news from nowhere

You know the Bbc news reporting on the demolition of a squatters' residence in Copenhagen has ranged from "Youth Squat in Denmark Demolished" to "Denmark Rioters' Squat Demolished" - both on the same day, no less.

On the television, a Bbc presenter told us that the 'hippy enclave' was also hosting a 'number of foreign activists'. Be scared, I say.

Anyway, looking for some sense in things I asked a dear friend of mine from Denmark about what's going on. The website he directed me to says this:

"In 1982 Copenhagen Municipality gave the house at Jagtvej 69 to a group of young people. The agreement was that the house which was now called Ungdomshuset should function as an activity house with seminars, concerts, exhibitions and other cultural activities.

Now 24 years has passed, and the group of young people has been working hard and without salary to create one of the best cultural houses in Copenhagen. They have respected the agreement.

Despite the agreement Copenhagen Municipality sold the house in 2001 to a fundamentalist Christian sect, Faderhuset, a sect that is declared racist, against abortion, against homosexuals and use brainwash[ing] when they are recruiting new members. Since 2001 there have been juristically [legal] battles between Ungdomshuset and Faderhuset. A battle that Faderhuset won when the National Court recently decided that the house no longer belongs to the youth of Copenhagen.

Faderhuset has the law on their side, but this is not justice and should not be accepted."