>From: Shuddhabrata Sengupta <shuddha@sarai.net>
>To: nettime-l@bbs.thing.net
>Subject: <nettime> No Border Camp Strasbourg : A Report
>Date: Mon, 29 Jul 2002 17:55:01 +0530
>
>Dear all at Nettime,
>
>Geert Lovink has already posted a first report on the Strasbourg No Border
>Camp. I am sending another based on two very stimulating
>days that I spent at the Strasbourg No Border Camp last week.
>This report is sketchy, incomplete and personal report of what I
>experienced, and some of the thoughts that have occurred to me, arising from
>these expereiences.I apologize in advance for the length of this posting. The
>posting is in eight parts.
>
>Also, apolgies for cross posting to all those who might have got a version of
>this report (posted earlier today) on the Reader List
>
>Shuddha
>______________________________________________________________-
>No Border Camp Strasbourg : A Report
>
>
>I. A Backgrounder
>
>The "No Border" camps (like the one at Strasbourg) are events that grow out
>of the activities of the No Border Network, (www.noborder.org) an alliance of
>activists and organizations engaged in campaigning against tightening border
>controls, increasing persecution of emigrants and border crossers, and the
>buidling up of what can be best described as the "Fortress
>Europe/Australia/America" phenomenon. The campaign consists of anti
>-deportation activities like the by now well known "Lufthansa Deportation
>Class" campaign by 'Kein Mensch Ist Illegal' (No One is Illegal) in Germany,
>the 'Sans Papiers' (Without Papers) movement in France and the more recent
>D.Sec as well as a host of other initiatives by, activist groups, civil
>liberty organizations, and individuals.
>
>The political cultures and traditions that the No Border Network embodies,
>are as diverse as the 'multitudes' that inhabit it, but they visibly include
>anarchists, radical feminist, liberterian communists, greens, immigrant
>organizations, civil liberties groups, tactical media initiative like some
>Indymedia groups as well as un-affiliated, even a-political, individual
>dissidents. The network does not describe itself as a movement, it has no
>central committee or caucus, and is marked by a very alive tradition of
>internal debate, disagreement and a refusal to abide by any demands for what
>in left circles worldwide, is known as "Unity in Struggle", and which, in
>reality is the subordination of all opinions to the demands of the central
>party line.
>
>The No Border camp at Strasbourg is the largest even of its kind so far, and
>housed approximately 3000 people in a very hospitable and convivial
>atmosphere. Previous camps have occurred at the German-Polish border, the
>German-Ukrainian border, the Spain-Morocco border, and the US-Mexican border.
>The recent campaings against the detention of immigrants at Woomera in
>Australia is also inspired in many ways by the No Border Camps.
>
>This much by way of a bare context to the camp. I arrived on the late
>afternoon of the 21st of July along with Florian Scheider, Geert Lovink and
>Manse Jacobi at the Strasbourg border camp. And I was in the camp till late
>on the night of the 23rd of July.
>
>Florian and Geert had been actively involved in several no border camps
>before, and it was good to get a sense from them about how the No Border
>Camps have evolved, from a gathering of two to three hundred German acitvists
>in the late nineties, into a temporary autonomous zone that brought together
>two to three thousand people from all over Europe, and some from Australia,
>North America and Asia.
>
>Florian spoke of both the excitement of seeing the whole phenomenon of the No
>Border camp grow, as a dynamic, organic entitiy, and also of the frustrations
>of having to re-invent the process of discussion and organization, as people
>new to the network arrived at the camp and brought with them their varied
>energies, momentums and proclivities. While there was a sense of a loss of
>the intimacy of the earlier gatherings, it was more than made up for by the
>enormous energy that this camp was clearly able to mobilize and sustain.
