rC3 preroll music
Herald: Hello and welcome, dear creatures,
to our first sets of talks. And now a
quick info about the translation. Der nun
folgende Vortrag wird ins Deutsche
übersetzt. Ihr findet die Übersetzung im
Menü eures Videoplayers oder auf der
Webseite unter dem Videoplayer im Tab
"Formats". French translation And
exploring the virtual event such as rC3 is
difficult. So please help us out. Drop the
herald news show, hints or interesting
stuff under the email address
newsshow@rc3.world.Or go to the blog
newsshow.rc3.world. And we have a Q&A
section for this talk "The Mission of the
MV Louise Michel". There is the
possibility to ask questions. And when you
want to leave us a question, use the IRC
channel which is also linked below or go
to Twitter or the fediverse, using the
hashtag #rc3one. That is rc number 3
letter o letter n letter e: rc3one. And
now the upcoming talk is "The Mission of
the MV Louise Michel". Feminism will be
antiracist or it won't be. Search and
rescue is not standing for...SAR is not
standing for search and rescue, as going
by the Louise Michelle crew, it also
stands for solidarity and resistance. The
talk will be about the mission of the
rescue vessel Louise Michel and why
smashing borders won't work without
smashing the patriarchy and the other way
around. The talk is given by a small group
of people who run together with many
others the high speed lifeboat MV Louise
Michel, which patrols the Mediterranean.
And now let's go live to the bridge of the
Louise Michel. The stage is yours.
Hannah: Hello. Thanks a lot for the invitation
to have a slot at the CCC 2020. Although
we have almost no time to...for
preparation. But we are anyway happy to
sit here today and give you a small impact
about what the Louise Michel project is or
can be. So, there is much more than could
be said in 40 minutes. So hello everyone.
We are sitting on the bridge of the lovely
Louise Michel. At the moment we have 6
crew on boards. And here in the
room are Leona, Anouk, Yakob, Lorence and
me, I'm Hannah. And we will give you a
short introduction about what the project
has been done in the last 12 to 14 months.
And then we will try to make a slight
switch and talk about mostly
sexist boundaries.
Leona: So, yes, maybe many of you already
heard, this ship is a search and rescue
ship. And was bought nearly one year ago.
It all started with Banksy writing an
email to Pia Klemp, offering a ship. And
then after a few discussions, the ship was
bought and a group of a few people put
many work, many effort in it to prepare a
former navy French navy ship into a search
and rescue vessel. The preparation when
nearly all of them were done in France and
the ship was brought then to Burriana in
Spain. And, turned from a French navy boat
into...a pink disaster. laughs Is now again in
Burriana, Spain. We left for our first
mission on the 5th...of the 18th of
August. Went to the central Mediterranean
Sea in front of the Libyan coast. And we
were involved of rescuing almost 300
people. And after returning to Spain, the
ship didn't get detained or didn't get
seized, what we kindly or we were
expecting this. So we aren't detained, but the ship is
blocked. And now after the first mission,
a group of people decided to keep the ship
to get the ship ready again for the next
mission. And that's basically what we are
working on right now. Like getting a new
registration, because Louise Michel was
registered as a so-called pleasure craft,
as a motor yacht, which was no problem at
all, because it's obviously a pleasure
craft and the motor yacht. So as long as
authorities...well...they didn't know that
we were supposed to do a search and
rescue, it was no problem at all. But
after they found out that we are doing
search and rescue, we lost our
registration. And are now working on
getting a new one to be able to sail
again. And yeah, so we are now in harbour,
doing shipyard time. That means preparing
the ship, working on problems, fixing
stuff that needs to be fixed on the ship,
which is quite a lot. And yeah, also doing
a lot of paperwork, because as many of you
also may know, search and rescue is very
political and there are many political
issues...let's call it like this...that
needs to be fixed. Many stones are...they
are put in our way. And yeah, that's what
we're working on right now.
H: In the short description was
already said, that we don't understand
SAR, that normally stands for search and
rescue. That we understand this SAR as
solidarity and resistance. That
means...all of what we are trying to say
with this, is that we are not standing our
activism or our acting not as a
humanitarian thing, but as political. And
this is inspired by the central critique,
that humanitarian work, which is just to
say this kind of short. The other medal
or the other side of the same medal. So
humanitarian work tries to milder what
capitalism, patriarchy or racism do to and
with the world. And so, it makes the shit
that's going on looking better. But it's
making invisible what all these structures
of power cause. So this is racism,
this is death. This is...they make the
structures of inequality and power
invisible.
