Call for participation 2013

Racism concerns us all!
Think and fight!
Connect your resistance!

The Festival against Racism 2013 is about the daily racisms in our society and brings forward resistance against that – racism is no marginal phenomenon but a fundamental part of society.
With this year’s festival we want to make racist structures visible and fight against them. Antiracist resistance in Germany is multifaceted and has a long history. The festival wants to create a space in which different stories of resistance are taken up, told and connected in solidarity. Our resistance should be continued in a self-organized way and connected across Germany.
We say, »Racism concerns us all!«, because the racist circumstances in Germany do concern everyone: the ones who are affected by racism as well as the ones who have advantages from racism. A considerable part of society is excluded by the oppressive system of racism (for example immigration and asylum policy). At the same time a different part of the same society profits from this exclusion because the access to societal common property and knowledge, to participation and their representation on all societal levels are a given to them. Denial of fundamental human rights, isolation and deportation, daily debasement, threat and death are consequences for the people who are exposed to the racism. This deeply rooted societal violence must be fought together. In order to successfully counter racism, everyone has to be aware of their own role and responsibility in this exploitative power relation.
This year again, the Festival against Racism will put the perspectives of people who are affected by racism into focus. Moreover, the festival will again create a platform for exchange and attempts to create a counterpublic against the prevailing representations of perpetrator or victim in German media. With the festival we also want develop creative and shared ideas of resistance and thus open opportunities for action. The connection to other fights criticizing this system and confronting capitalism also belong to the strategies countering racism. We invite everyone, who wants to raise their voice against prevalent inhuman norms and value systems to participate in the Festival against Racism.
The festival program will comprise artistic and political performances, discussion rounds, readings, exhibitions, theatre, film screenings, actions, workshops, and a children’s program. In order to shape this multifaceted space politically, we invite all of you: to meet, get to know each other, to understand, to inform, to discuss, to strengthen in a joint effort, have fun and much more.
Festival against Racism
16.-18. August 2013
Berlin – Blücherplatz (U Hallesches Tor)