Blok R is intended to increase the pressure on Copenhagen City Council to come up with a new Youth House (one year after the brutal eviction of Ungdomshuset). Various houses have been proposed by the Council but negotiations have become drawn out. Blok R happens on 3rd April, afterwhich all participating groups have agreed to quit negotiations and take the battle to the streets for as long as it takes.
Blok R - one of the posters
Action BlokR is an open action that consists of self organized groups that has the qualifications to make decisions about their own missions and relations, as long as they respect the guidelines of the action. The groups have been sending representatives to a weekly coordinating meeting, where the groups have the possibility to discuss things that reaches farther than the single groups’ mission.
Preparations Made for Blok R
Today activists staged another preparation workshop for BlokR and everything looks to be coming together.
All day Sunday activists took part in workshops preparing for BlokR on April 3rd. Workshops included gasmask training, blockade training, talks about the tactical situation and a big cross-block building session. Also a lot of the gear which will be used in the action was demonstrated and teams for shield carriers, cube pushers and more started assembling.
It looked very much like everything is coming together for the blocks and all the gear looked very impressive and the activists were very enthusiastic. Soon a big final meeting will be held, where it is hoped as many as possible of the activists planing to do the action will come to talk, train and form affinity groups.
A brief discussion also mentioned the new situation after the potential house in the north west quarter was dropped. The general feeling is, that however and whatever the politicians on the city council do, it remains their responsibility and we've waited more than long enough. There is no more room for bureaucracy and citizen's hearings. We demand a new house before April 3rd or the hammer falls!
The purpose of the action:
The purpose of the action “BlokR” is to keep the politically pressure against the politicians of Copenhagen in the cause of getting a new “ungdomshus” (youth house) before April 4th 2008. Thursday April 3rd will be the last meeting of the city council before this date, which is more than a year since they sent the police to convict our house and thereby solving their problem. There is the Action BlokR organising a siege of the city council, and this siege won’t let the politicians leave the building until they’ve found a solution that we can accept.
Action BlokR is:
A big public and broadly called siege of the city council
A civilian disobedient siege of the city council, that gives resistance to breakages of the blockage
The action is built on these guidelines:
Civilian disobedient and resistance should be understood as the fact that we won’t take orders from the police, that we will offer resistance to possible breakages of the blockage, that we will push if the police do so and that we will bring and use the right protection to keep the blockage.
The only things that will be thrown are possible teargas grenades that the police have fired.
If the politicians try to break the blockage, we will simply turn our backs at them.
The structure of the action:
There are four blocks (red, yellow, turquoise and green), that each has a corner of the city hall. They have chosen their own strategy.
Regards,
The Action BlokR initiative
We want a youth house while we’re still young!
Vi vil ha’ det ungdomshus mens vi er unge
BlokR - Belejringen af Borgerreppen
3. april 2008
Ungdomshus update:
Several houses have been put into play after a near definitive rejection of the most likely location for a new social centre in Copenhagen. Meanwhile April 3rd is drawing nearer, preparations are nearly complete.
For several weeks a soon to be abandoned school in the north of Copenhagen on Frederikssundsvejen was considered to be a very likely location for a new Ungdomshus. The house would have been something of a compromise for the movement, but still a good choice and the politicians were moderately positive as well. The planned BlokR action was even postponed to allow for citizen's hearings in the area.
These hearings have returned a negative response however - albeit divided in 7 votes for and 13 against, which for most new projects is quite positive. However city council politicians have responded to this by declaring the school out of bounds.
That decision has meant a severe set back for negotiations which had been focussed on the one location for some time. Now several new addresses have been put into play - one a derelict railway building has been quickly dismissed, another is a culture house in the north west quarter, newly renovated for approx. 10 mio. euros. This house is consider extremely unlikely due to the expense incurred in renovating it. The last house has been suggested previously by the Monday meeting and is another school which will be closed at the end of July. This building is of appropriate size and has the added benefit of being within the limits of Nørrebro, thus fulfilling the last demand for a new Ungdomshus originally out forward by the Monday meeting.
Meanwhile activists are still preparing for the BlokR action on April 3rd. The decision has been to forge on despite the changes in negotiations - no more bureaucracy, hearings and red tape will be tolerated! We have been without a house for more than a year now, and the politicians will not be allowed to put down the responsibility for solving the situation by putting it on the local citizens.
The pressure of the upcoming action is also registering with the repressive system. Several activists involved in the BlokR action have been visited by uniformed police officers at home and others have been stopped and registered by unmarked cars on the street.
Noone is going to give way to the pressure - a lot of effort is being directed at making everyone aware that the repression is aimed at all of us and that noone stands alone in this. The action goes on and after that - who knows? Most activists are expecting the negotiating group to be dismantled after April 3rd and actions to become more numerous and distinctly more militant.
There will very obviously be no surrender to bureaucracy - if the politicians insist on drawing out the process yet again they will most likely soon be picking up the burning pieces of Copenhagen.
Preparations Made for Blok R
Today activists staged another preparation workshop for BlokR and everything looks to be coming together.
All day Sunday activists took part in workshops preparing for BlokR on April 3rd. Workshops included gasmask training, blockade training, talks about the tactical situation and a big cross-block building session. Also a lot of the gear which will be used in the action was demonstrated and teams for shield carriers, cube pushers and more started assembling.
It looked very much like everything is coming together for the blocks and all the gear looked very impressive and the activists were very enthusiastic. Soon a big final meeting will be held, where it is hoped as many as possible of the activists planing to do the action will come to talk, train and form affinity groups.
A brief discussion also mentioned the new situation after the potential house in the north west quarter was dropped. The general feeling is, that however and whatever the politicians on the city council do, it remains their responsibility and we've waited more than long enough. There is no more room for bureaucracy and citizen's hearings. We demand a new house before April 3rd or the hammer falls!
The purpose of the action:
The purpose of the action “BlokR” is to keep the politically pressure against the politicians of Copenhagen in the cause of getting a new “ungdomshus” (youth house) before April 4th 2008. Thursday April 3rd will be the last meeting of the city council before this date, which is more than a year since they sent the police to convict our house and thereby solving their problem. There is the Action BlokR organising a siege of the city council, and this siege won’t let the politicians leave the building until they’ve found a solution that we can accept.
Action BlokR is:
A big public and broadly called siege of the city council
A civilian disobedient siege of the city council, that gives resistance to breakages of the blockage
The action is built on these guidelines:
Civilian disobedient and resistance should be understood as the fact that we won’t take orders from the police, that we will offer resistance to possible breakages of the blockage, that we will push if the police do so and that we will bring and use the right protection to keep the blockage.
The only things that will be thrown are possible teargas grenades that the police have fired.
If the politicians try to break the blockage, we will simply turn our backs at them.
The structure of the action:
There are four blocks (red, yellow, turquoise and green), that each has a corner of the city hall. They have chosen their own strategy.
Regards,
The Action BlokR initiative
We want a youth house while we’re still young!
Vi vil ha’ det ungdomshus mens vi er unge
BlokR - Belejringen af Borgerreppen
3. april 2008
Ungdomshus update:
Several houses have been put into play after a near definitive rejection of the most likely location for a new social centre in Copenhagen. Meanwhile April 3rd is drawing nearer, preparations are nearly complete.
For several weeks a soon to be abandoned school in the north of Copenhagen on Frederikssundsvejen was considered to be a very likely location for a new Ungdomshus. The house would have been something of a compromise for the movement, but still a good choice and the politicians were moderately positive as well. The planned BlokR action was even postponed to allow for citizen's hearings in the area.
These hearings have returned a negative response however - albeit divided in 7 votes for and 13 against, which for most new projects is quite positive. However city council politicians have responded to this by declaring the school out of bounds.
That decision has meant a severe set back for negotiations which had been focussed on the one location for some time. Now several new addresses have been put into play - one a derelict railway building has been quickly dismissed, another is a culture house in the north west quarter, newly renovated for approx. 10 mio. euros. This house is consider extremely unlikely due to the expense incurred in renovating it. The last house has been suggested previously by the Monday meeting and is another school which will be closed at the end of July. This building is of appropriate size and has the added benefit of being within the limits of Nørrebro, thus fulfilling the last demand for a new Ungdomshus originally out forward by the Monday meeting.
Meanwhile activists are still preparing for the BlokR action on April 3rd. The decision has been to forge on despite the changes in negotiations - no more bureaucracy, hearings and red tape will be tolerated! We have been without a house for more than a year now, and the politicians will not be allowed to put down the responsibility for solving the situation by putting it on the local citizens.
The pressure of the upcoming action is also registering with the repressive system. Several activists involved in the BlokR action have been visited by uniformed police officers at home and others have been stopped and registered by unmarked cars on the street.
Noone is going to give way to the pressure - a lot of effort is being directed at making everyone aware that the repression is aimed at all of us and that noone stands alone in this. The action goes on and after that - who knows? Most activists are expecting the negotiating group to be dismantled after April 3rd and actions to become more numerous and distinctly more militant.
There will very obviously be no surrender to bureaucracy - if the politicians insist on drawing out the process yet again they will most likely soon be picking up the burning pieces of Copenhagen.
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