Blogging
From Abroad

This past weekend a pretty major event occurred near me in Vienna, actually directly next door to my friend Hannes’ flat. It was late Saturday night and we were walking down the street when we came across a massive party in a 5-level house. All over were banners, one was in English and said “SQUATTED” and “Reclaim Your City”. The house had been taken over! The house seen from the street during the day:

(Photo courtesy of Hannes Plackner)

Stepping inside, it was packed with people and a lot of stuff. Upstairs there was a DJ and mayhem in many forms. The walls were covered with graffiti as well. I cannot elaborate here on how the people were (as well as their dress), but I was quite shocked by what I saw. Since we came from a “Dictators and Philosophers” themed party I was dressed in blazer and nice trousers, I most definetly stuck out! I got lots of looks and knew I had to leave.

The house, I was told, was taken over by “left-wing anarchists”. Apparently their justification to do this was that since the house was empty, they could just take it! I am not sure where all the people came from, but I was told some came all the way from Germany for this event. Some members of this political party refused to leave when the police told them to, resulting in a forced removal from the house, but no injuries. Some activists (in party member’s blog, they refer to themselves as “activists”, so I will as well) even dressed up as clowns (a part of the “clown army”)

(Photo courtesy of Hannes Plackner)

It was hard for me to understand the actions by this group. A blog was written giving status updates by an activist during the whole episode, updated practically by the minute. In it, they made some funny statements about how the activists were treated by police, “After braking through the barricades activists inside were violently carried outside one by one”. (http://april2008.squat.net:8080/index.php/2008/04/14/vienna-brutal-eviction/#more-377)

I tried hard to maintain a neutral view on this blog topic, my writings reflect my personal opinion and view of the situation. I would love to embellish into them, but I will not use the blog as a forum for my beliefs. I do however, believe the situation brings to light a lot of issues. How the media can be manipulated and embellished to serve a particular interest. Is seizing a house a right? Should squatting be tolerated? How can groups both peacefully express themselves and have an autonomous establishment? What do you do with non-functioning members of society? If you have any feelings about any of this, feel free to post a comment!