More or less tolerated by the Danish government for over 50 years,
Christiania is an autonomous district of Copenhagen. In recent years, ithas 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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