In 2019 Argentina began an interesting process of protecting minority rights with the creation of the Ministry of Women Gender and Diversity, and the recognition of non-binary identities. however LGBTQIA+ seniors were not part of the new public policies. In 2023, a front of anti-rights political parties won the elections for president. One of their first acts was to abolish 10 of the 18 existing ministries, including the Ministry of Women, Gender and Diversity. 

The provinces soon followed suit, including Tucumán, ceasing all aid, assistance and support to LGBTQIA+ elderly people. President Milei has promised to restore the Argentinian economy, but it is mainly the elderly, the poor and minorities that must pay the price of his austerity measures. Before, LGBTQIA+ elderly could count on government support for food and medicine.

“In January I was able to buy my monthly prescription medicines with a lot of effort and the help of friends, but this month I have to choose what to buy. This situation makes me sick and I don’t know what to do.” says Noelia (79). The withdrawal of state support has put a lot of vulnerable people in a dire financial situation.  According to A. (83): “Going to an office and knowing that we no longer have a place to report when we suffer institutional violence is very painful. The state isn’t paying attention anymore. Officials used to treat you with respect.”

New policies act as if LGBTQIA+ people do not exist, let alone the elderly. That is why Casa Caracol chose to hand out water to passers-by. “We thought about making posters, putting up banners, but the reality is that being here and talking to passers-by is the best strategy, to make ourselves visible” shares Yohana, member of the Commission that organized the action.

Het Actiefonds is proud to support Casa Caracol!

On June 9, 2023, 32-year-old Dutch-Polish Mateusz was killed by police brutality. He was a
psychiatric patient who keyed a car. Police came after him in as many as ten cars – he was on a
bicycle. They tasered him, only to beat, kick and strangle him as he lay on the ground. Video
footage showed the police officers getting up after a long time, while Mateusz remained
motionless on the ground.

Mateusz was not the first to die from disproportionate police brutality. Remon Kalloe, Mitch
Henriquez, Sammy Baker and many others preceded him. Yazan al Madani, for example, shot
eight times at the age of 27 while in psychosis. Or Mitchel Winters, also in a confused state, and
shot seven times at the age of 21 by three police officers. Akef Ibrahimi mentions all of them in
his speech at Mateusz’s memorial service and comes to a conclusion: men from migrant
backgrounds who exhibit confused behavior are overrepresented in murder statistics from police
brutality.

Commemoration

It was an emotional and powerful memorial on Rotterdam’s Coolsingel, with support from Het
Actiefonds. In speeches by the father, a friend, the family’s lawyer, and the organizer Ibrahimi. It
concluded with the laying of flowers and two minutes of silence.

The speeches called for justice and prosecution of the executioners who had killed Mateusz. On
GoFundMe, people could donate money to the family to cover legal costs. Sadness, grief and
dismay prevailed. As friend Claudia put it:

“Why did the police hit Mateusz so hard, why was a taser deployed on someone who had no
weapons and above all was in a mentally unstable state, why couldn’t the police recognize a
person with mental problems, after all they should have been trained for that?”

Prosecution

The officers involved in Mateusz’s death were already able to return to work as soon as last
October, some even in the same position. Fortunately, it was announced last month that their
eight officers will be prosecuted for Mateusz’s death. It is already something, although we will
await the verdict to know if justice prevailed.

After all, incidents like these do not play out in a vacuum. In recent years, police have been
given more and more space and means to use force to maintain order, such as the 2022 law
authorizing the use of tasers. This expanding monopoly on violence goes hand in hand with
legal irresponsibility when police action leads to deadly consequences.

The prosecution of Mateusz’s perpetrators is an exception: according to research by Control Alt
Delete, the prosecution proceeds to prosecute in only one percent of reports. Between 2016
and 2019, only four officers were fined for excessive police brutality, and none were prosecuted
for discrimination. For context, in 2019 alone, police reported 24 thousand cases of use of force,
a number that has steadily risen to nearly 35 thousand in the following years.

