“Refugees Welcome”! The Athens Antiracist Festival, the big three-day celebration of unity through difference, returns to the Ilissia Campus of the University of Athens on 1,2,3 July 2016.
Especially this year, the yearly date for the Antiracist movement takes place at a particularly critical juncture for the refugee issue. The closure of the borders, the EU-Turkey deal of shame, the effective abolition of asylum, the deportations, the detention centres, the unacceptable “hospitality” conditions for refugees in remote camps, lead to situations in which rights are being disregarded, thereby affecting all of us.
Against the antirefugee policy of the government and the EU, we are organizing our resistance, putting forward our will to live together with refugees, to live in the same neighbourhoods, for our children to go to the same schools. We all struggle together, refugees and locals, against racism, poverty and the looting of the memoranda, with the common demand to live with dignity.
The 19th Athens Antiracist Festival, with its concerts, talks, thematic spaces, theatre performances, exhibitions, children’s play area, multiethnic comings, sends aloud message of solidarity, hope and togetherness. No matter how many fences they erect, we will live together!
The 19th Antiracist Festival Panel Discussions
All discussions begin at 19.00
Friday 1 July 2016
• The EU-Turkey deal: Fortress Europe and Prison Greece
Convenor: Giorgos Maniatis (Refugee and Migrant Support Network)
Speakers: Ermioni Frezouli (Chiaki Sympolitia – Chios Confederation), Georgia Spyropoulou (Amnesty International), Thanassis Kourkoulas (Deport Racism Movement), Yannis Androulidakis (Economic and Political Refugee Solidarity Initiative)
• The rise of the far right on Europe – the trial of Golden Dawn
Convenor: Dimosthenis Papadatos (Rednotebook)
Speakers: Christine Gerber, (Interventionistische Linke – Germany), Takis Giannopoulos (Antinazi Zone), Eleftheria Koumandou (Golden Dawn Watch), Kostas Papadakis (lawyer at the Golden Dawn trial)
• Refugee Accommodation Spaces – the example of City Plaza
Convenor: Christina Palasidi,City Plaza
Speakers: Rabee Abodarah (refugee from Syria, currently living at City Plaza), Tomia Katerini (president of the Associatiom of Architects) Simos Simotas (yabasta.gr), Stefanos Batsis (Notara Refugee/migrant housing squat)
Saturday 2 July 2016
• The Middle East on fire: transnational, national and paranational terrorism
Convenor: Irini Gaitanou (K-lab)
Speakers: Sotiris Roussis (Professor of International Relations),Nikos Argyriou (Spartacus Network), Mihiar Echtami (Uniom of Palestinian Workers)
• Meeting for European Coordination of Movements
Convenor: Loukia Kotronaki (Network for Political and Social Rights)
Speakers: Nicolas Galepides (Trade Union Confederation SUD -Γαλλία), Giorgio Grappi (Precarious Disconnection Initiative – Italy) Corinna Genschel (Blockupy -Germany)
• Struggles against redundancies
Speakers: Stefanos Ionanmidis (persecuted members of the Thessaloniki Salaried Educators Union), Dimitris Chatzistelios (trade unionist), Aggeliki Serafeim (lawyer)
Sunday 3 July 2016
• Trapped Refugees in Greece: the disgrace of “hospitality centres” and the right to dignified living
Convenor: Nasim Lomani (refugee from Afghanistan, Refugee and Migrant Support Network)
Speakers: Petros Konstantinou (KEERFA – Movement against racism and the facist threat), Lina Theodorou (City Plaza), Ismet Akurt (ISMET Kurdistan Cultural Centre)
• Resistance and alternatives against the Third Memorandum
Convenor: Anastasia Matsouka (Anasynthesi ONRA – Radical Youth Organization)
Speakers: Apostolos Dedousopoulos (Professor of Economics), Panagiotis Sotiris (Ektos Grammis), Yiannis Elafros (Prin), Antonis Ntavanellos (Workers’ Left)
• Permanent memoranda, privatisation of public property and commercialisation of the environment