L: And this is kind of what also our
project is about, not only going to sea
saving lives, because the - obviously -
the EU is not willing or...mean they are
definitely...they would be able to do it,
but they are not willing to save lives or
to stop people from drowning. So, we are
definitely...this is part of our project,
but part of our project, the main part of
our project is definitely to put some
effort in changing the whole system,
because as Hannah already said, like
capitalism and definitely racism, they
cause the death, that we can see at our
borders, especially in the Mediterranean
Sea. So without capitalism, without racism
and also without the patriarchy, there
would be not such a problem. Like there
wouldn't be so many people drowning at
sea. And this is that, what we mainly
understand, what we should do...like,
bringing effort in changing the system.
H: And that also means, that our actions
have to be followed by the adults and they
have to be reflected. We have to reflect
on what we are doing and not get caught by
this stupid game, all this disgusting
game, that is played by national states,
by the European Union, or by all those
authorities, who are trying to force us to
work on stupid registrations. So what the
main situation is, for us and also for all
other rescue ships is, that we are
blocked, that we are hindered, that the
European Union stopped all their rescue
programs they had. The central
Mediterranean is still the most deadly
border in the world, but it's not the only
deadly border in the world. Borders at all
are killing and causing death and torture
and suffering. And the borders are
imaginary lines. Or boundaries are
imaginary lines, that have been set up at
some point. And so it makes the people
believe, that there is something, that has
to be protected...by the national borders
or the borders of states are not the only
borders we are struggling with. And there
are also borders between, or boundaries that
we have to cross, like gender, like
racism, like capitalism, like
inequality...Maybe I can hand over.
L: Like what Hannah already said, like the
boundaries not only exist between
countries and states or even continents,
but also between human beings, between
people. And this is something we are also
seeing like a lot on ships. All of us
worked on different kind of ships. And
we've seen a lot of borders, a lot of
boundaries, whether they were quite
visible or most of them were more
invisible between people. And the reason
for that, or the reasons for those
boundaries, I think...you said them
already, are mostly gender, are the color
of the skin of people, the level of
education people have. And all this stuff
is causing boundaries between people and
borders between people. And we, as a
political project, not we are not only
trying to fight the borders between
countries and helping, or we're trying to
put effort in helping people across those
borders between countries, but also
helping people and forcing...not only
forcing, but...challenging ourselves to
cross those borders, that society teached
us to live within. So, we are also trying
to...as I said, help people, but also
challenging ourselves to cross those
borders that exists in our head and that
are very invisible from time to time. But
when you work as a crew, they get...you
can feel them, you can't see them, but you
can feel them.
H: And this is maybe something that we can
say as one of our main understanding.
So, we don't see, when we talk about
migration or when we talk about people on
the move, so, migration is everything.
It's also migration, when I move from
Berlin to Spain, because I think I like
the beautiful, all the warm weather more.
This is also migration, there's nothing
like this.
L: And I mean, the weather is quite nice.
We are in Spain right now and it's just
wonderful to be here. laughs
H: But this is also migration. Migration
is also when you move from the landscape
or from land side to the city. But it's
not framed as migration. And I think
there...it's always a difficulty to go
somewhere else. And people who are
crossing the borders of the European
Union, we don't understand this as fleeing
people, who need our urgent help and
support. But we understand this
movement, there's a kind of challenging
borders. So, because I don't accept these
imaginary lines, that they were told, that
they are not allowed to cross. Freedom of
movement is a basic right of human beings
and should be like this. And this is
something, that we should stand for. And
so then the people always say like, OK,
there is e.g. an institution like Frontex,
that is a policing, military organization.
And in 2011, they were told to accept a
new rule. That means they are not allowed
to do pushbacks. Because they do
pushbacks. But what else do we expect? So,
we have someone who is controlling
borders. We expect that these people
controlling borders will say to someone,
who wants to cross it: "Oh, you're not
allowed". And they expect, that the
opposite will say: "Ahja, cool...I will go
home again." That's not how it works. And
this leads to a situation of violence,
because as soon as this border is not
accepted and someone crosses anyway it
will have an effect.
