Danke für jede Unterstützung in den letzten Wochen. Besonders für die letzten 2 Tage, bei der Vorbereitung und im kollektiven Kampf gegen unseren gemeinsamen Feind. Es waren die intensivsten Tage des Kampfes, die wir uns hätten vorstellen können. Tage die die Pläne von Staat und Kapital in eine Katastrophe verwandelt haben. Eine wichtige Erinnerung an uns selbst, unser Kollektiv und unsere Unterstützer*innen, wie wichtig unsere Netzwerke, unsere solidarische Infrastruktur und Selbstorganisation sind.

Mit der Verteidigung der Nachbarinnenschaft gegen den Aufbau der roten Zone angefangen haben wir die richtigen Schlüsse aus den Aggressionen von Staat und Immobilienwirtschaft gegen die Menschen, die in dieser Stadt leben, gezogen. Die Errichtung von Gefahrengebieten und Roten Zonen, in denen die Menschen zu einfachen Zielen für die Bullen werden um eine Atmosphäre der Isolation und Angst zu erschaffen, ist zur Normalität in dieser Stadt der Reichen geworden. In den letzten Jahren gab es viele Momente, an denen wir, auf die der Staat zielte, dazu verdammt waren in beinahe stillem Protest an den Hamburger Gittern zu stehen, bewacht von einer militarisierten Polizei. Wir erinnern uns an die Räumung der Ohlauer Schule in Kreuzberg, die Räumung des Kiezladens Friedel54 und all der anderen Projekte wie Syndikat, Meuterei und unsere Nachbarinnen der Liebig34. Dies kann nicht mehr toleriert werden – die Menschen müssen sich erheben!

Mit der nötigen Konsequenz haben wir es daher alle zusammen über 48 Stunden geschafft, lokal und dezentral offensiv auf die Straße zu gehen und unsere Strukturen und Ideen militant zu verteidigen und Druck auf unsere Feinde aufzubauen, bevor sie überhaupt ihre repressive Operation starten konnten. Wir haben uns dazu entschieden nicht darauf zu warten, dass die Lakaien des Staates wieder eine Zone aufbauen, in der sie ohne probleme autonome Strukturen und rebellische Nachbar*innenschaften ins Visier nehmen können. Darum wurde eine autonome Zone um die Rigaer 94 zu einer Stunde errichtet, in der die Cops sie nicht erwartet hätten. Die Straßen wurden zusammen mit vielen Menschen abgeriegelt und eine lange Zeit wurden die Barrikaden mit den Mitteln der autonomen Bewegung verteidigt. Bis zum Einsatz von von schwerem technischen Gerät, einem Räumpanzer und zwei Wasserwerfern waren die Cops nicht in der Lage in unsere Straße einzubrechen. Lasst uns diese Ereignisse als einen Vorschlag an alle Menschen in und außerhalb der Metropole verstehen, die anstehenden Angriffe zu beantworten. Nicht nur gegen die Rigaer 94, sondern auch gegen die Köpi, alle bedrohten Projekte und unsere Ideen, sowie jede staatliche Attacke und seine bloße Präsenz.

Aber der staatliche und kapitalistische Krieg sind noch nicht vorbei. Nicht nur werden sie einmal mehr versuchen die Rigaer 94 anzugreifen, sondern auch jede einzelne Struktur und jedes Individuum, die alltägliche gegen diese erstickte Gesellschaft kämpfen. Wir sollten uns weiter organisieren und unsere solidarischen Netzwerke ausweiten. Wir rufen dazu auf die Kämpfe nicht nur im Nordkiez zu intensivieren und die Kontinuität dieser rebellischen Nachbarschaft zu stärken, sondern auch dezentral in jeder Ecke dieser Stadt.

Lasst uns alle zusammen weiter gegen die Stadt der Reichen kämpfen. Bis jeder Plan von Staat und Kapital zu Asche wird!

