The Kopi Demo

So today is the first day in a while where I really don't have many concrete plans other than hanging out and perhaps visiting a couple of museums. David left Berlin today to go back and start classes in Barcelona, while Will and Mikey just got back into town yesterday for the demo. I've gotten rather used to walking around Berlin now, which is a nice feeling, and there still is much to explore. I finished plotting my bike route for the next week or so the other night, and am now just waiting on fedex to get back to me about the customs holdup on my bike.

Yesterday was the much anticipated Kopi squat demo that a lot of us had been waiting for. The polizei had declared it an illegal demonstration before it had even begun, and we had to go through searches from riot cops before were allowed to get close to the meeting point. There was a small black bloc at the front of the march along with a couple of sound vans. A lot of anarchists from Copenhagen had come down to support Kopi as well. Quite a few Germans had gone up to support Ungdomshuset, a squat that was recently evicted and bulldozed in Copenhagen, when the police had attacked it and I suppose the Danish wanted to express their solidarity. Eventually the police ended up blocking the demo, not allowing it to go any further, at which point the black bloc decided to charge the police lines in an attempt to continue the march. It quickly became a shoving match with the cops beating on people in the front lines, and with the bloc trying to hold ground and stay together. Me and my friends ended up getting shoved around quite a bit in the confrontation, but no one was seriously hurt and we all avoided arrest.

Later that night, a spontaneous march started in the the radical district which was much more lively and celebratory and focused less on confrontation than the earlier march had. Marla, David, Night and Myself were all enjoying coffee in a cafe when we heard the chanting outside. We all quickly finished our cups, left money and spent a little while wandering around the neighborhood until we had found the march again. This time the demo was filled with people chanting and drinking beers. The polizei ended up taking a hands off approach, although a snatch squad grabbed several people during the demonstration for doing things like walking on cars. When the march reached a park, the police got a bit more aggressive and again a few shoving matches began. People dispersed fairly quickly after that. One can't help but feel energized by the movement here. There are definitely a lot of the same problems here as in the states concerning sexism and racism within the movement, but the amount of commitment that people put in here is spectacular. A group of us talked about our experiences here in all the demos for a while last night before going back to Kopi and having a few beers.

I'm off to go to a few museums now and then later tonight theres another get together at one of the squats. Until next post, -i.