Young People to be Evicted from Youth House in Copenhagen
Young people are going to be evicted from the Youth House in Nørrebro, traditionally a working class district near the centre of Copenhagen. The house was occupied by squatters ("BZ") in the beginning of the 1980's, when it was not being used by anybody. The municipal council of Copenhagen tried to get the young people out, but they would not move voluntarily, claiming that they did not have any other shelter.
After some negotiations between the municipality and the young, they got permission to stay. They turned the place into an activity centre for the counter culture youngsters in Copenhagen. The municipality attempted to sell the house in 2000, claiming it was in a state of dilapidation and decay. It was, however, renovated by the youngsters. The house was purchased by a company called Human Ltd through its attorney Inger Loft.
It turns out this is a cover for a fundamentalist Christian organization called the Fatherhouse. The Fatherhouse later buys the house from Human Ltd, and they then try to evict the young people.
They do not succeed. The young people claim that they have been given use right to the house by the municipal council. In 2003 the Fatherhouse indicts the young people in the Youth House at the district Court in Copenhagen with claim of violation of their property rights. The Fatherhouse wins the case. The sentence is appealed to a regional court which upholds the sentence on August 28. So now the Fatherhouse can ask for evicion of the young people with the sentence in their hands. And they will do so. The young people, however, still refuse to move out. It may thus end in some kind of confrontation.
The young people will probably have to move out, with their concerts, discussion groups, soup kitchens, cafés, bookshop, alternative festivals, and a lot of other activities that have helped to make Copenhagen a less boring city than it would otherwise have been. It's a disgrace for the Fogh Rasmussen Bismarckian-Conservative government and the municipality of Copenhagen that it is not possible to find space for the activities of young people who break through petty-bourgeois bigotry and live in a somewhat more colourful way than the rest of the materialist buggers. Denmark is going to enjoy a very healthy surplus on the state budgets this year of some 10-12 billion dollars, and yet this rich Bismarckian welfare state cannot afford to find some space for a few hundred young people outside the mainstream of welfarish materialism. It's a disgrace!!
posted by Cosmic Duck at 10:19 AM
4 Comments:
I don´t understand how the Fatherhouse can raise that kind of money - and the BZ movement can´t!
If I were in charge of the Youth House I´d been investing money to keep anyone else away from an economical hostile takeover like the Fatherhouse movement did.
I´ve been a guest in that house some years ago when I was a guide for some foreign visitors. We were invited to survey a "fællesmøde" - all users of the house debated in a direct democratical way about issues. There was no representative voting; everybody had the possibility to say something and descision was passed in conformity. A very nice example of direct democracy in action.
The BZ movement should not be afraid to use money; if it is used well it can benefit much.
But they must learn how society operates if they want to survive. Only then they will be able to play their own tunes and dance to their own music.
You're right, Safia, but the problem is that it's difficult for the young to play by the rules of society with the limited economic means they dispose of. Learning "how society operates" - that's a good one! Does it operate in any given way? Maybe the way it operates is not always the best of possible ways. This is also how many users of the Youth House think.
But surely, you're right, with both feet planted solidly on the ground and with a bit of common sense, you may have the grit to get on in this society.
It's a disgrace for this Donald Duck blog that the author did not inform the rest of us of the main activities of thes so called "young people" in the Copenhagen building Faedrehuset (House of the Father).
The building was occupied by extreme left wing activists who used it as a commando center for often violent demonstrations and fights with the police or Danish demonstrators like the Christian showman Moses Hansen.
But Donald Duck certainly does not forget to mention that the new owners are "christian fundamentalists", which of course is entirely accidental, and has no bearing on the justification for the enforcement of property laws in Denmark.
A lot of people are quite happy with the removal of these extreme left wing hoods from their neighbourhood.
Do you have to be a duck to write here? Well anyway:
"It's a disgrace for this Donald Duck blog that the author did not inform the rest of us of the main activities of thes so called "young people" in the Copenhagen building Faedrehuset (House of the Father)."
You mean the 'socalled young people in the Youth house' I take it? The main activities are as DD correctly describes cultural and social activities. And not commando raids and violent demonstrations - mostly the violence in these few situations were provoked by the police. And these days less than before. Most of the users are young - and a lot of them young women, who are by the way the most engaged activists. Rather far from the solemn picture you try to draw here, mr Wolff!
"The building was occupied by extreme left wing activists who used it as a commando center for often violent demonstrations and fights with the police or Danish demonstrators like the Christian showman Moses Hansen."
"But Donald Duck certainly does not forget to mention that the new owners are "christian fundamentalists", which of course is entirely accidental, and has no bearing on the justification for the enforcement of property laws in Denmark."
The municipal authorities didn't want to sell the building to this Christian organisation because of it's dubious activities. But the sly soulfishers operated through an advanced lawyer and bought it anyway. It's now turned out that the purpose wasn't using the building for christian youth activities as claimed, but to resell the location (without the young people) at a huge profit. Perhaps not illegal, but certainly immoral. And a let down of the youth by the authorities!
"A lot of people are quite happy with the removal of these extreme left wing hoods from their neighbourhood."
Wrong again - the opinions are devided and the ones going against the house is from people who'd like a smarter urban surrounding, which would secure and raise the values of their appartments. Very many neighbours accept the Youth House as a refreshing and different culural activity in Copenhagen and would find it a more boring place if it closed. Further many have realised that it's possible to approach the House with any grieviances and quarrels one might have with noise, littering etc ....
Post a Comment
<< Home