Berlin, March 2021: A conflict, in which there will be no other option but to take a stand, escalates. This is not about fire safety. This argument is only a masquerade. Those ruling try to make the public believe in the morality of their actions and to create a spectacle. We have repeatedly stated that an independent fire safety expert can walk through the building with us at any time, as it happened in 2016 and November 2020. As this has been ignored, it is obvious that this mission is about the eviction and destruction of Rigaer94 as she has been existing for 30 years. It intends nothing more but a siege and a gradual transformation into a destroyed, uninhabitable house controlled by fences and security gates. It is an attempt to evict us. Those responsible chose March 11th and 12th, 2021 as kick-off. This attempt will meet our fierce resistance!
Why do we talk about an eviction? Already in January of this year, self-proclaimed Lafone lawyer Bernau sent a threatening letter to some tenants, blackmailing them to quit their renting contracts until January 31, 2021. (2) An „offer“ they did not take up. Self-proclaimed property manager Luschnat has announced that the „inspection“ will be used to change our locks. The new keys are to be handed over only upon presentation of an identity card and rent contract. While the court will decide on the 10th of March about the appeal against the inspection, we have received the controversial information that our house is already being offered for sale in the greasy portfolios of real estate investors. 1700m² of „uninhabitated space“ at a price of 2000€/m², offered possibly by none other than a project developer of the Padovicz network, Nudelmann & Friends Immobilien.
A few months before the elections the political pressure is high. No one wants to take responsibility for failing due to our determination to defend this space and its inherent idea. Everyone wants to take credit for appeasing the street and form another piece of this city according to their own interest. Precisely, to snatch another livable space from this city and prepare the ground for capital to increase the wealth of a few.
Since the district‘s councelor of construction, Florian Schmidt, is already rowing back out of fear of the consequences of his own actions, the senator for justice Behrendt has been doubting the legality of this mission. The effect of it being, that the senate will hear on Friday (5th March) Schmidt‘s proposal for another solution. Schmidt proposes an inspection by someone from the construction council (Bauaufsicht) without the cops. While our enemies in politics are divided, it is to be determined whether other politicians such as Geisel (Senator of the Interior, SPD) or Dregger (political arsonist, CDU), who want to play their game for power on all our backs, are about to burn their fingers on us. The red-red-green government cannot use flimsy social democratic policies such as rent caps and milieu protection, to hide that their policies have always served first and foremost the capitalist class.
For decades, those in power try to increase control over and economic use of the city by removing one obstacle after another. One such obstacle was the camp Rummelsburger Bucht. Its eviction was masked as “humanitarian” while in reality enabling the construction of Coral World. Such evictions are part of a broader strategy to get rid of everything that stands in the way of profit or does not fit into the hegemonic vision of the city. Those in power target and destroy self-organised spaces in which people connect to escape the misery they are pushed in by landlords, rulers, bosses, cops or machos who confront and exploit them daily, at work, inside personal spaces and the public sphere.
Places like KØPI Wagenplatz, the youth center Potse, Voigtstraße 36 or the collective bar Meuterei are also threatened by those who seek to satisfy a quest for profit. The responsible faces might vary from eviction to eviction but the logic behind remains the same. Every lackey who tries to expand their property and pocket profit by threatening and attacking spaces and ideas, has the same goal and amount of responsibility. On the other side our struggles are connected as we face the same enemies. Behind the screens, people like „Freiherr“ von Aretin threaten existences and ideas on multiple levels. While he was head of department for reprivatisation at the Treuhand, his office gives advise on weapons export business! (3) The cooperation of state and capital is visible in any attempt of eviction. Cops, politicians, judges, economic experts and journalists perform to legitimise all together political positions and means of state violence. Their concerted actions attack our structures.
Capital has appropriated words such as „alternative“ and the image that goes along, to sell us a city that is in fact grey and only safe and accessible to those with money. Neoliberalim has long found its way into city planning and the concept of „upgrading“ functions as an overall repressive plan. Turning the places we want to exist in, into uncomfortable and controllable places. We face a senate that attacks our political structures in the metropolitan field, leading to a direct confrontation between them and us.
We as Rigaer94, including the autonomous youth club Keimzelle and the open space Kadterschmiede, are part of the threatened autonomous structures. We chose to live self-determined, socially and politically together, while organising ourselves through horizontal procedures. We chose to stand as an obstacle against state and capital mechanisms inside and outside the walls of our house. We support and create territories of resistance in the city, we spread our ideas of self-organised communities. Territories to grow our community, to help and learn from each other and to oppose the system. Territories where the youth can meet autonomously, without the control of parents, teachers or bosses. Territories to organise a collective fighting back when someone is oppressed by authority and create rebellious neighbourhoods where resistance can be supported by a wider collectivity. To overcome the norms which society has forced upon us.
We see our political infrastructures as not only important for the inhabitants of our house but also for the broader community which organises against oppression and discrimination. Open structures where the spirit of comradeship and a neighbourhood in solidarity can grow. Structures that bring together struggling and revolutionary individuals to contribute on spreading the idea of autonomy and collectivity through discussions and actions. Groups and individuals that choose to socialise in spaces which are beyond consumerism and labour exploitation. Where people feel comfortable, eat, drink and warm up no matter if they have money or not. Where radical ideas are printed on brochures and posters or painted on walls, comforting individuals and surrounding them.
The defense of those structures not only belongs to the ones who live inside them but to everyone who can find themselves in them. It is a fight not only for us but for everyone! Let’s take the offensive in the streets! To not let any landlord and state servant be satisfied!
We call everyone who struggles to join this fight and realise the effects of constant state attacks. To attack back their own enemies, those who oppress us on a daily and constant basis. Let’s stand together for collective freedom, equality, solidarity and self-determination, on and beyond the 11th&12th of March. Let‘s show as a movement different forms and means of resistance.
When they try to break us, we will explode!
Solidarity is our weapon.
Rigaer94
Rigaerstrasse 94, Berlin
https://squ.at/r/49pd
https://squ.at/r/5fm
https://rigaer94.squat.net/
Groups in Berlin https://radar.squat.net/en/groups/city/berlin
Events in Berlin https://radar.squat.net/en/events/city/Berlin
Stressfaktor https://radar.squat.net/de/stressfaktor
Groups in Germany https://radar.squat.net/en/groups/country/DE
Events in Germany https://radar.squat.net/en/events/country/DE
(1) https://www.amazon.de/%C2%BBWas-kostet-Drecksbude-eigentlich-Immobilienmaklers/dp/B08TZ3HWZW/
(2) Scan of the letter. Page 1 – Page 2 – Page 3 – Page 4
(3) https://www.gvw.com/en/services/detail/foreign-trade-and-customs-law.html
Rigaer94 https://rigaer94.squat.net/2021/03/05/rigaer94-was-kostet-die-drecksbude-eigentlich/