And that's, what we are facing
at the moment and at the very
moment where - sorry, I need
a second, I lost my point. laughing
L: You were talking about the moment that
people cross borders without having the
permission to cross them.
H: Yeah, but I lost it. It's just gone.
L: laughs so, maybe I can jump in until
Hannah finds her point and I think her
point was pretty good. So, I would love
her to get back to that. But, when we were
preparing this talk, we also talked about,
who was even able to draw the lines as
borders. Like, for example, Frontex is
"protecting" the border between, for
example, African states and European
states. And, but there are so many other
borders. And we figured out in our heads,
that it's always the most powerful
position, who is able to draw those lines
as borders. And when it comes to borders
or boundaries between people, that it's
also, again, the most powerful, powerful
position that is drawing this line. And
this should be changed. So it should not
be these powerful persons deciding, where
the boundaries or the borders are and who
is allowed to live within which border,
like...for example, cis man decides this
is the border between a male and a female
person, who's deciding this. This is just
stupid and same for borders between
countries like European states is
deciding, so this is the line and I'm a
European person, so I'm allowed to live
within this line and all of you should
just fuck off and stay outside. And you
can just put this into many, many
different situations, I think.
H: Borders are a matter of distinction and
it separates people from each other. So,
while it is saying you are different than
me? Because you are male and this is a
female or because you are white and black
and that's your passport and that's your
passport. And maybe you don't even have a
passport. And we are mostly talking in our
crew about gendered borders, about - and
this is something that makes sense, when
we are understands a ship as a place or as
a space of hierarchy, of patriarchy. That
is, so it brings bad luck, when you have
a woman on board. That's the story that's
told. And we have this talk also
yesterday, that we have a funny fireball,
that you can throw into the fire, when
there is a fire and then will explode. And
there's a picture on it and you see a male
who is throwing, like, very nice and
slightly into a fire.
L: He's definitely the hero of the
situation.
H: As it is. And there's also a pictogram
of a woman. And she's putting this ball
from the top into burning oil.
L: Very nicely.
H: Very nicely and she's smiling. And this
stands for something, that we are facing,
when we, as not cis males, enter a space,
like a ship. We notice so every day, that
we are kind of in the wrong place. We
notice that it's a different, when you go
alone through a port. We have all these
visible things, that we can talk about.
So, when you have a male chief engineer, it's
a male chief engineer and you can say this
is a powerful position. But there are so
many things, that you can't see that clearly.
L: Yeah. So they are these visible
boundaries, but also like invisible
boundaries. So we were also talking about,
what is changing, when you have, for
example, cis men coming on board the ship.
What does this create, like what feelings
change and how feelings change and how
behavior also changes? And what does
it make with the whole crew? Maybe all of
you also have situations in mind, when you
were only, for example, cis females or
FLINT persons in a project or in a room
and how this was, how you were working
together? How you were living together?
And as soon as cis man is entering the
room, the project, how this is changing.
And this is also about boundaries between
people, I think.
H: And it's challenging us a lot. So,
always, when we try to crew mostly FLINT
people. So, we try to turn the
usual...what is a Normalverteilung
(German, Gaussian Distribution)?
L: The usual Normalverteilung
(German), sorry for the English speaking
persons. laughs. L: I've no idea.
H: So, usually these rooms are structured,
that if you have women on board or FLINT
people on board. That you have one or two
and the rest of cis men. And we try...
L: And, maybe also saying, that on many,
many ships, the FLINT person is doing the
crew care, or the, for NGO ships, it's
the guest care positions. Like many
medical departments are made of, we can
say it, like of women and guest care and
crew care is, like are mostly female
positions. But when it comes to engineers
or captain or officer positions, this is
mainly cis male position.
unintelligible
H: And that was what I was about to say. So,
we are doing crewing for the ship and we
try to crew mostly FLINTs persons. And,
that also means, that we can open the doors.
