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international bordercamp strasbourg

D.sec Opening Event

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16.Jul.02 - The camp theme for Monday 22nd will be free communication. As a dsec opening event, we are planning a camp-wide brainstorming show about free movement and free communication. It will be an open panel discussion, but the panel will be scattered in the audience, not talking from "above" but from "within". DJ Castor will combine visuals into a show, so if you have websites or other material, let us know... We‚d like to ask some of the projects involved in the camp or loosely linked to dsec to contribute to this platform by preparing some input, a very short statement, just 5 minutes or so.

For the dsec brainstorm, we are asking you to think about what "free movement" and "free communication" means for you or your project.

• In which way is your project or your everyday experience related to free movement, free communication or both?
• How do you, in your experience, see the restrictions of one or both operating?
• What tactics are you using to ensure your right to both?
• Dsec is based on the idea that bordercrossing as in migration is related to the pushing of the digital frontiers that the struggles for free movement and free communication are linked and could interact more. What do you think about that? True/false/rubbish/possible....

The starting point for dsec was the feeling that the struggles for free movement and free communication against a background of increasing state control are linked. The restriction of both is experienced by different people in different ways. Dsec wants to explore these different experiences and put them into interaction.
For activists with EU passports, for example, it is relatively easy to move across borders unless they are registered in the Schengen Information System for participation in previous actions, wear activist gear or have the wrong colour. For activists who are also immigrants, like the people from the VOICE in Jena, and for migrants in general, borders have an entirely different meaning. The border regimes are getting increasingly sophisticated, involving legal policies, redefinitions of rights and wrongs, a tight and flexible system of control. At the same time, subversion of these regimes is ongoing they can‚t completely stop people to exercise the human right to free movement. Similarly, surfing on the internet, participating in email lists and running websites involves travelling through territories, defined by internet service providers, servers, and various levels of police or corporate monitoring. This border regime in virtual space becomes obvious when the police starts closing down websites like for example the Mayday website in the UK this year. The states are working hard to establish control mechanisms in virtual space. Most European states are introducing surveillance laws, forcing ISPs to disclose information about their customers to a wide range of state institutions. But they‚re having a hard time to enclose the fluid space of the web geeky web-activists are finding ever new ways to defend their right of free communication. Migrants and supporters, anti-racists, artists, geeks etc will be present at Strasbourg. The collaborative brainstorm is meant to be a starting point for an ongoing debate during the camp and beyond.