>
>In Geert's posting (which I had forwarded earlier to this list), the vital
>role that a new sensibility of the politics of communication, and its role in
>building this network is evident. He traced, with some pride, the expansion
>of the communicative capacity of the network, from one laptop computer, to a
>well kitted out wireless internet infrastructure, an independent transmitter
>and a camp radio, and the expanding base of the Indymedia and open publishing
>tendencies that broadcast the camp to the world. I saw Geert at his happiest
>in the radio tent, a hive of transmissions, where radical techies from all
>over would congregate to record, transmit and inscribe the camp on the
>airwaves.
>
>Manse, who has been actively involved in the setting up of aspects of the
>Indymedia system, had interesting things to say about the possibilities
>opened up by the open publishing protocol,and how the networking
>possibilities popularized by it was one of the factors that went into the
>making of the organizational infrastructure that made events like the No
>Border camp possible. All this made for interesting discussions as
>preparation for our arrival into the camp itself.
>
>In a sense, the background to the No Border Camp events lie in the mass
>participation in the anti capialist actions of the late nineties, starting
>from the June 18th 'reclaimation of London' in 1999, moving on to the mass
>protests of Prague, Gothenburg, Seattle and Genoa which had effectively
>radicalized a new generation of people, who were no longer content with
>reforms of the system, or 'greater democracy' or 'green' Capitalism, but were
>expressing their total sense of alienation from the institutions of the state
>and the market. Their protests were also not so much on 'behalf' of the
>oppressed in other spaces, say in that fictional space called the 'Third
>World', as about their own lives and oppressions.
>
>(Where is the Third World, I have often wondered, in the HLM suburbs
>(banlieus) of Paris, where second generation unemployed white kids and newly
>proletarianized Maghrebians live the good life of contemporary capitalism in
>decrepit housing estates, or in the slums and shanty towns of Delhi, or in
>both, and if it is in both, then what sense does it make to speak of a
>"third" world, as opposed to 'one' world and nothing else to win, and nothing
>to lose). In identifying the system of borders and border controls, and the
>'frontierization' of all urban spaces in Europe, these protesters were
>turning the terms of debate around into a territory in which they were
>themsevles visible as 'outsiders' in fortress Europe. As objects in the
>database, who could be legal or illegal depending on the terms that the state
>system employed to characterize the notions of legality in physical space.
>This meant that potentially, this culture of dissent was one of the first to
>postulate a unity not based on sympathy with the oppressed 'other' , but on
>the actual possibility of solidarity based on the conditions that acted in
>uniform ways across the globe as Capital consolidated itself globally. In
>other words, or as one of the favourite slogans of the no border activists
>put it, "Our resistance is as transnational as Capital".
>
>Combined with this was a new energy of communicative practices and tactical
>media actions that originated in and around the Hybrid Media Lounge at
>Documenta X in 1997. It is important to recognize, for instance, that the
>Kein Mensch Ist Illegal campaign, was born in that environment, and was one
>of the most significant energies that fed into the anti border mobilizations
>of the later years.
>
>II. The Camp
>
>The first sight that greets you as you cross the Pont d'Europe bridge,
>between France and Germany, is a colourful array of tent on the right
>(French) bank of the Rhine. This was the campsite. As you entered, there were
>a series of improvised but elegant Geodesic Dome frames made out of cheap and
>easily awailable wooden rods and pegs. These Domes housed, information
>centres, a welcome point (where you were given basic directions, and
>orientations), and spaces where people could put up posters, banners etc.
>There was also a tent for a round the clock legal team (in case of arrests or
>legal problems) and a full time medical team. The camp itself was organized
>in "Barrios", or 'neighbourhoods' each housing approximately 400-500 people.
>Thus, there was a Marburg Barrio, Barcelona Barrio, a Brandenburg Barrio and
>so on. There was also a 'Womens Only' quarter, for women who wanted to live
>in a space where there were no men around. Elsewhere in the camp, women and
>men, and children of all ages, and of assorted nationalities, mingled and
>lived together in an atmosphere that seemed easy, non threatening, and
>refreshingly free of any rancour. Though some women stayed in the women only
>zone, the majority of women stayed in the mixed barrios. There was also a
>special area for children and their friends and parents to play in, and
>several people volunteered to play and organize a series of fun activities,
>with the kids.
