Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Berlin: Rigaer Straße Fights Back

Ichhasse Klowne | 06.03.2007 03:07 | Free Spaces | Social Struggles | World

Berlin 2007: People's everyday life is increasingly dominated by fear, stress, and sorrow. Workplaces and social structures are being reduced, the cost of living is growing, at the same time incomes decline and jobs become more insecure. Unemployed people are being demonised as "parasites" and rents are getting higher,
even though thousands of houses are empty and slowly rotting. To be concise: the situation is becoming more and more impossible, especially for those who do not accept this logic and competion.

The space for open projects, non-commercial social relations, alternative forms of living and the freedom from state control, from the pressure to consume and discrimination is becoming less and less. Projects have existed for many years representing such freespaces are being bought, evicted, modernised and forgotten! Those who have survived this are facing constantly changing conditons that makes their existence unbearable.

Due to these reasons, different houses in Rigaer Straße have come together in order to fight against the loss of their freespaces which are not yet
(completely) under control, in which there is still a possibility of (relative) free movement, which offer people a place where they can realise their ideas,
different ways of life and dreams. A space where there is no place for fascists, racists, sexists and anti-semites! Our anti-fascist houses offer a secure place and support to people who are under threat or attacked from these arseholes.

We want to live through the concept of self-organisation and DIY rather than anonymously and as strangers. At the same time, since we are still
living within a capitalist society, we do carry all it's contradictions in ourselves, against which we have to fight against every day. It is exactly this everyday fight we want to bring forward here in Rigaer Straße. However, we also do want to make clear that the problem for us is not merely the one of keeping our freespaces, in order to live "confortably", but rather to have structures and offer them as space to other autonomous projects and groups.

However, what we are faced with now is the modern process of gentrification. Gentrification describes a process where an area is made posh - rent and the cost of living increases, local amenities close down and are replaced with shops selling useless luxury items, local pubs are replaced by souless yuppie bars, the area is cleaned and sterilised. The exisiting residents are forced out, and are replaced by a homogenous mass of white middle class consumers. Speculators invest and demand profit, resulting in the building of more luxury housing and further modernisation, which accelerates the process.

Living and social spaces for those who do not have much money are simply disappearing. Many house projects, traveller sites and autonomous structures are being confronted with this problem, and they are fighting for their survival. They are not the only ones who are facing this: it is about many more people, because gentrification means displacement and exclusion for the unemployed, low-waged, ethnic minorities, homeless as well as people like us.

Exactly because of this, it is important to work together now and make clear that there are many people who are unwilling to bow to this pressure, who are still going to be lindividuals and loud! How long would it take before this gentrification process would turn this town into a completely controlled and sterilised place? One of the best examples of this process is the "Media Spree Project": an aggressive development in Kreuzberg and Friedrichshain around the area of the Spree river, which has been transformed into a place for multi-national companies, penthouses and other kinds of expensive rubbish.

There is a question that surely remains: how much further this process can go ahead without resistance? There is indeed many groups and initiatives who are trying to fight against this by decided and radical (and militant) means. We think that direct action is always a good answer. We are determined that we will not give up our free-spaces, houses, infoshops and somethings more, without struggle and resistance. That is why we have got together and we decided to give life to a campaign which will allow us to keep these free-spaces in Rigaer Straße - as in Berlin and all around the world - and actually even creating more, since our spaces are always getting smaller and tighter...

A campaign to show the municipality, the city, and the investors how we will not tolerate their desire to make profits here, because there are still many people that want to fight for a society free from oppression. We have many ideas, and we need many more, on how to keep being "a spanner in the works" of the gentrification process. However, this struggle needs support from every side, in order to achieve our aim.

Don´t let the selling out of your city going further! It is about OUR life! About the right to self-determination and development for everybody! Don´t let yourself be kicked out and don´t allow others to be kicked out! Build networks, build groups! Spit in the fucking soup of the investors, yuppies and city planners!

Self-organisation means , and above all, working together in solidarity, so that in another 20 years there will still be DIY projects!

Therefore, pay attention to future announcements, be prepared, and let us show them that Copenhagen is not so faraway...

Freespaces will be fought for - not begged for!
Solidarity with all endangered projects!

The Long Weeekend Of Rigaer Straße

We are living here in Rigaer Straße autonomously for 17 years, trying to live and struggle together in a DIY way without hierarchy in this grey capitalist world.

Come and join us from 30th March till 1st April for workshops, actions, parties, to share food and celebrate a culture of resistance.

Ichhasse Klowne
- Homepage: http://www.rigaer-street.blogspot.com/

Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech