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Klara: They pick and choose how they report on refugees, and use refugees to tell the story they are looking for. Sometimes they want to show that refugees are criminals, so they focus on the small amount of crimes enacted by refugees and generalize it as all of them. When we protested against the evacuation of the Gerhart-Hauptmann School, the media's reports always reflected the politicians' interests. They didn't report on what the refugees had to say, or their side of the story.
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The aim of Daily Resistance is to inform and inspire those who are isolated in the lagers. We want to mobilize and politicize them; we also simply want to show them that they are not alone. For instance, we have a pamphlet in the newspapers that includes practical information, like where to get medical or legal advice, addresses of institutions that we trust, locations of free German classes, and information on political groups.How has the newspaper evolved since the first issue?
Our first issue was filled mostly with well known Berlin-based political refugee activists. The second issue completely changed because of the positive response. Individuals from Berlin and other parts of Germany shared their stories with us, and we received articles and statements from activist groups like Women in Exile, The Voice Refugee Forum, and Street Roots. The second issue is twice as many pages as the first one and twice as heavy. It's hard to carry; it's really a physical thing.Can you elaborate on the content of the newspaper? What types of articles do you publish?
We have a pretty wide range of articles. In general, we try to publish articles that are about any kind of resistance against the system. Many are stories of personal experiences within the lagers or the refugee system. Some articles are about the actions that are being taken right now, others are about what needs to be changed. We have very simple rules for our articles: no sexism, no capitalism, no racism, and no homophobia.
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The distribution is mainly working because of one guy who is working with us. He was on a bus tour going from lager to lager in 2014, talking to and informing people who lived in them. He made a list of contacts, and they have been distributing the newspaper in the lagers. At first, we printed 2,000 issues and in a second they were gone. Then, we reprinted another 3,000 and shortly they were gone, too.The lagers have loads of restrictions, is it difficult to get Daily Resistance into them?
Turgay: You are not allowed to be politically active in a lager, and they are closed off—you cannot enter a lager unless you have an official function. We find our ways, though. When the doors close, we climb in through the windows, or we throw the papers over the fucking fence. Also, there are meeting places outside of the lagers. It's not easy, but there are ways. Someone once brought Daily Resistance into a lager and got in a fist fight with security because of it. We have a lot of drama already.So how are contributors inside of lagers contacting you?
Sometimes by email, or they hand us texts handwritten on paper. Sometimes they find someone to photograph what they wrote and send that to us. We also will sit down with refugees, record a conversation with them, and transcribe and translate that to be published in the newspaper.Obviously, producing and distributing Daily Resistance is no easy task. Can you tell me about a moment or accomplishment that has motivated you to keep going?
One of these moments for me was when we saw photographs on Twitter of people throwing bundles of Daily Resistance over this super hardcore fence at a lager in Greece. It was unbelievable to see this, to see people who we don't know going through this effort to share the newspaper. The distribution by volunteers and individuals is quite amazing.