by Soraia Ramos
After 5 days of Conference Programme, the last Plenary Session was dedicated to future actions.
Campaign Planning was the topic and to develop and share new ideas and build future cooperation were the goals.
The 6 workshop groups were divided, according to participants’ choices on this thematics:
1. Fortress Europe No More Deaths – 20th June
2. Week agains Racism – 21th March
3. ‘Kristallnacht’ Commemoration – 9 Novmber
4. Cooperation with Cities against Racism
5. European Elections 2014
6. UNITED Online
The results of this group activities were presented to the participants of the Conference, and they could all contribute to the discussion and brainstorming.
Plans, Approaches, Recommendations and Goals have been shared among the participants and you can find here the main bullet points of each group.
Group 1 – Fortress Europe No More Deaths – 20th June
In order to have unified practices in different states and countries, this group has a ‘very ambitious recommendation to inform the citizen’s through a Program to help creating awareness about this topic’, consisting in:
– Have a central coordinating of policies about refugees and asylum treatments of requests for this issue.
– A person who comes first in a country not to be treated in this first country, but in a centralized system, with quotes, independently of the country that a refugee had entered for the first time, helping the system to proceed in a faster way.
– Use of a 3D animation campaign with a starfish as a symbol that can be used to all the materials, a symbol that people like it and identify with. Launch a Global Visual Multimedia Campaign to make it more visible, faster and more global. Engage more people, targeting people with interest on these specific topics.
Group 2 – Week against Racism – 21th March
The main focus is on the next campaign, the next year.
According to this group, the 2015 Campaign can start right now.
On the next 11 months, the campaign should be related with recognized burning issues, like racism, anti-Semitism and populism.
– ‘Be online’ is very important
– Have an achievable targeting people from all over the Europe, to engage people online and offline, sharing their opinions.
– Create a close dialogue in between the creators of the campaign and the audience of it.
A good example can be to involve people from the society that can work as a role model.
Group 3 – 9th November – ‘Kristallnacht’ Commemoration – Day of Anti-Semitism and Fascism
According to this group, the first thing to think is what we are trying to show with the campaign, the goals.
– ‘In order to have an organized effort in a European level, we have to make it adaptable to each and specific country. We cannot make an different campaign to each country, but having a global idea and a slogan together ‘It happened then, it’s happening now’’.
– To make a comparison with the ideas and speeches, those were used in the Nazi time and today. There are a lot of similarities.
– The idea is first to inform, second to raise awareness about the danger and presence of anti-Semitism and fascism groups in contemporary Europe and third to act, with some specific actions.
– Try to fulfill these solutions recognizing the need of approach from different angles, engaging the society, including contemporary examples of different but real stories of the victims.
– The idea is to connect and prepare this campaign with the 9th November – Day of Anti-Semitism and Fascism.
The Groups Campaigning Ideas and projects have been though to online campaigning too, using tools, like
– Social Networks, like Facebook and Twitter
– Viral videos
– Street flash mobs
– Traditional mainstream media
