💾 Archived View for library.inu.red › file › a-no-borders-manifesto.gmi captured on 2023-01-29 at 07:22:07. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content

-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Title: A No Borders manifesto
Author: Anonymous
Date: 2012
Language: en
Topics: no borders, manifesto, migration
Source: Retrieved on 8 October 2015 from http://noborders.org.uk/news/no-borders-manifesto

Anonymous

A No Borders manifesto

1. Freedom of movement is not a right; it is a real living force.

Despite all the obstacles that states put in people’s way — all the

barriers of barbed wire, money, laws, ID cards, surveillance and so on —

millions cross borders every day. For every migrant stopped or deported,

many more get through and stay, whether legally or clandestinely. Don’t

overestimate the strength of the state and its borders. Don’t

underestimate the strength of everyday resistance.

2. In the 19th century, militants fighting against slavery in the US

created an ‘underground railroad’ that smuggled many thousand runaway

slaves to safety, as well as enabling acts of sabotage and rebellion. In

the 20th century, the term was used again by the anti-Nazi resistance in

Europe. Can No Borders become a 21st century underground railroad across

Europe and beyond?

3. The most successful and inspiring No Borders work has been just about

this: creating strong networks to support free movement across Europe’s

borders. This is the infrastructure of a growing movement of resistance:

contacts, information, resources, meeting points, public drop-ins, safe

houses, and so on. A pool of formal and informal connections, a web of

solidarity, working on both public and clandestine levels.

4. People manage to move, live, and evade state control because they are

part of communities and networks. Migration happens because of millions

of connections between millions of people. Our No Borders networks are

one small part of this. Yet, as a movement, we can play an active role

in bringing such connections together across national and cultural

boundaries. Our struggle is one and the same.

5. People move for many different reasons. Many of the causes of global

migration can be traced back to the West’s imperial and capitalist

ventures: western-manufactured weapons and armed conflicts, wars of

aggression in pursuit of oil and other natural resources, repressive

regimes backed by Western governments, climate change and land grabs,

and so on. But this is not the whole story. We shouldn’t overemphasise

the role of western powers and fall into the trap of seeing people who

migrate as helpless victims. People have always travelled in search of

better living conditions, or simply to pursue their dreams and desires.

6. Modern states try to turn movement into a right that is granted or

denied according to economic and political power. Elites and ‘first

world’ citizens with purchasing power can travel and settle where they

want, while the poor are controlled and criminalised. Some may be let

through because they are deemed to be useful to the economy, or because

they are classed as ‘genuine refugees’. Categories like refugee, asylum

seeker, economic migrant and illegal immigrant are used to divide and

control. This is why we use the term ‘migrant’ for all.

7. There are many fronts to fight on against this rotten economic and

political system. We do not want to make No Borders some kind of model

or metaphor for every fight against domination and repression. We are

drawn to this struggle for our own reasons and out of our own passions

and histories – for example, many of us are migrants or the children of

migrants. However, there are some specific reasons why we think free

movement is right at the heart of struggles in Europe at this moment.

7.1. Migrants from poor countries are the first line of attack for

retrenching European governments and economies in a time of crisis. With

limited rights and no visibility, migrants are often the first workers

to lose their jobs when the recession bites; the first to be targeted by

increased repression and new surveillance technologies; the first to be

blamed and scapegoated for capitalism’s crises; and the first to be

dispensed with when their labour is no longer needed.

7.2. But migrants are often also the first to resist, and to develop

alternative infrastructures outside the reach of the state. In 17th

century England, travelling workers and beggars thrown off their land by

the enclosures started early revolutionary movements like the Levellers,

Diggers and Ranters. In the 19th century, anarchism grew up among

dispossessed migrant communities in Barcelona, Buenos Aires, Chicago or

the East End of London. In the 20th century, the anti-Nazi resistance in

France was begun by exiles from Spain and Eastern Europe. The

precariousness of migrant groups means they would always need to develop

new ways of organising in order to survive. The loss of old ties and

certainties encourages new ways of thinking and acting.

7.3. Migrants may be the first under attack, but they won’t be the last.

The conditions faced by clandestine migrants show what we can all look

forward to in austerity Europe: mass unemployment, less employment

rights and more exploitation, less welfare, repression more brutal and

naked. This is what the crisis really means: the so-called first world

turning into a third world, with widespread poverty and a stark class

divide. The old compromise of the welfare state, which kept workers in

the West quiet by guaranteeing basic living standards, is crumbling. As

illusions and disguises are shattered, we see the return of open

confrontation between the elites and the rest of us.

