Police evicts social centre ‘Ungdomshuset’ in Copenhagen (& solidarity demo in London)

1.03.2007

After a long polit­i­cal and legal bat­tle the basis-demo­c­ra­t­ic, alter­na­tive polit­i­cal and cul­tur­al cen­tre ‘Ung­domshuset’ was force­ful­ly evict­ed by riot police and air­borne anti-ter­ror squads this morn­ing. Ensu­ing demon­stra­tions have seen large-scale con­fronta­tions between pro­tes­tors and heavy-hand­ed police, here is the full sto­ry from Copen­hagen.

After seri­ous social con­flicts and upris­ings by the auton­o­mist and squat­ting move­ments in the late 1970s and ear­ly 1980s, the sub­se­quent ‘Ung­domshuset’ was offered as part of a polit­i­cal com­pro­mise to the activists. The main­ly young activists dubbed it ‘Ung­domshuset’ (‘The Youth House’), and start­ed run­ning var­i­ous cul­tur­al and polit­i­cal activ­i­ties out of there. It has for many years served as one of the only mul­ti­cul­tur­al, basis-demo­c­ra­t­ic collectives/community cen­tres in Copen­hagen, with the excep­tion of the Free­town Chris­tia­nia. Prop­er­ty rights remained in the hands of the local coun­cil, which in 1999 decid­ed to dis­re­gard the pre­vi­ous polit­i­cal com­pro­mise and sell the house to the high­est bid­der.

In 2003 the fun­da­men­tal­ist Chris­t­ian sect ‘Fader­huset’, which had bought the prop­er­ty in 2001 prompt­ed the author­i­ties to evict the ‘Ung­domshuset’ and its users. Despite many demon­stra­tions in sup­port of ‘Ung­domshuset’ Fader­huset won the ensu­ing court­case and the politi­cians avoid­ed seri­ous involve­ment in the con­flict, despite the polit­i­cal nature of the case. Many domes­tic demon­stra­tions saw alleged police bru­tal­i­ty and in Decem­ber an ‘Ung­domshuset’ demon­stra­tion turned into a major con­fronta­tion between activists from all over Europe and the police. Sub­se­quent­ly the ‘Ung­domshuset’ was for­ti­fied in order to avoid an evic­tion and return the issue to the polit­i­cal are­na.

This morn­ing at 7:00 AM the anti-ter­ror squad land­ed on the roof of the ‘Ung­domshuset’ via heli­copters, while riot-police sealed off the street and attacked using tear­gas from below. As the whole area is closed off no doc­u­men­ta­tion of the action and police-behav­iour can take place. Some wit­ness­es say that tear­gas and police vio­lence was plen­ti­ful, although the evic­tion hap­pened swift­ly and accord­ing to police in a ‘rel­a­tive­ly calm man­ner’.

Lat­er in the day activists from all over Copen­hagen rushed to protest the evic­tion of ‘Ung­domshuset’, they were met by aggres­sive police­men in riot gear block­ing the street arrest­ing sus­pect­ed trou­ble­mak­ers with many result­ing injuries. The demon­stra­tors fought back and tried to reclaim the ‘Ung­domshuset’, but were repelled and activists took to the near­by streets and start­ed build­ing bar­ri­cades, while engag­ing police in skir­mish­es.

The neigh­bour­hoods has been entire­ly shut down by local res­i­dents and activists: actions and demon­stra­tions have tak­en place all over Copen­hagen with more planned for the fol­low­ing days and weeks. While sym­pa­this­ers from all over Europe have been rush­ing in, although police are attempt­ing to detain sus­pect­ed activists at the bor­ders. Fur­ther­more sol­i­dar­i­ty demon­stra­tions are under way in Ger­many, Nor­way and Swe­den.

The house has func­tioned as a polit­i­cal and cul­tur­al cen­tre, home to polit­i­cal demon­stra­tions, polit­i­cal debates, con­certs and many more cul­tur­al events since 1982. It has served as a basis-demo­c­ra­t­ic remain­der that ‘anoth­er world is pos­si­ble’ until this morn­ing… The actions of sol­i­dar­i­ty tak­ing place all over Europe, as well as Rus­sia and Aus­tralia are great­ly appre­ci­at­ed. Please join in and sup­port the strug­gle for autonomous com­mons and the resis­tance against the neolib­er­al repres­sion. The home­page of ‘Ung­domshuset’ has been shot down but a mir­ror has been set up (in Eng­lish) at: http://www.ungeren.dk/en.php3?id_rubrique=4
Fur­ther­more updates can be found on http://indymedia.dk/article/885 and http://indymedia.dk/article/878
Also here is a short video-intro­duc­tion pro­duced before the evic­tion http://www.ungeren.dk/spip.php?article79

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Fri­day DEMO Dan­ish Embassy LONDON

01.03.2007 19:36
Meet 2pm HYDE PARK CORNER, inside on park FRIDAY 2nd MARCH
Bring ban­ners, flags…

Please cir­cu­late on www and email lists

See you there
Sup­port the squatters…show sol­i­dar­i­ty!!!

Roy­al Dan­ish Embassy in Lon­don, Great Britain
55 Sloane Street
Lon­don SW1X 9SR
Great Britain

Phone: 00 44 (0)20 7333 0200
Fax: 00 44 (0)20 7333 0270
Email: lonamb@um.dk