>
>I chose to stay with friends I knew, in the Brandenburg Barrio, which also
>called itself the "Black-Silver" Barrio, although it carried a big nice red
>flag, with a black star in the centre. Everywhere, black and red flags (the
>striking colours of the anarchist tradition) fluttered over cheerful pink,
>blue, purple, green and mauve tents - giving the whole camp the happily
>hybrid atmosphere of a cross between a political gathering and a carnival.
>(And that is the best kind of political gathering, imho !)
>
>The Barrios were organized around kitchens, which offered free, wholesome but
>simple (mainly vegetarian, except for the Maghrebian kitchen of the French
>Sans Papiers, which also offered delicious north african meat dishes) food,
>for which you had to queue up. Dinner, was a time that you could run into old
>friends, or make new ones, in the queue. Each day, there were a series of
>planned actions, (demonstrations in the city centre, events in the depressed
>suburbs of Strasbourg, mainly populated by migrants) and meetings,
>discussions and workshops. At night, after dinner, there were usually
>lectures, or public discussions, or screenings in one of the two big workshop
>tents.
>
>For a detailed description of how life on an everyday level at the camp was
>organized see the camp manual at
>http://www.noborder.org/strasbourg/guide_en.html (it makes for fascinating
>reading on how 'organized' an well designed a space with an anarchist space
>has to be if it has to be functional, free and friendly !)
>
>
>I have already mentioned the Indymedia Tent (with public internet access) and
>he Radio Tent, which were the communciative hubs of the camp. There was also
>the Publix Theatre Caravan bus, which was a mobile tactical media double
>decker bus, that had come all the way from Vienna, and which was like a
>tactical media centre on the move, with facilities for video screenings,
>intenet access and streaming, and which would tour the neighbourhoods and
>suburbs of Strasbourg, and during demonstrations, as a very active outreach
>arm of the campaign.
>
>The presense of the media and technology at the camp remained a subject of
>much debate within the camp itself. From the very beginning, there was an
>active "Anti-Technology" cafe, which was the focus of anti media, anti
>techie, currents in the camp. There was a great deal of debate on whether the
>mainstream media and the alternative media were the one and the same thing,
>whether media personnel should at all be allowed into the camp or not, and
>how the media spaces shoud be (self) governed.
>
>An interesting instance of the kinds of conflicts that these debates
>generated, was the unilateral decision by some people within the
>radical/lesbian feminist sorority at the camp that the radio tent be a "Women
>Only" space, during the hours that they would be broadcasting their radio
>programme on the camp radio station. This naturally led to some tensions,
>with techies (both men and women) insisting that this was a violation of
>their rights to be and work in a space that they were primarily responsible
>for. After a few days of what seemed like an impossible standoff, a
>compromise was reached, the (male) techies decided to observe the
>radical/lesbian feminist radio programme transmission hour as a 'time for
>silence ', meaning they agreed to remain absolutely silent in the tent,
>while the radical lesbian feminists were present for their radio programme.
>
>
>This solution worked out perfectly. The radical lesbian feminists got their
>radio programme on the camp radio, and the (male) techies, stayed on in the
>radio tent. I point to this little tussle, because it seems to me a very
>interesting example of how a non hierarchical political culture can deal with
>the fact of internal differences. Of course, it took a few days, and a lot of
>energy was spent discussing things, but a solution was found in the end.
>Similar disputes, even on day to day matters like whehter or not a group
>could or could not set up a non profit beer bar on the camp grounds, or how
>to deal with instances of sexism on the camp were arrived at on a daily basis
>at inter barrio meetings, which were daily instances of the everyday
>political culture of grassroots anarchism.