8. No Borders has its roots in anarchism. There is plenty to criticise

in the recent history of European anarchism. Too often anarchists have

retreated into their own identity, forming a subculture and cutting

themselves off from the wider struggles around them. But there are also

many positive things we should retain, including the Do It Yourself

(DIY) culture of recent decades. Social centres, activist kitchens,

independent media, housing and workers’ co-operatives, secure

communication networks and other DIY projects are valuable resources –

so long as we recognise that, like migration, activism is not an

identity but something we do. For example, No Borders squats in Calais

and in big cities across Europe are not lifestyle choices but essential

shelters and resource points. And as the safety blanket of European

welfare systems is pulled away, more and more of us will have to find

new ways to do things ourselves. All our know-how on the streets, at the

barricades, in practical support and mobility, will become precious. The

point is to make our skills and resources part of wider movements of

resistance.

9. No Borders needs to be an open and diverse movement. Many different

people, with and without papers, have contributions to make. To make

this a reality we have to tackle the borders within our movement too. We

need to constantly address different forms of privilege, whether based

on people’s legal status, language, education, gender, race, class, or

simply people’s other commitments and abilities to face different levels

of risk.

10. This is not a game. We are fed up with shit actions. We need to

distance ourselves from the symbolic stunt activism that has come to

dominate many activist scenes. Stunt activism seeks to grab the

attention of the mainstream media and, through them, to win over

so-called public opinion. It can make sense to pay attention to the

media, but not to make them our main focus. We need to scrap the idea –

pushed by the state and media corporations – that there is one unified,

homogeneous mass of ‘normal people’ called the public. There is no such

public; only lots of different people and groups with different, often

conflicting, interests and desires. And the mainstream media don’t speak

for any such public anyway – they speak for the media corporations and

advertisers who set the agenda.

11. We therefore propose a few principles for No Borders activities:

11.1. Number one: our actions should be direct actions in the true

sense. They should have direct material outcomes, even if these are only

small – if we stop one person being deported, if one migration prisoner

manages to escape, if one person gets a safe roof over their heads, if

we stop one eviction, win one asylum case, help one person trapped in

the system to find strength to get through the days, win one workplace

struggle, cause some real damage to a company’s profits, this is a

material gain. When we do meaningless symbolic actions that fail to

achieve anything, we only get discouraged, while the system gets

stronger. When we achieve direct successes, these reverberate in our

communities, encouraging those already taking part and inspiring others

to get involved, thereby strengthening the network as a whole.

11.2. Number two: every action should also have a broader aim: to build

the infrastructure of resistance and rebellion. This means developing

and strengthening our networks, making new alliances, acquiring useful

skills and material resources. The audience of our actions is not

‘public opinion’; it is all those we want fighting beside us. Our aim is

not to convince the majority of the European population of the No

Borders argument. The people we most need to work with already know very

well what borders mean.

11.3. Number three: pick tactics strategically. We should think

carefully, and seriously, about our strengths and weaknesses. We should

be clear about what our actions can actually achieve, and where we need

to improve and be better prepared. Dogmas, fantasies, and ingrained

habits should be questioned all the time. We must acknowledge the

valuable work to be done by people who, for various reasons, cannot take

on certain risks. But we must also recognise that, if our movement is to

begin to really challenge the border regime, many of us will face

serious risks and far more serious repression. Our defence against

repression and fear is to create a strong culture of solidarity.

12. Radical grassroots movements are the groundwork for the new world we

carry in our hearts. At first they start as essential support lines for

escape and small-scale resistance, and for the small hidden acts of

counter-attack and sabotage that are available to the weak. At the same

time, resistance and struggle are not separate from the rest of life –

these networks and communities are the same ones in which we live,

learn, play, work, invent and build alternative social and political

structures. As a movement’s strength grows, and as crises expose

weaknesses in its enemies, these networks become the infrastructure for

open rebellion. So the 19th century underground railroad was the basis

for slave revolts during the US civil war. The underground railroad of

the 1940s broke out into partisan uprisings. What new forms might

struggle take in the 21st century? We don’t know, but let’s find out.