Tough day!


I have to post a bit, I require some sympathy now.

If you think the financial crisis and all is bad, imagine if the house next door was suddently occupied by anarchists. Yeah, real anarchists, about a 100 of them. Wearing skimasks, no less. And no, I (used to) live in a nice neighbourhood where this sort of thing does not happen. The occupied builing is owned by the city and is (was) vacant, due to undergo renovation after it was badly damaged by fungus.

So now I can look forward to running battles with the police and/or nazis, the odd bombing, and a general overabundance of heavily pierced people occationally wearing skimasks.

As a bonus I get to hear loud (and quite cool I must admit) music quite often (today they blocked the street and played all day) and see a lot of demonstrations/speeches. And hey, they lit quite a nice fire in the park just in front of my house to.

Here is a picture from the news today, I live in the yellow building i the background, you can barely see the window where I sit and type this near the top.

(my home to the right)

And yes, they blocked the entrance door to my house to, it's just left of the metal barrier they put up. I had to do the anarchist handshake just to get in. Luckily I can also go around the back to get in.

Cant wait to see how all this will affect the value of my home :(


incy October 18, 2008 - 2:36pm
( categories: Europe Minus UK )

is this?

jtruett October 18, 2008 - 3:41pm

Oslo, Norway. In the previously rather peaceful neighbourhood of Grünerløkka.

The anarchists are from blitz:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blitz_(movement)

incy October 18, 2008 - 4:42pm

NO?

creativelcro October 19, 2008 - 12:32pm

Such as those with NACO?

Or is this some other group?

Petronius October 19, 2008 - 6:03pm

These are very established anarchists. Similar groups exist in most countries:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autonome

I certainly hope the city will throw them out, but I don't have high hopes. They've done this before, and somtimes they manage to stay.

In Denmark, the neighbourhood of Nørrebro was basically destroyed in many days of streetfighting after the city evicted the danish variant of the group:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ungdomshuset

Unfortunately, this will probably mean personal ruin for me. I have 3 kids and have recently bought the attic above my appartment and have contracted to rebuild it into a second floor for my appartment, so that we can have some more room and the children can get their own bedrooms.

I still have debts on my appartment and am taking on a *lot* more for the attic project (I did this in 2006, but the project has had delays and is just starting now). Unfortunately my home will not be worth much if they stay. Which in turn will mean that the bank will likely refuse my loan, and I have to sell my appartment at whatever price I can get, which wont be much. The contract for the builing work has allready been signed, so I can't get out of it.

incy October 19, 2008 - 8:43pm

I've spent the last few days working on his and even took yesterday off from work. I'm now leading a neighbourhood action group working the issue. We've got a lone done and I'm now more hopeful that they'll be evicted. It seems like a fairly sure bet the city will use the health issue with the fungus to throw them out.

I also know more about what they want now, and it's not totally opposed to what I have been working for for years now, to get the building put to good use. They want to use the building for themselves, but they also protest against the fact that the building is empty, and I think they will actually move aside if the city decides to put it to the other use I and many other locals have been supporting (an art house with gallery, ateliers, and artist housing).

I still completely disagree about how they're doing this, and certainly don't want them in my neighbourhood. When I was down in the evening tearing down the banners they'd put on my own building, they threathened me, still wearing skimasks. It's just uncool to have them nextdoor, especially as they know I'm leading the charge to get them evicted. I still park in front of the building though, hoping the best :)

incy October 21, 2008 - 8:41pm

and take care!

Tina October 22, 2008 - 8:45am

It seems a bit of activism (24/7 effort for 6 days now) can actually get you quite far:

On NRK1@18:55
Scroll down a bit to the second picture of me and click to watch the program.

NRK1 is the government channel in Norway, and it is the biggest and most important channel in Norway with about a 40% viewer share.
I got headline on local news, local in this case means it's broadcast to about 2 million people just before main news at seven.

I also got page 8+9 in aftenposten aften, the biggest and most important serious newspaper in Norway. No internet version yet.

More importantly, the city now has an eviction order and plans to use it.

Very happy and very confident, but still very, very angry. And I learned a huge amount and have some new friends, and hopefully not very many enemies (or else I'm in big trouble).

incy October 24, 2008 - 4:34pm

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