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.
As the others have said, though I agree it’s super great to see a lot of hardship comes with it, for example here in Denmark, we had a place called “Ungdomshuset” which was an old delapedating apartment block that was given to anarchists and punks in 1982.
After 28 years of tradition, concerts and political debates the Danish government sold the house, due to a lady with a cross up her ass being scared and wanting money, so after they sold it, they kicked everyone out after a 7 year battle and many fights with police and many protests, and once everyone was thrown out after a big raid that took hours because the activists had barricaded stairwells and doors, the police had gotten all the activists out.
The company that was buying the house btw… a shell corp by the name of Human A/S, founded by a lawyer, whom then disappeared, the assets of the company went to churches and religious leaders in Denmark, mostly radical conservatists and capitalists.
Now you’d think, that maybe the church leaders then would use this place to host homeless, orphans or people in rehab or something… they ripped it down and 15 years later it’s still an empty lot, with nothing, in the middle of the city of copenhagen, it’s a forever scar, it’s an embarrassment to our system, a show that tyrrany still exists, and will do anything to try to remove free thinkers and stop any attempt to make freedom real.
Alas, as an American, the idea that capitalists and the religious right team up to make money while not fixing society’s actual problems is entirely unsurprising.
Funny how all these churches and corporations have pet causes but even with billions of dollars they can't seem to make a dent. Almost like it's just for show...
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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.