[Onthebarricades] DENMARK: Protests continue over Ungdomshuset

[Andy]

The unrest in Denmark over the eviction of the Youth House social centre 
continues to simmer.  In September there were protests and unrest at an 
event to commemmorate the eviction, and in early October, attempts to occupy 
a new building.  Sadder news is that Christiana commune has signed a deal 
with the state which will lead to the gradual dismantling of the free space.

http://www.theage.com.au/news/World/Danish-youth-protest-turns-violent/2007/09/02/1188671777400.html

Danish youth protest turns violent

September 2, 2007 - 1:59PM
At least 15 people were arrested, according to the Danish Broadcasting Corp.
The unrest started after a demonstration commemorating the Youth House, a 
makeshift cultural centre for the city's anarchists and disaffected youth 
that was demolished in March.
Protesters set fire to street barricades and smashed shop windows in the 
Norrebro district of Copenhagen, Danish media reported.
In March, hundreds of people were arrested in several days of street 
violence when police evicted squatters living in the graffiti-sprayed brick 
building.
© 2007 AP DIGITAL

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2007/10/06/18452363.php

100s claim new youth house in Danemark
by Copenhagen news
Saturday Oct 6th, 2007 7:19 AM
A historical, well-loved Copenhagen youth cultural house, Ungdomshuset, was 
sold by the city to another owner this year. This was met with days of 
protest. Now, users of the previous house are trying to start a subsequent 
center.
Manifesto
Action Grøndalsvænge Allé 13 (AktionG13) is an initiative based in and 
around the movement for a new youth house. We started with a single 
objective; to get a new youth house. We've been looking at empty buildings 
in Copenhagen for a long time now, and we've ended up picking the house at 
Grøndalsvænge Allé 13 for the purpose.

New youth house - Grøndalsvænge Allé 13
The location is situated in the Northwest District of Copenhagen 
(Nordvestkvarteret), just by Fuglebakken S-train station, and it has a great 
potential as a new free space. The house is about the same size as the 
former youth house at Jagtvej 69 and has got a big yard. As Copenhagen's 
city council hasn't, as promised, given us a replacement for Jagtvej 69, we 
have taken matters in our own hands and found a new house.
We have visited the house on numerous occasions and agree that it's a unique 
place that we, with your help, are looking forward to move into. The area is 
owned by the Copenhagen municipality, so the politicians don't even have to 
find extra funds, to buy the house for us.

Ongoing newsticker:
G-Day 15.27
>From the speaker trucks the four coloured blocks are now being asked to act 
independently. The demonstration is on Borups Alle under the overpass.
Eyewitnesses say, that riot vans in front of the road passing under the 
railway tracks to Grøndalsvænge are now parked so close together that 
squezzing between them would physically be a problem.

G-Day 15.23
The police have taken up positions at Fuglebakkent S-train station. The 
police number in the hundreds, many riot vans are present and the road has 
been narrowed to almost nothing for the demo. The police are determined that 
it go no further according to the police spokesman.

G-Day 15.17
Police chief spokesman Flemming Steen Munch has said to Modkraft.dk that the 
heavy police presence at the intersection with Borups Alle is aimed at 
preventing the demo from getting on to the motorway overpass. He also 
confirmed that the police would not be letting the demo get any closer to 
the house than Fuglebakken st.

G-Day 15.05
The demo is nearing the intersection Borups Alle-Lundtoftegade. There is a 
lot of police present in the intersection - at least twelve riot vans and 
cops. If the demo turns down the road as agreed with the police, they will 
be able to cut off the demo and shut it in on both ends.
For the first time today a confrontation seems to be likely.

