Open letter to the chief of police, Mr.Schnabel (EKH, vienna)


After the house-search in the E.K.H. on the 23rd of february 2001, police is proud of attacking the "bastion of the autonomous", the so called "center of the chaos" (source: mediaprint 23.2.2001). Wild weapons have been confiscated:

The search after the famous "cache of the anarchists" (Quotation ORF, ZiB 25.2.2001) was, according to the statements of the police, a so called great success. Cobblestones from various political agitation-tours and study trips to training camps in lybia, jordan, cuba, sibiria and anares have been surveied and found for a size of 10 x 10 cm, others have been decamouflaged as candles. These weapons have been confiscated.

Furthermore 5 liters of highly explosive wallcolor, were found in the cache. In addition we are said to have developed a special pitch. It is the well-known "Praezessionsschlaeuderkraehenweitwerfen ("precise-sling-crowsfeet-wide-throwing") which is detailed presented in the NeueKronenZeitung from the 25.2.2001. We are sorry, but until now we did not achiv the recognition of this kind of sport as an olympic disciplin, because we could not agree on the rules yet. In reality, we don`t have any idea how this "Praezesionsschlaeuderkraehenwerfen" should function.

Stop joking-the situation is serious enough In the course of the Opernballdemonstration it came to heavy police-attacks against demonstrators, suspects and uninvolved persons. According to police information from the 26th of february 2001 there are investigations against 90 persons. One person is still kept in custody.

The so called "street-battle" was a police mad rush on demonstrators. 42 persons have been arrested. Meanwhile it is evident, that many people have been beaten and mistreated by police. None of the arrested persons is older than 25 years - this is what youth politics looks like in Vienna !

In the early morning, there was a brutal raid against left-winged structures. The E.K.H. has been brutally attacked and criminalized by police and media. Doors have been broken, human beings have been dragged out of their beds with colts, handcuffed thrown to the floor. This is an attempt to silence critical voices who are questioning the ruling conditions. The right-extreme/ right wing government in Austria must be able to count on a braod basis, not only in times of election campaigns. To take vigorous action is a well working method in Austria.

The action may appear as a levying of hallucinized caches but police consciously attacked left wing structures. This course of events can only serve the threatening of political activists and may be used as an example.

An autonomous centre like the E.K.H. is an easy target for state arbitrary measures. But moreover we ask ourselves, who profits from this ? It will always be useful for the powerful. Every government needs human beings, but no human being needs governments.

It is evident for us, that every government is able to force such actions. Resistance starts where the established borders, defined by the repressive state, are went beyond without permission. The opposition must be beaten back beyond the borders.

The police attacks of the 22nd and 23rd of february fit in the picture of a government with FPOE contribution, who politically prepares racist attacks in the streets, support politics which contempts women and follows revisionism of history.

Such politics needs to be answered in various forms of protests. Legal protest is part of state and social structure and cannot radically change society. The different forms of protests against the dominating should have one common aim: the unlimited possibility of all to move and live in a free way in a society without monopols of violence. It is impossible for us to see the protests in Vienna apart from global protests against neoliberal interests. Still the wealthy Europe profits from hundreds of years colonizing huge parts of the world. Neoliberalism, also persueded by the FPOEVP government, encreases the difference in a violent capitalistic structur.

This government quits subvention for political/non-conform projects with the same aim as the assault of the autonomous center. We don`t get subvention and we don`t want to get subvention. We want to decide by ourselves, how and where we live and how we formulate and realise our demands. The autonomous center, E.K.H., is beside all (self-) critics an attempt to learn to live a society without capitalism.

They cannot threat us - they connot stop us
Solidarity with all political prisoners - immediatly release the last detained of the Opernballdemonstration
Abandonment of all legal proceeding

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