In Vienna, Austria, people have followed the example of people in Spain, Greece, and the arabic world, to occupy public places permanently. They squatted Karlsplatz for four days since last sunday, yesterday, they moved to university campus for a time of organizing. On sunday June 5th there will be an international action day. In Vienna, this day will be used to appear again on a more public place and to mobilze for the counter activities during the World Economic Forum (Wef) taking place in Vienna from June 7th to 9th.
Here are some inspiring lines from Vienna:
About the impossibility of waiting any longer
This is a rough translation of the german text “Von der Unmöglichkeit, noch länger zu warten”.
With little attention given by the commercial media here, maybe for the fear that people here could get some foolish ideas, hundreds of thousands in Spain and Greece, among other places, are following the example of what started in the arab world this year: The occupy central squares of major cities, and their message is: No further like this! They are fed up with just watching the course of history, they are sick and tired of being governed this way.
And they are starting to organize themselves, across all borders that this society is forcing upon them. They neither want to put their lives in the hands of banks nor in those of corrupt politicians any longer, they are taking it into their own hands.
They have abandoned the fear not to know exactly how to move on from here. No election manifesto of any political party could promise them, what they want, because what they want is nothing less than a self-determined life, real democracy and a fair distribution of resources. To achieve that, they will have to turn the dominant realities upside down. They have begun to do just that.
We will finally cease not to begin here as well.
Also in Vienna we will soon build up a protest camp, to create a permanent place to communicate about our Situation and our further proceeding. Another aim is to become publicly visible, no longer ignorable, no longer concealable, because we are already everywhere, in the cracks of the walls of this world, where our existence is often being denied.
We invite everybody to stop by, to come back again and again, to stay a while. Our concerns concern every human, to solve our problems, we need to be many.
The summit of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Vienna from June 7th to June 9th will merely be an occasion for us.
For quite some time now, we actually have nothing left to say to the ladies and gentlemen meeting at the Hofburg (where the WEF will take place). Also, we are not motivated, as we are often portrayed, to get in a beating with their armed units. We would also like to opt out on being hunted with tear gas or rubber bullets, as it is common custom in other european countries, because there is a stronger tradition not to accept every move of arbitrariness from the side of the state. Neither are we keen to be murdered by the police on the street, as it is happening regularly in the arabic world these days, recently even in Albania, and in Afghanistan by the hands of german soldiers.
The threat from the side of the police that there will be “arrest lanes” with “quick judges” during the WEF, and that they have already emptied one whole floor in the biggest police detention center, cannot intimidate us. Once all of us come creeping out of our wholes, they will soon have no free place left in their prisons.
So many of us spend most of the time waiting. Waiting for the others to finally start, to start not to accept the condition of the world any longer, to actively change it. We are waiting, for our numbers to be sufficient, for the others to finally see what we see, waiting to be able to bond up with others, to take our lives in our own hands again.
Like this we are waiting, spend our time at work, at school or university, alone in front of the TV or computer, constrained by obligations and rituals, while our time withers away, and while we are on the best way to only leave a junk planet to coming generations, full of sorrow and war.
And all that even though there is enough wealth and productivity to ensure a good life for all, a life that gives us enough time to feel ourselves as humans and not to be clamped in machine-like processes everywhere. This life is actually there to be taken — we just have to become aware that we want it and that we, those who want it, are many. Many more than those who profit from the current way things go.
Above all, we finally have to stop waiting.
We will give our breach with the logics of waiting an expression, and we will stay. Maybe at first just a few days, but if we go from one place, we will come back, maybe on another.
We will come back again and again, and our message will be: Que se vayan todos! — They shall all go! — the bosses, bankers, politicians and other self-appointed leaders.
We call on all people to do the same, at the places of their living. At first, above all we will need to talk to each other. The path to a more free society is long, and certainly not clear. But if we want to, we can walk this path.
History is always being made by people, and can also be changed by people. We won’t allow anybody to divide us, neither by our origin, the color of our skin, gender, sexual orientation, nor by our profession, type of education or any other factual or attributed characteristics.
We know we are many, united by our interest to build up another world.
Rather today than tomorrow.
Indymedia Autriche, 1er juin 2011.
(…) Take action now!
Que se vayan todos!
Edufactory mailing list, 4 juin 2011.