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Colonialism and Migration: Everything a question of control?
"France is burning!" wrote the FAZ (1) in November 2005. At the same time the front pages of bourgeois newspapers and TV stations presented pictures of dead people who had tried to overcome walls and fences to reach militarised borderlands.
The discussion on "integration" of people of different cultural backgrounds was continued. Like always the question about the reasons for migration movements was not posed at all or answered only shortened: Those migrating only want to relax in the social hammocks (2) of the islands of wealth. The fact that this wealth derives to an essential degree from the continuity of colonial exploitation of others is considered irrelevant. The bourgeois society distinguishes foreigners in culturally adaptable respectively un-adaptable, in economically useful respectively un-useful. In public discourse refugees and migrants do not appear as acting subjects, but as "boat people" or as a dark menace at the horizons of the "Western lifestyle".
However, the connection between migration and current processes of exploitation, dependencies, hegemonic ambitions and colonial continuities is evident. The industrialised countries, their organisations and enterprises are continuing their colonial control over resources virtually undisrupted. The control systems installed to manage migration are becoming finely woven and ever more mean. Be it at the borders of the islands of wealth as well as in the "inner colonies", the camps and deportation prisons: The reality of migration is defined by police violence and brutality, violations of human rights, laws of apartheid like the German "Residenzpflicht" and the everyday experiences of racism and segregation.
In this context we undertake a broad approach to the notion of control: Thematically we discuss different examples of controlled destruction of societies by the means of colonial exploitation; also we concern ourselves with the postcolonial control and assistance of dictatorships, with corruption and injustice. Another topic will be the migration regimes of the industrialised states. We analyse structures, images, mechanisms and cases with respect to their controlling function. Most importantly we search for gaps in the system and for its borders: Where can we localise potentials for resistance? We would like to acquire and exchange knowledge, experiences, practices of resistance and strategies to be able to act: To regain control over ourselves and our lives and to gain autonomy!

(1) Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, German conservative newspaper.
(2) "Soziale Hängematte" is a German term often used to refer to foreigners but also to unemployed. It implies that these people are lazy and only want to live from the money given to them by the social systems.
Forum on Migration/Colonialism Preparation Group
Events in the Forum on Migration/ Colonialism
Thursday, 25.05.06, 15:00 - 18:00 h

Crashcourse:(Post-, Neo-) Colonialism
Cyrille u. Ismael, FIB
This crash course is an introduction into the topic colonialism. What is colonialism, what is post-/neo-colonialism? What is the connection between colonialism and migration? Historic coherences will be shown and terms explained.
Friday, 26.05.06, 10:30 - 11:30 h

Opening Panel: Continuities and breaks: Internal and external colonisation and anti-colonial resistance
With: Gaston Ebua (The Voice Refugee Forum), Grada Kilomba (to be controled), Kien Nghi Ha, Chamberlin (FIB - Flüchtlingsinitiative Brandenburg)
We will discuss the reality of migration in the context of colonial structures and their continuities in German society. We will also discuss racism as an excluding relationship of dominance as well as the connection between colonial exploitation and migration from the perspective of politically organised refugees.
Friday, 26.05.06, 11:45 - 13:30 h

Continuities of colonialism on the example of Rwanda
With: Stefan Ende, Benedikt Pontzen
The workshop deals with historical and present aspects of colonialism in Rwanda. We are especially interested in inner societal processes as well as colonial patterns of thought in Rwanda, which will be put into relation.
The European migration regime and the autonomy of migration
With: Sabine Hess (TRANSIT MIGRATION), Serhat Karakayali (Kanak attak)
How can we understand what happened in Ceuta and Mellila, if we define migration not only as a movement of victims? How can we describe the European migration policy? What are the preconditions of struggles concerning migration in Europe?
Friday, 26.05.06, 15:00 - 16:45 h

Appropriation and the colonial gaze: The ethnological museum in Berlin-Dahlem (Part I)
With: Antirassistische Initiative – critical whiteness AG
We will discuss the continuity of the colonial gaze of Whites. We will analyse the material and symbolical meaning of appropriation and the medial transmission of colonial imagery.
Anti-colonial resistance in Zimbabwe and Ivory Coast
With: FIB
Refugee camps in Brandenburg – analyses and resistance (Part I)
With: Tobias Pieper, Joseph Guimatsia (FIB)
Considering the refugee camp Waldsieversdorf as example we would like to demonstrate the institutional racism with its special laws for migrants. This racism is the ideological and economical basis of social exclusion; the deprived fight against this exclusion.
For children and young people: Child rights and Escape [15:00 - 19:00 h]
Friday, 26.05.06, 17:15 - 19:00 h

Refugee camps in Brandenburg – analyses and resistance (Part II)
With: Tobias Pieper, Joseph Guimatsia (FIB)
Appropriation and the colonial gaze: The ethnological museum in Berlin-Dahlem (Part II)
With: Antirassistische Initiative – critical whiteness AG
Mobilising Workshop on G8 and Migration
With: felS - für eine linke Strömung
To what extent and in which form will questions of migration policies play a role in the mobilisation against the G8 Summits? Which political strategies will unfold? We would like to get in touch with activists and generally interested people.
Saturday, 26.05.06, 10:00 - 12:30 h

Forms of neo-colonial exploitation, land-taking and eviction in Colombia
With: Breites Bündnis für Kolumbien
For more than 40 years Colombia is war-torn. We would like to talk about the exploitation of resources, land-taking and evictions. Governmental programmes will be analysed in relation to the overall situation and the resistance in Colombia.
Autonomy of resistance against the German apartheid law "Residenzpflicht" and against the fortress Europe within Germany
With: Gaston Ebua (The Voice Refugee Forum), Anja Weidner (laywer)
The topic of the workshop and the discussion is the question, how and why Germany permanently infringes upon the Human Rights Charta of the UN and the Geneva Refugee Convention through restrictions of residency.
Social struggles in the banlieues as a part of anti-colonial resistance in France?
With: Mogniss Abdallah (Agence Immedia)
Saturday, 26.05.06, in the afternoon

Anti-colonial action. An exhibition in opposition to the ethnologischen museum [12:00 - 18:00 h]
Anti-colonial City Tour
Engraved in the townshape: Traces of German colonial rule within street names

With: anticolonial citytour
In the African Quarter of Berlin there are many traces of the colonial ideology concerning politics, culture, economics and science. Our anti-colonial city tour follows these traces.
Fight for rights - "migration-political activities and G8" [14:00 - 17:00 h] (forenübergreifend)
FelS, NoLager Bremen, kein mensch ist illegal Hanau and many other