CAMPAIGN INFORMATION

March 21st was declared International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination by the General Assembly of the United Nations as a reaction to the murder of 69 demonstrators in Sharpeville, South Africa in 1960.
During the European-wide Action Week, which centres around 21 March, thousands of people actively engage themselves for tolerance and equal rights.
This year once again hundreds of activities will take place all around Europe, organised by a wide variety of organisations. Activities range from demonstrations to film festivals and from special TV programs to cleaning the walls of racist slogans.

Why cooperate in European campaigns?
Think globally, act locally
Racism is not a local issue. Equal rights is an international demand. European campaigns can help set the agenda on all levels. We have to campaign on local, regional and European level to get our point across. By linking local and national actions, we can generate European-wide publicity. We can show that there is an enormous amount of people that believe in an intercultural open society. It gives all participants a new energy to go on with their everyday struggle against racism and intolerance.
You will get motivated and inspired by the ideas and enthusiasm of other people, learn from each others experience and views, generate more publicity because of the scope and size of the activity, mobilise more people as your reach a combined audience...

What can you do?
All organisations, large and small, can contribute in their own way to the Action Week. Student organisations and teacher unions frequently take up the occasion of this week to organise special lessons, campus meetings, petitions, etc. Media may be inclined to work with you to produce special issues, TV- programs and radio shows. Public debates, round tables and conferences provide places for reflection and brainstorming. By organising them during the Action Week you give both the week and the activity more weight and more publicity. Last year thousands of people demonstrated against the laws and attitudes that threaten the building of an open intercultural society. We can take this week to show our anger. Street theatre, removing graffiti and other visible actions can alert the public to the existence of the Action Week. On the other side of this leaflet you find several suggestions for practical actions. If you have good ideas that you would like to share with others, let us know.

Raise your voice against racism
Remember the commemorative minutes of silence? Participants at the UNITED conference in Ireland proposed an easy action that is just the opposite: one minute of noise. Making noise could mean singing songs, whistling, shouting, banging on pots and pans, etc. Many migrants and refugees do not have a political voice, but we can let them be heard in the streets!

Help?
Underneath you find a form to let us know about your activities and to order post cards. UNITED will produce a list of all activities around Europe, which you can use to make contacts with other groups, to exchange speakers and for your press work. A media release will be sent out to all important European media. Journalists will be informed of the activities planned around Europe and referred to specific countries or organisations if they wish. The report on the 1998 campaign is available if you want to get ideas for successful actions.
The campaign logo is available on floppy and by e-mail as well as on paper on request.

Publish your annual report during the Action Week!
Annual reports provide the outside world with an idea of what our greatest concerns were and what we did about it during the past year. In Vienna, during a UNITED conference, participants decided to concentrate the publication of annual activity reports of their organisation around the European-wide Action Week. If all anti-racism NGOs publish their reports during the Week it should be possible to provide the media and the authorities with a european overview. What new methods were used to deal with racism and intolerance? Did racism become more vicious? Who was targeted the most?
Your reports should be sent to UNITED well before the Action Week. A short overview of racism and anti-racism in Europe in the past year will then be produced.

UNITED for Intercultural Action
the European network against nationalism, racism, fascism and in support of migrants and refugees, coordinates the activities at the European level and publishes the list of activities all over Europe. Within the UNITED network more than 500 organisations cooperate in practical campaigns and activities.

Up

UNITED for Intercultural Action
European network against nationalism, racism, fascism
and in support of migrants and refugees
Postbus 413, NL-1000 AK Amsterdam, Netherlands
phone +31-20-6834778, fax +31-20-6834582,
info@unitedagainstracism.org, www.unitedagainstracism.org