According to first reports, there were huge police raids on eight house projects and apartments in Berlin, including the Rigaer 94, this morning (14/8). The cops are supposedly looking for people responsible for attacks on various job centers (‘welfare offices’) as well as a recent molotov attack against police, who were conducting a drug raid in Köttbusser Tor during a solidarity demonstration for the revolt in Turkey. More news as it comes…
Below is a call for spontaneous demonstration in response to the raids:
This morning, August 14th, 2013, cops raided several apartments in the Mitte, Kreuzberg and Neukölln neighbourhoods of Berlin.
In Friedrichshain the police deployed a riot squad, along with special task force troops to invade the house project Rigaer Straße 94 [whose front building was already stormed by cops on August 2nd].
The pretext for these raids were actions against several branches of the Job Center that took place in Berlin on May 2nd, as well as a solidarity action with the people revolting in Turkey after the eviction of Gezi Park in Istanbul.
Meanwhile everyone is asked to gather today, 14/8, at 20.00 for an unregistered demonstration, at Spreewaldplatz in Kreuzberg.
Our passion for freedom is stronger than any authority!
The following is a communiqué by Rigaer 94, one of the raided houses:
Today, just after 6am, several police units (13th unit of riot cops, technical units, LKA and the special forces unit) stormed our house and carried out a raid, and served two search warrants. The cops used an angle grinder to break down our doors, all the rooms of the house were entered and all occupants were detained for 6 hours.
Astoundingly, this time around they restrained themselves from completely ransacking the house. One room was searched in relation to an act of solidarity with the uprisings in Turkey (an attempted murder charge) and a further room was searched in relation to attacks against exploitation, wage slavery and the craze for work (a charge for arson of a job center).
One of the accused was forced to give his DNA. The cops were sniffing around a lot, on their own, but also putting to work dogs trained to sniff out explosives and flammable materials. Additionally, they occupied our roof with a helicopter and special forces unit (SEK).
At the same time as the raid on our house, they were attacking and searching other projects, living communities, and the apartments of comrades. Around 12.30pm the cops disappeared from our house again, but not before repairing our doors with an astounding amount of effort (and not in the most clever or efficient of ways). Before they left our house they took a bunch of old rubbish from our attic along with the house’s x-box (which we demand back) — perhaps they were trying to prevent us from, on countless nights, destroying the city in Grand Theft Auto.
Jokes aside, we are fucking pissed off, we hate you, and none of you are welcome! We see this not as an attack on our projects only, and not due solely to our refusal of this whole rotten piece of shit of a system, but also as an attack on all autonomous, self-managed and collective life that is the antithesis to the alienation and isolation of capitalism.
At 8pm there will be a spontaneous demonstration from Spreewaldplatz through X-berg.