Although we are kind of the door keepers
and we can open the doors for those
people, who usually have it much more
difficult to enter such a project or to
enter such positions, that they can take
over, when they are entering Louise
Michel. But of course, that's the story
about being exclusive. And we have, we are
struggling a lot with the fact, that we
are still working in a surrounding, that
is super masculine dominated. So, always
when we are looking for people, who can
take over the powerful positions, like
being a captain, an officer, a chief
engineer. We are having a wide range of
cis men, who offer their support. But on
the other side, there's no one.
And this is something that is
really a problem. And it takes
us much time to deal with the
situation, because we really want
to stick to this idea of creating a kind
of, as possible as that could be, a kind of
safe space. And, because we experienced,
that the surrounding and the climate on
the ship, is definitely another one, when
you have a most FLINT crew. So, there is
more space you can give for trust, because
people come and say, when they don't trust
themselves to do something, or when they
don't feel comfortable with something,
there is much more talking, there is much
more reflecting. It's super easy to hand
over jobs, when you have a climate that
allows not to know. When you have a
climate, that allows you to be weak,
because this is a ship and when it goes
out and there's a problem, that no one
said like: "Hoho, I made a mistake, but
maybe I just cover it with something."
L: No, no, no, don't do it.
H: Don't do it. And then it's important,
that someone comes and says: "I don't know
how to do it." And...
L: Maybe this is at least, what we have
seen during the last month, when we were
working together on this ship as a new
crew and with many different people coming
from different countries, from different
environments. That - or at least it's my
experience, I don't know what
about you? That it was many
times, it were women asking
for help or being less self-confident and
trying to, like, double check, when it
was, on the other hand, like men always
jumping in, like, being much more self-
confident and maybe it's for reasons and
it's totally fine. But I think this is how
we grew up, how we got educated and what
society teached us, how we should be,
like, women always being or many times,
being very or less self-confident than men
are. And this is something we try to
challenge on this ship, like, empowering
women to be at least as self-confident as
the men are, or as the men try to be.
H: Maybe we should come to an end. So, I
think now we are at the point, where we
can talk, like, a lot more about all these
little lines, that we are crossing every
day. And it's not just
about unintelligible
and taking care of the engine room.
L: We can talk about a lot about the
engine, because our chief engineer has to
stay off, so he's not here. laughs We
can say a lot about him.
H: And...but I think for all kinds of
political action, the main thing is that
we have to, we have to stay. And maybe
sometimes we also have to improve it. The
enmity with the circumstances and by
keeping the friendship to the world or
with the world. And, so we are trying to
create a kind of an open space, by never
accepting any fucking kind of border, that
is dropping or crossing our waves. So we
have to reflect, we have to force
ourselves to step about this or to cross
this borders, to step over it. And to not
getting lost or desperated or frustrated.
And this is what we can be. So, we can
create a space, where even when we are
blocked and it always feels kind of
senseless to get to this sucking port,
sitting around don't know what you are
doing, because why we are sitting here and
everyone's talking about all those lovely
pink little ship that tries to challenge
European borders. We are - in the end - we
have to say, we are blocked. But somehow we
also have to deal with this frustration
and we have to go on. So, there's no
possibility to say, like, OK, they forbid
us to do this - so, we can't accept that,
but at the same time, we have always have
to challenge ourselves. And we always have
to support ourselves. And we have to
understand ourselves as part of a social
movement. And this is, why we really
appreciate to get some questions from the
audience to get something more, than this
limited space we are living in here.
L: Yeah, maybe as a conclusion, we can
say, that we are not only fighting or
dreaming of a world without borders
between countries, but also for a world,
or we have this vision of a world without
borders between humans in any
kind, in any way. Thank you.
Herald: That is a nice way to talk.
Thanks so much for telling us all that.
And I can relate the virtual applause
you're getting from the
audiences. You sadly cannot
hear that. But I am sure,
that there's a massive feeling of
gratitude and thank you from all of those
who are watching. And I've got some
questions for you from the audience. And,
if we've still got some minutes left, so
when you have an additional question, use
the IRC, link below the video, or use
Twitter or the Fediverse using the hashtag
#rc3one in letters. So hashtag rc number
three letters o, n, e. Then our signal
angel will put that down in the pad, so I
can ask the question. And the first
question coming in to you, for you is:
"Have you had any direct confrontation or
other experience with Frontex
officers or boats?"
