IndyMedia - Vrij Media Centrum Nederland

Waar: Groningen, Netherlands
Wanneer: 22/01/2024 - 16:25

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Like previous years, the last day of ESNS saw a sizeable street rave/demonstration on wheels rolling through the city, with underground soundsystems blasting music from techno to punk, calling attention to the importance of free cultural spaces.

we were sure an event like this in Groningen would have an incredibly high concentration of white dreads, and we weren't wrong. after recently having decided to ban white people with dreads from our squat, we showed up with our Kraaienest bakfiets and a stack of flyers for our upcoming white dread cutting event and some zines from @pocbats.

unsurprisingly, our presence and flyering caused quite a bit of a stir, with some of us being physically attacked (including dog bites) and our flyers and zines stolen by offended white dread-havers. then, as bystanders gathered, we were hit with the usual 'this is not the place' and 'just talk it out', recognizing as violence only our self-defense and not what it was a reaction to, let alone the violence that constitutes having white dreads in the first place.

later on, during the march, we were approached by another white dreader, who dared claim to the face of a black person we were being racist towards them. we were also confronted with the presence of a known fascist who frequents raves in the squatting scene, something no one of the organisation, or anyone for that matter, seemed to take issue with. meanwhile, in another part of the march, a brown person wearing the Palestinian flag was told to go somewhere else.

this all leaves us wondering... what culture is your 'counterculture' countering? how free are those supposed 'free' cultural spaces you keep talking about? free for whom exactly?

'alternative' spaces like to pretend to be so contrarian, but in reality they embody nothing but the dominant culture, radical only in its symbolism and empty slogans. challenging the status quo with mere flyers and zines is enough for its mask to fall off and reveal what was underneath all along: the same old white supremacist shitshow everyone seems to be against when they scream 'fuck the system'.