This site will look much better in a browser that supports web standards, but it is accessible to any browser or Internet device.

international bordercamp strasbourg

Let's talk about Europe

this item is available in: [en] [de] [fr]

17.May.02 - A Europe that has been abandoned and is now squatted like an empty house. Whose doors will be broken open, in order to fill those run-down rooms with life again:
a new vitality, that has certainly nothing to do with what was formerly known as Europe. Now and then we still don't believe a single word this Europe is saying, even though it tries to make some substitutions: humanitarian missions for humanism, just wars instead of colonialism and security instead of proxy battles.

When we talk about Europe today, then certainly not because we believe in Europe. But rather because we bet on the irony of history:
In the age of a new global souvereignty the questions of dependence and independence have gained a new meaning all over the world. Positive as well as negative fixation on the nation state has lost all of its perspectives.

When we talk about europe today, then because we plan to give Europe, this rather dilapidated building, finally a meaningful use. Because we see the chance to make another world possible in the midst of this Europe.
We talk about a Europe, that will be struggled for and won against the powers of the old Europe, the Europe of the nation states, the old Europe of colonialism, imperialism and fascism. One that will be won against the powers of the existing Europe with its rightwinged and postfascistic governments, with its progressive fantasies of the great power and its unbroken and unquestioned humanitarian hypocrisy.

We talk about a Europe, that has to be struggled for even more against the new power of an imperial command, that establishes the emergency state as a standard and planates the privlileges of a liberal society as well as the hard-won zones of alleviated capitalistic exploitation.

In the end, we talk about a Europe, where we struggle less against the existing but instead for a future. We talk about a virtual Europe. A Europe that exists of and within many different Europes. We talk about Europes, which continue the struggles for liberation by generations of other people.
A Europe that could already be anticipated in the past struggles of minorities, that is about to rise from the struggles of the unemployed and undocumented and that is going to grow in the struggles of a new union and enviornmental movement. A Europe, that is already existing, in whose mid we are living, but whose potency we cannot grasp yet.

The people, whom the hopes of a bare survival will soon be robbed with the same certainity as the right of self - determination, cannot be kept out of Europe. They set off - if not voluntary, then with a good reason, with a strong or last will, in order to gain a better life.

Let us now talk about an open Europe. A Europe that no longer tries to batten down the hatches and secure itself. A Europe that will be captured from the rest of the world. One that consists of everybody who is here or wants to be here. A Europe without borders. A Europe, in which the interior and the outside are so closely related that it turns out to be inseparably connected with the world.

Let us talk about a small Europe. A Europe without territory nor identity. A Europe that belongs to all and where everybody belongs to, who wants to - and may this be while passing by. A temporary Europe, whose only and actual sense is to build bridges, to found relations, to connect and to bind.

Let us talk about a democratic Europe. A Europe, that does not hold majorities and therefore no minorities. A Europe, that does not part nor expand but multiplies ongoing. A Europe where material as well as immaterial rights belong to all human beings, no matter in which injustice they where coincidentaly born into. A Europe that grants the freedom of movement, the freedom of information and the right of a decent living as well as the chance of a happy life to all people.

Let us talk about a productive Europe. A Europe that does not divide people in usefull and useless. A Europe, in which everyone is an expert. A Europe that does not lock away knowledge as intellectual property but release it for universal use. A creative Europe, in which the people own the means of production, that they need in order to solve at least the most urgent problems of this world. A Europe whose diversity, multiplicity and wealth are not produced on the expanse of the remaining world, but contributes it to a globalization that deserves this name.

Let's talk about Strasbourg. Let's talk about the European NoBorderCamp from 19. - 28. July 2002 in Strasbourg. Let's lose some words on the road to undermine that Europe, which calls itself Schengen and is spelled mysteriously S I S. Let' s do it to dodge and cross the conventional borders of Europe. Let's mention the passion and the acts of insurrection by buddy Blanqui. Let's win friends and comrades at a festival of delight. Let's produce the fantastic desires of a possible world in the lab of the civil and social disobedience. Let's organize the subversion of Europe.

They buy your bliss, let's steal it.

temporary association everyone is an expert