A-Infos (en) France, UCL AL #366 - Politics - Denmark: Capitalist Contradiction and Radicalism, a Journey to Christiania (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

More or less tolerated by the Danish government for over 50 years, 
Christiania is an autonomous district of Copenhagen. In recent years, it 
has struggled to maintain its political identity. ---- The Free Commune 
of Christiania is a district of Copenhagen that rose up in 1971 against 
bourgeois and conservative Danish society. Initially, a group of young 
pro-independence activists[1]decided to occupy the area of the former 
Bådsmandsstræde barracks by destroying its barriers: the Free Commune 
was born. It was first a self-managed residential area, but also a space 
for artistic and political experimentation: artists' studios, 
self-managed canteens, etc. Today, it has approximately 800 inhabitants.

The Free Commune has long resisted the Danish government, like an urban 
ZAD (Zone to Defend) where bourgeois social conventions are abolished. 
This doesn't prevent certain rules from being in place in Christiania, 
such as the prohibition of violence, as well as the presence of hard 
drugs and biker gangs, strongly linked to trafficking. After several 
months of conflict between the "Christianites" and the police, the 
Danish state even ended up recognizing a special status as a "place for 
social experimentation," which prevented the neighborhood from being 
handed over to developers and maintained a status quo regarding its 
existence.

Unfortunately, in the early 2000s, a new Danish Prime Minister decided 
to put an end to Christiania, which he accused of being a drug 
trafficking district. It is true that until 2023, the infamous Pusher 
Street-literally "dealers' street"-was a place for selling cannabis, a 
practice that had always been tolerated in Christiania. An attempt to 
bulldoze the neighborhood failed due to the intense nights of rioting 
that followed the destruction of a house. The residents of Christianites 
then banded together to buy back their homes from the state, thus 
preserving the free commune.

The closure of Pusher Street today highlights numerous contradictions. 
Since the 1970s, this street had been a hub for cannabis sales, 
initially by the residents themselves, but gradually the trade fell into 
the hands of gangs from other parts of Copenhagen. This sometimes led to 
very violent altercations between dealers, resulting in shootings. 
Overwhelmed by this level of violence, the residents unfortunately ended 
up calling the police, as they were completely unable to defend 
themselves against these gangs.

Pusher Street was therefore closed to preserve the neighborhood and also 
to ensure the safety of tourists. Indeed, the neighborhood's unique 
characteristics have made it a tourist attraction, drawing around a 
million visitors a year.

Christiania is currently grappling with significant contradictions: 
preserving the neighborhood's radical identity, continuing to fight for 
its survival, and simultaneously welcoming tourists to provide income 
for its residents-a matter of survival in a country championing 
"flexicurity." Unfortunately, the political aspect of Christiania is not 
always the focus of this tourism; some see it primarily as a hippie 
neighborhood with houses of unusual architecture.

But the Free Commune is still there, despite the abrogation of its 
special status and, above all, despite the contradictions within it, 
caught between radicalism, repression, and reformist temptations. Long 
live Christiania![2]

Thomas Puppy Meinhof (UCL Alsace)

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[1]The Provo movement was an anarchist, ecological, anti-monarchist, and 
anti-imperialist group active in the Netherlands from 1965 to the 1970s.

[2]"Let's preserve Christiania!" in Danish.

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https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Danemark-Contradiction-capitaliste-et-radicalite-voyage-a-Christiania
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