everyday alliances might develop from those co-operations?

Summer 2001