G-Day 14.51
Yesterday the left radical youth organistion Rød Ungdom published a 
statement saying that a post on their internet forum inciting violence had 
been removed. The poster's IP was logged and traced to one of the major news 
papers in Denmark "Politiken". As the case is now the object of interest for 
the general public the IT service dept for Politiken has declined making 
comments.
Rød Ungdom has stated that violence is not the basis of G-13 nor for Rød 
Ungdom itself. The post has been removed, but evidence retained.
Politiken has shown a continued interest in the dealings of G13, earlier 
today reporting that rolls of barb wire and construction materials had been 
moved to the site, and has several times featured articles on the small 
protests against the placing of a social centre in the city.
http://english.indymedia.dk/publish/show/21

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/10/07/europe/EU-GEN-Denmark-Street-Clashes.php

Hundreds of youths could face charges from clashes with Copenhagen police

The Associated Press
Published: October 7, 2007

COPENHAGEN, Denmark: Hundreds detained following clashes with Copenhagen 
police have been released but may face charges in connection with the 
violence, authorities said Sunday.
Demonstrators fought with police Saturday after officers prevented a crowd 
of thousands from reaching a vacant building they want to use for parties 
and concerts. The protesters set fires and tried to climb over squad cars 
blocking a road, prompting officers to fire tear gas, police said.
Officers arrested 437 people overnight, police spokesman Flemming Steen 
Munch said Sunday. No one was injured, he said.
Most were Danes but those detained also included 21 Germans, 18 Swedes, 
eight Finns, seven Norwegians, and protesters from Britain, Spain, France, 
Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland and Turkey, he said.
Munch said they could face charges later - including some that carry jail 
sentences.
Saturday's protest centered around the closure of the Youth House, a popular 
hangout for anarchists, punk rockers and left-wing groups that was torn down 
in March.
The City of Copenhagen had sold the Youth House to a Christian congregation 
six years ago, and evicted the squatters in March in order to hand the 
building over to its new owners, who later tore the building down.
The protesters claim the city had no right to sell the building and have 
staged several demonstrations demanding a new house. On Saturday, thousands 
tried to get to a vacant waterworks plant they want to serve as the new 
Youth House.
Built in 1897, the Youth House had long served as a community theater for 
the labor movement and as a cultural and conference center. Vladimir Lenin 
was among its visitors.
In recent years, it had hosted concerts by performers such as Australian 
musician Nick Cave and Icelandic singer Bjork.

http://mathaba.net/news/?x=566536

Police arrest over 430 people in Copenhagen riots, scores injured
Posted: 2007/10/08
From: Mathaba
At least 436 people were arrested by police after a demonstration in support 
of a youth center turned violent, Danish media reports said.

Scores of protesters were injured in the street riots after police used 
teargas to disperse the demonstrators.

Hundreds of mainly youthful protesters marched in the Danish capital, 
calling for the creation of a new autonomous youth center.

The forced eviction of a popular youth center triggered last month several 
days of riots in Copenhagen.

Teenage demonstrators led fierce street battles with baton- wielding riot 
police.

Hundreds of rioters smashed shop windows and set street barricades, cars and 
municipal garbage cans on fire, forcing police to use tear gas.

An incendiary device exploded in a police vehicle.

At least 40 protesters, mostly radical leftist and anarchist youths, were 
detained.

Copenhagen was also the scene of violent riots in May after authorities 
demolished another youth center which had been occupied since the 1980s.

The eviction of that youth house sparked several nights of clashes with 
police, leading to more than 700 arrests and dozens of injuries. --IRNA

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7032163.stm

Danish clash sparks mass arrests

Thousands of demonstrators planned to occupy a new building
Police in Denmark say they expect to bring charges against many of the 437 
people detained overnight following clashes in the capital, Copenhagen.
Police used tear gas against thousands of young demonstrators who were 
protesting against the closure of a youth centre earlier in the year.
The protesters had tried unsuccessfully to occupy a different building.
A police spokesman said a record number of people were detained. They have 
all been released but charges could follow.
Some of the demonstrators threw smoke bombs, set fires and tried to break 
through police barriers and climb over police cars, the spokesman said.
"It started out as a peaceful demonstration but then there was more and more 
violence and the riots against the police started," spokesman Flemming Munch 
told AFP news agency.
No injuries were reported.
Organisers of the demonstration said as many as 4,000 people took part.
Left-wing activists had occupied the youth centre, in Copenhagen's Noerrebro 
district, since 1982. But the building was sold by the city in 2000 to a 
Christian group.
Squatters were evicted in March 2007, which led to violent street clashes 
and hundreds of arrests. The youth centre was later demolished.

http://mwcnews.net/content/view/17202&Itemid=1

Record arrests in Denmark protests |
Authorities fired tear gas at the demonstrators, while protesters hurled 
smoke bombs [AFP]
Danish police have clashed with demonstrators, arresting a record 437 
people, after they attempted to occupy a vacant building in Copenhagen, 
according to officials.
Many of the protesters taking part in Saturday's demonstration on Saturday 
were evicted six months ago from a youth centre scheduled for demolition.

"We have arrested 437 people today. That is a record," Flemming Munch, a 
Copenhagen police spokesman, was reported by the AFP news agency as saying.
He said that he expected most of the demonstrators to be released from 
police custody overnight.

"It started out as a peaceful demonstration but then there was more and more 
violence and the riots against the police started," Munch said.
marketing

The Danish Ritzau news agency reported a police spokesman as saying that the 
police had "never arrested so many people in a single incident before".

Police estimated the number of demonstrators as between 1,000 and 2,000, 
while organisers said there were as many as 4,000 people.

The authorities fired tear gas at the demonstrators, while protesters hurled 
smoke bombs and tried to break through police barriers and climb over police 
cars.

No injuries were reported, according to the police, and demonstrators failed 
to occupy the unused waterworks owned by the city of Copenhagen.

In March, the forced eviction of squatters running the Ungdomshuset centre, 
a haven for the city's youth and its underground culture since 1982, sparked 
several nights of violent protests in the capital.

http://mwcnews.net/content/view/16510/51/

Denmark demonstration turns violent
Copenhagen saw several days of protest in March over the closure of the 
Youth House [EPA]
Protesters in Denmark have set fire to cars and smashed shop windows after a 
demonstration commemorating a now demolished Youth House turned violent, 
according to police.
Activists clashed with police early on Sunday, soon after a demonstration to 
commemorate the youth shelter that was torn down by the authorites in March.

One police officer was injured and 63 people were arrested as riot police 
clashed with protesters in the Noerrebro district of Copenhagen, police 
said.

Officers used tear gas to disperse the crowd.

"Three or four people will be charged for violent behaviour against police 
officers," said Flemming Steen Munch, a police spokesman.

"The others have been released."
marketing

Not forgotten

Mads Firlings, another police spokesman, said: "It's six months since we 
cleared the house there, and they want to show they have not forgotten.

"Almost immediately they started building barricades and throwing rocks 
through the windows of shops and banks."

The situation had calmed down on Sunday morning and crews had begun to clean 
up the streets.

In March, the city saw several days of street violence and hundreds of 
people were arrested in demonstrations after police evicted squatters living 
in the Youth House.

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/harriet_riley/2007/09/farewell_to_freetown.html

Farewell to Freetown
Christiania, Copenhagen's last bastion of hippydom, is finally to close 
after nearly 40 years. What is the future for dissent in Denmark now?
Harriet Riley

