West Sahara movie night: Life is Waiting (2015)

By: börek - October 1st, 2015  Filed under: Filmavond

Life_is_Waiting_Referendum_and_Resistance_in_Western_SaharaSunday October 4th 2015, West Sahara movie night. “Life is Waiting: Referendum and Resistance in Western Sahara” directed by Iara Lee (2015, 59 minutes, English subtitles). Following the info and movie night about West Sahara that took place on July 26th, we are very pleased to screen the documentary from Iara Lee. In collaboration with Cultures of Resistance. Door opens at 8pm, event starts at 9pm.

Zondagavond 4 oktober, West-Sahara film avond met ‘Life is Waiting’ van de Braziliaans/Koreaanse regisseur Iara Lee. West-Sahara is een onbekend en verdeeld gebied. Het grootste deel van het land wordt bezet door Marokko. De rest is in handen van de bevrijdingsbeweging Polisario. Een klein uithoekje op een schiereiland staat onder Mauritaanse controle, en daar ligt het vergeten dorpje La Güera.
Na de Marokkaanse invasie sloeg een groot deel van de oorspronkelijke bevolking op de vlucht, naar het oosten, diep de woestijn in. In Algerije zijn de tenten opgezet want daar is men veilig en beschermd tegen Marokkaanse bombardementen. Ook de Saharaanse regering heeft daar zijn hoofdkwartier gebouwd. Na het vredesakkoord van 1991 zou een referendum worden gehouden waarna de vluchtelingen zouden kunnen terugkeren. Maar nog steeds wachten de Saharawi’s op dat referendum.

“Life is Waiting: Referendum and Resistance in Western Sahara” directed by Iara Lee (2015, 59 minutes, English subtitles). http://culturesofresistancefilms.com/western-sahara
Forty years after its people were promised freedom by departing Spanish rulers, the Western Sahara remains Africa’s last colony. While a UN-brokered ceasefire put an end to armed hostilities in the territory in 1991, the Sahrawi people have continued to live under the Moroccan armed forces’ oppressive occupation, and what peace exists in the area is fragile at best. Tens of thousands of Sahrawis have fled to neighboring Algeria, where over 125,000 refugees still live in camps that were intended to be temporary. In spite of these difficulties, a new movement, with youth at its center, is rising to challenge human rights abuses and to demand the long-promised referendum on freedom. Today’s generation of young activists is deploying creative nonviolent resistance for the cause of self-determination. In doing so, they have persevered against a torrent of conflicting forces. While risking torture and disappearance at the hands of Moroccan authorities, they are also pushing back against those who have lost patience with the international community and are ready to launch another guerrilla war.
The new film from director Iara Lee will examine these tensions as it chronicles the everyday violence of life under occupation, giving voice to the aspirations of a desert people for whom colonialism has never ended. Trailer: https://player.vimeo.com/video/123847322

Cultures Of Resistance Network http://culturesofresistance.org/, connects and supports activists, agitators, educators, and artists to build a more just and peaceful world through creative resistance and nonviolent action!

Film night at Joe’s Garage, cozy cinema! Doors open at 8pm, film begins at 9pm, free entrance. You want to play a movie, let us know: joe [at] squat [dot] net

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West Sahara info and movie night: La Güera, my forgotten land

By: börek - July 1st, 2015  Filed under: Filmavond, Infoavond

Sunday July 26th 2015, West Sahara info and movie night. ‘La Güera – my forgotten land’ by Gilberto Mastromatteo. Two speakers, film director Gilberto Mastromatteo and co-director Fiorella Bendoni. Door opens at 8pm, event starts at 9pm.

‘La Güera – my forgotten land’ by Gilberto Mastromatteo. Produced by the association “Ban Slout Larbi”.
Mohamed lives in Nouadhibou, in Mauritania. But he can always see the ghost of his former town in front of his eyes. Aalien, the postman, fled to refugee camps in Tindouf, Algeria. But he’s still thinking about the houses and the streets where he used to deliver letters. Zeinabu, in Tenerife, looks at the Ocean from her terrace. She looks in the direction of La Güera, her town that no longer exists. The stories of the inhabitants of a “ghost town”, located on the border between Mauritania and the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (Sadr). The destiny of a forgotten land hidden under the sand. […Lees verder]

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Benefit for All Included, Concert Qaraba Ensemble

By: börek - July 1st, 2015  Filed under: Benefiet, Muziek, Volkseten/Voku

20150713_Benefit_All_Included_Concert_Qaraba_EnsembleMonday July 13th 2015, Benefit for All Included, for freedom of movement and fair development! Volkseten Vegazulu, 7pm. After the voku, concert Qaraba Ensemble, Rebetiko songs, traditional Greek songs.

All Included Amsterdam is a new initiative that fights for freedom of movement and for the right of residence for migrants. In a time when globalization is a fact, migration should be recognized as part of a package deal. It’s All Included. This means: no illegality, no detention for undocumented migrants and no forced evictions.

