Poland: Rozbrat stays! Successful defence!

On Saturday, March 20th, the second demonstration in defence of Rozbrat took place. About 1,500 - 2,000 people from Poznan, Poland and from abroad took part in it. The demonstration started at 6.00 p.m. in the centre of Poznan. Many squatters from Berlin and different Polish and foreign cities arrived there. They were representing various social and political organizations. There were loads of banners with slogans in Polish, English and in German, saying eg. “City is not a company”, “Reclaim the city”, “Rozbrat not for sale”, “Stop the privatisation of public space”, “Rozbrat stays, no compromise”, “No to the culture of money” etc. The goal of the demo was to show our disobey to the neo-liberal politics of the city authorities, who represent the interests of business and also to show the potential investors that an attempt to evict us from there will be met with strong resistance and it will be really expensive. We're ready for direct and legal fight.

On 26th of March at 10 a.m. at Poznan's local court an auction of the grounds of Rozbrat squat was supposed to take place. No one wanted to take part in it and the grounds haven't been sold! It was already the second auction of those grounds and because of that the bank who gave the loan to the company who owns them can buy the plot. But estate analysts claim that this is not likely to happen. The procedure leading to another auction can start in one year from now.

Few dozens of Rozbrat supporters came for the auction. The court looked like a fortress, there were a lot of police forces within few hundred meters around the court and people could only enter the court after a thorough search, what caused an enormous line in front of it. People could enter the court room only after showing a special pass and another search. Journalists who were present at the spot, couldn't remember if such security measures have been there before, even during trials of dangerous gangs. Even though the trial was moved to the biggest room of the court, most of the people stayed outside. In the room, secured by another huge number of cops, the atmosphere was nervous and even the journalists weren't satisfied with the way the court had behaved saying “it's all for your own safety”. After the information about the fact that the auction would not take place was read the whole court could hear applause and people shouting “Rozbrat stays!”.

From the information we have gathered at least few companies were interested in buying the plot but they gave up that idea. As one of the real estate agency workers said “I will not send my client to a war”.

Once again, we would like to thank everyone who has supported out struggle and everyone who took part in the demonstration last Saturday. Please remember, that even though we've won this stage of the battle, the struggle still continues. And it's not only a struggle for the grounds of Rozbrat, but most of all it is a struggle against the politics of the city authorities towards the residents of the city.

http://www.indymedia.ie/article/95864?search_text=rozbrat
http://www.rozbrat.org/news-in-english

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