Mediterranean citizenship: is it possible to build a grassroots movement for a mediterranean as common space?

“MEDITERRANEAN CITIZENSHIP: IS IT POSSIBLE TO BUILD A GRASSROOTS MOVEMENT FOR A MEDITERRANEAN AS COMMON SPACE?”

Moderator: Gianluca Solera, director of Italy-Europe-Mediterranean/global citizenship department at COSPE

Guests:

Emel Kurma (TK): General coordinator of the Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly, she was involved in theprotest movement of Gezi Park, Istanbul; she has worked for years with social movements, protecting citizenship rights and fundamental freedoms in Eastern Europe.

Kamal Lahbib (MAR): Ex-political prisoner, he has participated in the creation of numerous Moroccannon-governmental organizations. Director of Alternatives in Marocco and a member of the Forum Maghreb- Mashreq, he is the leader of the anti-globalization movement in his country, and one of the thinking heads of the World Social Forum held in Tunis in 2013.

Lina Ben Mhenni (TUN): Tunisian activist, blogger and language assistant at the Tunis University; she has won the Deutsche Welle International Blog Award and the El Mundo International Journalism Prize. In 2011, she was a candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize, thanks to her role during the Tunisian revolution. Since August 2013, she has been under governmental protection because of threats she has received from Islamic extremists.

Is it possible to build a grassroots movement for a Mediterranean as a common space and for Mediterranean Citizenship?”: this is the central issue of the dialogue that involves Kamal Lahbib, Emel Kurma and Lina Ben Mhenni. Answering this question, Kamal Lahbib speaks about past political activism and the relation with new generations, and he underlines the necessity to maintain a connection between past political activists and young people of the 2011 generation. Maybe old activists were more ideological, young ones cannot so easily be influenced by ideological structures, but they have a global perception about rights and they are more open to discussion. Old ones wanted to conquer the Power, while young people want to conquer rights and they consider the Power as one of the actors in the game. “This intergenerational relationship is very important and it can lead to results if it is cultivated and developed”, Kamal underlines. Emel Kurma speaks about the Identity and the social struggle: the social dialogue and the political discourse have taken a national translation in several countries and in progressive movements too, reproducing a feeling of belonging and identity. “We get involved in debates in which we use our identities as justification”, Emel explains. The new challenge is to get rid of the identity reflex and manage to build new alliances, beyond the social, cultural, national or religious groups, to affirm the centrality of rights and fight against oppressions. The story of the Syrian city of Kobane, under the Syrian regime and then ISIL’s siege, and the public reaction that has emerged in Turkey, in social contexts which were far away from the Syrian revolution, is a good sign, according to Emel. Information and citizenship are the key factors proposed by Lina Ben Mhenni: the free information and the social medias gave fundamental support to the activists during the revolutions and the social protests, but information is only a tool, not an end. Without social roots, the political activism is destined to perish too. To inform is not enough, we need to stay on the ground. According to the Tunisian blogger, this is the real expression of citizenship: “spaces of sociality and solidarity in difficult districts, rural areas and peripheral regions. We also need this”. Activism for rights means presence on the territory, support to the institutions and the involvement of the population. To the question on the meaning of the Mediterranean Citizenship, Lahbib answers: “Mediterranean Citizenship means respect of differences, working with the minorities, recognition of cultural and political rights, as we do for example when valorising the Amazigh language next to the Arab one and the European ones”. Political activism has to involve social and cultural diversity as part of its own political patrimony, to break neo-colonialist logics and to facilitate the exchange between different parts of the movements and of the organized civil society. This should help to disengage from national dynamics, which are not interested in a project of integration within their own country, nor among Mediterranean countries. “Mediterranean Citizenship’s significance is to work with refugees and immigrates, with all the victims of conflicts economical recession, oppressive regimes or limitation to the freedom of movement within our society” Emel Kurma adds. Hospitality is not only a matter of humanitarian emergency, regulation of workforce flows and international solidarity. In the Mediterranean, it is a “family” matter, it is part of our history and our richness, and for this reason it should be part of a political project on integration. “When we work with the Kurdish or Syrian refugees, for example, we protect a frame of regional cohesion, which is indispensable for the prosperity and the stability of the region”, Emel explains. Fundamentally, according to Lina Ben Mhenni, Mediterranean Citizenship means fundamental rights respected everywhere, women equals to men, immigrants equal to host communities, the right to reside where we want, the right to say what we think. “We have to avoid fighting for our own rights in our own country, we have to fight for rights in a regional level” , Lina said. A deprived in Tunisia and a young unemployed in Madrid are carrying on the same fight. What is missing is a qualitative leap. Lina concludes with the following appeal: “we have to cross these fights and find the tools to organise us. We have to exchange practices and come up with a common set of goals. We have to establish common spaces of organization, action and mobilisation”.