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.
(via Oblomovka)