Rigaerstrasse – the neighbourhood of Friedrichshains Northkiez¹ has been marked and shaped by a constant defensive fight against state control and gentrification , at least since the squating wave of 1990. Meanwhile the Kiez is a field of constant tension between leftist-liberal obedience, subculture and serious confrontation.
Retrospection
In connection with the Long week of Rigaerstrasse in 2015 and the resulting declaration of our neighboorhood to a dangerzone, we called for selforganization and solidarity in the Neighbourhood. We made propaganda against the cops on the streets, against arrogant houseowner organizations and their luxury developments, against state politics. In Spring 2016 the conflict with CG-Group welled up and neighbours organized and defended themselves against gentrification in the Neighbourhood.
Neighbourhood-assemblies, an exchange on the experienced police-state that transgressed scene-boundaries and the continuity of expressed militancy built the base for the successful fights around Rigaer 94 in the Summer of 2016. In the aftermath it seemingly got more quiet around the street. After the furious rows of June 2017, Dorfplatz², one of the cornerstones of the Myth of Rigaer Straße became once again the scene for the states measures of control and the attempt to suffocate everything social between the people. Counterinsurgency and Pacification strategies are expressed in the oppression of the rebellious and the integration of those willing to enter a „dialogue“, as in the summer 2017 attempt of the council to stage and simulate civic participation.
January 2018
We’re looking forward to this new year with anticipation.
With the end of the year the lease of the (queer-)feminist house project Liebig34 will run out, several other projects are threatened and in need of a fierce shared perspective. Repressive pressure on autonomous structures has been on the rise since the G20 Summit in Hamburg, and wont come to a halt in front of our doors. Kiez structures that have slowly grown over time will keep being destroyed by displacement and further isolation and egoism. We see it as part of our responsibility to perpetuate the intensity and strength of the dispute and confrontations as we saw them in Hamburg and drive the cracks of collective and individual revolt deep into the concrete of the capitalist city.But we don’t want to just create our own ghetto and have our horizon end at the border of our neighbourhoods.
Nevertheless we came to see that the rebellion against gentrification has become one of the most important pillars of autonomous struggles.There are daily actions against profiteers and the states‘ thugs whose violent politics account for the deaths of countless people. In the age of the Smart-City and urban warfare, the constant strenghtening of fascist structures and blanket indifference, people around the world, from Rojava to the Mapuche, from Athens to Berlin, from the goldmines in Chalkidikí to the ZAD in Nantes, defend their freedom and a life in dignity.
Discussion and Chaos Days Mai 2018
Those thinking to put a seal of deadly silence on Rigaer Straße or anywhere else, shall count on our urge for selforganized and uncommercial living and our will to face and fight any authority and the power of capitalism over it. We invite you to the Discussion and Chaos Days from 10th to 13th of may 2018 in Berlin. We want to discuss, test and intensify revolutionary and rebellious perspectives, goals and strategies for more intensive and far-reaching struggles.
We’re planning a mix of workshops, discussions, culture and actions on the focal points of our struggles. The more the merrier.
Our call goes out to all active groups and individuals, neighbourhood-initiatives, those involved in struggles in other regions, Punks and kids of the burgeois, gangster and autonomous.. – all those that want to fill the streets and their hearts with life, organize resistance, cause decentral chaos on those days and nights.
You can send your input and ideas to rigaerstrasse@riseup.net , feel free to ask us for posters and other mobilization material on there too
More Infos can be found at: engegenstadt.blackblogs.org
¹Kiez
In Berlin Context, a word describing a close neighbourhood and its structures. Discerned by its social connections and reliance on local resources, in contrast to modern blocks or modernized areas that fail to replicate the grown dependencies and systems making the neighbourhood more independent and giving it an identity. Sometimes in short: a block that has no bar, no Späti or baker is not a Kiez.
² Dorfplatz coloquial term literally translating to Village Square The small square formed by the intersection of Liebigstrasse and Rigaerstrasse in Friedrichshain, once characterized by the now gone Liebig14 and the remaining Liebig34 and the proximity of Rigaer94.