The initiative was presented on November 12th at Artea (Bizkaia, Basque Country), including several talks and events centred around the current ees' situation.
According to the organizers, it is essential to "stand up to the neo-fascism" which is spreading over Europe. They believe although that migrants are blamed, it is, in fact, financial elites and neo-liberal policy-following governments who are causing the problems: delinquency, sexism and unemployment, amongst other things.
Which is why they have put forward the Herriak besarkada (People's Embrace) collective initiative. It will involve standing up to the "Europe of discrimination" and welcoming people who arrive here, showing them solidarity and that they are welcome, using the embrace as their symbol.
They want the initiative to demonstrate that institutions and the political elite are to blame for the current human rights crisis. They are going to criticise enforced displacements and stand up for the human rights of people who have been criminalised. They are also going to proclaim all people's right to a place to live and to free movement.
There will be demonstrations held in many European towns and cities at midday on May 5th, 2019.
This article was translated by 11itzulpenak; you can see the original in Basque here.
ARGIA is a news media funded in 1919 in Pamplona and published in Basque language. At first religious – called Zeruko Argia, "light of heaven” –, forbidden during the fascist dictatorship in Spain from 1936 on, in the 1950s and 1960s it had managed to come... [+]