Alby är fortfarande inte till salu! Kl 17 today! “Ni ser det högt ovanifrån. Kommer kanske inte att förstå allt. Där utifrån. Det är svårt att komma igenom allt brus och alla bilder som klistras på oss. Men vi vill att ni lyssnar. Vi har skrikit tills våra lungor tömts. Ingen luft kvar. Hesa roster.” A group from “Alby är inte till salu,” wrote an article for Aftonbladet in March. They had already been collecting names for a folkomröstning then. Their feet were already aching then from standing on chilled pavement, their voices already tired of reaching out for names. But they continued because Alby is their home. And now even after the collection of over 6000 names, we still are not hearing their shouts, their screams. Worse yet, we are not hearing our own beside theirs. Because democracy is meant to be for and of the people. Excuses have been pushing and shoving in my head over the past couple of days, since the demonstration for “Alby är inte till salu,” was announced. Excuses trickle out like I don’t have the money for train tickets. Washing dishes I think, what would I do with my three kids? Should I bring them? I walk to daycare and wonder whom could I ask to watch them? Where would I stay? I am after all a single mom, I tell myself. These are excuses that are real in my life but excuses that I must weigh in my heart as you too must weigh your own. We are all Alby. 6500 names are mothers, are families, are women, men and children, that have been holding their worries in check and raising their voices, gathering their bodies along streets and in squares, for months. Some days it was cold, babies and kids needed to be fed, they wanted to go home. Everyday struggles were lived in all those names and moments of living were shoved aside for this: Alby är inte till salu. 6500 names for a folkomröstning that was a few days ago at its finish line. 6500 names that represent democracy. 6500 names that are the people being shushed up and shoved aside for wads of cash and one man’s single name. “Det enda som händer om vi skriker tillräckligt högt är att polisen kommer för att se till att det ändå inte hörs. Hesa röster. Det är vi som vuxit upp här. Det är vi som har gått på Albys gator. Vi har lagat mat i våra hem, hängt i vårt centrum, pratat med grannarna i vår port. Nu ska kommunen sälja bort vårt tak över huvudet ”för att göra Alby bättre”. Men det är vi som är Alby. Polisen kom inte för att vi gjorde fel utan för att bostadsbolaget gjorde fel. Politiker och de som sitter i styrelserna till kommunala bolag är inte ansvariga inför aktiemarknader eller några andra. De är ansvariga inför oss. Vi är folket. Vi är fyratusen personer som säger det här. Vi finns.” If we choose not to see ourselves in this struggle, to go and protest, then we need to weigh the choice in our hearts, and the consequences of losing Alby to the sweeping hand of profit and as one more sensational news moment that we comment on. Otherwise we choose to ignore our own complicity in what the possibility of loosing this point of struggle for democracy means for all of us. What this moment means for the Sweden we want to live in. What is means for structures of oppression. For we should not sit so comfortably watching news about Turkey, Brazil, Bulgaria, Bosnia - and claim solidarity with the mass protests there under the name of democracy, many a struggle that began over the gentrification of the people’s space and unjust governmental practices while ignoring sibling struggles in our own country. Sibling struggles that continue being lived even after the sensationalism goes out like whispers in the dark. Because our eyes, our ears, our hearts, these we have been made responsible for. Alby är inte till salu. Alby är fortfarande inte till salu! Vi samlas i Hallunda Centrum onsdag den 26e juni kl 17.00, för att tillsammans gå till mötet som hålls i Folkets Hus med start kl 17.30.
Posted on: Wed, 26 Jun 2013 06:39:14 +0000
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