Hotel City Plaza Athens – On Tour

The best Hotel of Europe on Tour!

After six months City Plaza in Athens supporters and people who had found shelter there share their experiences in a roundtrip through Germany and Switzerland

The City Plaza is a hotel located in the heart of Athens. The abandoned hotel was occupied in April by an activist group. Together with the refugees many people in solidarity now manage the daily life in the hotel. The 400 new guests, among them 180 children, come from around the world: from Syria, Iraq, Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan. At City Plaza, refugees find a place that allows for privacy, in an atmosphere of security and dignity. „We live together, we fight together, solidarity will win“ is their motto. The hotel demonstrates every day anew that even in a situation of crisis and poverty it is possible to welcome people with open arms and to create dignified living conditions for all. City Plaza gives a political example:
It is a place of equality and solidarity, the lived antithesis to Fortress Europe and its borders of shame. The City Plaza Hotel is a symbol of hope.

During the info-events we want to listen and discuss:
— What can be learned from the daily challenges of a „guesthouse“ that gives safe shelter to 400 women, men and children, a „hardship-community“ in a squat run by activists?
— How to start processes of self organising in transit-countries and beyond – and how to support them with transnational networks of solidarity?
— How to use spaces like City Plaza to link with other social struggles for equal rights? About access to housing, education, health care.
— Did we already start to build an „underground railroad“ for freedom of movement? Do we need safe spaces or even sanctuary cities all along migration routes as practical opposite pole to the racist and repressive political mainstream?