>
>The overall security of the camp was the responsbility of the 'Big Bertha'
>node, which consisted of rotating personnel who basically moved around the
>camp making sure that everybody felt safe and secure in a non coercive way,
>they were armed only with torches and walkie talkies, and were trained in the
>practical aspects of non violent conflict resolution. It was also their job
>to alert the camp in the event of any police presence. The Big Bertha team,
>like the medical, legal, techie, media and kitchen teams, were composed of
>volunteers, and had to report the inter barrio assembl. None of these teams
>acted as power centres, in fact they coud not do so, as they were made up of
>rotating members. Apart form these there were 'Affinity Groups' - the radical
>lesbian feminists were one such group, the techies were another informal
>affinity group and so on. The inter barrio assembly met each morning after
>local barrio meetings. Barrios sent delegates selected to the inter barrio
>meetings (these could be recalled, and were not 'representatives' in the
>sense in which we normally understand 'political representation') all
>disputes, were discussed openly and at great length, and there was no attempt
>to force majority decisions, or forced consensus. All decisions were publicly
>posted at info points in each barrio and in public spaces in the camp. The
>camp was not chaotic, not a series of random meetings, not made up of vague
>drifters who had nothing else to do.
>
>Just to give you an instance of how organized it actually was - the diversity
>of languages spoken at the camp was transformed from being a problem into an
>advantage by sheer organization and co ordinated effort. At the radio and
>info tents, there were charts outlining peoples (volunteers) names, the
>languages they spoke and the times that they would be avaiable each day for
>interpreting and translations. This menat that no text, no communique, no
>interview, no discussion need remain untranslated. Working translations were
>arrived at , expeditiously, and no group felt left out because it did not
>speak a particular language.
>
>I found this particularly remarkable, as I am used to the linguistic tyranny
>of Hindi and English in a great deal of the alternative political culture in
>India. As far as i could get a sense of what is going on, it was my distinct
>impression that a similar level of co ordination was also visible in the
>voluntary distribution of kitchen and cleaning up duties, construction,
>maintainance, public relations and technical infrastructure maintaniance. If
>anything, this microcosmic model of a 'functioning anarchy' was an instance
>of how the actions and energies of the 'multitudes' might translate into
>concrete realities on a day to day basis in a possible future away from
>Capitalism.
>
>Of course there were matters of serious disputes, like one on the presence
>and persistence of an anti semitic thread in the European left that took
>advantage of the condemnation of the Israeli states' actions in the occupied
>Palestinian territories. This was a theme on which I heard many conflicting
>points of view.
>
>There were also practical issues of great concern and gravity, that were the
>subject of endless debate and discussion - how not to succumb to police
>provocation, how to interface more actively with the people of Strasbourg,
>and how to plan an effective action agaist the Schengen Information System,
>which was the key action planned for the end of the week.
>
>III. Information and Politics : The SIS system and the No Border Camp
>
>The Schengen Information System (SIS) is the central database that tracks
>migrants, refugees, travellers, asylum seekers and others who come to Europe.
>It s electronic monitoing apparatus, has turned all of the towns, cities and
>country side of the Schengen states (France, Germany, Italy, the Benelux
>states) into one vast border zone that carries with it the illusion of the
>'vanishing border'. It is true, that once you enter, say, France, you can
>pass seemingly effortlessly into any other Schengen state. But what lies
>behind this apparent ease of movement (if you have the right papers) is the
>fact that the entire area is now one big networked border check post, and you
>can be tracked, traced, and checked, anywhere. In Germany, for instance,
>severely repressive laws, that restrict the movements of those who have
>sought asylum are in existence, and the German government (SPD and Greens) is
>arguing for making this a Europe wide system. The UK is calling for punitive
>actions against those parts of the world where illegal emigrants originate
>from. The databases at the heart of fortress Europe are the neural network
>which will make these measures possible. One of the most interesting groups
>of people that I came across at the no border camp at strasbourg, was the
>group that called itself D.Sec (http://dsec.info)
>
>
>IV. D.SEC
>
>D.Sec or 'Database System to Enforce Control' can also be understood as
>"Deformed Security"
>
>Here I would like to give you an extended quote from the d.sec website.
