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Riots in Hamburg, Germany

alien8 | 16.11.2002 19:04

Street battles are currently taking place in downtown Hamburg, Germany, following a large demonstration against the right-wing city council.

A 4000-strong demonstration with participants from a wide section of society started at around 1 pm. The demo participants expressed their disgust with the right-wing city government, which had evicted the 'Bauwagenplatz' Bambule 2 weeks before and have since then deployed large numbers of riot police everywhere in town. When a few hours later the demonstration approached the former site of the Bambule in the neighbourhood 'Karoviertel', police tried to divide the demonstration with large numbers of riot police and attacked it with water cannons.

For a while groups of protesters resisted the attack, throwing stones and bottles, then moved back into the (traditionally, or rather: formerly) alternative, left-wing neighbourhood 'Schanzenviertel'. Barricades were erected, slowing down police movements. Groups of riot police and snatch squads started to run down streets and catch everyone they could. People living in houses along those streets commented these actions with shouts of "Police, piss off!", "We don't want you here!", "We don't want police in our neighbourhood!". In some streets hundresd of people were shouting "Bambule, Bambule!". Everywhere police was made clear that they had no support whatsoever by many of those living in the area.

During the past hour confrontations have spread into other parts of the city. There are snatch squads everywhere, some of them with dogs.

Today's demonstration follows a large number of demonstrations and actions which have taken place since the eviction of Bambule.

alien8

Comments

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More info in english

16.11.2002 19:27

For more information in English language about the Bambule eviction, and the two weeks of protests that followed in Hamburg see the IMC-UK feature in our World page:

imcista
- Homepage: http://uk.indymedia.org/index.php3?resist=global

Picket the German Embassy In Solidarity

16.11.2002 23:09

Picket the German Embassy tommorrow in Solidarity with the protesters in Hamburg. Meet up at the German embassy 21-23 Belgrave Square tommorrow, Sunday 17th of November 5pm to 7pm! Spread the word!

Harlequin

Where The Beatles got connected..

17.11.2002 00:18

It´s said that ignorant people living down Hamburg - whatever their origin - have become a little bit daft. So, Please sod off you silly little men....

Anti-conformism

Local support?

17.11.2002 16:58

While i have sympathy with the residents of Bambule and would be on the demos supportting them,It is one of the most depressing things about german politics how this radical ghetto is so cut off from society. For many years people fetished the German Anti'FA Anti-Imp and Black Bloc for their level of organisation. Except they are totally ghettoised...their lack of links with the german working class meant for all the anti-fascist rhetoric and street fighting ability they have been impotent to fight the rise of the right in Germany post unification. this is because they offer no alternative for ordinary germans, to whom living in a truck is meaningless. They are not an alternative they are a ghetto. Have the taxi drivers come out in support of Bambule like they did for some of the more political squat evictions in the 80's.
sorry to be critical by so much more is possible!

paul

yes

17.11.2002 17:42

yes, the taxi drivers were there :)

erka

not quite true

18.11.2002 03:14

not quite true thet left wings, have no contact to the working class. in specialy the bambulle people allways made efforts to get in contact with they neighbourhood. neighbours, very well supported the people all the days. and well, two taxis took part on the demonstration on 16th. so, while you are right, that there is much more effort necessary, it is not true in case of bambulle. you missed another important thing. there is no class conciousness in germany. the people don't feel to belong to a working class. a working class movement simply doesn't exists. well, big union exists but they are kind of instutionalized that you shoudn't expect too much from them.
so, it's rather difficult to get working class people involved, but bambulle did this kind of work - and in my opinion very succesfully.
well, and there is another important point: you can't devellope your own ideas while you're dependent on a system you found to be wrong. while keepin contact to the people is important, you never should become dependent on them, or you are swallowed in some way. weakness of leftwings in germany is more a result of very different opinions between different groups. especialy the real hard fights between anarchists and komunists. the fall of the wall had a very strong impact as many things had changed. the end of th raf at about he same time was a hard strike. even for those of us oposed to them. new orientation was and is taking place. different groups very different opinions which are in my opinion necessary to get the process going. but bambulle got and gets them partialy together. there are people on the streets, that haven't been seen for twenty years. people resinged as theyr ideals seemed no longer to reach. i realy hope that this eskalation, caused by government and police, will link the people even stronger and not only in germany.

iak