With the disappearance of national borders, national identity disappears. Everyone becomes global citizen and deserves regardless of origin equal rights and equal opportunities. Therefore also for migrants ‘all included’ rights and obligations.

Allincluded.nl fightsg for an open society through extra-parliamentary action which intervenes in the political climate of assimilation, closeness and fear. Through direct assistance to rejected asylum seekers and other migrants without residence permit, indictments against abuses of current polities are being propagated. We want to contribute to the public debate with alternative visions of migration and globalization based on open borders, solidarity and initiative from the base.

All Included, Plantage Doklaan 12, 1018 CM Amsaterdam
http://www.allincluded.nl

After the food, concert with Qaraba Ensemble. Yannis Karampatzias together with Dine Qaram Baar and Charis Konstantinou, trio guitar, bouzouki and potirokoboloi.

Qaraba was founded in 2012 in Prague by Yannis Karampatzias. He performs on a variety of Greek and Turkish traditional stringed instruments including saz baglama (taburas), lavta (Constantinople lute), tzuras and baglamas. In 2013 together with violinist Milan Jakes (CZ), guitarist Thomas Opata and Geraldine Baar on koboloi they formed the Qaraba Ensemble. The repertoire includes traditional folk music from the Asia Minor to the Black Sea focusing on melodies from Smyrna (Izmir) and Constantinople (Istanbul) of the early 1900’s, Rebetiko songs (undergound musical genre that was born at the end of the 19th century in hash dens and prisons of the Greek urban centers), Byzantine and Ottoman classical compositions emphasizing on the art of taxim (form of improvisation on non-occidental musical scales known as ‘makams/maqamat’).
Qaraba Ensemble http://qaraba.cz/music/ […Lees verder]

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Benefit for We Are Here with documentary screening

By: börek - May 2nd, 2015  Filed under: Benefiet, Filmavond, Infoavond, Volkseten/Voku

Wij_Zijn_hierMonday May 25th 2015, Benefit for We Are Here with the screening of Wij Zijn Hier, a documentary by Alexandra Jansse (Xela Films, 2015, 65’, in English with Dutch subtitles). Volkseten Vegazulu, 7pm.

A new documentary narrating the story of one of the most vibrant movements in the Netherlands.
Wij Zijn Hier, a self-organised refugee group in Amsterdam. Screening will take place after the people’s kitchen, with the presence of director Alexandra Jansse and an activist of We Are Here.
Trailer of the film: https://vimeo.com/124522574

De worsteling van 220 vluchtelingen die maar één wens hebben: een menswaardig bestaan opbouwen in een land waar vrede heerst.

Het is September 2013 als het lopen door de binnenstad van Amsterdam begint voor 220 vluchtelingen die zich in het zogenaamde ‘asielgat’ bevinden in Nederland. Zij protesteren tegen het feit dat hun asielverzoeken werden afgewezen. In een aantal gevallen zijn ze naar de rechter gegaan en hebben hun beroep verloren. In andere gevallen loopt er nog een beroepsprocedure. Voor vrijwel allemaal is er een onaantastbaar besluit van de Nederlandse overheid, dat inhoudt dat ze geen asiel krijgen en dus Nederland moeten verlaten.

Omdat het de overheid in de praktijk echter niet lukt om ze uit te zetten worden ze op straat gezet. Al jaren worden deze mensen achtervolgt door een voortdurend knagende onzekerheid over hun recht op bestaan. Het beklemmende gevoel als ratten in de val te zitten is een vorm van zekerheid geworden die zich kenmerkt door een stuitend bestaan. Kans op terugkeer naar hun vaak zo geliefde familie is voor hen geen optie omdat daar marteling, gevangenisstraf of soms zelfs de dood wacht.

Alexandra, gedreven om een inkijk te geven in de schrijnende situatie waarin deze mensen zich bevinden, wil met deze film de denkbeeldige muren slechten en hun persoonlijke situatie in alle openheid belichten. De politiek lijkt onvermurwbaar. In ‘WIJ ZIJN HIER!’ schetst Jansse de worsteling en rauwe werkelijkheid van deze groep asielzoekers die maar een wens heeft namelijk: een menswaardig bestaan op te bouwen in een land waar vrede heerst. […Lees verder]

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Info-night and benefit for Prosfygika occupied neighbourhood in Athens, Greece

By: börek - October 1st, 2014  Filed under: Benefiet, Infoavond, Solidarity, Volkseten/Voku

Monday October 27th 2014: Info-night and benefit for Prosfygika occupied neighbourhood in Athens, Greece, Volkseten Vegazulu, 19:00.

“Prosfygika”, or otherwise refugee homes, is a complex of residential flats built in 1930’s to house refugees resulting from the Asia Minor conflict between Greece and Turkey. The buildings are situated on a central avenue of Athens, surrounded on either side by the police HQ and the supreme court, in a heavily gentrified area . After years of abandonment, Prosfygika has been increasingly reclaiming its original purpose as many refugees, migrants, poor, greek and foreigner working class people have sought to resolve their need for housing by squatting the empty flats.

