Protest on Sunday March 26. 2011, 14:00 meeting point Landesmuseum Bürkliplatz

Conjugation instead of repression – education is not a crime

Through the Autonomous School Zurich (ASZ), the association Bildung für Alle (BfA) has been offering German courses for undocumented migrants and asylum seekers for two years at Güterbahnhof. The aim of the school is to give marginalised people access to society and education. Everyone should be able to learn and teach according to their own abilities. For example, the ASZ offers dance, theatre, Arabic and computer courses, which are also taught by refugees. In this way, we contribute to interpersonal exchange – a fruitful counterpart to the exclusion of foreign fellow human beings by the system.

The right to education is enshrined in the Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. In 2008, the right of refugees to German courses was abolished in Switzerland, depriving them of a further perspective. The ASZ gives refugees back a piece of humanity by offering them space for activities and social contact.

It is absurd to speak of ‘economic refugees’ and to deny them their basic rights and the right to stay in Switzerland, while at the same time we make our profit on the backs of these refugees, their families and friends in order to fill the meaninglessness of human existence with things instead of ideas. The renewed rise in nationalism and racism in this context does not solve any problems, but creates new ones.

For several months now, ASZ participants have been massively harassed by Zurich city police officers. Before and after classes, foreign-looking people are checked and arrested at bus stops and on buses near the ASZ. The checks and arrests are obviously aimed at intimidating participants in the ASZ and making it impossible for them to attend school.

We are taking the fight to the streets: against the anti-educational, racist urban policy. Let’s show civil courage against this policy! We demand an immediate stop to racist controls and arrests and the implementation of all human rights. For education. Against marginalisation.

Bildung für Alle | Bleiberecht