Gothenburg 2001

from email, 16 September 2008: It happened in the most unlikely country at a most unlikely place. The great international step forward in the repression against the global justice movement summit protests begun right in the middle of the cradle of the Swedish workers movement in Malmö. Some weeks later police were for the first time shooting at protesters in Gothenburg at an EU Summit and built a wall of containers around a counter summit, convergence center and school complex used for accomodation to end up violently storming the protest gathering arresting 456 people. more

2001 - Last Wednesday 17 people were arrested in a second round of scapegoating by the Swedish Authorities, who are still attempting to show that they will not tolerate the extreme left, even though the Gothenburg demonstrations were last June. This second wave of arrests comes conveniently just over a week after the police who emptied their guns into the bodies of dissenting civilians were allowed to return to duty without any charge being held against them. more

Thanks to everyone who sent letters/messages of love, support, defiance & rage (the only 4 things I’ve not been short of since I’ve been here). It’s been genuinely overwhelming. "As one riot cop said in court when justifying the need to get his gun out & start shooting people, “they kept coming, we couldn’t stop them”. Remind me again why we do this, remind me again why all this is fucking worth it. " more

2001: Around 40 people gathered outside the Swedish embassy in protest to the shooting of the three protesters in Gothenburg on Friday June 15th. A petition was handed in by Globalise Resistance in protest. Others shouted at officials going in to the embassy for a barbeque, who we saw laughing showing that they really didn't give a fuck about the 19 year old kid who is still in a serious condition in Sweden. People from the W.O.M.B.L.E.S. gave out a leaflet with two communiques, one from Finnish Ya Basta! and one from the WOMBLES. The text of the leaflet is as follows... more

Arrive at Gothenburg to find out that many of our Finnish and Swedish comrades have been surrounded at the convergence center. This happened at 10am in the morning when riot police wanted to search the building for weapons. The 300 people inside refused so the police encircled the school with 50 or so metal containers (like the ones on cargo ships). They left a gap where they intended to send riot police in. They did and 240 people were arrested and taken by bus to the outskirts of Gothenburg... more

Riot police in Gothenburg have closed down the convergence centre - used for accomodation, training, workshops space - after surrounding it with cargo containers. more