europe.pgaconference.org

Balkan Decentralized Network

Wednesday 20 August, Alexandroupolis PGA Gathering

Short introduction for the Balkan decentralized network. Goals: to get to know each other and organize actions altogether.

Participating people from: Utopia AD Komotini, Alternative Media Zagreb, Infoshop Scatula Croatia, Anarchoresistance Sofia, Anarchy? Ankara, Kollective Ego Istanbul, Morje Infoshop Hungary,

including individuals from Alexandroupolis, Athens, Croatia, South America, Berlin, Spain

D from Utopia AD,

The issues should be seen in three levels:

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Economical issue: what is the position of all the countries that have economical interests

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Environmental consequences of the various projects that

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How we can have an organised defense from our part.

Proposal from B Collective Ego: Not to talk to about the economical situation, just collect topics and then each country to say details

Proposal from V, individual: One major issue in Balkans is the nationalism/borders. Another issue that was raised is that we haven't managed to find a common motivation for a joined action.

Individual from Alexandroupolis: There is a point on how we can inform people that are not educated, in order to resist to their exploitation.
Concerning the pipeline, it is believed that we have the power to force the Bulgarian and the Greek government, so that the things evolve in the best possible way. As for the Gold mines, they should not happen at all.

The information about what will happen in Bulgaria and Greece, should be spread in the society, so that they start resisting.

G from Anarchoresistance: Informing poor non-educated people is very
important. There is the example of the workers in Greek saw-factories,
who were fired when the factory moved to Bulgaria. Greek workers blame
the Bulgarian workers for taking their jobs, while Bulgarian workers
blame Greeks for the exploitation and bad salaries. Situation supported
by mass media. We have to break the circle of hate between the people
and show that the ones responsible are the companies who make profit.

Question about whether there is communication with the workers. Is there a way to inform the people; if there were no workers willing to work for a low salary in Bulgaria

Answer for AR: we tried to contact these people in 2005, in a No Border
Camp, in a small village in Bulgaria. Activists tried to contact these
people, have video screenings etc; limited results but at least people
were informed. Recently there was a strike somewhere, few people refused
to work requesting a higher salary, which succeeded a bit. This may be
not enough, we should have more connections with younger people, since
they are more ready to risk and fight their fights.

Summary from the discussions in previous meetings:

Light side: Infopoints, distribution network, digital tools (website, mailing list), radical exchange

Dark side: Some countries had a strong network before that has been lost now (a question to be answered by the locals) maybe because there were not specific things to discuss. Three points: distribution, solidarity, communication.

L from Berlin: Question to clarify whether the previous discussions about the workers, would be linked about nationalism

M from Hungary: In Maribor there had been a discussion, which couldn't
come up to a conclusion, since there was not something specific to link
the actions. Example given about workers in Hungary that they shouldn't
strike about specific problems, which were just a national problem; some
time later other surrounding countries' workers started striking (...)

Infoshop Croatia: Infoshops in Croatia and Slovenia were pretty strong a
few years ago. Not clear why, but communication is not functioning very
well. We should spread information around. Connections between
countries, after the civil war

individual from Alex/polis: Nationalism is based on ignorance, since
people believe what they are told. We need to provide information to
break the prejudices.

*Collecting points*

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Ecological/economical issues: Pipeline of Energy / Gold mines in
Evros, Nuclear Energy,

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Free Trade Zones to be set up in Balkans

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Militarism: conscious objectors in Turkey

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Nationalism

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Borders/immigration, trafficking

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Social problems: strikes, misinformation, workers accidents

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inform each other of the problems of the local groups and how the
problems spread across the borders

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How to internationalize that issues in other countries, (eg Germany)

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Practical communication structure between the groups of Balkans

AR: collect topics and share ideas about common actions on specific issues and that probably in a pipeline created in two countries maybe there is a third one creating the pipeline.

Answer D from utopia dt: 52 % from Russian companies and 24.5 %
Bulgarian and 24.5 from Greek.

*Proposal*: A political narrative group has been decided in Maribor to gather the local struggles. A small group can do a preparation of specific issues tomorrow morning and present them on an evening session.

A board will be created to host the issues

People would prefer to keep sessions one after the other, so that they can follow all of them.