L: Maybe I can answer the question. So,
yes, definitely yes. When we go in to the
center of the Mediterranean Sea, when
you go, yeah, in front of the coast of
Libya, for example, you can basically
nearly every day see Frontex airplanes
crossing, like, searching for boats,
searching for NGOs; what the hell are they
doing there. And, yeah, so it's from what
I experienced during the missions, I went
on, it was mainly airplanes, that were
searching for, for example, boats in
distress or people on the move and giving
this information unfortunately not to NGO
ships, for example, or informing
coastguards in the way like, OK, those
people need help, but informing, for
example, the so-called Libyan coast guard
to go there to push the people back. And
that's definitely one of the main
experiences I make with the Frontex. Like
organizing illegal pushbacks.
Herald: Most of it was plane sightings and
not direct contact with personnel or ships
in touching distance. OK, so the next
question is more of a technical side.
I think the core of the question was about
how to grade situations, but I'm trying to
read that out, I think something is lost
in the translation. I hope you see what
that means, but take it in good-meant
spirit. How do you define a maritime
emergency / ship wreckage? Do
you already take action for a dinghy with
a working motor and rescue them? Or is it
only about situations where people's lives
is crucially endangered? Is there some
guideline that you can...
Oh!
L: Great.
Herald: What's happened, Toto? Yes.
H: He was asking a question...
L: If this is our Internet, now
we can just sit here.
H: No, I think it's not our Internet, I think
it's just the audio signal.
Herald: I just saw the chat explode,
with all the technical stuff.
Herald: I have so many good questions I
would like to ask, but yeah,
technicalities are the great dictator and
we are allowed to go four minutes over,
right Toto? I'm preparing to go four minutes
over. When will we ever be back?
Give me a go and then I start.
So second question, so maybe something
is lost in the translation,
but take it in a good
spirit. This is about technicalities. How
do you define a maritime emergency/ship
wreckage? Do you already take action for a
dinghy with a working motor and rescue
them? Or is it only about situations where
people's life is crucially endangered?
H: As soon as you enter the central
Mediterranean Sea and try to make it from
e.g. Libya to Italy with a dinghy, with a
small engine, even if it's working, it's a
distress case.
Herald: Yeah, OK.
L: Yeah. And to be honest, it's not only
if the engine is broken down or there's
already water coming in, but those
dinghies are normally super crowded. And
you never know about the weather coming up
because me personally, I always have this
idea of the beautiful central
Mediterranean Sea with nice weather, no
waves at all. But that's definitely not
the case. So, um, yeah, I think it's not
always about this super dramatic scenes,
but as Hanah said, as soon as you enter
those boats, this is not a good idea.
Herald: And and it's quite a distance and
it would take several days to get there
right? So it is it is not a pleasure
cruise or something.
L: No, I would not say so, not in general.
Herald: OK, next question. Is the crew
also trying to overcome hierarchies on
board, are they trying to find structures
that work without classical captains etc.?
L & H: Yes.
Herald: And, I'm sorry. Go ahead.
H: So there is, there is a legal side of
the things. And so when the ship is on the
sea and when it's operating, the person
who is responsible is always the captain.
So the person who's facing all the legal
consequences are those in powerful
positions. And this is something that we
have to keep in mind. But for all
decisions that are made on the ship, it's
not up to the captain or the leader who's
the coordination on the mission or to the
few powerful positions we have, the
decisions get made by all, and we are
trying to keep it as flat as possible. And
of course, everyone's allowed also to say
his or her opinion and it's going to be
acknowledged.
L: But we have to be honest about that, we
have to challenge ourselves to make this
running, to work with this flat hierarchy.
Yeah, we are on it, we are far from
perfect, but we are trying to improve
ourselves every day.
Herald: Good. OK, the nice people of the
signal angel crowd have written me down
another question. Has there been other
attempts to sabotage your work except the
legal challenges of the ship license,
maybe attempts to distract you from
complicated work, maybe even algorithmic
driven behavior recognition or something?
This is more of a technical question.
H: I think I didn't really get the
question. But to be honest, this legal
side of things is quite effective. So
there was once the question of we can't
just leave as a pirate ship without a
flag. And if we do so and that's an
invitation for all armed forces to enter
our ship. And this is quite effective. And
I think the main problem is with all kinds
of repression. And that's how police also
works and is that it is not just trying to
block you or to sanction you, but it's
also about destroying structures. And this
is what we have to work on and all the
structures we are organizing to not let
them destroy our networks, our
connections, our relations and everything
else.
