Syndicate: ATTACK, follow-up

["Arthur Bueno" <abueno@v2.nl>]

>Date: Thu, 25 Nov 1999 15:36:10 +0100
>        rts@gn.apc.org
>From: kurin <kurin@softhome.net>
>Subject: ATTACK, follow-up


>Hi
>Thanks ALOT everyone who helped us with sending  faxes on the weekend 6th
>and 7th November. This helped us a lot. After the action we were promised a
>space in the factory, jedinstvo.
>This is what happened on the action:
>We gathered outside the factory at Saturday 6th . not very many people
>appeared, at the most 50. People were drumming, dancing juggling  and
>painting graffiti on a banner that we put around the factory.  We also
>cooked tea and lunch. This lasted about 4 hours. At the same time three
>activists climbed and occupied the roof of the building. And placed a
>banner with the text "alternative culture center"
>See more about this part in Marko's description below.
>There were many journalists present (jutarnji list, vecernji list, fade in
>video, vjesnik) and we went live from the roof into student radio's program
>and recorded a statement for radio 101. Although there weren't many people
>present I am quite happy how everything turned out. The atmosphere was
>friendly, roof squatting went as we planned, even people from the city
>culture department showed up at the spot and invited us for a meeting on
the
>Monday after the action.
>On this Monday we read in a newspaper that ATTACK had been given a space in
>Jedinstvo. We were surprised since we didn't know about this. The
>journalist told us that mr Cutura from the city of Zagreb had told her so.
>Now we have been promised this space by Cutura and it has been in several
>articles  in media and so on. But three times we have made appointments to
>go to the factory, and it has been postponed every time, so the process is
>very slow, but we are quite certain that we will get the space though.
> Once again, we are very greatful for your help. We believe that this
>helped us  very much in the process.
> Karin Ã?sterling
>
>
>
>
>-------------------------------
>squatting the roof - in detail
>by Marko V.
>we agreed that we want to do something more direct, a bit more impudent, in
>order to add a little bit more of juice, adrenalin and appeal  to the
>"charge on jedinstvo factory". that's how we came up with the idea to squat
>the roof foir a couple of hours and place a banner there.
>at first we planned to go as four people to the roof. since that was an
>ilegal action it wasn't possible to go aroung the city and tell everybody
>about it in order to find people. it turned out that it was a bit harder to
>find four people for something like that than we expected. so in front of
>four people (we wanted to be a male and female group), 3 men went instead.
>some very nice alpinists borrowed us the equipment and sold some rope.
>during wednesday and thursday we had some training for climbing, handing in
>belt etc in order to be prepared to hang from the roof in the ropes and in
>the belts if the police tries to take us down by force. we didn't need that
>skill after all as the cops backed from that idea the very second we tied
>ourselves with ropes and came closer to the edge of the roof.
>
>i went into the factory by surprise. the fence was open so i went in. the
>security guard was confused by that so he didn't react in time. he asked me
>for my documents and i replied how i don't have them and just moved further
>in the jard of the factory. he couldn't follow, since he had to close down
>the fence door in order to prevent the others to come in as well. then the
>journalists - photogtaphers made a trick and showed their press cards. the
>guard got confused once again so he let them in the yard. while all this
was
>happening at the door I climber to the first level of the roof. in the
>meanwhile two other guys climbed over the fence and used the plastic roof
to
>come to the first level as well. we took the improvised ladders up with us
>and climbed over to the second level of the roof (the top of the building).
>then something we didn't expect happened. 3 photographers followed us up to
>the roof. so all of us ended up on 12 meters above the ground on the flat
>roof of this factory.
>the photographers took some photos as we placed the banned saying -
>alternative culture centre.
>
>the cops we also confused of course. they didn't expect this to happen and
i
>doubt that they even ever so such a thing. it took them over 30 minutes to
>contact the police station and react. we used that time to secure ourselves
>with ropes and prepare to hang from the roof if we have to. by that time
>press finnished their photo session so they climbed down from the roof.
>
>then the police also tried to do something. first they ordered the people
>responsible for the gathering to make us come down. no success. the the
cops
>started to communicate more directly. at first there was a lot of tention.
>they yelled and screamed a lot, things like - come on down right away! - we
>will call special squad and firemen - you will get what you deserve when
you
>come down! i replied on this last sentence with a question - are you
>threatening me? the answer was no, and this cop quickly left the scene. i
>think that was the point when they realised that we won't come down.
>
>spontaniously the fourth perfon has joined us on the roof. he was there a
>while with us, and when he decided that he want's to go down again we told
>the police that we will release one hostage as a sign of our good will and
>that we want 3 hours of time in return. that has happened. the cops told us
>at some point (over mobile phone, not publicly) that they give us time
until
>16 o'clock...
>
>around 14:20 we realized that they are not paying attention to us. they
>didn't even surround the building. it seemed as a good joke to have one of
>us dissapear from the scene. that was what has happened. one of us climbed
>down on the other side of the building and used his bike to escape. they
>didn't even notice that he was missing until we started to prepare the
>escape route for the two of us as well. only then they surrounded the
>building.
>
>we stayed on the roof for another hour, adn when it became boring for us
>went down the same was we came up.
>then we had to go through the identity check, ultra nice treatment from the
>police (support from outside took their badge numbers + we had a video
>camera), and finally they took us to the station. after 40 minutes we were
>released. it's uncertain if we will be charged or not..
>
>
>
>
>--------------------------------------------------------------
>Karin Osterling          kurin@softhome.net
>casmanska 2/3
>10000 Zagreb
>croatia                  +385-1-611 30 32
>
>

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