The ORGANIC Collective began discussing the idea of working on borderHack 2005 in February 2005, because it seemed like a great tactic. Immediately, we began contacting the organizers of previous borderHacks and as many people as possible who may have wanted to get involved with the organizing. At this time, we had heard nothing of any plans for a borderHack this year, and there had not been one the year before. As soon as was possible, we met with the previous organizers and asked if we could work together on a borderHack event for this year.
When we began this project, we did not know that one of the main goals of borderHack in the past was to be different from European border camps in that it is organized by those most affected by the border, not those in the so called (imperialist labelled) first world. We asked the previous organizers if borderHack could grow to include organizers on both sides of the fence and a camp on both sides of the fence, but either they did not want that kind of growth or we have not succeeded in working with them in a way that they feel makes them confortable enough to work with us.
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We wish to apologize to the organizers of borderHack for any misunderstanding and to step back from the project. We still offer our support in whatever way the organizers want us to support them. For information about borderHack 2005, please see borderHack.org.
Our intention was never to recreate and support the imperialist dynamic of control of Mexico by the United States. Our intention was always to attack that dynamic, attack the border and work together as equals, while respecting and prioritizing the voices of those in the communities most adversely affected by the border.
We admit fault for not knowing much about previous borderHacks before beginning this endeavor. Much of the information about borderHack was not available online when we began the project and our organization did not exist when the other borderHacks took place. When they did occur, many of us were in other parts of the country or were not involved in organizing. These do not absolve us of fault though for not learning enough about the history of the struggle of people in Tijuana who we were about to become involved with. We did try to learn what we could and the organizers once we started meeting with them. We are not trying to put the burden of educating us on them, but explaining our methods for trying to learn about the event.
It is our hope that we can work together on a future project, once we have developed a more long term trusting relationship.
This project was not our first attempt to work on challenging the border and it will not be our last. Some of us have been running from the violence that is created by borders since we were born, or our parents were before we were born. Most members of the ORGANIC Collective are latin@ or of mixed race, some of us are of European descent and a few of us have white skin privilege. Some of us live with the violence of the
Border Patrol in our communities every day. We all live with the violence of the United States police state every day.
The ORGANIC Collective was formed in 2003 after the SD/TJ Mobilization on both sides of the border against the WTO. Since then we have continued to work on educating the San Diego region about the violent reality of the border and the racist ideology that underlies immigration policy in the US. We are dedicated to challenging the existence of the border and of white supremacy and will continue to do so.
We had hoped that borderHack 2.005 could be a way to create a serious challenge to the border by creating a space to investigate, explore, learn about and enact autonomy, zapatismo and technology and media against borders. We also wanted to affect the lives and struggles of migrant people in a concrete, positive way. We also hope to link the struggles against the border in San diego and Tijuana to the struggles currently taking place all over the world against borders, in order to make them all stronger. We plan to do events throughout the summer on these topics, including a multimedia event on June 23rd in San Diego in solidarity with No One is Illegal in Montreal and Fadaiat in Spain and Morocco. We are also planning on mobilizing our communities against the MinuteMen, the Border Patrol and the Triple Fence when the MinuteMen arrive here in San Diego from July 19th-August 8th and we still invite people from around the world to help us in ending violence at the border.
In addition, we would like to offer our site, deleteTheBorder.org to be open to usage by people all over the world working against borders. With event calendars, open publishing and image galleries, we hope that it can serve as a place to create a global network of movements against borders everywhere. If you would like to help administer or develop the site, please contact us at info at ORGANICcollective dot org
Against borders and the wars they cause, against the Triple Fence, against Capitalism, Neoliberalism and Empire...
For Freedom of Movement, the Right to Stay, Autonomy and Human Dignity...
The ORGANIC Collective
ORGANICcollective.org
