26.07.2023, 17:00
near Hamburg

Maps

Anti-National Summer Camp 2023

 

Attention - Camp is almost full

 

We have NO more bed and tent capacity on the camp site fei. If you can sleep in the car / camper / van, you can still register for the whole time. Otherwise you can still register and will be put on a waiting list. Here we say then at the latest on Tuesday, d. 25.07. finally whether you can come or not.

We have now disabled the registration form. Please send us an email to register:

anmeldung-sc-nord@gegen-kapital-und-nation.org

Please write: A name, An email address, From when to when do you want to come, Whether in the car / van / camper is slept or whether a tent / bed space is needed (then you are only on the waiting list), Food (vegan, vegi, everything), Reader (paper or digital), Special needs, hints, questions (specify allergies/intolerances). You will then receive an email from us, which may take a day or two. If you do not receive an email, please check again.

 

Sun, summer, theory! Several parallel workshops will be offered twice a day at relaxed times; during the longer break there will be time to use in various ways: partying, lounging around, playing, sleeping and meeting lots of new people.
The camp is worthwhile firstly for people who want to discuss current political developments in depth, e.g.: War in Ukraine, feminist foreign policy, sanctions policy, right-wing government in Italy, inflation - impoverishment - financial crisis.
Second, the camp is worthwhile for those who want to get an introduction to radical left theory: e.g. critique of capitalism, freedom as a fundamental right, critique of education, humanities, natural sciences, critique of ideology, climate politics.
Third, there are a number of other topics that you might have always been interested in: e.g., cultural appropriation, racism, memory culture and nationalism in Germany, Bitcoin.
Fourth, some workshops will also be offered in English every time and you will have the opportunity to discuss some topics with people from the UK. So if you know people who don't know German well or not at all, but can manage English reasonably well, then promote the camp there.
Please check our website regularly, we will announce new workshops here.


General information
The camp takes place near Hamburg and is easily reached by public transport. The fun costs 15-25€ per night, i.e. according to self-assessment of one's own financial possibilities. Camp-Reader as well as daily full board are included. At the camp there will be organised self-catering: everyone sometimes will help with cooking, washing up, cleaning- but food will be provided daily (always vegetarian and vegan as well). If you are thinking about not coming because of the amount of the participation fee, please contact us.
There are meeting rooms, WIFI, table tennis, pool table, sauna and outside space for ball games. The facility is conditionally barrier-free (roughly: the most important rooms are wheelchair accessible, but some ramps are a bit steep), one room is completely barrier-free with its own bathroom. The kitchen is on ground floor, and there are meeting rooms on ground floor. That means: We do our best to minimise the remaining barriers on site - if you arrive in a wheelchair or have other mobility restrictions, feel free to contact us so we can discuss the details in advance. We will try to accommodate other needs as well, as far as we can. If you would like to come with children, please contact us as well. We will try to provide childcare at least parallel to part of the workshops.
For the cooking team it would be important if you let us know about allergies or intolerances when you register. In case of severe allergies, where even traces in the food are crucial, it may not be possible for the cooking team to provide for you. There is additionally a separate, small but well-equipped kitchen for cases of (partial) self-catering. We cannot cater to special trend diets, etc. The warm dinner is vegan and varied. Dogs are allowed, but cost 50€ per dog for the whole stay (according to the price list of the house). Dogs must be leashed on the camp grounds.


Workshops

 

Check back often from now on, the workshop list will be updated continuously.

 

Credit Money and Inflation 1

When capitalist states hope to lower the rate of inflation, they look to their central banks to increase the rate of interest. At the same time, central banks bemoan that this lever, the rate of interest, fails to deliver the effects on the economy they hope for. In this workshop we want to discuss how prices, credit and central banks relate.

 

Sovereign debt

In this workshop, we will give an introduction to the state budget with a focus on sovereign debt. We will discuss the following topics: The state decides its revenue (it does not earn it) – taxes are not an exchange. Nevertheless, the state considers it necessary to limit tax revenue and thus arrives at the task of making budget policy, i.e. making policy with limited resources. In doing so, it grapples with the question of what necessary expenses are really necessary? In the end, it usually comes to the conclusion that certain expenses are necessary, although it does not want to increase taxes for them and goes into debt. Public debt has its own logic, new freedoms and new "practical constraints".

All these contradictions together then lead to a "solution": promoting the economy so that tasks are resolved, more taxes flow in and the creditworthiness of the state is improved. This does not solve the contradictions of taxation, budget and credit, but it does give it a permanent course. The workshop will mostly stand on its own and will not rely on other workshops. However, this is an essential building block for explaining inflation. From this point of view, it is worthwhile to attend the workshop together with the other workshops on inflation and the banking crisis.

 

Banking Crisis 2023

2023 has seen many banks announce record profits. At the same time, many banks have become insolvent and closed doors: SVB, Crédit Suisse, First Republic Bank, the list goes on. To understand how these things relate, we will discuss how banking works, what interest rates are, and why states are so invested in the banking sector.

 

Critique of the critique of cultural appropriation

Antiracist and and liberal activists discuss and criticize a phenomenon called "Cultural Appropriation", i.e. "white" people (meaning people of European descent) using cultural artifacts and practices of non-western origin. They may do this to make money, e.g. Fashion labels using desgings based on Mexican embroidery patterns. It may also motivated just by fun, e.g. the throwing of colored powder inspired by the Indian Holi festival.

Activists assert that such practices violate some kind of property right of marginalized groups. They also fear that traditions may be adulterated and/or trivialized. For that reason the use of cultural practices of nonwestern origin shall only be morally acceptable with the consent of the (alleged) originator group.

The fight against Cultural Appropriation is seen as part of the fight against racism in general. However, we think that the concept of "cultural Appropriation leads into a trap: somebody referring to "the culture" of a marginalized group assumes that culture is an homogenous entity shared byall people belonging to a particular group and distinguishing this group from all other groups. This is an idea which can also be found in run of the mill nationalism. In that context it serves as a reason to exclude people from "culturally different" groups, i.e. it justifies the very racial discrimantion antiracists fight against.

 

 

The factories to the workers! - Yugoslavia's system of "socialist workers' self-management"

Yugoslavia tried a different way of socialism. Why and how? It became a role model for those disappointed in state socialism and capitalism. But was workers' self-management ever more than self-organised self-exploitation? In the end, Yugoslavia was brutally dissolved by it's elites. Was that the direct outcome of it's decentralised economic system? Or of the mistake to create an socialist yugoslavian patriotism instead of attacking nationalism?

 

Climate policy - even worse than its reputation

 

The fact that global warming is a problem, and a global one indeed, has been recognised by politicians. By now, 27 UN climate conferences have taken place. At the conferences in Kyoto in 1997 and Paris in 2015, states even agreed on concrete goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Nevertheless, surprisingly little has been done concretely so far to reduce emissions. In most countries, emissions are even increasing. This raises the question of why, despite all the declarations of intent, so little is happening. Are states not able to do more or do they not want to? In the workshop, we want to show why states are no good partners when it comes to stopping climate change.