The final battle for Ungdomshuset is coming up.
indymedia - 14.12.2006 12:22
The relations between police and activists is tense. Mainstream media is full of stories of catastrophees, guides and films are circulating on the Internet, encouraging people to defend Ungdomshuset by any means necessary.
The church "Faderhuset" (the Father's House) have turned down the last offer for Jagtvej 69, and so have turned down the last offer for a peaceful solution to the conflict. Is Ungdomshuset going to be preserved? That is the question on everyone's lips.
All we want for Christmas
Since the weekend in September, which resulted in over 200 arrests, the situation has been very tense. The house is barricaded. Politicians, police, people living on Nørrebro [the part of Copenhagen where Ungdomshuset is located], artists and thousands of users have all expressed their hopes that the church would agree to sell the house, but to no avail.
As a symbolic gesture the house is now covered with giftwrapping. Unfortunately, now only a swift change in attitude by the politicans can stop the police from going in and deploying aggressive force against the activists of Ungdomshuset.
The role of the church Faderhuset.
The sectarian church, that bought the house in the beginning of 2000, has had a rough time in the mainstream media. The danish tabloid Ekstrabladet (like the Daily Mail) have published numerous articles about the sect and its methods. The leader of the sect, Ruth Evensen, has changed her views a lot of in just three years. Once Ruth Evensen was very much against homosexuals, Muslims and abortion. Just a few years back she denounced those people as supporters of the anti-christ. That was in collaboration with the ex-pedophile and known right-winger "Moses" (Mogens) Hansen. Together they wanted to cleanse Nørrebro of what they considered weed. But apparently she has now changed her mind. On national television she recently wished for a Nørrebro where everyone can speak to one another, where everyone is tolerant. However, she didn’t mention how that fits in with trying to eradicate a cultural oasis used by thousands.
The church Faderhuset has been the “victims” of multiple protests since September that have resulted in some of the best documented cases of police brutality in recent history.
Ungdomshuset: The politicians are to blame!
The users and activists of Ungdomshuset have no doubt in where to put the blame. It was in the City Council of Copenhagen that the former Mayor Jens Kramer Mikkelsen in 1999 decided to sell the house to the limited company Human A/S that quickly sold on the house to "Faderhuset".
The arguments used back then were that the house was only used by 25 people, that it was a wreck and that it fostered crime on Nørrebro. The only argument remotely consistent with reality was the physical state of the building. That was, however, fixed by the occupying activists themselves. The house wasn’t always this popular, but there has always been a lot more than 25 people sharing the workload. When it comes to crime, not even the Danish police considers the house any more liable to generate criminal behaviour than the Copenhagen nightlife in general.
After the mainstream media picked up on the case, the City Council has suddenly become in favour of preserving Ungdomshuset and they have lobbied extensively to bring Faderhuset to sell the house to an independent fund, whose aim it is to preserve Ungdomshuset in its current form.
However, the politicians aren't going to take any real steps to prohibit Faderhuset from destroying Ungdomshuset. The building on Jagtvej 69, today housing Ungdomshuset, was the first meeting hall for the workers of Copenhagen at the end of the 19th century, and it was in that building that the foundation for what later became the celebrations of March the 8th was laid. So the building has historical value as a vibrant centre for organising on the left for more than a hundred years.
If the politicians want to stop a war on Nørrebro from breaking out, they need to act fast, we all saw what happened in September and if Ungdomshuset is evicted, it will most certainly happen again.
The fight is imminent.
On Thursday the 14th of December Ungdomshuset will start a weekend of activities. The 14th of December is also the day of the last meeting in the City Council this year. Groups supporting Ungdomshuset have planned demonstrations. There are also international days of solidarity actions Wednesday evening, Dec. 13 and right through to Sunday, Dec. 17.
In Ungdomshuset there are going to be concerts, workshops, parties and yet another demonstration is planned for the coming Saturday. A lot of foreign activists are expected this weekend and the media has have of course reacted to this in a scare-mongering fashion, primarily scaring readers and viewers of German activists, who are suspected and accused of helping their Danish friends to create as much chaos as possible.
Everyone's seemingly ready for a battle. Only time can tell what will happen!
Translated from danish by Morten Toft.
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