[Onthebarricades] Fw: [smygo] Curtains for Christiania?

Thu Jul 12 15:04:47 PDT 2007

----- Original Message ----- 


> News & Views for Anarchists & Activists:
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smygo
>
> SPIEGEL ONLINE
> July 12, 2007, 04:37 PM
> http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,494006,00.html
> CURTAINS FOR CHRISTIANIA?
> Lawless Danish Settlement Approaches Date with Fate
> By Manfred Ertel in Copenhagen
>
> Thirty-six years after it was founded, the "Free State of Christiania"
> is now being forced to comply with Copenhagen's local ordinances. Those
> who wish to remain are being asked to buy their homes -- at prices close
> to the market value. Will gentrification kill the idyllic hippie 
> settlement?
>
> Daily life for Nils Vest, 64, is as colorful as it is tranquil. The
> award-winning documentary filmmaker and his wife, actress Britta
> Lillesøe, have spent the last 36 years living with more than 900
> like-minded people on an 80-acre plot of undeveloped land in the middle
> of Copenhagen. The community lives without cars and sets its own rules
> and is, as Vest says, not unlike a "very large family."
>
> Christiania consists of about 300 randomly scattered houses and huts.
> The buildings include historic factory buildings and military barracks,
> self-designed wooden houses, shacks made of scrap wood and even aging
> construction vehicles. What Vest calls a "dream of our own city within
> the city" lies in a picturesque location, wedged between Copenhagen's
> harbor and the old city moat -- a scene he likens to that of a
> "wonderful fairy tale."
>
> Vest's fairy tale is the Free State of Christiania, a product of the
> 1970s, when anarchists, hippies and other alternative groups founded
> their own little island in the midst of an ocean of bourgeoisie.
>
> Since then authorities have tolerated the community, which was
> eventually dubbed a "social experiment," but its days could soon be
> numbered. The colorful Christiania settlement faces the prospect of a
> radical reorganization, one in which police could very well end up
> clearing out residents by force.
>
> "If that's what they want they'll have street fighting," says resident
> Dan Holm, 22, who expects thousands of supporters, including some from
> the anarchist Black Bloc, to rush to Christiania's aid.
> [The Black Bloc is a tactic, not a group.--DC]
>
> The predicted mayhem could well be a repeat of an incident in March when
> the Ungdomshuset Youth Center was torn down, triggering protests that
> erupted into violence, complete with torched cars, barricades in the
> streets and days of clashes between demonstrators and the police.
>
> "A Paradise for Losers"
>
> Christiania, which residents affectionately call a "paradise for
> losers," has long been a thorn in the side of Denmark's center-right
> minority government, which has other plans for the property. Once a
> vacant lot owned by the Danish navy, it has since become a prime piece
> of Copenhagen real estate worth hundreds of millions of kroners. The
> centrally located district known as Christianshavn, with its harbor,
> canals and ponds, is one of the city's hippest residential neighborhoods.
>
> Parts of the former Holmen naval base and the surrounding neighborhoods
> have been turned into chic, expensive condominiums with harbor views.
> The crown jewel of the new development is a stone's throw from
> Christiania's aging, rock-and-pop hippie milieu and is its ideological
> opposite: the new Royal Opera House, an opulently designed
> glass-and-steel structure.
>
> If the government has its way, Christiania will be next in line for
> gentrification.
>
> Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen and his coalition are especially
> perturbed by a still-lively hashish and marijuana market, which has been
> around for almost as long as Christiania. There have been some changes,
> however. In response to pressure from the police and authorities, a
> block known as "Pusher Street" has since been shut down. For decades the
> street featured up to 30 open-air street stalls where drugs were sold
> both openly and illegally, for millions of kroners a year, to customers
> from Copenhagen and tourists from around the world. The dope trade may
> be more clandestine these days, but sales of pizza, pot and posters at
> Christiania are still going strong.
>
> Groups of tourists trailing behind expert tour guides make the
> pilgrimage through Christiania several times a day, passing a movie
> theater, cafés, restaurants, blacksmith shops, artists' studios,
> galleries and a custom bicycle factory with a nationwide reputation. At
> night rock fans of all ages head to the neighborhood's two clubs, the
> Grå Hal (Grey Building) and Loppen.
>
> The settlement has its own kindergarten and daycare center for its 250
> resident children and adolescents, and it features architectural
> curiosities that are routinely featured in the professional literature.
> They include a pagoda house and a banana-shaped hostel for traditionally
> wandering journeyman called the "Bananhuset." Military barracks and
> ammunition warehouses with landmark status have been lovingly restored,
> while wooden houses, curious mixtures of Scandinavia and the American
> West, are examples of carpentry as skilled as they are fanciful.
>
> A Question of Rights
>
> "No one talks about the value that has been created here," says Morten
> Nilsen, 50, who works as a tour guide in Christiania. One of the
> settlement's original residents, Nilsen is adamant about what he feels
