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Last May, the Köpi and its corresponding caravan lot was sold.
As has now become public, the situation of Köpi has been exacerbated in recent weeks. The new owner has in recent times terminated several contracts, the demolition has been announced, and the 31st May 2008 has been set as a concrete deadline for eviction.
WE CALL FOR A WIDE CAMPAIGN TO DEFEND THE KÖPI!

"HOW WE COULD DO IT, IF WE WANTED TO..."

The reaction of the Left to the situation so far has been limited to two demos, a few small direct actions, banners and graffiti, and a lot of verbal radicalism.
It has often been proclaimed that a centre like the Köpi is of the highest importance to us and we have to make every effort and priority to preserve it.
For this goal, eloquent threats such as "if the Köpi is evicted we’ll burn down the city!" are only of limited benefit. Not only because we have serious doubts as to whether, in the case of a Köpi-eviction, the city would actually be burnt down (the reactions to State-inflicted injustices in recent times contribute to our doubt that this would actually happen) - but above all, because in the event that the Köpi is evicted, not even the most beautiful city fireworks could bring it back.
Also, grand announcements that the Köpi would be militantly defended in the event of an evacuation leads to the same impasse.
First, we should make it clear that the last attempt at a militant housing defence in Berlin happened 17 years ago – it is more than doubtful that we would be able to even find the thousands of people necessary to relive this today.
Even if there is a mass militant defence of the house, we should have no illusions about how it will play out - To put it briefly:
The police have armoured vehicles, but we have no anti-tank missiles. We might be able to hold a resolute defence of the house for a couple of hours, injure a few policemen and women – however ultimately the outcome of the action won’t change a thing. So as not to be misunderstood: We are certainly not opposed to the most severe militant reactions in the face of an attempted eviction, we just want to make it clear that such a response can not prevent the eviction itself.
In the end then, maybe there will be some clashes (maybe more maybe less) – maybe there even still be some cars or bins burning in the days after…
But the Köpi (and everything it stands for) will be gone.
To really be able to maintain and keep the Köpi going in the long run, it is therefore necessary to pre-empt a possible eviction – what is important is for us to make sure it doesn’t get that far!

But this requires a broad and, moreover, continuous campaign.

To avoid an eviction from the outset we must put pressure on various key individuals and groups. Such pressure must be aimed in two directions:

Firstly, it is necessary to put pressure on the political institutions and decision-makers that would eventually have to deal with the eviction of the Köpi. Although the Köpi is private property, District, Senate and Party influences can still have effect the course of events. Construction and demolition permits, for example, are granted (or denied) by offices over which elected party politicians preside. It is striking that there have been no official opinions made public on the Köpi situation by any Berlin party or individual party politician.
This would, in our opinion, be an important starting point – to place pressure on the politicians and groups implicated in the process to take a stance. Most of the parties proclaim the "right to approve the living room" and “the promotion of independent cultural projects” etc in their election programs – if they were forced to stand by these positions they could hardly support the eviction of a housing and cultural project. They would have to publicly announce their disagreement – or be faced with the threat of emergency political backpedalling to answer to the expectations of their voters in next years elections.
To avoid misunderstanding here: it is not a question of going to groups such as PDS, Greens, DGB for cooperation.
But it would be much harder for those politicians who first publicy declared support for the Köpi to later sign the demolition permit. This is where it would important to be able to create a public environment in which these people have to make a stand and stick to it. It is possible to find progressive members or groups that may be mobilised in most of these associations - Jusos, DGB-Youth – Köpi sympathisers can be found everywhere...

The second approach would be, of course, to target the buyer of the house.
While it is still unclear who exactly financed the purchase of the Köpi, the official buyer (and the signatories to the eviction and the demolition application) is very well known. If sufficiently high pressure is successfully placed on this man, he would most likely throw in the towel - and an eviction would thus, in the first instance, be taken off the table. (It should be recalled that a private investor bought the Köpi 10 years prior - and was so unnerved that he finally abandoned the sale...) Amazingly, to this point the putting of such pressure on the current buyer has been completely neglected! Therefore the last Kommunique of the Köpi comes across as somewhat naïve: "Not even a demo with 4000 people, which passed a few hundred meters from his house could impress him." (We should add to this that the demo 6 weeks ago even passed by under his window).

It is quite clear why the buyer of the Köpi is absolutely unimpressed by the Köpi solidarity actions: nothing actually happens to him. Not even when thousands of Köpi supporters pass directly by his apartment is there any action against him personally. His address, his birth date, his photo has been circulating on the Internet for months. If you google his company you will find dozens of pages (including Eastern European Redskin-Pages, Italian Squatter-Sites) on which it always says: "This is the ass that wants to evict the Köpi!" – nonetheless he is still always left in peace. So why should this impress him, why should he be afraid – when we have signalled for months that he has nothing to fear from our side?

It is this man that is the weak point of the whole eviction scenario. If he gives up, then eviction/ demolition/ construction does not take place - and it would not be so hard to offer him reasons to discontinue. He has a name, a flat, a company, a car, friends, neighbours, local pub…And there are therefore sufficient elements available for the expression of anger. (But it is also clear that at this point that the action can hardly be undertaken by members of the Köpi itself - after VS-Observation in the spring, they expect to be monitored, and action against the buyer would therefore be better performed by other people).

LEGAL, ILLEGAL?

A broad campaign neither signifies "legal public pandering” nor militant "mindless violence" - a successful campaign for the Köpi must incorporate legal political influence and direct militant intervention together. And it must have continuity-the recent successes in Copenhagen prove that a long breath can pay off!
And compared to Copenhagen, we still have but one advantage:
The Köpi has not yet been evicted up until now, we are still in a comfortable position, and we should focus on rescuing the original rather then at some point fighting for its compensation.
In this sense:

FOR A WIDE, MULTIPRONGED CONTINUOUS CAMPAIGN FOR KEEPING THE KÖPI!

UNITED WE STAND, UNITED WE FIGHT