On Aug. 7, 2023, an oil spill occurred in the residential areas of Indigenous communities in Ecuador. A leak in an oil pipeline from Pluspetrol, a letterbox firm registered in Amsterdam, contaminated acres of land and several water sources. Many plants and animals died from the pollution, and some of the 71 thousand residents of Triunfo, Canelos and Colonia Bolivar, both Quechua and settlers, fell ill.

Pluspetrol

It is not the first time this has happened. Pluspetrol is notorious in the Amazon as the largest and most irresponsible polluter, with as many as 344 oil spills to its name between 2000 and 2019. For context, that’s 95 percent of all oil spills in Ecuador in the time period. The company is notoriously negligent, not only for refusing to fix their obviously substandard pipelines, but also for invariably refusing to pay fines or fix the damage caused. Even the National Contact Point of OECD Guidelines in the Netherlands has investigated environmental damage in Peru and found that there is a plausible chance that Pluspetrol is not complying with the guidelines. The NCP offered to mediate between the Quechua and the oil company, which of course the company refused without sanctions.

The Indigenous women’s organization Fundación de Mujeres Indígenas de la Amazonia Ecuatoriana (FMAIE) continues its fight against the multinational for a livable habitat. Through protests and sit-ins, among other things, they are demanding that Pluspetrol refurbish affected areas, clean up water sources, and sponsor reforestation programs that the Quechua devise and implement in order to restore biodiversity.

Success

Their efforts have led to great results. After persistent protests and meetings with Pluspetrol, the company agreed to immediately carry out remediation works in the affected communities. FMAIE sees it as a successful struggle, “Right now, the oil company is implementing proper remediation procedures and clean-up activities for the spill in these communities.”

Het Actiefonds is proud of our support for FMAIE. Indigenous communities have been resisting multinational corporations and settlers for centuries, who do everything they can to drive them from their habitat so they can extract everything of value from the area. This has disastrous consequences for Indigenous culture and knowledge, as well as for the biodiversity of the Amazon and for the heating of the planet as a whole. Decolonization is the only sustainable solution to the climate crisis.

Mateusz was not the first to die from police brutality in the Netherlands. Remon Kalloe, Mitch Henriquez, Sammy Baker and many others preceded him. Yazan al Madani, for example, shot eight times at the age of 27 while in psychosis. Or Mitchel Winters, also in a confused state, and shot seven times at the age of 21 by three police officers. Akef Ibrahimi mentions all of them in his speech at Mateusz’s memorial service and comes to a conclusion: men from migrant backgrounds who exhibit confused behavior are overrepresented in murder statistics from police brutality.

Commemoration

It was an emotional and powerful memorial on Rotterdam’s Coolsingel, with support from Het Actiefonds. In speeches by the father, a friend, the family’s lawyer, and the organizer Ibrahimi. It concluded with the laying of flowers and two minutes of silence.

The speeches called for justice and prosecution of the executioners who had killed Mateusz. On GoFundMe, people could donate money to the family to cover legal costs.Sadness, grief and dismay prevailed. As friend Claudia put it:

“Why did the police hit Mateusz so hard, why was a taser deployed on someone who had no weapons and above all was in a mentally unstable state, why couldn’t the police recognize a person with mental problems, after all they should have been trained for that?”

Prosecution

The officers involved in Mateusz’s death were already able to return to work as soon as last October, some even in the same position. Fortunately, it was announced last month that their eight officers will be prosecuted for Mateusz’s death. It is already something, although we will await the verdict to know if justice prevailed.

After all, incidents like these do not play out in a vacuum. In recent years, police have been given more and more space and means to use force to maintain order, such as the 2022 law authorizing the use of tasers. This expanding monopoly on violence goes hand in hand with legal irresponsibility when police action leads to deadly consequences.

