06 2014
You Can't Evict a Movement
Statement of the Refugees on the Roof of Former Gerhart-Hauptmann-Schule, Berlin
We are now on the roof since six days. The last days have been very hard and exhausting to us, not only because of being on the roof, but more because we are facing harrassment by the police again and again. During the night of 27/28 June police was shaking the door and made different statements so we could not get a rest. Deprivation of sleep is only one of the methods through which they were trying to break our resistance. As Ramadan has begun, many of us must fast. The lack of sleep due to the police and demands of fasting make the situation more precarious.
During the day the police insulted us in racist ways. They were watching us from another roof and waving, not only with handcuffs, but also with bananas.
We continue to fight for freedom of the press. We still demand that the press be allowed inside!
On Yesterday’s “Offer”
So far the district has promised that they will not evict and the police wrote on twitter that they will not evict without the Bezirk.
We look favorably upon the fact that the school will become an international refugee center, which had already been promised, and also that we will be allowed to stay in the building during the construction work. But there were other people, who didn’t leave the school voluntarily. Those people are not included; some of them are living in the streets because there was no more space for them in the promised places, some of them didn’t want to move there. We are frustrated about the methods of the senate and outraged by Kolat’s lies. We fight as a movement and expect that everyone encompassed by the agreement with Kolat will get positive answers.
Since the beginning we put emphasis on our demand for residency, the right to stay (!) and that the school was not our main aim. We are aware that the district is not able to fulfill this demand, but at least they could make some pressure and actively support the political demand. If there will really be an international refugee center, what will be the use if the people there get deported? If only the people who are in the building/on the roof now can stay, lager-like structures would be implemented (controls, who enters etc.)
There was big solidarity at Saturday’s demonstration, there were many people there and in the blockades.
It is time to change the Asylum politics!
It is time for a real answer to our Demands.
The right to residency, the right to stay!
These are our rights and we are still prepared to die for them!
We need an answer!
YOU CAN’T EVICT A MOVEMENT