Second assembly of True Counterpower in solidarity with refugees

At the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, the second ‘True Counterpower’ event took place in the ‘Museum as Parliament’. The parliament was built in 2018 by Dutch visual artist Jonas Staal in collaboration with the Kurdish community. Various events and meetings are being organized in the parliament, a reconstruction of the People’s Parliament established in Derik for the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES). The refugees’ struggle was the main focus of the second ‘True Counterpower’ event in the parliament, also called the People’s Parliament of Rojava.

The first gathering of grassroots organizations started with Kurdish women, Iranian women and environmentalists. The second meeting featured presentations from FossilFree, Linangan Art and Culture Network, WoW, The Red Lilies, Samidoun Netherlands, African Refugees Collective (ARC), Sudanese Refugees Collective (SRC) and Alassa Mfouapon from the Friends of Refugee Solidarity based in Germany. The event began with the Kurdish song ‘Amediyê’ performed by the museum’s choir, and the opening speech was followed by the introduction of the People’s Parliament and Democratic Confederalism.

Demonstration for refugee rights

After the opening, two different workshops took place simultaneously. The Filipino activists trained participants in Tatsulok, a street theater technique, while FossilFree gave a presentation on the harms of fossil fuels and continued with a workshop on how to prepare a campaign. In the second part of the programme, Samidoun gave a speech about Palestinian political prisoners and their conditions, followed by making cards and writing letters to send to Palestinian political prisoners. The ARC and the SRC organized a demonstration instead of a workshop in the museum. Together with the participants, the activists marched en masse from the museum to the municipality of Eindhoven to protest against the inhumane conditions of refugees and the prolongation of the asylum process. After a city councilor from the Green Left party (GL) approached the activists and listened to their problems, a dossier was handed over to the municipality and the group returned to the museum.

Application to the ICC

In the final part of the event, Alassa Mfouapon from Friends of Refugee Solidarity in Germany participated virtually as his visa application to attend the meeting was rejected. During his speech, Mfouapon, who has been fighting for the rights of refugees in Germany for years, announced that together with his lawyer he had applied to the International Criminal Court to identify and prosecute the authorities responsible for the drowning of refugees in Greece. The event concluded with brief presentations and evaluations of the workshops. The next ‘True Counterpower’ event will take place on 6 November, with training from various grassroots. The final meeting of the event, which aims to build a progressive coalition, will take place in early 2024 with the participation of all organizations.