>
>"...d.sec is about reflecting the mechanisms of repression/control in the
>fields of free movement and free communication, the experiences of electronic
>and physical bordercrossing. An attempt to integrate cyber-activism and
>taking the streets, and find the relations between social and technical
>skills. The wider objective is to give momentum to an ongoing exploration of
>technical potentials in the resistance against the border regime.
>
>d.sec relies on the diversity of people who will be present at the Strasbourg
>border camp. Some of the activists will be web designers and editors,
>sys-ads, videomakers, code-writers, translators. Some earn a living with this
>"immaterial labour", some just use it in their political work. Others focus
>on the streets. Others have experience with borders and migration.
>
>d.sec is meant to become an open structure where activists, anti-racists,
>migrants, hackers, teccies, artists and many more put their knowledges and
>practices into self-organised interaction. A space to discuss and network,
>for skill sharing and and collaborative knowledge production. A laboratory to
>try out ways to hack the streets and reclaim cyberspace with crowds in pink
>and silver; experiment with virtual identities, linux and open-source
>products; explore the embodyment of technology, learn about the meanings of
>physical and virtual bordercrossing."
>
>In conversations with some of the people of this group, what I found most
>interesting was their very concrete understanding of the fact that the
>freedom of movement and freedom of information are related things. That the
>immigration systems databse was a border control system, and hacking the
>database was as much about freeing information as it was about helping people
>move by letting them know how much they were being watched, how and where.to
>my mind, this is one of the cleares instances of political hacking that I
>know, and it is not about a "Denial of Service"attack, or about some kind of
>cyber graffiti or website defacement. It is far more fundamental than these
>kinds of actions that are basically designed as being more or less effective
>spectacles in cyberspace.
>d.Sec is about getting to the core of the "politics" of information systems,
>and that is why I think it breaks significant new ground in the tactical
>media milieu.
>
>Althoug I was not present for the d.sec groups action at the SIS headquarters
>in the suburbs of Strasbourg, (it happenned after I left) I think it bears
>some reflection, and I quote again from the diary entry of this action on one
>of the Indymedia sites allied with the Strasbourg No Border Camp.
>
>Shutting Down the SIS ; Researchers Hack the SIS system
>http://event.indymedia.de/2002/07/122.shtml
>
>"...On friday 26th a team of researchers from strasbourg nsv
>research(noborder sillicon valley) came to Strasbourg Neuhof, where the
>Schengen Information System (SiS) is located. It was the aim of a working
>group to develope a system to make the data stored in the Schengen
>Information System accessable for everybody. Accompanied by a french
>television team and several journalist, the team dig a hole next to the
>street which is going to the SIS. The work of the group soon got the
>attention of the police, obviously not understanding what was going on and
>suprised by the massive gathering of press people.
>
>Based on information of a resaerchers group who visited the SIS location some
>days before, a cable was taken out of the ground and connected to a notebook.
>After booting the system and logging in on the SIS system, the user rights of
>the schengen data were changed (chmod 777*) so from now on everybody is able
>to access his/her own data stored in the schengen system, of course also
>change or delete data as needed. After that then the noborder plugin was
>installed (apt-get install noborder) to enable access from everywhere whitout
>limitation.
>
>The communication protokoll was changed to TCP/IP for easy internet
>(webbased-)access. A easy to use webportal will be installed soon. Now the
>system was shutdown for a complete reboot and made ready for a
>free-communication compiling..."
>
>Here was an event complete with its own dramaturgy and theatre, 'researchers'
>dressed in orange and white lab technicians garb, complete with accessible
>high tech, but easy to use, and inexpensive tools (laptops, digi cams and
>mobile phones) technical competence of a high order, a clear political
>objective - (freeing the database) and an utterly confused police which could
>make no sense of a group of silent, serious looking technicians who seemed to
>raise no slogans, make no disturbance, speak in no "language of protest" that
>they could recognize.
