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News :: Miscellaneous |
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Do you want to know a real story of Gothenborg ? |
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by Sven
(No verified email address) |
18 Jun 2001
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Collaboration work of corporate-medias, authorities and the police have brought the focus into "riots and hooligans" to keep a public away from real issues of the anti-EU actions and to hide a real role police have played in everything what was happened between 14-16.06. The real story remains in the darkness to take away all responsibility from the local authorities, police and the EU anyway. Do you want to know a real story of Gothenborg ? Here are some facts ... |
Sunday 17th - Gothenborg. Swedish corporate-medias and the streets of Gothenborg are full of talk about violent and chaos which happened here the last three days. Collaboration work of corporate-medias, authorities and the police have brought the focus into \"riots and hooligans\" to keep a public away from real issues of the anti-EU/anti-capitalism actions and to hide a real role police have played in everything what was happened in Gothenborg between 14-16.06. The real story remains in the darkness to take away all responsibility from the local authorities, police and the EU anyway. Do you want to know a real story of Gothenborg? Here are some facts ...
The police have been consistent with their tactics against the activists during the protests. This tactic has been to blatantly attack the activists, their spaces and protests not as a response to actions or even violent but as blatant provocation. Police repressions already begun days before any actions with deportations and harassment on the borders. At the same time in Gothenborg flats were raided and searched and people arrested both inside and on the streets.
Without warning on the day of the 14th the police surrounded the Convergence Center on the pretext of searching for weapons. Eventually, they had arrested almost everyone inside, smashed cars of activists in the carpark and taken control of main meeting, organizational and sleeping place, which had been given to activists ... by the city. Of course such provocation would not be taken without a response. Hundreds of people at the afternoon and more than thousand in the evening took actions in solidarity with the other hundreds who were detained, and in defence of Convergence Center. Of course the media has only spectacularized these actions, the violence, stone-throwing anarchists (etc) and failed to report that these actions were a direct response to police (state) repressions.
Another thing - because of these actions 15 activists were able to escape from the school !!! Police operation at this day finished with more than 200 arrested (including the whole of the \"RampenPlan\" kitchen crew, first aiders and bus drivers!). The police \"de-escalation\" tactics continue on the morning of the 15th, which would have been the big blockading of the EU-Conference Center. A massive demonstration of diverse blocks, groups and individuals was stopped and violently pushed back after only around 100m. All attempts of demonstrators to return on the way to EU-Conference Centre were responded to by mounted-police and riot-squads so few hundreds of demonstrators were pushed into Kungsportsaveny - Gothenborg’s most commercial street. Brutality prevented from focus an action directly against EU-summit and pushed by riot-police into middle of commercial centre ... hmm ... the only way how activists could express an anti-capitalist statement was an attack on symbols of world-wide exploitation so banks, McDonalds and other corporation-stores have got smashed. And again, medias mentioned just acts of vandalism being blind for reasons.
The same way they are silent about stones thrown by police against activists but counted every stone thrown against the police-lines. The same day in the afternoon hundreds of riot-cops visited Fritt-Forum (open-air political-culture festival) where they closed a bridge random-capturing about 200 activists and civilians. Some of them escaped by jumping into the river.
On the evening of the 15th was supposed to be the Reclaim The City party. The first action by the police was to close off the area planned for this party with shipping containers so that it was impossible to set up a party at this place. A second meeting point was chosen and people gathered there. At around 9pm there was what appeared to be a nazi-attack by 15 hooligans look alikes, which created big chaos on the square. It took only one minute for the cops to take advantage of this chaos and to block three of the four exits with fully geared riot-cops with dogs. There is very reasonable speculations that this \"nazi-attack\" was planned by the cops to justify blocking in the RTC and instigating violence. And of course again, no media has acknowledged how the events of the evening began or that the RTC was planned actually to be a party.
The next step of police \"de-escalation\" was an attempt to capture one of the RTC sound-systems. The people responded to this and the situation quickly became volatile. The next confrontations began and continue to be no more or less violent than previous ones. It seems totally unclear why a few of the officers have suddenly taken their guns and started to shoot people with live ammunition. It can be clearly seen from fotos and media footage that at the moment the police fired shots they were not in panic and their lives were not in danger !!! They fired no warning shoots in the air but straight against protesters !!!
The one who is critically injured was shot in the back (!!!) after throwing stones which didn’t even reach the police-lines. Is it possible to imagine that the decision to use guns was taken even before the confrontation began ?(!!!) The way in which this has been presented by the mainstream-media is as if to justify this shooting by the police, and it seems no-one (for sure not the police!)is concerned with founding the guilty ... . Saturday 16th.
After a completely peaceful anti-EU demonstration (of 25 thousands people) police spread repression’s to all activists structures in the city. The cops have been harrasing people outside of IMC and as with the other days random stopping and arresting activists around the schools, around Fritt-Forum and on the streets of the city. The \"Anti Police Brutality\" demonstration in the evening was imediately surrounded by huge amounts of riot-police and held for 3-5 hours until finally the demonstrators were identified and released.
At the same time the Schillerska-School, where the socialist conference was taking place, was raided and almost everyone inside arrested. The police said they were looking for an armed German person ...
Police terror took over the city of Gothenborg. At this point even the upright citizens had the feeling that Gothenborg was a police state. And now ? The corporate-media continues to show only pictures from the riots of the days before gloryficating the violent police as national heroes. Sweedish authorities speak about changing demonstration laws.
EU continues to build the Fortress Europe - on the other hand allready Sweeden has broken the Schengen agreements! Many international activists have been refused entry, deported or are waiting for deportations. One Swedish activist shot in the back is fighting for his life in hospital and the Gothenborg riot-police chief is collecting congratulations. This is a real story of Gothenborg ... .
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See also:
http://www.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=47476&group=webcast
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