[wordup] Save Christiania

[Adam Shand]

From: http://boingboing.net/2003_08_01_archive.html#106181048102140631

Save Christiania, August 30th march in Copenhagen

Christiania is the Permanent Autonomous Zone in Copenhagen: an old 
military base that has been successfully squatted for decades now. It's 
most notorious for the open-air cannabis market at its center, but 
thinking of Christiania as a pot-market does it a terrible disservice. 
Christiania is a living proof of the possibility of life outside of the 
constraints of traditional govenrment, of the possibility of having a 
neighborhood secede from civil society and a city, and still remain an 
integral part of it. From the beautiful collage buildings to the 
brilliant blacksmiths who hammer out the Christiania Bikes that are 
prized throughout Europe, Christiania is fragile, beautiful and inspiring.

The Danish government, in an uncharacterstic show of extremely poor 
sense, has decided that it must "normalize" Christiania -- that is, raze 
it and kill it. Danes are not happy about this. If you're within 
rail-distance of Copenhagen on August 30th, you can help shame the 
Danish government into taking its hands off of Christiania at a mass 
demonstration.

   Saturday the 30th of August 2003 special trains are departuring from
   Aalborg, ?rhus, Vejle, Fredericia and Odense. Moreover there will be
   special busses leaving from 45 Danish towns. Tickets can be bought at
   BILLETNET

   The popular parade begins at Carl Madsens Plads, Christiania at Noon.
   The parade meets all the guests arriving by trains and buses at
   Copenhagen Central Train station at 1.30 p.m., where a short ceremony
   will take place. At 3 p.m. the parade reaches Christiansborg Castle
   (Parliament) where we'll give the publicly elected a piece of our
   mind. The parade ends at Christiania around 5 p.m. where a huge
   multicultural feast starts with many, many kinds of music and cultural
   entertainment. All bands, artists, speakers and performers, known and
   unknown join without any payment. Everything is done as a support to
   Christiania and what it represents.

posted by Cory Doctorow at 04:21 permanent link to this entry