12. April 2023 ///
Invitation to an exchange on the topic of strategies to oppose the racist background of the citizens' decision on housing refugees
On Thursday, 13th April at 6 p.m., the alliance Greifswald for All invites you to a discussion and exchange on how to deal with the racist background of the citizens' decision on the accommodation of refugees in containers, which is currently being prepared.
The citizens' decision must not bring the result desired by the initiators. Thereby it is necessary that everyone sharing our opinion share their thoughts on the following questions: 1. Should we call for non-participation in the referendum because we do not participate in racist initiatives? 2. Should we call for participation in the referendum in order to make it fail? 3. Is a second question of the citizenship in the context of the referendum useful? This is currently being discussed in order to counter the petition? What can this question be?
Maybe there will be more questions. And then it is important that we - depending on the answer to these questions - develop a content and organizational concept for public relations and implement it together and effectively.
Background details: On Monday, the 27th of March, the citizenry passed the following resolution:
"The citizenship of the University and Hanseatic City of Greifswald reaffirms its resolution that Greifswald, as a safe haven, is ready to offer protection to refugees. It condemns all attempts to attack the climate of solidarity in our city and democratic decision-making processes through hatred, agitation, racism and violence. The citizens of the University and Hanseatic City of Greifswald state: decentralized accommodation has absolute priority. Accordingly, the Lord Mayor is instructed, as shareholder representative at the WVGmbH, to advocate for the urgent upgrading of previously unused living space. We call on the district to rent decentralized living space offered for the accommodation of refugees from WVGmbH or third parties. The mayor is instructed to develop accommodation options that guarantee humane and integration-promoting accommodation for refugees. Depending on the outcome of the referendum, the city should then offer the district the following sites as a last and, if possible, short-term solution as areas preferably for accommodation in modular construction, but if necessary also for container accommodation a. Festival site at the Jungfernwiese b. Meadow on Lise-Meitner-Strasse c. Sports field at Feldstraße 86 d. Philipp Müller Stadium
No more than 100 people are to be housed at any site. In addition, the UHGW can continue to examine suitable locations and present them to the Bürgerschaft for decision-making.
The citizenship states: Due to the multiple crises, there will always be refugees who come to us. That is why we have to build permanent capacities. The way to achieve this is to be accompanied by a citizen-led process, e.g. citizens' councils. The accommodation and support of the refugees by integration assistants must be designed in such a way that it guarantees the best possible integration. Additional staff must be provided for this purpose, especially in educational institutions. We appeal to the state and federal government to expand, among other things, educational opportunities, medical care, integration services and to finance them sufficiently."
We, the alliance Greifswald für Alle welcome this decision and invite on Thursday, April 13, 2023, at 6 p.m. in STRAZE, to a conversation about how to deal with the referendum. We are convinced that the initiators of the referendum are only superficially concerned with the accommodation of refugees in containers. The background of the referendum is in our eyes the rejection of refugees in our city and the spread of xenophobic and anti-democratic thoughts and deeds.
Only four examples from the before and after of the 27.03.2023 citizenship session: a woman from Ukraine is attacked in the hall. In front of the hall someone shows the Hitler salute. The initiators of the referendum give an interview to the magazine "Compact", which is classified as right-wing extremist. Several supporters leave the parliamentary session early with xenophobic and anti-democratic shouts.