> are his and fellow residents' rights.
>
> Rights are precisely the issue here. Nils Vest and Britta Lillesøe
> raised their children in a renovated military barracks that was built in
> 1849. The structure, which once stood in the town of Fredericia in
> Denmark's Jutland region, was dismantled piece by piece, reassembled in
> Christiana and renovated into an architectural gem. "This is my home,"
> says Lillesøe, and yet official permits for moving the building were
> never issued. "We don't want to be normalized," says the graying
> actress, "we want to be legalized."
>
> Lillesøe was among the first hippies and squatters to occupy the
> decaying military barracks on the dusty site in 1971. Ignoring issues of
> ownership, they began building a new community from scratch, complete
> with gardens, a playing field, a recycling facility, garbage disposal
> and, more recently, one of the country's biggest halfpipes for
> skateboarders and rollerbladers. The community has enjoyed broad public
> support throughout its history.
>
> Any attempts to restrict Christiania's freedoms have been met with mass
> demonstrations, sometimes turning violent, as was the case this past
> May. In opinion polls, almost three quarters of Copenhagen residents are
> consistently in favor of preserving the unlegislated area, while support
> from the community nationwide is still above 50 percent. From a formal
> standpoint, Christiania doesn't even exist. There are no sales contracts
> or lease agreements. Many if not most residents don't even pay taxes.
> Each adult resident is required to pay a monthly fee of 1,400 kroners
> (about €190) into a community till, as well as fees for heat,
> electricity and water. But none of these payments confers any legal 
> rights.
>
> Klaus Danzer, 41, was passing through Christiania 14 years ago as a
> journeyman carpenter when he decided to stay. Since then he has
> voluntarily built a number of houses for other societal dropouts,
> including the hostel for journeymen.
>
> Danzer spent about €100,000 renovating an apartment for himself on the
> hostel's ground floor, where he lives with his wife and two daughters.
> Now he plans to invest even more money and time to renovate an old,
> dilapidated wooden house between the old city wall and moat. The
> building is in an idyllic waterfront location, but it also happens to be
> in the unlegislated area.
>
> Copenhagen Has Plans for Christiania
>
> If the government had its druthers, it would bulldoze the 50 or or so
> wooden houses in the area, as well as another 20 on "Red Sun Square,"
> where some of the roughly 400 new apartments and condominiums planned
> for Christiania are to be built. The land along the one-kilometer moat
> is slated to become a public park.
>
> This is part of the plan included in the government's most recent, and
> probably last, compromise proposal. Under the proposal, Christianians
> would receive the first right of refusal to rent or purchase the
> apartments, but nothing more. Prices would be close to the market value.
>
> According to the plan, the future Christiania will be a combination
> foundation model, non-profit housing association and cooperative, with
> carefully devised rights of co-determination for residents. "This is
> more than a 50-percent victory," says Klaus Danzer, who is in favor of
> the proposal. "It's an historic opportunity for us to continue existing
> as a unit."
>
> "We will be established, completely legally," says Nils Vest. Two-thirds
> of Christianians, give or take, agree with the plan.
>
> But a two-thirds majority means next to nothing in Christiania, because
> life in this large commune is based on the "consensus principle,"
> whereby decisions must be unanimous -- which is hardly likely in the
> current situation. But if there is one thing on which everyone can
> agree, it is that a decision, any decision, must be reached quickly -- 
> that is, in the coming weeks.
>
> "The government knows how hard it is for 650 hippie anarchists to reach
> a consensus," says filmmaker Vest. He has documented Christiania's
> history on film, including all of its political battles, victories and
> defeats alike.
>
> Translated from the German by Christopher Sultan.
>
> Related SPIEGEL ONLINE links:
> Copenhagen Combusts: Danes Clash With Cops After Youth Center Eviction
> (03/02/2007)
> http://www.spiegel.de/international/0,1518,469509,00.html
>
> -- 
> Dan Clore
>
> My collected fiction: _The Unspeakable and Others_
> http://amazon.com/o/ASIN/1587154838/ref=nosim/thedanclorenecro
> Lord Weÿrdgliffe & Necronomicon Page:
> http://www.geocities.com/clorebeast/
> News & Views for Anarchists & Activists:
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smygo
>
> "Don't just question authority,
> Don't forget to question me."
> -- Jello Biafra
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
> <*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
>    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smygo/
>
> <*> Your email settings:
>    Individual Email | Traditional
>
> <*> To change settings online go to:
>    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smygo/join
>    (Yahoo! ID required)
>
> <*> To change settings via email:
>    mailto:smygo-digest at yahoogroups.com
>    mailto:smygo-fullfeatured at yahoogroups.com
>
> <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
>    smygo-unsubscribe at yahoogroups.com
>
> <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
>    http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
>