Danish Anarchists Riot To Defend Copenhagen Tacheles?

This is incredible. It reminds me very much of Kunsthaus Tacheles in East Berlin, an old Jewish department store bombed in half during the war and left to rot by the Russians until some artists made it into a community center after the wall came down.

About 3,000 protesters took to the streets of Copenhagen on Saturday, two days after police raided and closed a building that had been occupied by squatters for more than two decades.

The red brick building, known as the Youth House, had served over the years as living quarters for anarchists, leftists and others, a community theatre for the labour movement, and a culture and conference centre...

The demonstration on Saturday was largely peaceful, but it followed two nights of riots over the evictions that left part of the capital strewn with broken glass and burned-out cars.

Police described the riots as the worst in Denmark in 10 years, saying more than 500 people, including foreigners, have been arrested.

Something similar happened with Tacheles, as I recall. The local authorities wanted to close it and tear it down because it was both valuable real estate and a death trap and the artists simply refused to go. They eventually won, and Tacheles is now a recognized omphalos of the Berlin art scene... although it's lost quite a bit of its anarchist charm over the years.

Thousands rally to support Danish squatters [CBC.CA] (Thanks, Evan!)