“The Refugee movement is the movement of the 21st Century” – Angela Davis in Berlin, May 2015

// Spanish below // Deutsch untenstehend //

“Can someone explain to me why can’t I go inside the school?” asked Angela Davis on the 14th of May, during her meeting with activists in the Werkstatt der Kulturen, in Berlin. “Is it a school or a prison?” To which people from the audience replied: “Yes”. Angela Davis and Gina Dent wanted to visit the refugee occupied school in the Ohlauer Strasse and were denied access by the District authorities. The day after, on the 15th of May, Angela Davis and Gina Dent met again with refugees and migrants at the Jockel Biergarten. This time to listen, understand and discuss how the struggle for the rights of all people to move freely and have a dignified life is going in Germany.

We, from the International Women Space, were present in both meetings and stressed about the importance of the women’s struggles inside the movement of the people seeking asylum.

Check out the video we made of Angela in Berlin:

Angela Davis and Gina Dent at Werkstatt der Kulturen

Thursday, 05/14 Angela Y. Davis and Gina Dent met with antiracist, migrant and refugee activists from Berlin at Werkstatt der Kulturen. The meeting began with Refugee Club Impulse, a film dance and theatre group staging a performance on coming to Europe.
The following discussion was open to everyone. The talk was on cooperation between activists in Europe and the United States, on systemic police violence, racial profiling and the connection between activism and academia.
Davis stressed a contradiction contained in the notion of globalisation. Everything is conceived as moving around the globe freely except for most of the people – especially those in the global south. If they don’t stay were they are, they’ll get labelled as “illegals” – put back into custody.
Explaining how in France they came across many refugee activists, Angela Davis quoted one of them: “The Mediterranean is an African cemetery” and went further on pointing out that the horrors of todays mediterranean sea repeat patterns of the slave trade at the begining of the global economy. Both human tragedies being based on expropriation and exclusion.

Angela Davis wird der Zugang zur Schule in der Ohlauer Straße verweigert

english below

Bezirksstadträtin erlaubt den US amerikanischen Bürgerrechtlerinnen, sich außerhalb der Schule zu treffen.

Die Genehmigung zum Besuch der Schule in der Ohlauer Straße für Angela Davis und Gina Dent wird von der Bezirksstadträtin verweigert.

Am 11. Mai beantragt ReachOut die Genehmigung für einen Besuch der Unterkunft von Geflüchteten in der Ohlauer Straße. Angela Davis und Gina Dent wollten in Begleitung von zehn Aktivist_innen mit den Geflüchteten über ihre Situation und über ihre politischen Aktivitäten diskutieren. Der Besuch der Schule ist ohne eine Genehmigung der Stadträtin, Borkamp nicht möglich, weil der Zugang zur Schule von einem Sicherheitsdienst verhindert wird.