Erstellt am: 1. 3. 2011 - 14:02 Uhr

1st March: We Are Here!

Migrants take a stand and shout with one political voice on Transnational Migrant Strike Day.

It started in 2006 in the United States. Immigrants and their supporters took to the streets to protest against discrimination and restrictive legislation. Immigrant activists called it “A Day Without Immigrants”, the idea being to stay off work and thereby demonstrate their contribution to the American economy and society. There were also rallies, marches and petitions. Since then similar protests have been initiated in other countries, like France, Italy and Greece and the first of March is taking shape as Transnational Migrant Strike day.

Now the movement has arrived in Austria. One of the drivers behind the protests in other countries has been tougher immigration legislation. This is also the case in Austria, where immigrants are facing a new law “which makes life for a lot of immigrants and asylum seekers impossible in Austria”, according to Can Gülcü, one of the initiators of the Austrian protests.

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"A Day Without Immigrants" Kundgebung in San Jose

Some immigrants will be on strike or holding workers’ meetings, but the focal point of today’s protest is a rally on the Viktor Adler Markt, in Favoriten, a mainly working class district in Vienna. It’s no coincidence that this particular location was chosen. It just so happens that the leader of the FPÖ, Heinz-Christian Strache has regularly used it as a platform for election campaign speeches targeting the government’s immigration policies as too weak. The choice is a deliberate strategy “to re-occupy this district and this space with a political migrant voice”, says Katharina Morawek, an editor with the MALMOE magazine and one of the organizers of the Migrant Strike.

Here to Stay

The protest initiators say it’s time for immigrants to take a stand against social exclusion and racism, against a discriminatory education and welfare system and against police brutality. “We are here to stay” declares the call to protest featured on a number of websites. Immigrants are “everywhere in society”, says Assimina Gouma, a media coordinator for the initiative. Immigrants are just as varied a group of people socially and professionally as Austrian society. Accordingly, “it’s very difficult to separate the issue of migration from every other work struggle”. For Gouma, one of the most important goals is “to think about the political voice of migrants, even if they are a heterogeneous group”. The Migrant Strike should encourage people to view migrants differently, and migrants themselves can overcome differences to “have one political voice. Not only people who are meeting in Austria, but it is a transnational movement and this makes the identity of being migrant (have) a political basis that is across borders”.