Ungdomhuset Riots

For one of the first times all semester, Denmark made international news because of the rioting that happened here Saturday night. I didn't actually see it; I wasn't in that part of Nørrebro, but some of my friends did, and they said it was craziness.

The Copenhagen Post's article is better than those I read on BBC and Reuters, but some background makes the rioting easier to understand.That Danish graffiti reads "We are them that others won't play with"

Ungdomshuset is a youth collective, started in the early '80s, and it's become, somewhat like Christiania, a place for people to go that don't fit in with the homogenous Danish society. People live there, people eat together there, there are concerts, there is a community that's sprung up around this house and it's very close. The city sold the house to a group back in 2000, who then sold it to Christian group Faderhuset, who are now trying to evict the current residents, and have been for years. The video below (see it also on YouTube) shows things from the perspective of the youth that live there.






But courts have ruled in favor of the Christian sect. I haven't been able to find English articles that explain why they so very much want to evict the house's residents

Saturday's riots were the culmination of several days' activities, to which people from across Europe were invited. Indymedia has some good pictures and a better article that also tells the youth side of the story.

It'll be interesting to see how this plays out.