Agitation!

We cherish the cultural riches of all peoples.

We want every individual´s right to discover and develop his or her creativity to be respected.

We want every person to have access to the thousands of years of tradition in art and culture.

Like a gigantic choir, these traditions resonate of humanism, peace and justice. As originally summarized in the slogan of the great French Revolution of 1789: Liberty, Equality, Fraternity.

None of this must be retracted.

This is why we need agitation.

• Agitation for a society of multi-cultural solidarity
  Agitation against right-wing extremism, xenophobia and reactionary violence

  We want a culture of intervening rather than the convenience of looking away. We seek a culture of enlightenment about crimes committed during Nazi fascism. We demand that the neo-Nazi NPD Party be immediately outlawed!

  We demand that the German government´s inhumane deportation and asylum policies be stopped. We demand sufficient humanitarian and vital aid for people in Africa and a halt to the long-term tragedy with its weekly news items of refugees drowned in the Mediterranean, while fleeing toward a "Fortress Europe".

• Agitation for social redistribution and social justice
  Agitation against a Germany of a social ice age

  A social system that idolizes stocks and profit options as relevant to the system undermines the foundation of human and cultural wealth.

  We are demanding a protective shield for people rather than their continued impoverishment through Hartz IV. We are defending ourselves against the one-sided subventions of banks and enterprises, while leaving the personnel and employees "out in the cold". We are demanding that prosperity be redistributed downwards! We oppose the further obliteration of social securities and institutions and the privatization of public service institutions.

• Agitation for a Germany of Peace
  Agitation against the German government´s war policy.

  We are demanding an immediate end to German military intervention in Afghanistan and elsewhere in the world. We demand that the USA renounce the construction of a nuclear radar defense system in Europe! We don´t want to see Germany at the top of the list of arms exporters, but rather heading the list of the world´s main humanitarian aid supporters showing solidarity to poorer nations.

• Agitation demanding cultural diversity

  We, as artists and cultural workers, are often the first who are directly affected by the crisis. Community and state cultural budgets are frozen, stages shut down, resources for independent cultural production reduced. Publishers and sponsors avoid risks. Young talent finds it more difficult to get published, exhibited or produced on stage. In times of economic crisis, culture is neglected. This is why we raise our voices in opposition to having the burden passed down again!

We artists and cultural workers appeal to the citizens, to the employed and the unemployed, to those on retirement and the youth, to students and pupils in Germany: Let´s agitate together! Agitation is our primary civic duty!

Dear Friends,

www.unruhestiften.de is an appeal by German artists to take action against right-wing extremism, the German military interventionist policy and the effects of the crisis being placed on the shoulders of the lower classes. It is an appeal in favor of social justice. It is linked to a basic mood and the necessity felt in Germany that social transformation needs anything but social peace and quiet.

More than 1,000 cultural professionals, trade unionists, scholars, elected officials and members of many other groups have signed this appeal since the summer of 2009.

From the beginning also non-German artists have signed. The idea was therefore born to expand and propagate this appeal throughout Europe.

The motto, "agitation" as well as the preamble should be the same in all of the languages and countries. The section containing the demands should - in accordance with the given themes - be adapted to the specific national situations and the entire project propagated throughout the individual countries.

We would be happy if artists and cultural workers in your countries would be ready and willing to use and enhance this idea. Let us work together and interconnected to agitate throughout Europe!