Plans and preparations for the siege on city hall are moving forward. On Saturday the 2nd, the first set of workshops was held and more details on the blocks and their structure was given out.
The negotiations for a new Ungdomshus in Copenhagen have been something of a bureaucratic roller coaster - progress has been slow, sometimes even in reverse. The council is trying to force the activists to accept a poor location in shabby, far away buildings, while the activists are suggesting a location much closer to the city and in better buildings.
About a week ago the press ran a story saying that a compromise had been reached and the activists had agreed to a new house in the North West part of Copenhagen. That was quite simply untrue - no agreement had been reached, no building had been approved, and negotiations are still near stalling.
The BlokR action has been announced to increase the pressure on the city council. The plan? On February 21st - the last council meeting before March 1st - a mass of activists are going to force their way to town hall square and block all exits from the town hall. The aim? To ensure that the politicians stay inside in the meeting until the problem is solved and we have a new house.
The codex of the action is the same as that from the G13 action last year - any and all means of action are approved, as long as no harm is intentionally done to any person. Also to prevent unintended escalation there is a set agreement that nothing can be thrown (even water balloons) with the exception of tear gas grenades and hand signs.
Yesterday the first set of workshops in preparation was held. The workshops were on subjects such as affinity group structure, non-hierarchical organisation, dealing with tear gas, pepper spray and dogs and lock on techniques.
Also the four blocks (green, teal, red and yellow) presented themselves and held internal workshops on their techniques, structure and aims. A basic presentation of four blocks is: green is a "heavy" and confrontational block carrying lots of gear, ladders and shields like on G13. Teal block is also confrontational but less focused on gear and more on having the block act as a single entity at all times, which for one thing involves moving in "snakes" where everyone holds on to one another. Red is the creative block aimed at being flexible, colourful and inventive, red is also willing to be confrontational. Yellow is the queer-feminist block, which is less confrontational but aimed at being the largest. Yellow has agreed to be a place where everyone who turns up on the day but is not affiliated with a block can be.
One experience carried over from G13 is the massive amount of CS gas used. Now in addition to this the police have been issued with pepper spray canisters. As far as is currently known these canisters have a range of about three meters. Since BlokR is set in the inner city it is expected that the police will mostly use pepper spray instead of tear gas, but in any event large amounts of gas masks (legal to possess in Denmark) are being acquired so they can be distributed at the next workshop session on February 16th.
On the issue of a new house, an activist spokesperson has said "We will only cancel the action the moment we are standing at the front door of our new house holding a set of keys."
In the next weeks a support party is to be held, the next workshop, where amongst other things personal protection gear will be built and a last and final update meeting. The date for the next workshop is February 16th and the last update meeting is February 19th. The BlokR action starts at 5.00pm on "Vesterbros Torv" (a plaza in the Vesterbro area).
About a week ago the press ran a story saying that a compromise had been reached and the activists had agreed to a new house in the North West part of Copenhagen. That was quite simply untrue - no agreement had been reached, no building had been approved, and negotiations are still near stalling.
The BlokR action has been announced to increase the pressure on the city council. The plan? On February 21st - the last council meeting before March 1st - a mass of activists are going to force their way to town hall square and block all exits from the town hall. The aim? To ensure that the politicians stay inside in the meeting until the problem is solved and we have a new house.
The codex of the action is the same as that from the G13 action last year - any and all means of action are approved, as long as no harm is intentionally done to any person. Also to prevent unintended escalation there is a set agreement that nothing can be thrown (even water balloons) with the exception of tear gas grenades and hand signs.
Yesterday the first set of workshops in preparation was held. The workshops were on subjects such as affinity group structure, non-hierarchical organisation, dealing with tear gas, pepper spray and dogs and lock on techniques.
Also the four blocks (green, teal, red and yellow) presented themselves and held internal workshops on their techniques, structure and aims. A basic presentation of four blocks is: green is a "heavy" and confrontational block carrying lots of gear, ladders and shields like on G13. Teal block is also confrontational but less focused on gear and more on having the block act as a single entity at all times, which for one thing involves moving in "snakes" where everyone holds on to one another. Red is the creative block aimed at being flexible, colourful and inventive, red is also willing to be confrontational. Yellow is the queer-feminist block, which is less confrontational but aimed at being the largest. Yellow has agreed to be a place where everyone who turns up on the day but is not affiliated with a block can be.
One experience carried over from G13 is the massive amount of CS gas used. Now in addition to this the police have been issued with pepper spray canisters. As far as is currently known these canisters have a range of about three meters. Since BlokR is set in the inner city it is expected that the police will mostly use pepper spray instead of tear gas, but in any event large amounts of gas masks (legal to possess in Denmark) are being acquired so they can be distributed at the next workshop session on February 16th.
On the issue of a new house, an activist spokesperson has said "We will only cancel the action the moment we are standing at the front door of our new house holding a set of keys."
In the next weeks a support party is to be held, the next workshop, where amongst other things personal protection gear will be built and a last and final update meeting. The date for the next workshop is February 16th and the last update meeting is February 19th. The BlokR action starts at 5.00pm on "Vesterbros Torv" (a plaza in the Vesterbro area).
