ISTANBUL 2013 : International meeting – Do It Yourself !!!

(source: http://we.riseup.net/istanbul2013/english)

The idea :

gathering individuals and groups all agreeing with the necessity to create international links in order to fight against the what we would call the logic of capitalism.

Why should we do it in Istanbul and why in 2013 ?

Numerous meetings take place in the western countries, thus excluding quite a number of potential participants. Considering the turkish geopolitical situation, Istanbul appears to be a good choice for that kind of project. An easy location for Europeans and Turkish people to reach and not that far for Caucasians or participants from the Middle East.

Two years to prepare such a project are not too much, two years to gather all goodwills, for we don’t intend to prepare it all on our own. That’s why we would like our proposal to be taken over and developped by all those who will be interested in it and ready to get involved.

From now, let’s express our ideas and suggestions and all together make this project become real.

We believe that it is necessary to share and talk about our respective experiences in struggles:
considering our backgrounds, what kind of actions tends to succeed or fail ? How and why ?
Considering the evolution of the different repression systems, how can we build and strengthen the internationalist angles of our struggles ? Is it possible to create new forms of actions ? How to coordinate them and make them more efficient ?

In order to create international solidarities, beyond the specific difficulties and diversities of our local respective situations, we considered planning various workshops.

Some possible themes

Antimilitarism
Urban struggles: squatts, gecekondu, urban ghettos phenomenon…
Antisecurity struggles: legal aspect, practices…
Struggle against prison: solidarity funds…
Gender and patriarchy: feminism, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender
Ecology: anti nuclear, dams, sustainable energies, …
Self-managered places : cooperatives, communities, nomad housing, …
Welfare State: social security, social services…
Immigration/borders: Shengen, Frontex, border detention center, …
Minorities and State policies: kurdish, laze, çerkesse, gypsies, basque…
Antiterrorism policies

These workshops, reflecting our different and mutual practices, could end in positive actions, that we could define together, like

Informing
Supporting local struggles
Demonstrating about common concerns

It is not that easy to name that kind of event/meeting.

At first, we thought about something like ‘International militants/or/activists meeting’, though even if most of us are close to anarchist or libertarian ideas, the aim is to open the event to a larger audience.
Above ideological controversis, we believe that all individuals, whether politically involved or not in a particular movement should feel at ease in participating in that event.
Joining in positive action, sharing our best practices, imagining new strategies, strengthening solidarity, these are a few necessary goals in our agenda.

During our first discussions, we wondered if seeking that kind of opening wouldn’t bring up a major risk : loosing our necessary radicality. How can we avoid a dull consensus ? Endless ideological quarellings (reformism versus revolution, pacifism versus illegal actions…) ? How to avoid what we think are the major obstacles of some kind of meetings : a naive political enthousiasm enlightening unification of our fights ? How to escape from a kind of political short-sighted tourism ?

A draft has been or will soon be sent to different french, spanish, italian, german and greek movements and networks. We look forward getting your suggestions and contacts in order to spread this information.

Please feel free to let us know asap what you think about this proposal, send us your critics and suggestions and tell us if you wish to involve in that ambicious project !