Open the Borders Throughout Europe to the Victims of Imperialist Wars!

Joint statement by the editorial teams of Ergatika Nea (Greece),

Tribuna Libera (Italy), Freie Plattform für Arbeiterpolitik (Germany),

La Tribune des Travailleurs (France), Bulletin Unité-Eenheids (Belgium)

THOUSANDS OF REFUGEES ARE FACING DEATH!

The news and images coming from the Greek-Turkish border and the Greek islands in the Aegean Sea are making millions of workers in Europe and around the world indignant. The European Union and all of Europe’s governments are applauding the Greek government which, helped by the EU’s FRONTEX border guards, are allowing the Greek police to open fire on refugees with live ammunition.

Fascists and border guards are acting with impunity as they push the refugees’ makeshift boats back towards Turkish waters and prevent them from landing on the islands. Publicly and in front of the media’s cameras, they are deliberately putting human lives in danger. Once again, the Mediterranean risks becoming a vast graveyard. Tens of thousands of refugees are fleeing from the wars and military interventions in which the European governments, notably those of our countries, are participating or are giving their support, in the Middle East, in Afghanistan, in Syria, Libya, Iraq and various parts of Africa. Others are fleeing the poverty created by imperialism’s pillaging of their countries’ wealth.

The EU, cheered on by all the governments, negotiated a deal with Turkish President Erdogan in 2016 under which he would cram the refugees into camps in appalling conditions and keep them in Turkey. Today, Erdogan is driving thousands of refugees — some of whom had lived in Istanbul for years — towards Europe’s closed borders, and he has just ordered (7 March) a ban on refugees departing in boats. He wants to renegotiate with the EU the price for holding the refugees hostage in Turkey. In this way, the EU is collaborating with Erdogan in delivering thousands of families into repression, the cold, hunger and insecurity, and it is exposing them to the risk of death.

This is the true barbaric face of an EU that is touted as a zone of peace and democracy!

The thousands of Greek workers who demonstrated in Athens on 5 March were completely right to shout

“Open the borders throughout Europe!” and “No to Fortress Europe!”                

“Peace to the Peoples, War on the fascists!”

The thousands of workers and youth who demonstrated across Germany for the opening of the borders are completely right.

The editorial teams of our publications declare:

THE REFUGEES ARE OUR BROTHERS AND SISTERS! INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY OF THE WORKERS OF EUROPE!

THE PEOPLES OF EUROPE ARE THE BROTHERS AND SISTERS OF THE PEOPLES OF THE MIDDLE EAST!

THE BORDERS MUST BE OPENED IMMEDIATELY, FREE THE REFUGEES HELD IN THE TURKISH CAMPS AND GRANT A DIGNIFIED ASYLUM TO THE FAMILIES OF REFUGEES WHO ARE VICTIMS OF IMPERIALISM’S ACTS OF VIOLENCE!

WE MUST FIGHT BACK AGAINST IMPERIALISM’S ACTS OF PILLAGE AROUND THE WORLD, WHICH ARE SOWING POVERTY, DEATH AND EXODUS!

WITHDRAW ALL THE TROOPS OF EU STATES THAT ARE INTERVENING ALONGSIDE U.S. IMPERIALISM IN THE MIDDLE EAST AND ACROSS AFRICA!

This issue will be at the focus of the European workers’ meeting in Liege (Belgium) on 2 May 2020, initiated by Belgian workers, against war, exploitation and insecurity: Do not let them divide us, the workers of Europe are working-class brothers and sisters, our only enemy is imperialism.

We support the Liege meeting and call on the workers of all countries to send their delegations.

— 8 March 2020