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Circle of Friends of Refugee Solidarity founded – Greeting by Jean Ziegler

On May 27th, a new group of the "Friends of Refugee Solidarity in Solidarity International" was founded in Essen!
This was preceded by a Monday demonstration on the subject of colonialism, causes of flight and anti-communism. A colleague had done extensive research on the hypocrisy of bourgeois politics in the fight against racism and proved that the imperialist countries of Europe had built their wealth on slavery. Several refugees entered the list of the circle of friends here.

Jean Ziegler, a well-known critic of capitalism, a professor of sociology and a member of the Advisory Committee of the UN Human Rights Council, sent a special greeting on the founding of the Circle of Friends:

“The imperative of international solidarity is: admission, protection, hospitality and legal certainty for the tormented people who have to flee from state terrorism and torture. I welcome and support with firm conviction the founding of the Friends of Refugee Solidarity and wish it well-deserved success. This is international solidarity in practice.”

In addition to the founding members, there are many other interested parties who were unable to attend this time. "We also started small back then, and today we have groups in many cities, are a nationwide self-organization," reported Alassa Mfouapon.

It is clear that getting to know one another, building trust and learning to work in an organized manner takes patience. "If you can't crawl, you can't run," one participant put it in a nutshell. The "jump start" by Alassa and an activist from Cologne was great. They brought important experience to bear. Essen residents from Turkey, Sri Lanka and Germany took part. Anger at the prevailing politics was great. For example, a woman from Essen of African descent is denied her German passport because she once drove fare illegally. We don't want to accept that. A spokesperson was elected and the next steps discussed. There should be regular invitations to the Monday demonstration as an important platform. Solidarity with a family from Bochum threatened with deportation was also decided.