September 18, 2007 7:30 PM
After nearly four decades of independence from Denmark and the EU, 
Christiania's dream of a subsistence lifestyle, free from capitalist 
constraints and social segregation, is finally coming to an end. Last week 
the council of Christianian elders and representatives of the city of 
Copenhagen met to ratify what is more a peace treaty than a business deal, 
ending the battle that has raged between them since the Freetown's inception 
in 1971.
Residents cannot help but see it as surrender; over the next 10 years their 
land will be gradually ceded to the government for redevelopment. Everybody, 
both inside and out, understands that this is the end of an era in the fight 
against mainstream consumer-culture. The market creeps in over the 
ramshackle fence and this legendary bastion in the war against capitalism 
knows that within another decade it will have left the field for ever.
Nevertheless, Christiania holds the mantle for most enduring utopian 
community of the 20th century. It was born out of the revolutionary tumult 
of the 1960s and 1970s, when a group of young protesters, disillusioned with 
growing materialism, conservative politics and stifling social expectations, 
tore down a barbed wire fence around the abandoned military encampments of 
Christianshavn and declared themselves an independent state. At first, 
attempts were made to clear the emerging shanty town, but ultimately true to 
form, the Danish government allowed it to stand as a social experiment.
The island site, like much of Copenhagen, is constructed on reclaimed land 
heaped over the centuries into defensive earthen barricades. It is dotted 
with grey 19th century barracks and concrete watch-posts now covered in 
lively graffiti. The gradual eating-up by flowering vines and blackberry 
bushes of these imperious stone ruins lends Christiania an epic beauty most 
attuned to the original vision of its founders: martial structures put to a 
peaceful use.
The rest of the territory varies in its adherence to the dream, and in its 
attractiveness. Some houses display genuine architectural flair and loving 
craftsmanship while others are in a state of disrepair surrounded by refuse 
and scrap-heaps. Verdant gardens flourish, but they are littered by the 
burned-out shells of buildings and bonfires where rubbish is torched. 
Enormous Cerberus-like dogs, a mongrel breed unique to the area, patrol its 
forested paths. They are, like their owners, well socialised by the communal 
environment and rarely dangerous, though they look capable of biting through 
steel.
Most intriguing and significant of all, however, is not the site's exotic 
appearance - which has made it Denmark's third biggest tourist attraction - 
but the fact that it is a microcosmic study of social evolution. The process 
by which an internal government developed to regulate the freedom shows how 
residents were forced to compromise their anything-goes approach in the same 
way that all communities first find their laws. It was an organic 
occurrence, fuelled partly by the necessity of presenting a united front to 
the larger city, and partly by the effects of the drug trade. The liberated 
town required rules on how it would stay liberated, and though still relying 
heavily on the goodwill of its citizens to create welfare and respect 
property rights, a ruling council was made responsible for creating schools 
and daycare centres to service the generation born within their borders. 
They also covered the creation of a flag (three yellow circles on a red 
background, signifying their separateness from the other two islands spanned 
by Copenhagen) and the designation of public and private spaces within the 
polis.
Within the territory itself there are five cafes vying for attention, 
alongside a bakery, a grocers, a bike hire company and plenty of shifting 
street stalls selling clothes, jewellery or drug paraphernalia. Outposts of 
hippydom and the new age endure all over the world, fascinating those too 
young to remember their conception and amusing those who do. Christiania, 
however, has proved to be something more substantial. Shops outside the 
commune print T-shirts with the Danish slogan "Protect Christiania" 
alongside the flag.
"We only have them in summer, for the tourists," explains a shop assistant. 
"Too expensive all year round. We have to pay royalties to Christiana for 
their logo." In other words, Christiania is a brand name, a market presence. 
It was this ability to promote itself as something romantically separate 
while still being totally integrated into the wider economy that provided 
Christiania with the stability it needed to endure longer than similar 
separatist experiments.
Denmark's tiny capital has a reputation disproportionate to its size, but it 
is in no way undeserved. Artistically, it represents youth and innovation, 
the cutting edge of contemporary culture. Politically, it is a symbol of 
balanced socialism and environmental progress. Denmark as a whole is a 
unified machine in which everybody believes in the power of the principle, 
and everybody plays his or her part to make it work. Efficiency and 
casualness, though seemingly oxymoronic, sit side by side, as do uniform 
equality and an intensely individualistic belief in independence.
And it's no coincidence that such opposing principles underlie the city's 
identity. They feed off each other, providing the necessary antidotes to one 
another's shortcomings. What some might call equality, others would term 
homogeneity. In Scandinavia, especially in Sweden, there is a drive not 
exactly to "keep up with the Jens" but to make sure the Jens still have 