Freundinnen und Gefährtinnen der Rigaer 94

Thanks to every support that was developed during the last weeks and especially the last two days of preparation and collective fight against our common enemies, we managed to develop the most intensive fighting days that we could have imagined. Days which turned every plan from the state and capital into a catastrophy. A great reminder to ourselves, our collective and its supporters, how important the movement’s networks, infrastructures of solidarity and self-organisation are.

Starting with the defence of the neighbourhood against the establishment of the red zone we drew the right concequence out of the aggressions of the state and the real estate market, against the people living in the city. The announcement of dangerzones and red zones, where people get easy targets for the police in order to create an atmosphere of isolation and fear, has become normality in this city of the rich. We saw in the last years many occassions where we as those who are targeted by the states attacks had to stand in almost silent protest at the fences, guarded by a militarized police force. Let’s name the eviction of the Ohlauer School in Kreuzberg, the eviction of the Kiezladen Friedel54 and all the other projects as Syndikat, Meuterei and our neighboors Liebig34. This fact can not be tolerated anymore – the people have to rise up!

Therefore, as a result,for more than 48 hours, we managed all together, locally and decentrally to take the offensive into the streets and defend our structures and ideas through militant means and put pressure before the enemies had even started their repressive-operations. We decided not to wait for the lackeys of the state to create another zone where they can easily target autonomous structures and rebellious neighborhoods. That’s why an autonomous zone was build up around the Rigaer94 at an hour the cops did not expect. Streets got closed together with many people and a long-lasting defence of barricades happened, with the means of the autonomous movement . Until the deployment of heavy technical equipment as an eviction tank and two watercanons the police was not able to enter our street. Let’s understand these events as a proposal to the people in the metropolitan field and outside of it, to answer the upcoming attacks. Not only against Rigaer94, also against Köpi and all the other threatened projects and our ideas, as well as any attack of the state and its merely presence.

But the state and capital war is not over yet. They will not only attempt to attack Rigaer94 again but also attack and target every single structure and individual who fights against this suphocated society on a daily basis. We should continue getting organised and expand our networks of solidarity broader. We call for more intensive fighting not only around Nordkiez to reinforce the continuity of this rebellious neighborhood, but also decentrally, in every corner of the city.

Let’s continue fighting all together against the city of the rich. Until every initial plan from the state and capital are ashes!

Friends and comrades of Rigaer94

***english version below***

Heute, am Abend des 16. Juni blicken wir auf einen kämpferischen Tag und eine temporäre autonome Zone zurück und schauen mit der geballten Faust nach vorne. Ja, wir werden uns noch lange mit einem breiten Lächeln im Gesicht an die Barrikaden in der Rigaer Straße und ihre kollektive Verteidigung erinnern. Schritt für Schritt verbrennen sich Senat und Eigentümer an der versuchten Zerstörung unseres Hauses die Finger.

Nach der Straße gibt es nun auch auf juristischer Ebene Probleme. Ein Oberverwaltungsgericht hat die Ausgangslage für die Verantwortlichen beim Senat und der Briefkastenfirma für den Angriff auf unser Haus beträchtlich erschwert. Letzterer, vertreten durch Bernau, Luschnat und von Arentin, wurde untersagt, überhaupt unsere Räume zu betreten. Die Bullen sollen zudem nur Zugang zu Treppenhaus, Dachboden, Hof, etc. bekommen, nicht jedoch zu den privaten Wohnungen.

***In diesem Moment wird somit dem nun für zuständig erklärten Sachverständigen von unseren Anwälten kommuniziert, dass er den Brandschutz in unserem Haus, ohne Gefahr für seine Gesundheit begutachten und problemlos rein- und rauskommen kann. Selbstverständlich ohne auch nur einen Bullen, so wie wir es schon im Januar 2021 erklärt haben. Und wir halten unser Wort. Das sollte heute erneut mehr als klar geworden sein. Ganz im Gegensatz zu dem Wort zahlreicher Politiker*innen, ob im Bezirk oder Senat, dem der Bullen oder gar einer windigen Briefkastenfirma. Einige von ihnen wagen es immer noch zu behaupten, es gehe ihnen nicht um eine Räumung der Rigaer94.***

Wir weisen in diesem Zusammenhang darauf hin, dass wir seit November 2020 bereits mehrere Brandschutzgutachten durchgeführt und Mängel eigenständig behoben haben. Der Senat und eine Briefkastenfirma haben dies bewusst ignoriert und somit nach und nach ihr vorgeschobenes Argument, es gehe nur um die Sicherheit der Bewohner*innen der Rigaer94 und ihrer Nachbar*innen, demaskiert.

Sollte sich die Politik also für eine Stürmung entscheiden, geht sie den Weg, wie wir ihn bereits vorhersagten. In diesem Fall werden wir uns verteidigen. Dagegen, dass die Bullen alles zerstören, um unser Haus daraufhin für “unbewohnbar” erklären zu können. Dagegen, dass unser geliebter Ort und die ihm innewohnenden Ideen der Kollektivität, gegenseitigen Hilfe, Solidarität und Selbstbestimmung vernichtet werden sollen.

Heute haben wir allen, die daran gezweifelt haben gezeigt, dass wir nicht nur bereit sondern auch fähig dazu sind, den Konflikt mit dem Staat und seinen Schergen zu intensivieren. Wir haben sie zu einem Zeitpunkt getroffen, an dem sie nicht damit gerechnet haben, und auf den sie mit Sicherheit nicht vorbereitet waren. Wir bedanken uns bei allen solidarischen Menschen, Nachbar*innen und Freund*innen und blicken gespannt auf die kommenden Stunden.

Eure Rigaer94

***

Rigaer94: Our statement on the current situation

Today, on the evening of June 16, we look back on a militant day and a temporary autonomous zone and look forward with a clenched fist. Yes, we will remember the barricades in Rigaer Straße and their collective defense for a long time with a big smile on our faces. Step by step, the Senate and the owners are burning their fingers at the attempted destruction of our home.

After the street, there are now problems on the legal level. A higher administrative court has considerably complicated the starting position for those responsible at the Senate and the letterbox company for the attack on our house. The latter, represented by Bernau, Luschnat and von Arentin, was forbidden to enter our premises at all. Moreover, the cops are to be given access only to the stairwell, attic, courtyard, etc., but not to the private apartments.

At this moment, the expert, who is now declared to be responsible, is told by our lawyers that he can inspect the fire protection in our house without any danger to his health and can come in and out without any problems. Of course, without even a cop, as we have already declared in January 2021. And we keep our word. That should have become more than clear again today. Completely in contrast to the word of numerous politicians*innen, whether in the district or senate, that of the cops or even a windy letter box company. Some of them still dare to claim that it is not about an eviction of Rigaer94.

In this context, we would like to point out that we have already carried out several fire safety assessments since November 2020 and have remedied deficiencies on our own. It is up to the Senate and a letterbox company not to have accepted this and thus to have gradually unmasked their pretextual argument that it is only about the safety of the residents of Rigaer94 and their neighbors.

So, if the politicians decide to storm the building, they will go the way we already predicted. In this case, we will defend ourselves. Against the cops destroying everything in order to be able to declare our house “uninhabitable” as a result. Against the fact that our beloved place and its inherent ideas of collectivity, mutual aid, solidarity and self-determination are to be destroyed.

Today we have shown to all those who doubted it that we are not only ready but also able to intensify the conflict with the state and its henchmen. We met them at a time when they did not expect it and for which they were certainly not prepared. We thank all the people, neighbors and friends who showed solidarity and we are looking forward to the coming hours.

Your Rigaer94

Das Wochenende mit Rigaer Straßen- und Hoffest war grandios.

Hier zwei aktuelle Infos:

-Der http://Aktionsticker.org wird ab jetzt permanent aktualisiert.

-Die Interkiezionale ruft für den 17.6. um 20 Uhr zur Demo, Startpunkt Boxhagener Platz, auf. Kommt alle nach #Berlin!

The weekend and the Rigaer street and yard fest were great.

Here two updates:

-http://aktionsticker.org will be from now on up to date

-Interkiezionale calls for a demo starting at Boxhagener Platz on 17th of june at 8 pm. Come to Berlin!

The time to search the conflict and intensify it is long overdue.  It’s time to go against the idea of property and the owners and take on the fight on our side, the side of the disposessed, the renters, the homeless. It is also time to resist against the occupation of our neighbourhoods, against the state and a society, that supports and contributes to its agenda and actions of systematically opressing and exploiting people based on racial ascriptions, drives away, displaces and excludes those that don’t fit or don’t want to fit in with the city of the rich. There is no reason to defend the existing and take the side of those profiting of the capitalist system. There are many reasons though to get organized together and rebel against state and capital, against authorities and its defenders and fight for the principles of selforganisation, mutual aid and a life in freedom and dignity. That is the context in which we see the defense of Rigaer94.

Rigaer94

To us, this house is a place where we chose to live and fight collectively. It is a place of organization of different local and international struggles in which we involved ourselves over the years. As a piece of the ongoing resistance in this city. Against the policestate and with it the transformation of parts of the city into so called “danger zones”, in which cops harass, control and hunt people. Against gentrification, rising rents, real estate projects, the destruction of public spaces and forced displacement. Against social isolation, egoism and the narrative of “everyone fending for themselves”.

On the contrary we stand for selforganization, mutual aid and solidarity. For taking our lives into our own hands and defending ourselves against the omnipresent paternalism. For the experiments of selforganized spaces, spaces of the struggle and a life in a collective, without mechanisms of authoritarian and patriarchal oppression. Our open spaces Kadterschmiede and the youth space Keimzelle are meeting points that allow us to stay in exchange even when the social life is supposed to be frozen.

The attack on Rigaer94

For the 17th and 18th of June, the self-proclaimed facility manager Luschnat, the “lawyers” Bernau and von Aretin and a so called fire security expert designated by them are getting ready to lead another attack against our house with the help of the police. They set out on the legal base of an ordinance by the district Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg, that is supposed to force everyone to tolerate a “site inspection to examine the fire security” of all flats and rooms. It’s unlikely that this will be a “simple fire security inspection”, since everyone involved knows, that this house was turned into what is most likely the most fire safe house in the whole city, with the help of many friends in the past months. For a similar planned attack in march, that could be averted, 500.000€ for the Hundertschafts*-cops from different federal states were already spent. This fact points towards an action having been and being set up for a longer time period. We can imagine that the cops will again establish a “red zone” a few days prior to the 17th and 18th of june, to be able to take the house by assault on the 17th, occupy the neighbouring houses and destroy walls, the fire safe doors that we installed, and many more elementary facilities in the house. Maybe Bernau, Luschnat and co. want to then declare the house to be “uninhabitable”. By that they could evict with the help of cops and private security everything in the house they’d want to. Finally they want their hired lackeys to destroy what we have built up. This would be a scenario similar to the eviction attempt of the summer 2016.

The political parties of the red-red-green senate, spearheaded by senator of the interior Geisel for the SPD, feel emboldened enough by the electoral campaign and the legal skirmishes, to dare what many have risked their political career on in the past: A fire security inspection with the goal of scouting for the next steps, a creeping eviction through the occupation of a whole neighbourhood and our house or an “all in” on the big shock of a sudden complete eviction. We cannot predict what exactly is going to happen so we don’t want to fuel further speculation. All options are leading up to one point: Rigaer94 will be attacked, with the goal of destroying us. The day of the escalation is a Day X for us. We will react accordingly to it. But we won’t wait until then. Won’t hope on a success in a juridic sideshow. Not watch motionless, while once more they threaten our selforganization.

Fighting together

The year 2020 has been in many ways a special one, though not overall better or worse than the previous years. The capitalist normality was set up with further authoritarian measures in the frame of the covid pandemic and we all had difficulties finding our ways in this new situation, with curfews and contact ban, but also in dealing with the understandable insecurity around the dealing with the medical concerns of the pandemic. When we are now asking for your solidarity in defending Rigaer94, which is much more than just “our house”, we don’t ask you to fight for us. We want to fight together with you. We want to intensify our struggles together in the different places in this city and beyond! We want to be part in the different struggles and want them to find their expression also through this house.

