ungdomshuset

Ungdomshuset ('youth house') was a 4-story autonomous social center located in denmark. It was evicted and demolished in March 2007, provoking some of the most intense rioting Denmark has seen in generations.

Most European countries have at least one social center left from the heyday of the squatting movement in the 70's-80's. Slovenia has an entire occupied neighborhood called Metelkova.

Over the past few years, European governments have mounted new attacks on these places...Ungdomshuset is the first to be successfully evicted.

In the end though, after months of intense riots, marches, new squats & evictions, the police announced that they were totally overextended and exhausted. Not from any one conflict, but from maintaining a state of perpetual alert. And then the mayor offered to open negotiations about turning over another building to the squatting movement.

That is to say-even in one of the wealthiest capitalistic countries, a direct action -based social movement that plays its cards right can compel the state to literally cede territory.