Convenor: Giorgos Velegrakis (zoimeta.wordpress.com)
Speakers: Eleni Portaliou (Committee for Struggle for the Elliniko Metropolitan Park), Petros Psarreas (Red Network – Political Economy and Environmental Researcher), Iro Dioti (Thessaly regional counsellor)
THE CONCERTS – Central Stage
Friday 1 July
• Deaf Radio
• Bad Movies
• The Noise Figures
• Tuber
Saturday 2 July
• Dances by the African Women’s Society Χοροί
• Savina Giannatou- Yannis Palamidas – Lena Platonos
• Konstantinos Bhta
• Μ.Α.t.Ε
Sunday 3 July
• RODINA, Bulgarian Folklore Group
• Plegma Collective
• Idra Kayne
• “The song of the Stranger” – Fivos Delivorias- Argyris Bakirtzis – Martha Frintzila in a unique concert specially prepared for the Festival
THE CONCERTS – Migration Stage
Friday 1 July
Music and Dance from the Georgian community
Refugees Music band (refugees from Iran and Afghanistan)
Mike Jamore
DJ Theo
From A to Z
Hydraulic Cupcake
307 Jam Squad
Chased Souls
Hip Hop Coffee House
Saturday 2 July
Aetoi – polyphonic song and dance from Albania
Vima & Nps & Vromiki Ekdochi
Refpolk – Daisy Chain – Miss Zebra
Renovatio
Tribal West / African Drums band
Radio Sol
Salia Balia
Fundracar
Sunday 3 July
Mandela Girls
Las Galoperas de Atenas
Martha Moreleon & Los Del Sur
Rose Wood: dance- song from Madagascar
Kurdistan-one culture club
Sam Roma
Aggeliki Toubanaki & the Buzz Bastardz
Afro-cargo + dancers
THE CONCERTS – Rembetiko Space
Friday 1 July: Saltadoroi
Saturday 2 July: Entropia
Sunday 3 July: Rebetien
HAPPENINGS, EXHIBITIONS, CHILDREN’S PLAY AREA
Saturday 2 July
Folk fairy tales from around the world. The storytelling teams “Ifantres ton Paramythion”, “Paramythanthos”, “Paramythoperasmata”, and “Imoun kid ego exei” share their love for the wisdom of fairy tales and the beauty of storytelling.
Friendly Chess Match. KASAPI (Society of Filipino migrants in Greece) vs. AEK
Sunday 3 July
«Eashwayiy». The multiethnic theatre group from “Piso Thrania” defines the “random” on stage. The performance is based on an excerpt from the poetry of Ashraf Fayadh: «Randomly – that is the word I have been looking for all this time. We live in a random world”.
“Faced with the European crisis: building social power”. Workshop organised by Transnational Social Strike .
Throughout the festival
“Refugee journeys” – exhibition featuring photographs by Yannis Liakos, Marios Lolos, Stelios Misinas, Kostas Dadamis, Nikos Paliologos
“Idomeni, the end of the journey”. Photo exhibition by Vassilis Mathioudakis
“Endless”. Photo exhibition by Eleana Konstantellos
THEMATIC SPACES
LGBTQI+, refugee housing squats, No Border, Blockupy, solidarity structures and collectives, self managed factories
THE CHILDREN’S PLAY AREA
Friday 1 July: “psychokinetic games” by the Apeiron Group | “Musical Journeys” by the Pedagogic and Art Education Centre “I Schedia”
Saturday 2 July: “The festival of physics” and “Balloon breaking” by the Piso Thrania team and the Initiative for Education without Discrimination
Sunday 3 July: “I got into the book and create my own world”
THE FOOD
Migrant cooking. Throughout the three days, there will be food and sweets from Asia (Afghanistan, Malaysia, Philippines), Africa (African Women’s Society, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, Cameroon, Madagascar, Mozambique, Niger, South Africa, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Tanzania), and the Middle East (Iran, Turkey, Kurdistan), with an endless menu that knows no borders. You can see the menus by clicking here.
Souvlakia, mezze and Collective Kitchen. Traditional Souvlakia and mezze from “Rakadiko” could not be absent from the 19th Antiracist festival
Info
19th Athens Antiracist Festival: 1,2,3 July 2016 – University of Athens Ilissia Campus
Entrance: 5€ per day | 10€ for all three days
Discussions begin at 19.00
Concerts begin at 21.30
