Received 11/03/2021 from
Fighting tooth and claw. In defence of Rigaer94 (Berlin, March 10, 2021)
Fighting tooth and claw
– In defence of Rigaer94 –
Several times in this city we are witnessing a scene we have witnessed before.
We are not going to be fooled by the usual spin on the safety of an old building or the security of the neighbourhood, their concern for the safety of our comrades is as false as it is ridiculous. Nor do we care how much the owners need to repossess their properties, we know that this is a matter of speculation. All they will receive from us is contempt and the expression of it.
We know how to call this interest in the flats in Rigaerstrasse 94: political eviction.
Over the last few years, we have witnessed the ridiculous show of eviction efforts against our comrades from the flats for no real reason, even going against the laws they themselves have written about the right to housing.
A right which they regularly trample on, not only on Rigaerstrasse, but throughout the city, kicking people out of their homes, their wagons and even their tents.
We don’t believe their media circus about how much the area should be removed from the city’s ‘degradation’. But what degradation? The only degradation we see is the one that you politicians, bourgeoisie and speculators, create every day in pursuit of your profit logic, taking away common spaces of sociality, planning, confrontation and experimentation of ways of living that do not conform to your model: be born, work and die.
You are interested in Rigaer94 because it is a place of strong radicalism, in words, initiatives and deeds.
And like all radicals, there is no longer a place for them in this city of prefabricated houses and radical chic start-up crowd.
Because Rigaer94 is not only a housing place, it is also and above all a political place, which for more than 30 years has never shied away from city and international struggles. A place where ideas of freedom against all forms of authority and oppression are cultivated and put into practice without compromise.
We would like to say to these gentlemen that if your hope is to annihilate us by taking away our spaces, you are sadly mistaken. We will not let you sleep soundly. You will only have us more determined and pissed off.
We are shouting it loudly so that there are no misunderstandings: we claim the radicality of Rigaer94 and we will defend it tooth and claw!
A.K.A.B.
Anti Knast Anarchist*innen Berlin