Free Spaces Demonstration-Berlin March 14 2009

Free Spaces Demonstration-Berlin March 14 2009

At the 14. march 2009 arround 4.000 people were gathering on the Hermannplatz in Berlin to demonstrate for the survival of left free spaces in Berlin and everywhere and against the ugly gentrification in lot of the center’s districts of Berlin. Many residents already have been forced to move in other districts of Berlin, since they cannot afford the constantly increasing rents in the center’s districts anymore. The demonstration was part of the “United We Stay” action weekend. The campaign, which organised the demonstration is called “We Stay All”. They also claim an immediately political solution for the few stayed house projects and Wagenburgen (squatted places where people live in trucks and cars). The concept of the demonstration was to appear as colourful and openly as possible so that common people also join the demonstrations and to avoid attacks of the riot cops (which in last time offener happened on demonstrations of the radical lefts).

The demonstration started at 15:00 from Neukölln, went through Kreuzberg and ended then in Friedrichshain. The cop’s presence and repression took place with 900 of them following and disturbing the peacfull protest. They started with randomly controls to people who started gathering, filming the protestors during the whole event. At the Warschauer Bruecke the whole demonstration had to stop because the cops arrested two prostesters. They said that they shall have went on the rail tracks of the underground. After they took their blood type and their personal data they released them and the demonstration went on. But already short time later the cops started trouble again, they splitted the demonstration into two parts after some ppl surrounded and attacked a singled cop car. The cops stated later that they weren’t completely innocent that the situation escalated because the cops in the car got scared and locked themselves inside the car. At the same time that happened a group of arround 1.000 demonstrants splitted from the demonstation and went in the Warschauer Strasse, where some cars, cop cars, a Mc Donalds and a bank has been smashed and some waste containers were looted. One cop car has turned upside down. Later they also tried to attack the new opened Nazi’s clothes shop but it was protected by arround 50 cops. As the first coming 100 demonstrants saw the cops they stepped back and after one minute hundreds of cops were coming from all sides and hunting the protestors. During that situation a bunch of cops were passing by a person who had nothing to do with the demonstration, one cop hit him and the person felt with his head on the kerb stone edge. That person has been seriously injured with a basal skull fracture, but instead of the cops helping him and call the emergency they went away and let him lay helpless on the street. Also the feminist squat near the place the person was injured was attacked by cops. At the time that this event happed the rest of the demonstration went through the Revaler Strasse, where people of the culture project RAW made a fire show, further through the Simon Dach Staße (a street full of trendy tourist’s bars), where some protestors smashed windows of a bar and later in the night four bars were attacked with butyric acid. The demonstration went then on through the Scharnweberstrasse where people from the house project Scharnweberstrasse 29 made a fire show on the balcony and people from the second house project Scharni were standing on the roof and waving flags. The demonstration ended in front of the city hall in the Frankfurter Allee observed from a cop’s helicopter and lot of cops with dogs in front of the city hall. During the demonstration 12 people were arrested and two cops injured. After the demonstration the cops were present in the whole district all the night over and randomly pressed charges against people. Police and fire-fighting operations continued through the whole night.

http://de.indymedia.org/2009/03/244145.shtml

http://de.indymedia.org/2009/03/244389.shtml

http://de.indymedia.org/2009/03/244296.shtml

Foto: http://www.flickr.com/photos/maly_krtek/sets/72157615557269050/

Friday 13.3: London Solidarity Event for Konstantina Kuneva

Konstantina Kuneva is a female, single mother, migrant worker and grassroots syndicalist who was attacked with sulfuric acid by employer-hired thugs in late December 2008. She has suffered major injuries and is being treated in intensive care in Athens since. The attack happened in the aftermath of the December revolt, and the solidarity response of the movement was vigorous and dynamic throughout the country. Fund raising events are still taking place in various greek cities because of the urgent need for money, that will allow Konstantina to travel to the USA for an elaborate and very expensive operation, which her only chance to have some of her basic bodily functions restored.

Benefit event for Konstantina: Screenings, discussion, food and live music on Friday March 13 from 5 to 11 at 100 Flowers squat, 2A Belgrade Road, Dalston N16 8DJ. The event is organised jointly by Greek comrades in solidarity, local Turkish/Kurdish workers organizations, and comrades from North East London squats.

For more info on Konstantina’s case, most of the greek texts that have been translated into english can be found here.