2. Sear ese a eee _ 4 globalization is not optional, its effects not for ‘those other people.’ These developments determine very directly the range =i and freedom of everyone's everyday practices. Obviously, there is much more to do than praying and praising the new technologies or providing illusions about keeping them free from state control. Conceptually and practically, networks became battlefields for a regime in which life and its =a components are objects and targets, or, alternatively, as vehicles for autonomy, singularity, and the free flow of ideas, activities, and, most of all, for people as such. This latter vision involves new and unknown fields and possibilities, and with that, political, ethical, and aesthetic challenges: Researching and attacking the mechanisms of transnational collaboration and (post-)governmental networks for contro! and surveillance Exploring new ‘border-crossing’ subjectivities outside of the boredom of so-called ‘nomadic’ congress-hopping, which in almost every case requires undignified begging for visa and invitations Connecting artistic strategies and political interventions, tactical media activism, and ‘real life; militance Testing and developing connections and connectivity between the new social movements and struggles, such as the sans papiers fighting for their right to stay, and the resistance in the countries of origin Debating a new abolitionism, fighting against any concept of border and apartheid inside and outside the perishing BERR BEEBRE He nation states NO ONE IS ILLEGAL CAMPAIGN In summer 1997 we -- three or four dozen political activi ers, and artists ~ published in Hybrid workspace at documenta X the manifesto ‘no one is illegal’ = . Some of us had know each other for years: from the eighties social movements, or from the early nineties, when new, non-functioning concepts of combining arts and politics were tried, such as the ‘wel- fare- committees.’ But some of were meeting for the very first time, having communicated only be email. The new meeting [3 was made possible, of course, only by an unprejudiced or accepting use of new technologies. Nobody was really an ex- pert, but we were very curious about how to enrich and expand classical political symbolism: setting up the first websites, emailing, net-based audio transmissions, videotape exchanges, videoconferencing with hundreds of participants, or even gE broadcasting entire demonstrations with mobile phones. The appeal ‘no one is illegal’ was the starting point for a campaign based on the activity of dozens of local networks in every big city in Germany. But beside the appeal as a common ground, there is no apparatus or centralised structure. Connected by mailing lists and a postal mail circulars, the groups worked under specific circumstances to focus on very different points: hiding and supporting illegal migrants, squatting churches, organising public or semi-public debates about illegal border-crossing, and starting actions against deportations. Three times per year conferences are held, where | the groups exchange experiences and talk about common goals, practices, and problems. EE In 1998, two main Germany-wide events were arranged and supported by the ‘no one is illegal’ network: the Caravan for the rights of refugees and migrants, originally initiated by the Human Rights Association, Bremen. Some weeks before the German elections in September and under the slogan ‘we have no vote, but a voice!,' the caravan moved through more than Ee 40 cities in Germany. Several hundred groups, exile organisations, asylum-seekers or migrant self organisations, and sup- porters joined the various action. The other event was a camp on the Germar/Polish border (for an extensive report of this event, go to the nettime archive, contrast.org/borders or the nSm3 website). adio practitioners, photographers, filmma! CALL FOR 1999 CAMPS: AGAINST THE EUROPEAN AND US BORDER REGIME For the freedom of movement and free access for all For a second time, the "No one is illegal” EU frontier between Germany, Poland, and the Czech Republic. From August 7th till 15th, activists from many different ze countries will gather at a campsite some hundred meters from borderline. Several connections to simultaneous camps all a over europe and in the US are being planned: internet, mobile phones, snail mail and personal exchange. The event's slo- & gan is “Hacking the borderline” points up the central role that media task forces and “real-life” militants will play. We in- s ce S campaign will move to the