>
>V. Maps of Power
>
>Another interesting project that I saw was a take away print broadsheet
>called "Refuse the Biopolice : A Cartography of Contemporary Control Systems
>a fascinating diagrammic representation
>of the links between corporate and financial power, state interests, military
>apparatuses, foundations, wealthy families, and networks of surviellance that
>spanned the globe. This was a project conceived by a Strasbourg based group
>called the Universite Tangente (Tangential University?) in collaboration with
>http://utangente.free.fr/, which is a collective of artists and researchers
>who produce a variety of imaginative interpretations through texts, maps and
>diagrams of the realities of contemporary life. Information, both as an
>aesthetic category, and as a subject of politics is central to their work.
>The boradsheet was produced by them in collaboration with Syndicat Potentiel
>and Bureau d'Etudes (Strasbourg)
>
>VI. Freedom of Movement, Freedom for Information
>
>It was in some ways quite fitting that this recognition of the very political
>fact of information, of the drawing of links between the freeing of
>information, and the breaking of borders was taking place at Strasbourg.
>Strasbourg was the place where Gutenberg pioneered the printing press. And
>there is a statue commemorating his "freeing of information"close to the city
>centre. In an earlier visit to Strasbourg some years ago, I was pleased to
>discover, at the base of this memorial to Gutenberg, a series of bronze
>plaques, other pioneers of free speech, the printed word and the freedom of
>expression and information. Amongst this is depicted (Along with the thinkers
>of the enlightenment, the statesmen of the American revolution, and anti
>slavery activists) a figure of Ram Mohan Roy (misspelt as Rah Mohan Roy),
>radical theologian, an early enthusiast of the printing press, liberal
>thinker and founder of the reformist sect called the Brahmo Samaj in
>nineteenth century India. Ram Mohan Roy, in the last phase of his life, spent
>some years in Europe, in England. During this time, he expressed a desire to
>vist France, to facilitate the people of France on the occasion of an
>anniversary of the revolution of 1789. He was however, asked to procure a
>visa by the French authorities. Much incensed by this, "uncivilised" demand,
>he wrote an eloquent and furious letter, in which he implied that the visa,
>was a violation of the principles of liberty (of movement), of equality
>(amongst peoples) and the possibility of fraternity (because it effectively
>prevented people from fraternizing). I am not sure about this, but my hunch
>is that this is probably the first recorded protest against visas and border
>controls in the world.
>
>By a strange (or not so strange) twist of history. The demonstration that
>passed the tiny, barely noticable bas relief figure of Ram Mohan Roy in
>Strasbourg, was echoing his anger, almost two centuries later. What was
>remarkable was the fact that they like him, (and perhaps like Gutenberg
>before him) were equally aware of the fact that the control over information
>is one of the keys to the hold that power has over people, and that their
>protest was as much against border controls in physical space as it was
>against borders in virtual space. This again made me think that it is
>meaningless to single out the internet as 'New Media'. In its own time, the
>Printing Press was as much 'new' or 'tactical' media as the internet and
>computers are today. And just as the explosion of 'illicit', subversive,
>dissident, anti clerical or even ribald literature that accompanied the
>proliferation of printing presses in the late eighteenth century prior to and
>during the revolution of 1789, creating a critical mass of free thinking, so
>too, the tactical media initiatives of our times could be contributing to a
>new critical mass of the freedom of thought in our times. The fact that the
>database was at the heart of power, makes it impossible to think of a
>technological articulation of info politics as being always radical. It is as
>central to power as it is to those who oppose power. To either romanticize
>new technologies of information and communication as being the standard
>bearers of the coming revolution, or to paint them in the dystopic colours of
>state and political control is to forget the fact that it is what we 'do'
>with information that makes it political, this way or that. The computer can
>be the appliance of the border guard, and it can be the instrument of the
>border crosser, a lot depends on who uses, which software to which end, how,
>and why.
>
>For me, the border camp at Strasbourg was about this reality in action, of
>the hacker, the border crosser, the police man and the guardian of the
>database stading and facing each other, inaugurating a new moment (amongs
>many other such moments) in the struggle for freedom in the world today.
