Geneva's artists take to the streets
Geneva's artists and cultural players feel threatened, even attacked, by the new cantonal authorities. They are calling for a street demonstration on December 1.
A movement of artists and cultural players has been created, and has published a manifesto below:
"Long threatened, culture is now under frontal attack and must be defended. It's not just our professions and workplaces that are on the line, but more broadly the indispensable place of culture in our society. We need to stand strong, show solidarity and demonstrate that we won't let this happen to us.
The majority in the Grand Council has only one objective: to cut public services, social protection and employment. It has succeeded in imposing an accounting and commercial framework that reduces all activities geared towards education, care, critical work and creative openness to the sole question of cost and profitability. Thus, for several years now, all tax cuts have been aimed at stripping the State of its redistributive tasks and its responsibilities towards the weakest, the elderly, the precariously employed, the disabled and, even more fundamentally, the maintenance of a truly plural society.
It is against this backdrop that artists and cultural players are today in danger. Subsidized venues and structures have received a letter announcing a major cut in their subsidies, demanding a reduction in their salary costs at a time when cultural players have just demanded more help with their social security. Less visible and more fragile, artists who benefit from one-off funding are now also in the crosshairs of the public authorities, who know how easy it is to make cuts where no one is in a position to react forcefully.
The very essence of culture is threatened when the Conseil d'Etat attacks our way of doing things, of organizing and financing ourselves, by attacking our refreshment stands, like the Usine, on the pretext of complying with an unsuitable and aseptic law.
Without a massive mobilization of the cultural community, alongside civil servants, bricklayers and a population that refuses to see the society we live in reduced to questions of profitability and security, we're going to lose much more than our subsidies!
All together in the streets on December 1, 2015 with the public service and the population to defend our professions, our places and the importance of a united and variegated society.
We're counting on you. Let's be strong, let's be loud!"
More info: laculturelutte.ch
