Rome October 17th 2009: National antiracist demostration

On October 7th 1989 hundreds of thousands demonstrated in Rome for the first large march against racism. The same year, August 24th, in Villa Literno in the province of Caserta, the South-African refugee Jerry Essan Maslo had been killed.
Twenty years later racism has not been defeated, it still causes victims and is being fuelled by the policies of the Berlusconi government. The “pacchetto sicurezza” approved by the centre-right majority, by introducing the crime of “illegal immigration” and a number of provisions worsening the living condition of migrants, follows a persecutory intent and violates their human dignity and
their basic rights.
This dramatic situation is dangerously encouraging and legitimizing fear and violence against any diversity within the society.
Meanwhile in the Sicilian sea, by now turned in to a real marine cemetery, hundreds of human beings are dying in the attempt to reach our coasts.
It is time to react and to work together for the building up of strong reply made of struggle and solidarity for defending the rights of all, for the refusal of any form of discrimination and to stop the growth of racism.
We therefore call on all secular and religious associations, on Trade Unions, on social and political organizations, on all movements and on any single person to join the demonstration on October 17th for a large mobilization able to give voice and visibility to migrants and to the Italy which does not accept racism, following these paroles:

• Against racism
• Generalized regularization for all
• Abrogation of the “pacchetto sicurezza”
• Welcome for all
• Against the rejections and the bilateral agreements providing them
• Neat rupture of the connection between the stay-permit and the work contract
• Asylum rights for refugees
• Definitive closure of “Identification and Expulsion Centres” (CIE)
• Against the contraposition of Italians and migrants in accessing rights
• A right to work, to health, to housing and education for all
• Preservation of the stay-permit for those who lost their jobs
• Against any form of discrimination against GLBT
• Standing with all workers in struggle for defending their jobs