>
>VII. On the Streets, in Cyberspace
>
>It was this combination of the strength of tactical media actions, along with
>highly charged street protests - like the march to the European Palace of
>Justice and the Council of Europe Buildings, or in the central square of
>Strasbourg, which combined radical giant puppets, cheerleaders, spray
>painters, a mobile poster and sticker pasting unit, a very enthusiastic Samba
>band, flag bearers and camera wielding people who did counter surveillance
>videos of polic presence, that lent the whole camp and its activities a
>decided edge. Of course, the police waited and watched in the first few days,
>and then got into a heavily reprssive mode later, with arrests, raids, tear
>gas sprays and baton charges (all these happenned in the last few days, after
>I left) but I think that camp was able to make its presence felt in many
>significant ways. It was the intersection of a new information and tactical
>media presence with a street smart culture of political presence. By focusing
>on the Schengen Information System it was able to develop a sophisticated
>response to the necessity of treating information as one of the key questions
>of political power in the contemporary world. And on the sidelines of the
>camp, just before I left to catch a train in the middle of the night, in a
>discussion on tactical media and politics, that brought together people from
>Central, Western and Eastern Europe, North America, Australia, the Middle
>East (both Arab and Israeli), and South Asia, the proposal for the 'Last
>International' was quietly mooted, and slipped easily into discussion. I like
>this phrase, it has an irony (based on its reference to all the previous
>internationals and their tragic destinies) and a certain urgency. This
>phrase, which some of us at Sarai have used casually in conversation, which
>re-appeared again at the Make World Conference in Munich last year, and which
>made its presence felt in a quiet way at the Strasbourg No Border Camp, is an
>idea whose time has come. Increasingly, I think that the time we inhabit is
>indeed the moment of the 'Last International'. Of making the resistance to
>capital as agile, as transnational and as mobile as capital itself. As I left
>Strasbourg, crossing borders, physically and metaphorically, I could not but
>help carrying with me the slogan that I often heard at demonstrations, or saw
>pasted on leaflets all over Strasbourg - "No Borders, No Nations, Stop
>Deportations".
>
>VII. Flying Home
>
>On the flight back home, I saw a line of light on the ground as the airplane
>that I was in flew into the airspace of the Republic of India. This line of
>light was the electrified, fortified fence that marked the western borders of
>the Republic of India. On either siders of this border were arrayed the men
>who constitiuted the single largest military mobilization since the second
>world war.As we crossed this pretty line of light, the captain announced that
>it was forbidden to take pictures or make videos as we crossed into the
>airspace of the Republic of India. Once again, the border control and the
>control over informations seemed to intersect with uncanny precision. I
>thought of the possibility of a No Border Camp somewhere on this electrified,
>illuminated fault line, and quietly put that thought away, at least for the
>moment, as I began filling in the dis-embarkation card, spelling out my name,
>date of birth, and that thing which I have never understood called
>'nationality' in block letters, in preparation for the immigration control
>officer at the Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi. The chant,
>"No Borders, No Nations, Stop Deportations", still rang in my head,
>persistently.
>
>
>LINKS
>(If you want to probe some of these issues further, you might like to visit
>some of these links)
>
>No Border Network www.noborder.org
>Strasbourg No Border Camp http://www.noborder.org/strasbourg/index.php
>Publix Theatre Caravan, "http://zone.noborder.org" (vienna)
>Indymedia Centers http://indymedia.org"
>Deportation Alliance (Anti Airline Deportation Campaign)
>http://deportation-alliance.com/
>BorderXing Guide
>http://irational.org/cgi-bin/border/clients/list.pl
>:: xborder ::Border policy and related issues, with particular focus on
>Australia.
>http://www.antimedia.net/xborder/index.html
>D.Sec www.dsec.info
>Universite Tangente http://utangente.free.fr/
>Syndicat Potentiel http://syndicatpotentiel.free.fr/
>
># distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission
># <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism,
># collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets
># more info: majordomo@bbs.thing.net and "info nettime-l" in the msg body
># archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime@bbs.thing.net
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