On June 3, 2020, the judiciary opened the way for the eviction and destruction of Liebig34 with its ruling. In doing so, it acted as usual without its own initiative and merely as an instrument of democratic violence. Its clients in district assemblies and the Chamber of Deputies are unwaveringly pursuing the agenda of a city for the rich, for which everything else must be eliminated. They feel legitimized by the participation of about half of the population in the ritual called election. To enforce their fantasies of order and economic interests, they make use of a police force that always tries to sell their sexist and right-wing extremist profile as missteps of individual civil servants, who have to fear neither racial assaults nor murder.
But it is not only coked-up managers who, together with politicians behind closed doors, make the city an object of speculation. To the logic inherent in the system, according to which capitalists chase the highest profit, another phenomenon is added, which puts the biggest obstacle in the way of anarchist perspectives. Through decades of neoliberal propaganda, consumer terror, social chauvinism and the framing of an external threat aka the “refugee crisis”, the inhabitants of the city are being trained for individual advancement, private security and selfish lone warriorship. A look at the renovated and newly built quarters shows families in their privatized playgrounds or young software developers in the hip cafés, all in search of their individual happiness and in complete ignorance of their environment.
This state of affairs must be fought against and for this we need places that do not fall victim to those constraints and norms at the same moment and that offer space to structures with which we do not always have to agree completely in order to defend them with violence.
In a few weeks, voters, politicians and administrators will attack Liebig34 and her neighborhood with paramilitary methods, directly or indirectly through blanket legitimization, take people’s homes and put them on the street – in the hope of coming one step closer to the dissolution of anarchist space. In the northern district of Friedrichshain, Liebig34 and Rigaer94 are the starting point of an offensive self-determined praxis outside of social norms and state normality. Whether the millionaire and homeowner Padovicz gets another house for speculation is of no importance for the capitalist operation of the city. However, in this neighbourhood, among others, the question of the strength and propaganda that the anarchist struggles, starting from the village square, have developed over the last decade, is crystallising. The Senate and also the Minister of the Interior, Geisel, are aware of this situation and are therefore attempting to handle the matter from cover, without a big bang like their predecessor Frank Henkel. Like his predecessors, the current commander of the security services has also manoeuvred himself into the dead end of the planned destruction of one of the remaining visible sites of resistance.
We are countering this strategy with our pinpricks, which will meet with widespread response in solidarity with Liebig34. For the anarchist space extends not only to the visible projects and the people who inhabit or use them, but also to many other invisible networks that cannot bear the hypocritical image of Berlin as a cosmopolitan, prosperous city. The announced attack of the army of cops on Liebig34 , whose approach is unique and with an infectious conflictuality, is not only seen by us as the usual gentrification terror, but also as an explicit attack on the character of the building and as a consequence of the fascist agitation that has been pouring down on the small number of occupied rooms for years.
Despite all the criticism that was levelled against the first groups at the beginning of the 1990s, who responded to repression with approaches from a neighbourhood militia, it must be noted that certain strata and actors only understand the language in which we spoke to them on the 8th of June on Arkonaplatz in Mitte: Four luxury cars (Porsche, SUV and others), the expensive toys of the middle class pack surrounding them, were set on fire in response to their declaration of war. It is not those strata that we can reach with calls to escape the casino and competition. But they are the ones who bear responsibility, make serious decisions and trust in the policies that promise to protect their property.
In the summer of 2016, it became clear who voted for Henkel, reaped fire, broken glass and riots. With four planned evictions (Liebig34 , Potse, Syndikat, Meuterei), there is an inflation-related increase in the amount of damage to the clientele of the ruling parties.
Autonomous Groups
(via Deutschland Indymedia / Tor, translated into English by Anarchists Worldwide)