The prosecution of Mateusz’s perpetrators is an exception: according to research by Control Alt Delete, the prosecution proceeds to prosecute in only one percent of reports. Between 2016 and 2019, only four officers were fined for excessive police brutality, and none were prosecuted for discrimination. For context, in 2019 alone, police reported 24 thousand cases of use of force, a number that has steadily risen to nearly 35 thousand in the following years.

Geopolitics and big business

Large dams have been disrupting local ecosystems ever since the first one was constructed on the Nile in 1902. These dams control or even end the flood and dry seasons of big rivers, manipulating water flow in such a way that arable land increases and valuable cash crops can be grown on the river banks. It is no surprise then, that nations that control dams control the lifeline of all living beings upstream.

China has been building 11 dams in the Mekong since 2012. These barrages, in turn, have major consequences on South Asian economies and ecosystems.

Since the construction of the dams, the water level of the Mekong has plummeted. In 2019, the water level upstream was lower than in the past 50 years. Add to this the effects of the climate crisis and you get a serious situation of persistent drought, flash floods and increasing poverty in the Mekong Delta. According to the Mekong River Commission, there are already 40 percent fewer fish in the river than a decade ago.

Thai sugar companies are taking the opportunity to buy up tracts of land in Thailand and Cambodia and grow large quantities of sugar on it. Backed up by foreign investors, these companies redirect large quantities of water in their irrigation system, thus turning the river banks in a monocultural wasteland for the global market.

SEVADA

Many villages and communities can no longer stand the drying up of the Mekong. Representatives from Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos and Thailand united in SEVANA to fight Dam construction and sugar multinationals. Het Actiefonds has supported numerous of their actions over the years.

This time, SEVANA organized a four day festival in honor of the 14th of march, the International Day of Actions against Dams. About 40-60 people from the Hug Nam Khong Community Network (Love Mekong Community Network), alliances, and friends. held panel discussions on the current situation of the Mekong, including the energy trade and hydropower dams. The lively conversations also touched on transnational investments, land grabs, and state oppression. There were ceremonies too to call for the spirits of the Mekong, such as a boat action where people travelled to an island in the river to ask the spirits for protection and blessings for the Mekong River and for all life that depends on her.

Het Actiefonds is proud to support SEVADA. We need to fight Dams in order to defend our millions of human and non-human lives, and to preserve the ways of live of myriad smaller communities along the river.

In her first speech as Italy’s prime minister, Giorgia Meloni introduced a motto: Non disturbare chi vuole fare. Don’t disturb those who want to act. She meant it in the most neoliberal sense; do not tax corporations. But don’t get it twisted: Meloni is first and foremost a fascist politician. Since her election in 2022, fascism has become a legitimate form of governing in Italy since the election of Giorgia Meloni in 2022.

That is why we need a strong and united voice against the dangerous racist, sexist, and oppressive Italian government. Associazione Culturale Contrario is strongly convinced that most people in Italy, with or without citizenship, are not fascist. They want to encourage people who feel isolated, confused, afraid or disempowered, to rise up and fight for solidarity, social justice and to protect and build on Italy’s rich history of anti-fascism. 

Contrario has organized a political campaign spanning the first 4 months of 2024 to mobilize and radicalize their neighborhood Centocelle in Rome. It was not an easy task, considering the continued crackdown on left-wing activism by Meloni’s government. The most famous example is, the anti-rave decree, which got a lot of attention from ravers, leftists and other movements. It is a blatant attempt to repress countercultural movements. Contrario campaigned against this decree as well as against other repressive laws, such as a new law that criminalizes radical left archives with the excuse of ‘ending the promotion of terrorism’. This is a blatant attempt to change history, and a direct threat to Contrario’s own archive.

Contrario campaigned for months with an antifascist ‘minifestival’, workshops in poster and sticker making in schools and in their own place in Centocelle, reusing and reinterpreting Meloni’s ‘don’t disturb those who want to act’ in a satirical and situationist way. They want to promote freedom of expression and assembly, freedom of movement for all, neighborhood activism, acts of solidarity, and non-violent direct actions. In short, a wide antifascist movement, full of humor and creativity. They used the stickers and posters together with banners and graffiti in actions across the country.

Throughout their campaign, they have met a lot of unknown residents of the neighborhood, inspiring confidence in future collaborations and solidarities to fight the fascist government. Het Actiefonds is proud to support Contrario. No pasarán! 

Afflictions

In 2019, Georgia ranked second in Europe in the number of victims of air pollution per 100,000 residents. Deaths from respiratory diseases, directly associated with air pollution, increased 589% in 2020. Research shows that the health effects also affect many young children.

Constitution

Thanks support of Het Actiefonds, a protest took place in front of the city hall of Tbilisi, Georgia’s second most polluted city. Prior to this protest, people took to the streets of Tbilisi to hand out leaflets stating the right of every Georgian to live in a healthy environment – defined in Article 29 of the Constitution – and inviting people to join the protest. During an additional night action, images of the polluted city were projected onto the parliament building. Through an online campaign, as many people as possible were involved in the issue, including local “influencers” and journalists.

Success

The group also started legal proceedings against a polluting factory in the municipality of Jighaura. The factory is expected to be closed as a result of the resistance, a process that is being closely monitored by the activists. After all, clean air is everyone’s right!

Frontex’s air surveillance

Frontex is the most infamous agency in the EU responsible for the externalisation of border controls, as it plays a key role in the criminalization and repression of migration. The EU invests heavily in the agency: in 2020 Frontex’s annual budget was 364 million euros. In 2023, the budget more than doubled: 845 million euros. With this money, Frontex was able to develop a fleet of planes and drones that monitor and control the central Mediterranean from above.  

Last year, Frontex claimed that by the end of the year they would be able to fully monitor the central Mediterranean 24 hours a day using satellite imagery and drone operations, which are already partly operational. According to Frontex, these satellites and drones are used to save lives in the Mediterranean, because they can detect boats in distress and warn the relevant authorities in due time to rescue migrants. However, migrants and activists believe that Frontex collaborates with the Libyan coast guard to smuggle migrants heading for Europe back to Libya. Far from helping to save lives in the Mediterranean Sea, Frontex’s surveillance has the primary and sole goal of intercepting people at sea so that they never reach EU shores. When migrants hear a drone buzzing around their ship, they can count on the Libyan coast guard intercepting them and dragging them back within a few hours.

Human rights violations

Frontex knows all too well what fate awaits these people once they return to Libya: systematic and widespread abuse in detention by Libyan authorities and smugglers. At least that’s what Human Rights Watch concludes after extensive research on Frontex’s aerial patrol. No surprise then that Senegalese activists have not welcomed the negotiations between Senegal and the EU on the expansion of Frontex activities in Senegalese waters. They understand that the European border security agency will not save lives and will only increase the number of forced deaths in the Atlantic, and serve the perpetuation of Europe’s racist mobility regime.

Boza Fii monitors the EU

For this reason, the association Boza Fii has decided to organize a yearly 72h event called ‘PUSH BACK FRONTEX’, until Frontex will be abolished. Boza Fii supports voluntary remigrants and deported migrants in their land of origin, where they often lack any official assistance. Boza Fii is very critical of the possibility of Frontex activities in their country. The European commissioner of internal affairs Yiva Johansson has claimed that the deployment of Frontex in Dakar will help to control “human trafficking activities” from the Sahel to the Canary Islands. It is not the first time a European power has taken away the sovereignty of an African country under the guise of combating human rights violations.

A European commission document on Senegal, published on June 7, 2022 and in the hands of Boza Fii, does little to dispel any qualms. It reportedly states that increasing cooperation between Senegal and Frontex should include allowing Frontex officers to carry and use weapons, with full immunity from Senegalese law. “It is clearly the colonial police returning to Africa” Boza Fii concluded during a speech at PUSH BACK FRONTEX, which took place from the 10th to the 12th of August 2023.

