the Disillusioned kid: Viva Christiania!
| Email | Home | Linkage | Profile |

Sunday, September 11, 2005

Viva Christiania!

Christiania is a hippy community in Copenhagen, Denmark. Until 1970, the area had been Ministry of Defence property, but local residents knocked the fence down in order to make use of the land. It would subsequently be taken over by hippies and squatters who set up the "Free State" of Christiania and sought to live an alternative lifestyle based on communal living and freedom. I visited Christiania during a Danish exchange trip and though it was an amazing place, although I wouldn't want to suggest that it is neccesarily a model of a utopia. Work, for instance, is apparently segregated on the basis of gender.

The community has, to a large extent, been autonomous and existed outside the influence of Danish law. This is most obvious in the availability of cannabis, openly sold from stalls along the side of streets. In recent times, however, the Danish state has sought to exert greater influence over what happens in the community. This reached new lows this week when Danish police raided part of Christiania, sealing of the "Meadow of Peace," where people live in caravans and arresting 100 people. This was apparently in order to implement new law L205, which Christianites and their supporters have been campaigning against for sometime.

I wrote last week about what I thought would be required in order to bring about fundamental social change (going beyond mere reforms). In that post I suggested that we should seek to build and defend alternative institutions. Christiania can be seen as such an institution. To be sure, as I noted above, it has its flaws and it doesn't seem to have ever been revolutionary (in the sense that its founders saw it as a step towards a post-capitalist society), nevertheless it represents a deviation from the state-dominated order, which is why it has attracted the attentions of the Danish state in this manner.

Side Projects

Carnival of Anarchy
The Peace Pipe
UK Watch Blog

Acquaintances

Against the Current
Atopian.org
Culture hits and gendered bits
Daniel Randall
In The Water
Mike Wood
On The Barricades
Pizarro's Sword
Space Cat Rocket Ship
Surveillant Assemblage
TashCamUK FotoPage
The Naked Lunch
The Peace Pipe
The World of the Dynamite Lady

Strangers

Anarchoblogs
Antiwar.com Blog
Arte & Lingua
Barker in Valencia
Blairwatch
Bloggerheads
Blood & Treasure
Bombs and Shields
Boomablog
Born at the Crest of the Empire
Chase me ladies...
Chicken Yoghurt
Craig Murray
Dead Men Left
Direland
Disreputable Lazy Aliens
Empire Notes
Europhobia
Friends of Al Jazeera
Global Guerillas
Guerillas in the Midst
I Blame the Patriachy
Informed Comment
Insultadarity
Janine Booth
Lenin's Tomb
Life of Riley Blog
Media Watch Watch
Neil Shakespeare
NO2ID NewsBlog
One Hump or Two?
Otto's Random Thoughts
Perfect.co.uk
Pitch In For Uzbekistan
Registan.net
Run over by the truth
Solidarity With Iraqi Workers
Shut Up You Fat Whiner!
Sudan: Passion of the Present
Talk Politics
The Anthropik Network
The Daily (Maybe)
The Devil's Kitchen
The Disillusioned
The f-word
The Head Heeb
The Killing Train
The Revenge of Winston Smith
The Socialist Unity Blog
The Wicked Truth
Theory of Power
Things I Don't Have Time For
This (Fresh) Gringo
This Is My Truth
Thumping the Tub
Time The Dreaded Enemy
UK Watch Blog
UK Poli Blogs
underbrella
Under The Same Sun
Uzbekistan.neweurasia.net
What Fresh Hell Is This?
Where is Raed? (RIP)
Who Are You to Accuse Me?
Words and Rocks
Zeropointnine
Z-Net Blog

Neighbours

Asbo Community Space
Defy-ID
Eastside Climate Action
Faslane 365
Freecycle
Indymedia
No Borders
Nottingham Student Peace Movement
Refugee Forum
Stop the War
Sumac Centre
The Demo Project

Ivory Towers

Anarchist Studies Network
Centre for the Study of Social and Global Justice
Postanarchism Clearinghouse

Miscellania

Anarchist FAQ
Antiwar.com
Chagos Discussion List
Chagos Support Forums
Electronic Intifada
Future of Iraq Portal
Index of Political Blogs
Indymedia UK
Infoshop
Iraq Occupation Focus
Pledgebank
Refuser Solidarity Network
SchNEWS
Socialist Unity Network
The New Standard
UK Chagos Support Association
UK Watch
Weekly Worker
Wikipedia
WriteToThem.com
Z-Net

The Progressive Blog Alliance

Register here to join the PBA.