19-28 March 2004 Lecce, ITALY

The project "Equals in the differences" was born from the neccessity of the association to talk about a problem, that of the racism and xenophobia, very actual in a society that is becoming, if it is not yet, multiracial.

Naturally our aim is to speak and to open a debate on the concept of racism inside the European community and therefore on the new forms of racism (economical, political, religious, etc.)

Racism has risen and it rises in the movement in which a person or a group of persons consider themselves superior to the others and since is a rooted tendency deeply in the man; we can say that ecen though in different forms, racism has been present in all epoches of the history of the man and in every place on the earth.

It was racism that of the ancient societies that practised the slavery; it was racism that of the middleage society founded upon the rigid division in castes; it was racism that of today, for which certain people, certain nations are held superior or subjects to different rights duties in comparison to others. Insofar, in society as ours that sets out become multiracial it becomes more and more important to create moments of discussion, of reflection, of comparison around the theme that as said, it regenerates and introduces itself under new forms.

To favor the debate we have thought about three working groups:

Naturally every working group can be changed or modified if there will be a necessity or if you want to face a new theme in another way. Every suggestion is accepted! We don't want to decide everything, so it's better to working together during preparatory phase too.

Could be nice if every group, before the exchange, did a research on episodes of intolerance happened in its country ant to collect any type of material (poetries, photos, music, video, film, pictures...) connected to the topic.