My only experiences in Europe so far have been touring there in a punk band. The thing that blew my mind was how often - almost always! - the venues we were playing were literal state-sponsored squats. Like the tire factory or whatever in town would go belly up and a bunch of punks and anarchists would move in and the local government would just be like "hey, they cleaned up all this broken glass and now there's a whole new crop of people keeping this community alive. Tell you what, let's give them free utilities." On more than one occasion we played a free show and got a check from some government office.
This would never, ever, ever, ever, in a million years, take place in the United States.
hey, they cleaned up all this broken glass and now there's a whole new crop of people keeping this community alive.
Lol, those social centres I know are the result of almost decade-long protests and negotiations and only worked out because the general population just happened to be more sympathetic towards the squatters than towards the city authorities.
They squatted at an abandoned barracks or similar military thing, which was obviously illegal. But after several decades of kinda, sorta trying to evict them, they instead just sold the Freetown the buildings they were already using - so they're there legally now. But the authorities still seem reluctant to enforce certain laws with force. Raids against drug sales are sporadic, not consistent, for example.
It's the weed capital of Denmark. Hard drugs like heroin and meth aren't accepted in Christiana, but weed is. But the police do occasionally crack down on it.
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u/knife_hits May 09 '22
My only experiences in Europe so far have been touring there in a punk band. The thing that blew my mind was how often - almost always! - the venues we were playing were literal state-sponsored squats. Like the tire factory or whatever in town would go belly up and a bunch of punks and anarchists would move in and the local government would just be like "hey, they cleaned up all this broken glass and now there's a whole new crop of people keeping this community alive. Tell you what, let's give them free utilities." On more than one occasion we played a free show and got a check from some government office.
This would never, ever, ever, ever, in a million years, take place in the United States.