And they call it "voluntary eviction"

What times are these, in which /A conversation about trees is almost a crime / For in doing so we maintain our silence about so much wrongdoing! /And he who walks quietly across the street, / Passes out of the reach of his friends / Who are in danger?

These lines of Bertolt Brecht’s poem To Those Who Follow in Our Wake have poignantly revealed themselves during the last couple of days in the Ohlauer Street, Berlin-Kreuzberg:

The areas surrounding the street are widely blocked. Police cars – whose interior sports soccer regalia in the form of a black-red-and-gold scarf – as far as the eye can see. A large-scale operation. 900 police officers on duty. It appears: there must be danger – or why else should such a huge platoon be necessary? Something terrible must have occurred.

According to the district’s announcement, it is a voluntary eviction. Certainly: 900 police officers are needed for such a plan. Those who are standing behind the crowd barriers, the ones who are called rioters or left-wing radicals in the national media, scream: „No person is illegal“, „No border, no nation, no deportation,“ „Oh laalaa, oh leelee, solidarité avec les sans-papiers“ and „We are here, and we will fight – Freedom of movement is everybody ́s right.“ The 900 officers in their Ninja-Turtle uniform are well armed against such radicals who impudently and nonviolently call attention to ignored rights – the ignored rights of those who have been living in the school on Ohlauer Street under degrading conditions for 1 1⁄2 years. They come from Ruanda, Mali, Sudan – from countries most of the inhabitants of Germany are not even able to locate geographically. They escaped war, violence, hunger, poverty, exploitation, discrimination, political persecution. And what awaits them here? Exactly the same.

The 40 remaining refugees, who have been persevering for three days now on the roof of the school to fight for their demands – abolishment of the Lager, abolishment of the “Residenzpflicht” and asylum for all protestors –, are waving over to their supporters, who have gathered in the streets. The latter seem little riotous in comparison to the hundreds of apathetic blue Ninja-Turtles that are standing around. Their faces are marked by indignation, rage, sympathy and solidarity. And it is them, who are not walking quietly across the street, and it is them, who still reach out to their friends on the roof, who are in danger.

What currently is happening in the occupied school in Kreuzberg is only a small detail of something which has been steadily growing into a global problem during the last years: The west closes the doors in front of those, who create the source of their wealth. And this is precisely the reason why they have to stay invisible, why walls must be build, why they, who once succeeded in overcoming them, are deported: for the refugee is a walking memorial. His presence indicts: It is your fault!
And there he stands, the refugee, and he screams and he asks: „Where do you find gold? In my country! I am from Ruanda!“ He is standing there for millions of refugees in the world, who are knocking on the gates of Europe and the USA. Those who believe that these serious deficiencies can be eliminated by trying to make them invisibile are mistaken. As long as the imbalance in the world won’t change, they
will keep on coming. They will come in droves, until the Fortress Europe finally has to admit that their politics of demarcation and exclusion are a crime against humanity. And the ones who still keep out of reach for those who are in danger, they only can hope, that those who follow in our wake and who will ask: Why didn’t you help? Why didn’t you do anything? will be lenient. And this is how also Brecht closed his poem:

But you, when at last the time comes / That man can aid his fellow man, / Should think upon us / With leniency.