30/12/2024
HIGHLIGHTS 2024
It was a tough year. The extreme-right PVV government jumps on any chance to scapegoat migrants and take away their rights. The genocide in Gaza is ongoing, Western governments and media are complicit, protest is being smothered and often met with (extreme) police violence. In these times it’s especially clear why solidarity matters. THANK YOU for your donations and support. Here is an overview of what, despite everything, we’ve accomplished this year.
MiGreat has existed for 5 years already! Our work is perhaps more needed than ever (thanks Faber). We did stop our work at Ter Apel earlier this year. When in September it seemed like people would again have to sleep outside we got ready to mobilise. Thankfully it was a false alarm (for now).
And a victory! The Ombudsman agreed with us that it is indeed improper to take tents from people who are forced to sleep outside in the cold and rain, and to criminalise aid workers (duh).
In June we had our annual MOVE demo on Dam Square in Amsterdam. It was a success and clear sign of the strength of our movement. We also organised demos for third country nationals, for Palestine, for a children’s pardon, and we showed up for many other protests against our racist government.
In June we shared upsetting footage of the (thankfully prevented) violent deportation of Joost. We will no longer tolerate our loved ones being deported, we will resist deportations. We give workshops to people who are at risk of being deported on ways to resist - which despite extreme police violence often succeeds ✊!! And we give workshops for people with passport privilege, about how to slow down or prevent deportations through direct action.
Over the summer we were at Down the Rabbit Hole and Lowlands, where we collected more than 4000 sleeping bags that were sent to Italy, Greece, Bosnia and Dunkirk, to help people cross borders.
Money remains an issue. We will never take government funding and we’ll remain critical and radical. This does mean funds are sparse - we even lost two over the past year. So we organised some fundraising events. A group of people raised money by running the Dam tot Damloop, Sebbiebikes (follow him!) is doing a big fundraising action for MiGreat (and an even bigger bike tour, from Amsterdam to India for a world without borders), and thankfully we have some regular, monthly donators.
To continue our uncompromising critique on a system that willingly and consciously destroys the lives of migrants, for direct action, resistance and solidarity, we need funds. We want to ask you, people who support us and believe in a world where all people have equal rights, to donate (if you don’t already). We’d love for people to donate on a regular basis (for instance monthly). This guarantees our work in the long term. But one-off donations are also always welcome.
We are incredibly thankful for everyone’s involvement and support! You give us courage to continue our fight, which we will keep fighting. Donations (www.migreat.org/en/donatie) are great, but so are other kinds of support. Come to our demos, workshops and actions, share our mission, show up, make noise. We are stronger together. See you next year!!