We think we need concrete places where we can meet, get to know eachother and organize. After the eviction of Syndikat, Liebig34, Rummelsburger Bucht, Meuterei, the displacement of Potse&Drugstore and the acute threat to Køpi we have to defend the remaining spaces of the struggle in this city by all our means. We owe this to ourselves, our ideas, and those that fought before and with us.

Start a fire

But why to attack now, why take the risk now, why put us in danger of being overrun another time? 2020 and 2021 weren‘t just the years of the pandemic and generalized states of emergency. They were also the years of uprisings and revolts, bigger and smaller moments where the vulnerability of this reality came to the surface. The state is under pressure from different sides. In Berlin, an alliance caracterized mainly by migrant groups organized the 1st of may demo, which was for the first time after many years in fact combative. Not only in Neukölln, also in Kreuzberg and Schöneberg many people stopped accepting the harassment by police. The parks have become places of rebellion against the authoritarian state that tries to destroy any recreational moments, the chances of gaining experiences and developing an own expression outside of the societal norms. The „Take Back The Night“ demonstration saw this year 3000 FLINTA*, who didn‘t follow at all the cops‘ restrictions. After the rent cap was overthrown by the justice system tenthousands of angry renters took to the streets of Kreuzberg spontaneosly and were pushing away the suprised and overstrained cops. 2020 hundreds of thousands came to Alexanderplatz to share the rage against the murder of George Floyd.

The international flame of revolt is even more visible: against racist police violence in the US, in feminist struggles in Mexico, in Columbia, in Chile, in Malaysia, in Lebanon and in Algeria… even far away from being complete, this list shows that there were worse moments to participate in changing the world and realizing our idea of freedom. Maybe there were even not many better moments. Who of us can remember times like these, with such drastic changes like in the past year? We are convinced. Let‘s light another fire and poke it!

Search the conflict

For us it‘s not important to have the same focus at any time or to use the same means of struggle to put into practice our ideas and to bring our dreams to life. We as Rigaer94 rather want to participate and grow in the fight against the capitalist, patriarcal and racist system. For a world free of domination, oppression, exploitation.

Practically we understand this as a call of duty to go into conflict with the existing in the next days and weeks . We take the attack on selforganized structures in this city serious and challenge our enemies‘ disposition to pay the price for the achievement of their goals. We will not be waiting behind the fences of the expected Red Zone in our vicinity until the last garbage of press and nazis was taken for a walk in our house. Again and again it became clear to us that juristic skirmishes and bureaucratic ping-pong will lead us to nothing. We actually fell into that trap and, acting against our political conviction, got a little bit pacified.

That is for us another reason to take care that the 17th of June will not become the beginning of the end of this house, but another step towards the selforganization of all of us. We want to create a scenario of counterattack together with you. A scenario that targets all those who profit from this system of daily expulsion and those who defend it.

We ask you to join and intensify the venture of attacking the daily order of the city of the rich. No matter if by voice, body, colours, noisy or silent, with stones, hammers or fire – lets show this sold out city, that we chose sides. Publicly, clearly visible or consipiratory in the remaining dark corners of this city. Let‘s show each other, that tenderness, solidarity, autonomy and self oranization are no empty paroles but the keys to our freedom, that we work on every day. Let‘s escalate our conflict against real estate companies and speculators, dynamic start-ups and their loyal followers, police, municipality and institutions within the vicinity of our neighbourhoods and beyond them – to take position.

If they try to break us, we‘ll explode!
Attack the city of the rich! For a hot summer!

Rigaer94

Upcoming events:

General assembly “Intensifying the struggles”, organized by Interkiezionale | 6th of June 14:00 | Open Air in Mehringhöfen in Gneisenaustraße

R94 Yardfest | 12th of June 14:00 | Rigaer Straße 94

Demonstration because of eviction attempt | 17th of June 20:00 | Friedrichshain South, tba