Shocking were the interventions in the panel debate "Welcome the refugee children in schools". The floor took: George Tsiakalos, university professor, a student from the occupation of the second Peristeri high school, high school students from Pakistan, teachers and parents, a university student of Albanian origin, who reminded the previous battle for the integration of immigrant children in schools.
The advocates of civil action, Kostas Papadakis, Dimitris Zotos and Thanasis Kampagiannis, Eleftheria Koumantou from Golden Dawn Watch and George Makrinos, Immigration consultant of the Municipality of Korydallos, all called to support the participation in the proceedings of the Golden Dawn trial, alongside the victims of the attacks.
Journalists John Baskakis and Dimitris Angelidis contributed to the debate, the first for the trial of the Golden Dawn and the comeback attempt of assault battalions and the second on refugee policy.
Interventions were made by refugees from the camps of Eleonas, Hellenikon and Diavaton, while Tzaved Aslam reminded the picture of the ongoing racism against immigrants with the barriers for family reunification.
From Crete and the islands that resist fascist provocations came contributions from Rethymnon with the large pan-Cretan mobilization and from Lesbos, preparing for October 18.
A Great action milestone is the pan-European mobilization on March 18, 2017. There will be a big campaign for the integration of refugee children in schools and to break the blockade of refugees in the islands and in the concentration camps.
Following is the text of the resolution adopted by the participants.
RESOLUTION OF THE INTERNATIONAL MEETING AND PANHELLENIC ASSEMBLY, ATHENS 15-16 OCTOBER 2016
A new mass movement of resistance to racism stretches across Europe in conflict with policies of governments that signed the EU-Turkey agreement to stop the refugee flow by opening camps, raising fences, trampling the right to asylum and the free movement of millions of people persecuted by war and poverty.
We welcome the emergence of movements such as the Stand Up To Racism in Britain and Aufstehen gegen Rassismus!in Germany. These are is promising moves against the policy that leads to horrific crimes such as mass drownings in the Mediterranean and the blockade of people from Calais to the Aegean islands.
The imperialist interventions have meant massive death and destruction on the lives of millions of ordinary people in the Middle East, Asia and Africa. European governments close their borders with FRONTEX and NATO and launch an Islamophobia wave to conceal their crimes and to distract from their responsibility for the crisis and system failures that brings massive unemployment and poverty. They undermine democratic freedoms and rights of all.
These policies are paving the way for the rise of the fascist threat in many European countries. In Greece, the Golden Dawn is subject to huge pressure from the ongoing trial, in which are disclosed their organized crimes as a Nazi gang. They attempt again, nevertheless, to appear as a legitimate protest party posing as a supporter of "indignant residents" and try out again to mobilize the assault battalions.
However, solidarity to refugees remains a wide stream and can organize mass resistance to fascist challenges as demonstrated by the large pan-Cretan mobilization in Rethymno.
In the coming period, we have to continue the fight to put an end to the closed border policy of deportations and incarceration of refugees in camps. To abolish the racist EU-Turkey agreement and for refugees to earn their right to asylum, freedom of movement, with open borders and open cities.
Particularly we demand the elimination of "internal borders" forbidding refugees to move from the islands of the eastern Aegean to the rest of the country. We consider as central the battle begun for acquiring access to housing and health care in NHS (public) hospitals as well as full access to all levels of education for refugee children in the public schools along with all the other children without exclusions or discrimination. We support the struggles of teachers and workers in hospitals for massive recruitment and financing of Education and Health to meet all needs. We promote coordinated mobilizations at neighborhood level, at municipalities and nationwide for claiming these achievements and to isolate the fascist movements in the mantle of "indignant residents'.
At the same time, we are giving the battle in and out of the courts for the condemnation of the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn.
We can close the way to the threat of the far right across Europe with common struggles and coordination, with the struggles in each country but also with pan-European protests like last year on March 19 and demonstrations for open borders from Evros to Calais.
For this:
- We call a new pan-European coordination on March 18, 2017 with nationwide rallies in all capitals, as was decided in London
In Greece:
- We are continuing mass protests at the Athens Court of Appeals where the trial of the Golden Dawn is conducted.
- We continue to fight for open borders, open cities with direct escalation to impose that all refugee children will go to schools with action initiatives in all neighborhoods, along with teachers, parents, student associations.
- Organize mass participation on October 25 at the Pan-Educational rally called by DOE-OLME (federations of teachers in 1st & 2nd level education). We participate in the demonstration on October 20, with spearhead the defense of the right of refugee children to education and the closure of camps.
- We prepare for the Europe-wide escalation of March 18, 2017 with many stations of antifascist antiracist action at every place of work and study, in each neighborhood and city, along with all the immigrant and refugee communities and the entire labor movement.