because the discussions and the resulting practice in Leipzig have many similarities with our struggles, we publish this follow-up on recent developments there:

We take review of a long lasting weekend, filled with struggles against the increasing displacement, the gentrification and unbearable siege of pigs in our neighborhoods. After the eviction of two squats, the rage regarding the social grievances escalated for another time.

After the eviction of Luwi71 squat, there was a call for a Day X+1 demonstration for the following Thursday. Continue reading →

We want to use the context of the action week to also multiply anti-racist and anti-colonial struggles. As they are often looked over in the broader struggle of the radical left and feminist movement, are however an integral part.
The german streets and public spaces, littered with racist and colonialist monuments, show that there is no reflection in germany about it’s colonial past and present, as well as the racism throughout society and it’s institutions. To push a discourse, many calls to attack colonial racist monuments have been made, and the propaganda of action pushes for more of these actions. Here is a call or rather a publication of an action we call for to be followed (it’s in german): https://geistige-gefaehrdungen.net/node/1594936800095898
attacking colonial racist monuments isn’t hard. for example you can find different targets on tearthisshitdown.com. However when taking a stroll around Mitte, you can find many more targets that aren’t collected in the map. After some education you can most likely grab some friends, and do some creative thing to the statue. Some tipps and tricks you can learn in a workshop in the action week or read about it online.

Liebig34 is lived queer-feminist resistance. Liebig34 is more than a house. Liebig34 is a place of the anarcha-queer-feminist militant movement. Although it is a safer space, it is under attack from the outside. Capital interest, backed up by the senate and cops want to see it gone. With daily cop-presence and the eviction title already spoken, the fight for Liebig34 is since a couple of months in it’s last stand. While queer, feminist and radical left mobilisation has been strong and taken a multitude of forms, from neighborhood walks to militant actions, the hope to defend Liebig34 is getting dimmer. The attempt to evict Liebig34 is getting closer. To elevate the level of pressure Liebig34 calls for a feminist action-week from the 7th to the 13th September. Liebig34 will fight until no one dares to touch it any more.

But Liebig34 is not the only project in Berlin that is under attack. Bar collectives, autonomous youth clubs and other house projects are under threat of eviction. The radical left in Berlin is about to loose a large portion of places that resist the hetero-patriarchal, racist and capitalist normality. As Interkiezionale these projects united to fight together against their displacement.

Our bar collectives, autonomous youth clubs and house projects are critical places of a movement that fights for and tries to live another Berlin – a Berlin which struggles for alternatives to the exploitation, oppression and violence that is part of the system of rent and ownership, in the work place, in care work, in house work, in state-run youth centres, in the educational system, in health care, in prisons and family relationships.

The specific fight for Liebig34 and the other projects threatened by eviction is part of a larger struggle. With the global regression into fascist and anti-feminist movements, fighting this fight is winning importance. As a radical left, as queers we have to defend the places that we have left, to continue fighting the larger fights.

This is why we are calling for an angry demonstration on the

12th of September.

We will meet in Wassertorplatz, Kreuzberg

at 8 pm.

Come angry. Come prepared. Let our anger be heard. Let it be shown. We will not be pushed around by the cops. Let us collectively fight for Liebig34 and against the city of the rich to show capital, state and cops that we will not be silently watching while they are erasing decades-long struggle against this system.

So that the struggle for a squatted house is not just about itself, we should embed it in a discourse about the occupation of a larger area, e.g. taking ground in a rebellious neighborhood. This discourse allready started and we want to continue this with regard to the defense of Liebig34.
To find out more about the Squatting and Autonomous Movements in Europe from the 1970s to the present, you may read The City is Ours by Bart van der Steen, Ask Katzeff, and Leendert van Hoogenhuijze.

The attempt to remove certain areas from the control of the german state is a rarity. What is practiced in Hambach forest is difficult to implement in urban areas. A rare attempt to use this method were the Barricade Days in Hamburg, November 1987. Perhaps more a tactical tool than an utopia, let us recapitulate this scenario.

As early as April 2004, an action took place in Hamburg as part of the fight for wagon places, reminiscent of the Barricade Days.

The history of Hamburgs Hafenstrasse is closely connected to the german Squatting scene and the 80’s.
The conflict has not only been a conflict between real estate brokers, Hamburg state government and local squatters. The Hafenstrasse became an example of symbolic policy and the conflict between society and state. Continue reading →