Push Back Frontex

On the first day, they opened the event with a press conference with local Senegalese journalists on the deployment of Frontex in their country (Afrique-Frontex-AFIC). Afterwards, they  held a “CommemorAction” for those who died at sea, to remember each and every one of the victims of Europe’s border regime and fight against the borders that killed them, but also to promote the right to identity and dignity for all deaths, and the right of their families to know. The also screened a video on migrants’ rights violation by Frontex. The second day was characterized by workshops and roundtable discussions on deportations and forced returns, visa policies and border externalization (Frontex deployment in West Africa). The last day, Boza Fii organized a 3h march in Dakar to demand freedom of movement for all.

Het Actiefonds is proud to support Boza Fii! The EU does everything it can to render migrant deaths in the Mediterranean and Atlantic invisible, or at the very least not their responsibility. Het Actiefonds has already written extensively on Europe’s anti-migration policy, of which the EU-Turkey deal (2016) and the Tunisia deal (2023) are two of the most famous examples. The work of organizations such as Boza Fii is essential to understand how European border security spills over into new imperial fantasies.

Through debt the Global North enforces its own political agenda in the Global South, i.e. extraction of cheap materials and fossil fuels and keeping refugees at bay. Through the servicing of debt, the Global South lacks the resources for a social and ecologically just transition needed to address among others the climate crisis and for other social policies and climate protection measures. According to Debt Justice, 54 countries are now facing a debt crisis. But instead of agreeing to cancel some of the debt, The World Bank and the IMF use debt as political leverage.

On October 12th, International Day of Indigenous Resistance, Debt for Climate Germany managed to place two concrete blocks in front of the Ministry of Finance in Berlin. The larger of the two weighed over a tonne and symbolized the colonial and climate debt of the Global North towards the South, whereas the smaller and lighter one symbolized the financial debt of the South towards the North. Passers-by and the press were able to follow the gradual removal of the two blocks by the police over the next few hours. The incomparably ‘heavier’ weight of the Global North’s mountain of debt in relation to the Global South’s became concretely visible when the police struggled a lot more to remove the heavier block from the site.

The following day, Debt for Climate held two disruptive actions at the two branches of the Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development in Bonn and Berlin. They specifically called out Svenja Schulze, who represents Germany in the World Bank, which was meeting with the IMF in Marrakech at the time of the action. In Berlin, they managed to climb onto the canopy of the ministry building and do a banner drop from there. At the same time, activists on the ground tampered with the ministry’s fence and wrapped it with barbed wire to symbolize “Fortress Europe” and the European Union’s policy of sealing off refugees from the Global South. They demanded debt cancellation and an end to the deadly EU refugee policy. A second banner drop on the ministry in Bonn did not go as planned, but they managed to unroll the banner elsewhere on the premises. The actions were accompanied with press releases and information events detailing how the Global North tramples on the sovereignty of the Global South through debt.

Het Actiefonds is proud to support Debt for Climate Germany.

If the bill is accepted, landlords that rent houses to LGBTQIA+ people will face jail time. This is going to leave many LGBTQIA+ persons homeless, putting them into an even more dangerous situation than before. Also, any NGO’s and organizations that inform about LGBTQIA+ topics or offer care risk big fines for ‘promoting’ homosexuality.

The recent campaign against LGBTQIA+ people has not deterred some of taking action. In a rural area of eastern Uganda, dozens of activists came together to march for equal rights. With their Let me be me campaign, they aim to change the current narrative being spread by the government of Uganda. They want to bring into light the institutionalized and structural violations committed by the government and its actors in repressing the freedoms of assembly, association and expression of sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression and sex characteristics persons and organizations in Uganda.

That their demonstration proved successful can already be deduced from the fact that media companies and service providers were threatened to withhold from broadcasting or reporting on the action, lest they be accused of ‘spreading’ homosexuality. YouTube videos uploaded to certain blog channels were deleted with directives from the Ugandan Police.

Het Actiefonds is proud to support these activists in their struggle for equal human rights for all gender identities and expressions.