For some years now, people from the neighbourhood have organized on the basis of collective procedures and communal resources in order to meet the daily and particular needs of the neighbourhood. The ceaseless activity of the community of Occupied Prosfygika includes building maintenance, baking bread, collective cooking, laundry facilities, making soap, a school for migrants and locals and hosting refugees on emergency basis. The evolution of the self organized community has emerged from the initiatives of an assembly with horizontal procedures (which has been active in the neighbourhood since 2011). This assembly participates in the movement of class and social struggle expressing its solidarity in a number of ways. […Lees verder]

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Benefit for ‘We Are Here’

By: börek - September 1st, 2014  Filed under: Benefiet, Volkseten/Voku
Hamza_Naser_Galid_Wij_Zijn_Hier

Monday September 8th 2014: Benefit for ‘We Are Here’, Volkseten Vegazulu, 7pm.

On Saturday August 23rd, a group of refugees squatted an empty office building on the Jan Tooropstraat. From the Vluchtopvang on the Linneaushof 4, they had squatted on August 16th the Vluchtschool on the Zuidelijke Wandelweg 30 in the Rivierenbuurt, their 10th location in 2 years. They stayed one week in this building before they take the Vlutchgebouw on the Jan Tooropstraat 649.
The death of a refugee from the Vluchtgarage is a tragedy. ‘Our grief is great. One of our brothers died yesterday evening. Naser Galid was 32 years old and a refugee from Somalia. He was wounded after a very unfortunate quarrel in the Vluchtgarage. In the coma for five days, he died in the AMC hospital. The refugees from the Vluchtgarage are living under great tension and very bad living conditions. There are no adequate basic services and the daily stress among the refugees, who have no residence status in Netherlands, is great. Their future is uncertain and the situation is hopeless. They have nowhere to go and have no ability to own something to improve their situation. NGO’s such as Amnesty International were alarmed on several occasions..’
A few days later, a volunteer from ‘We Are Here’ condemned in harsh words mayor Van der Laan in a public statment.

For more information about the ‘We Are Here’ refugees, look on: http://www.wijzijnhier.org

You can bring maintainable food (cans), juice, toilet articles, tea, coffee, etc… This evening at Joe’s Garage and it will be delivered at the refugees. Also you can go there yourself:
Vluchtgebouw: Jan Tooropstraat 649 (nieuw-west)
Vluchtgarage : Kralenbeek 100 (zuid-oost)

NOBODY IS ILLEGAL
FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT […Lees verder]

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Movie night: The Land Between

By: börek - September 1st, 2014  Filed under: Filmavond

Sunday September 7th 2014, Movie night: The Land Between, a documentary film by David Fedele (2013, with english subtitles). Door opens at 8pm, film begins at 9pm.

Synopsis: THE LAND BETWEEN offers an intimate insight into the hidden and desperate lives of Sub-Saharan African migrants living in the mountains of northern Morocco. For most, their dream is to enter Europe by jumping a highly-militarized barrier into Melilla, a Spanish enclave on the African continent.
With unique and unprecedented access, this film documents the everyday life of these migrants trapped in limbo, as well as the extreme violence and constant mistreatment they face from both the Moroccan and Spanish authorities. It also explores many universal questions, including how and why people are prepared to risk everything, including their life, to leave their country, their family and friends, in search of a new and better life.

“THE LAND BETWEEN is not only an excellent film, but also a political catalyst that unsettles the viewer and turns his empathy into anger. The sort of anger that brings the anticipation of change.” Festival of Migrant Film 2014 – Ljubljana, Slovenia

The Land Between: http://thelandbetweenfilm.com/
David Fedele: http://david-fedele.com/ […Lees verder]

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Benefit for ‘ WE ARE HERE ‘ 28. juli

By: börek - July 27th, 2014  Filed under: Benefiet, Volkseten/Voku

demo-geen-mens-is-illegaal-084Monday July 28th 2014: Benefit for ‘We Are Here’, Volkseten Vegazulu, 7pm.

The refugees from ‘We Are Here’ had to leave the building (former prison) at the Havenstraat. In a demonstration they walked to the Oosterpark, where they put a tent camp. There were many neighbours coming to bring food and mental support. People from Rampenplan came to bring hot soup as it started to rain. Police came to tell, that they would have to leave before 11 o.clock. Luckely not everybody was watching football, as a church in the neighbourhood offered shelter for the night. A new building is squatted by the refugees (Linneaushof 4) where the around 100 refugees stay now. ( the owner will probably start a procedure to get them out…..); they call it Vluchtopvang. And then there is still the place in south-east, de Vluchtgarage, (Kralenbeek 100) where over 100 refugees live in bad conditions. And this happening all in Amsterdam, where freedom should be the magic word!

SOLIDARITÉ AVEC LES SANS PAPIERS !
NO NATIONS – NO BORDERS !

For latest info look at: http://wijzijnhier.org/ […Lees verder]

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