exactly the same bike, car and house as you do. They take pride in following 
fashion to the letter, so that no one appears to have more or less than 
their neighbour; there is a concerted communal effort to practise the 
egalitarianism they preach.
The Danish expression for this is "the curse of Loki" - somewhat similar to 
tall poppy syndrome in that anyone who does particularly well is frowned 
upon for having somehow betrayed the community ethic. It probably accounts 
for the high level of apologetic philanthropy practiced by Danish 
businesses, not least Mærsk Group whose owner, AP Møller, donated both the 
new waterfront opera house and a theatre nearby.
A contrary effect of the same principle means that to walk down a street in 
Scandinavia is to see many more tattoos and outrageous hairstyles than 
anywhere else in Europe, particularly on otherwise conservative bodies. 
Women in their fifties shopping for groceries display purple streaks in 
their greying blonde hair. Men in business suits carrying sensible leather 
briefcases have dragons wrapped around their wrists. When education, 
housing, even homewares and clothing, are designed to be universal, the 
flesh itself is the only remaining beacon of individuality. It is no 
surprise that the Christiania phenomenon should have blossomed in Denmark.
Though recent Cambridge studies found Denmark to be the happiest nation in 
Europe, thanks to trust in public institutions such as the police and high 
levels of social integration, these are just the things that Christianians 
believe are lacking in western society. Yet few other governments would have 
allowed Christiania to endure, and handled its many challenges as 
diplomatically as the Danish have. Put simply, the Christiania/Copenhagen 
divide is no more than a geographical illustration of the tattoo principle. 
In this binary world, Copenhagen is clean-cut, civil, stylish, cool. 
Christiania is scruffy, loose, warm, old school. Both pride themselves on 
being tolerant, community-focused and environmentally friendly. Their 
residences, which seem the antithesis of one another, are in reality living 
out the same essential principles.
Christiania's ethos and reputation are not exclusively derived from the 
Summer of Love, as successive generations have adopted and adapted the site 
to suit their own trends. Punk, goth, anarchist, various extremes of the 
Christian religion, voodoo and Gypsy are all incorporated, as are curious 
teens, backpackers, runaways and junkies. This has been a source of 
conflict, not so much internally but within the wider society.
Christiania's name was closely attached to the Youth House incident that 
took place in late 2006 when a group of squatters were evicted from a 
historic building on HC Andersen Boulevard. The building, once a gift of the 
city to its youth, hosted concerts, provided studio space and fostered a 
generally rich counter-culture, until it was bought out by a Christian sect 
who planned to convert it into a church. Much was made by the local media of 
the minor clashes that occurred - in a usually peaceful city - between 
police and protesters refusing to vacate the premises. In the end, the 
controversy became so strong that the house was demolished to prevent 
further violence erupting around it.
The issue split the nation for several months. On one hand there was the 
spurious reputation of the ultra-conservative Christian sect to whom the 
government sold the property, without providing a replacement venue for its 
current occupants. On the other was the value of the real estate, the young 
people's failure to maintain it, and the fact that the site was frequented 
by drug dealers.
Fuelled by the current wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, Denmark's left and 
right are locked in a fierce pre-election debate for the national heart. The 
latter, personified by the Danish People's party, openly petitions for the 
restriction of immigration to retain the nation's historic homogeneity. This 
is contrary to the policies of the left, which usually dominate at both the 
public and political level. Youth House provided another point of visible 
contention and there is little doubt that it precipitated the recommencement 
of negotiations over the Freetown.
Christiania's central agora still bears the frank but obsolete title of 
Pusher Street, since the cocaine and heroin trades (conducted by Europe's 
transnational biker gangs) were conclusively disassembled in the mid-1990s. 
This has done little to change its reputation as a refuge for criminals, 
extremists and delinquents. However, the handsome, sylvan waterfront is now 
prime real estate; this, more than any moral issue, has truly determined its 
fate. Like most human communities, Christiania has come full circle, first 
in a state of nature, then developing government and currency, and finally 
being reintegrated, for economic reasons, into the capitalist society that 
it first rejected.
A war ended by treaty is undoubtedly better than one concluded in 
annihilation, and so the gradual decommissioning of Christiania may promise 
a gentler fate than Youth House. But the pathologies she was responding to 
endure, not only in Scandinavia but across the entire western world.
Leaving by the main gate, I pass a gaggle of tourists photographing the sign 
erected there: "Now entering the EU." Christiania's legacy will be a 
question: how do we meet the social inequities produced by our current 
system, as individuals and as a community? Though perhaps the solutions do 
not involve succession or revolution, no doubt they will need to be as 
ambitious and bold as the steadily spreading petunias that grow from the 
cannon-barrels of Christiania.