Solidarity and strength to R94 & all the Rebels of Rigaer strasse! As the bitter news of the attacks on the emancapatory structures and projects of the Rigaer kiez reach us, we extend our whole hearted solidarity and strength to all the rebellious inhabitants of Rigaer strasse.
We find it entirely unsurprising that within the context of a dramatic rise in attacks against refugees, rents rises and evictions, we witness this bloated and vicious assault on a hot spot of anti-gentrification and anti-fascist activism in Berlin.
For in the crass and plundering acts orchestrated by that armchair warrior Henkel and his hired gimps in uniform the facade of social democracy is exposed and we see to the heart of the issue at hand.
The violence of poverty, exploitation and dispossession is a daily lived reality for the many marginalised (and therefore considered beneath dignity) under this system. The countless acts of brutalilty that emitt from and resonate with the flow of structural violence are all business as usual to the state & capital. From the death of an elderly woman due to profit hungry landlords forcefully evicting her from her home, to the countless daily acts of violence against refugees, the grim brutality of poverty and the often fatal manifestations of gendered and racist violence. These daily atrocities support the heirarchical systems of exploitation, abuse and domination that underpin and perpetuate the greusome state of affairs known as advanced capitalism. And so they never warrant from the state more than the cursory symbolic level of attention required to maintain the illusions & uphold the myths of social democracy.
Instead those who dare to impede the violent flow of capital (masked as it is by the ever deceptive myth of 'progress') are marked out by the state as violent, dangerous and as a threat. The state's choice of target is not arbitrary as the Rigaer Kiez is one particularly visible and unruly node amid the various anti-gentrification struggles in Berlin. The collectives and individuals of the kiez actively oppose the gentrification of their neighbourhood and assert alternative dynamics; organising different ways of living and working together then those limited forms perscribed by capital, marking them as targets of the neo-liberal order.
It is no coincidence that the same state apparatus that turned a blind eye for over a decade to the Nazi assasins of the NSU, and who now turn a passive cheek to the violent assaults against refugees, choose to direct savage retribution against anti-fascist, autonomous structures. All the while the corporate media, those parrots of the state kept in gilded cages by their corporate masters, lead and orchestrate the grotesque chorus against these alternative structures, spewing up a frenzy of lies that conflate cause with effect. And like obedient puppets they whip up a storm in a tea cup to fit the vanities and electioniering of a washed up CDU wanna be warrior.
We also wont comment too much on the despicable actions of the cops as they artlessly plundered, destroyed and beschmuzt their way through R94 and other projects over these past few days. From stealing 2 tonnes of heating bricks amidst the cold of Berlin winter to pissing on peoples belongings and leaving broken glass in their beds - we know better then to be shocked or outraged by such vindictiveness (and who talks of sneaky and cowardly attacks?). We don't expect any better from the guard dogs of capital. We will leave the outrage and indignance to others and instead say that we acknowledge that wherever there exist emancipatory struggles the state will envision and invent "suspicious objects" out of harmless domestic items. Wherever there exist rebellious attempts to assert solidarity and alternative structures in the grimacing face of the profit motive, there the state will identify it's enemies.
Stay strong!
With many warm solidarity greetings from Australia
