Arrest of a course participant in front of the ASZ, Nov. 2011

After talks with the school and the city of Zürich, the police may not be doing any targeted checks in the vicinity of the school since spring 2011 (see article here). Nevertheless, the police repression belongs to the sad everyday life at ASZ. Course participants and activists from the school are regularly arrested for “illegal residence” and sent to prison. In some cases, they are deported.

They have all done nothing wrong. But for the state, their presence alone is a crime that justifies prison sentences of several months and degrading treatment.

Migration policy repression also drives people to their deaths. For example, ASZ and right to stay activist Moncef took his own life in May 2013 because he could not come to terms with his imminent deportation to Tunisia. You can find more information on this case here.

Wave of repression in winter 2010/11

This page documents the repression against participants of the German courses at the ASZ in winter 2010/2011. Older reports can be found here on our old homepage. From fall 2010 to spring 2011, the city police regularly carried out identity checks at the tram and bus stops Güterbahnhof, Bäckeranlage, Hardbrücke and Militärstr./Langstr. clearly targeting “non-Swiss” looking people. As a rule, these actions took place from 13:30-14:30 and 16:30-17:30, i.e. specifically in the vicinity of the participants’ arrival and departure to and from the ASZ. Thanks to widespread support, the controls were discontinued in spring 2011.

Anti-repression demonstration on 26. 3.2011

On March 26, around 300 people responded to a call from the Education for All and Right to Stay collectives to protest against the police repression to which our projects are subjected. We have been spreading Education for All for almost two years because we don’t agree when they tell us about a 1st, 2nd and 3rd world. We only have one world and we have to take care of it together.

We have been spreading Education for All for almost two years. Because we do not accept that they humiliate, persecute, exploit and disempower our fellow human beings.

We have been moving from one house to another for almost two years because there seems to be no room for free and critical education in this country.

We have been spreading Education for All for almost two years because we know that everyone has the right to education and we see it as our duty to ensure that this right is respected.

We have been paying for public transport tickets for our participants for almost two years because the Migros vouchers from emergency aid (Nothilfe) are not accepted by the machines.

For almost two years, we have been defying police checks, evictions and political harassment, as we have been subjected to again today, because we know that we are always in the right – even when we may break the law.

We have been spreading Education for All for almost two years because we do not want to live in a country where support, help and solidarity can be prosecuted, forbidden and punished with heavy fines.

We have been spreading Education for All for almost two years because education is the weapon they fear the most. They are not afraid of stones against shop windows or fists against Fehr. But without the stupid sheep that follow them, will-less and frightened, their hate sermons and false ideologies are no longer dangerous.

That’s why we continue to conjugate words like

to rise up                 to fight

to protest             to have a say

to help                      to emancipate

to learn                      to share

to understand                 to rebel

to co-determine         to solidarise

On the ongoing police checks in front of the ASZ in recent months

We at the association “Bildung für alle” organize German courses and other educational opportunities open to all at the Autonomous School Zürich (ASZ) near Güterbahnhof. The association was founded at the beginning of 2009, one year after the latest and most restrictive foreigners and asylum law to date came into force. Since then, we have been working under precarious financial and spatial conditions to provide education for all. Beyond the courses, the school is also a space in which exchange is possible regardless of origin and residence status. This is despite the fact that the Swiss state is increasingly making rights dependent on origin and residence status.

To date, around 120 migrants have attended the German courses at the ASZ every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Since November 24, the Zürich city police have repeatedly checked course participants in front of our school and at the tram and bus stations Bäckeranlage and Hardplatz, i.e. in the immediate vicinity of the school, and have arrested some of them. Recently, people who approach the police about their actions have also been checked. In addition, the police often patrol around the ASZ on course afternoons. School operations are massively disrupted by the police checks and arrests. Many course participants are afraid of being hunted by the police and no longer dare to come to school.

On November 24 and 29, about half an hour before the start of school, when the first participants usually arrive at the Güterbahnhof bus and tram stop for the courses, the same three city police officers positioned themselves at this bus stop – obviously not by chance. Here they systematically checked course participants, selected according to their appearance, and arrested individuals temporarily or for up to two days. The same thing happened at the end of each course: at half past four on the dot, the police were ready to check the course participants again at five o’clock when school finished. In the meantime, the police patrolled past the school building on Hohlstrasse or drove their car to the parking lot in front of the school building, where they waited. If sympathizers came to the school to observe the police’s actions and protest against them, the police called in reinforcements. On the same evenings, we demonstrated against these harassing police checks, which are part of the general xenophobic mood. Here, too, the police manifested their superior power. The police then moved their checks to the tram and bus stops at Bäckeranlage and Hardplatz on other course days. Since the courses started again after the vacations in mid-January, the police have continued their checks at the Bäckeranlage and Hardplatz stops.

We strongly condemn the controls by the Zurich city police in front of and around the ASZ. We demand an immediate stop to these controls. Education must not fall victim to racially motivated police arbitrariness. Education is not a crime, but a human right that should be guaranteed regardless of residence status. We are working towards a world in which education and exchange between people, and therefore people’s future, carry more weight and origin less. We are fighting against the increasing racism in Switzerland. To do this, we need support, solidarity and soon a new school building.

The Association Bildung für Alle (Education for All)

The following flyer is distributed by supporters to passengers on line 31 (the main means of transport for ASZ participants)