Herald: OK, so this legal action works
really, really well. So the idea of I've
given some context for this. Do you think
that you're constantly surveyed by others
so that they can throw sticks into the
spinning wheels?
L: We definitely have to keep this in mind
all the time. We would not talk about very
sensitive stuff or we are trying very hard
to protect our data. But we are not sure
about this, but we have to keep this in
mind. I'll be keeping this in mind.
Herald: And that's another question about
the hierarchy on board. More specifically
what decision making processes do you use
on board? Do you want to give us some
insight on that?
H: Yes, of course. We do, we are organized
with a small crew, like a core crew, who's
coordinating and is also kind of decision
making. This is sometimes a problem, but
the ship always works independently of
it's core crew. And the crew who is
involved is organizing themselves so they
can have a very structured day, like every
day morning meetings or try to find other
ways to at the moment, the situation with
the current crew is that we have our
construction sites that we are working on,
but everyone is free to organize
themselves. If they want to work up to 11
in the evening, they're more than welcome.
But we will stop them at some point
because we don't want, we have an anti burn
out policy. So then they also have to start
later. So, no, we don't really have a
plan, but we are trying to give the
communication to those or the organization
to those who are doing it. That means the
ship organizes itself and the core crew
is trying to to take care of all the
organizational side of the things. That
means caring about money, about
registration, the legal aspects. But at
least we are always giving a big part of
our responsibilities that we have as a
core crew at the moment. And they wanted me
a part of the core crew. And the ship crew
is doing their own organization together
with us. So, yeah.
Herald: Yeah. For information for the
studio, I'm planning to go four minutes
over and I'm already one over. So there's
room for two more questions. After having
rescued people do you social distance them
because of their unknown health status.
This is a Corona related one.
L: Yeah. Lovely. I'm so happy to talk
about this.
Herald: Aren't we all.
L: Yeah, great. Finally. So after the
rescue we try to wear masks and to hand
over masks to our guests and for sure the
guests, they had to, it was mandatory for
them to quarantine when they came on land
in Italy. And we tried to make everything
possible to keep the guests healthy, like
protecting them from our possible
infection, but also trying to protect the
crew from getting infected. So this is a
small boat. We have to be realistic. It's
not possible to social distance like two
meters like there is no way. But we do
everything possible to protect us and
other people.
H: And I think we have to add to this,
that this corona thing is used from the
authorities to stop us because they say
it's not possible on some NGO ships to
keep the social distance, to ban [us]. And
to be honest, when you look at the
situation on the Mediterranean Sea, when
you have a question about drowning or
spreading Corona, I would prefer spreading
Corona. Yeah.
L: So we we think Corona should not be an
excuse to close harbors or to block ships
because as you all know treat first what
kills first and drowning kills you first.
And Corona is quite a bad thing and very
serious, but it should not be an excuse to
close our borders.
Herald: And follow up on that. You said in
your talk that the Louise Michel is a safe
space. Do you advertise or announce this
in any way when you rescue somebody? Do
you have a standard procedure where you
say, listen, this is a little bit
different as other ships or something like
that? Or how do you approach those you are
rescuing and inform them about that? I
think it's not the first step. But how do
you do this kind of information?
H: I would just say first that we are not
a safe space, but we are trying to get as
close as possible. And the rest I have to
hand over to Leona.
L: We are definitely talking to our guests
about this, telling them that we are
living very close on a very small space
and that this is a safe space. So there's
no place for racism or any kind of
discrimination, weapons, drugs whatsoever.
So this is definitely a topic and it works
at least what I experience, It's it wasn't
a problem at all. So there was a huge
respect from the people on the move and
from the crew among each other. That was
great to see.
Herald: So our time is up. Thank you so
much for coming to us live from the boat
Louise Michel. It was a pleasure. And now
it is my great pleasure to hand over to
the Herald news show, which will be live
from Bielefeld Heideblümchen. And, see you
in the next talk. Bye.
L: Thank you. Bye.
rC3 postroll music
Subtitles created by c3subtitles.de
in the year 2020. Join, and help us!