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On a Saturday afternoon before Christmas 2002, downtown
Hamburg is a glittering consume mile full of crowds
of people carrying their precious purchases in their
arms. They are loaded down with bags, boxes, packages,
or - radios. Radios, loudspeakers and ghetto-blasters
are being carried around everywhere as well. In addition,
there is a garishly clad angel and pastors with squeaky
recorders, a bicycle trailer with "alternative
coffee" and lots of little police troops addressing
the young people with radios. It is hard to say what
exactly may be heard from the radios. One conjectures
that it might be a patchwork of statements of all kinds,
in many languages, of music and noises.
It is an unusual day in the city center, which certainly
applies to this place, which has been exemplary in Hamburg
for many years for its systematic policies of keeping
order and of expulsion, for the surveillance and privatization
of public space. Public space here in the vicinity of
Jungfernstieg, Mönckebergstrasse and the city hall is
to be used for consume and representation, according
to the decision of the senate of Hamburg years ago,
still led at that time by a coalition of the Social
Democratic Party and the Greens. The current coalition
of the Christian Democratic Union, the Schill Party
and the Free Democratic Party is continuing this course
with a rigor that their predecessors would not have
dared. Gathering places for citizens less inclined to
consume or less representative are systematically reduced
out of existence, political expressions are not tolerated,
especially in the pre-Christmas season, when the sweet
jingle of coins is expected after a lean year. Since
the second week of November this year, quite a number
of demonstrations have had to stop before the portals
of the elegant boulevards of Hamburg.
Since Monday, November 4th, the political situation
in Hamburg has clearly become more intense. Since the
police cleared the Bambule wagon area in the central
Karoviertel, too many people have felt themselves too
rigorously confronted with the Law and Order course
steered by the Conservatives-Schill coalition. Several
hundred advocates of a plurality of ways of living have
reacted with a wave of demonstrations and actions against
the aggressive proceedings of the senate and the police.
During the week of solidarity with Bambule more and
more people have been mobilized with a lantern procession,
bicycle demo, rally in front of a noble disco, round
table discussions and further demos. The demonstrators
are not only demanding a new area for the wagons. Their
demands are more varied. The fundamental issue at stake
is the defense of heterogeneous life styles. And it
is a matter of opposing the authoritarian executive
power of a senate that has no other response to the
emancipatory, socially and politically engaged organization
of this city than repression and ignorance.
Four weeks after the eviction, the need to articulate
protest and political opinion has not diminished. However,
another demand has been added. Until now, the up to
five thousand people per demonstration have marched
through windy, deserted traffic centers, accompanied
by three thousand police in double rows and flanked
by water cannons and clearance vehicles. And the demonstrations
led again and again into "their quarter",
the areas of Schanzenviertel and Karoviertel, and stayed
their among their own kind.
Back to Saturday, December 14, 2002, in downtown Hamburg.
The demonstratively carried radios are here in response
to an appeal from the Hamburg radio group Ligna. Since
1996, the radio group Ligna, by name Ole Frahm, Michael
Hüners and Torsten Michaelsen, has mostly been broadcasting
music on FSK (Freies Sender Kombinat - "Free Broadcaster
Combine"), the Hamburg independent radio station.
Today, though, the broadcast consists of a multitude
of statements from diverse groups on the political situation
in Hamburg, of recordings from demonstrations in recent
weeks, of noise and music.
The three-hour program is now being broadcast on the
street, at the Christmas market and in department stores;
several hundred radio-carriers have gather in Mönckeberg
Street, set their radios to 93,0 MHz Freies Sender Kombinat
and scattered, strolling through the city. The radios
are heard at mid-level volume, as small troops of police
ensure the less than optimal volume, but wherever radio-carriers
stay for a brief period, the attention of the passers-by
is captured. In the course of the three hours, more
and more questions are asked. Attempted explanations,
conversations and discussions result. A plethora of
small antennas are spied sticking out of jackets, bags
and almost everywhere. The radios become a recognizable
sign. The conspicuous and inexplicable presence of the
radio swarms clearly triggers irritation. It seems unclear
at first, whether there is a conspiracy involved or
an important soccer match. It is left up to the radio-carriers
themselves, whether they want to make use of this moment
of irritation or not.
The scattering is not a gathering. Unlike a demonstration,
its effect is not the result of closing ranks, but rather
of a good distribution in the space. Although the radio
demo shares with its elder sister the necessity of collective/concerted
action, the law and order policy procedures are not
prepared for this kind of articulation. The scattering
does not even come into conflict with the development
rights of the consumers and business people, to which
court decisions for a prohibition usually refer. Thus
the police on duty remark somewhat helplessly on the
volume of the radios and give a few poorly founded orders
to move on. Even the wording of the noise protection
regulations does not allow for plausibly founded interventions:
"Radio and television appliances ... may only be
used in such a way that other parties are not significantly
disturbed." Most of the passers-by appeared to
be more amused than disturbed.
Ligna successfully tested the strategy of scattering
for the first time in May this year. The "radio
ballet" conducted several hundred participants
through the Hamburg main train station for an hour.
Ligna's broadcasting studio in the adjacent Kunsthalle
conveyed a set of movement instructions that were carried
out by the participants equipped with radios and headphones.
Sit down, stand up, hold out your hand in a begging
motion - and turn around. Dance and "wave good-bye
to the departing train of the revolution". The
transference of forbidden gestures into the control
space of the main train station only conditionally worked
- most of the passers-by could not interpret the symbolism
of the movements. However, the moment of irritation
was successful, not least of all due to the widespread
expansion and the uncanny impression of the mute choreography.
The subversion of conventional ways of dealing with
political articulation was equally successful in the
radio ballet and the radio demo. The prohibition sought
by the train station management was not implemented,
a minor victory for reconquering the space of the train
station that was being fought for on all sides. For
this one day, freedom of speech and of art also applied
to this place. For the radio demo as well, Ligna made
use of sabotaging the repertoire of urban activity -
in light of the somewhat helpless proceedings of the
police, the inappropriateness of standardized methods
is clear in the case of scattering. Ligna links the
organizing function of the radio with the strategy of
subversion here. The irritation induced by scattering
leads to communicative discussions, and these remain
the uncontrollable variable for Ligna, due to their
unpredictability. The power of independent radio begins
and ends with the listeners. This is the point where
Ligna turns the course of events over to the decisions
and political actions of the participants.
The strong resonance in response to the radio demo
resulted, not least of all, from the role that the FSK
has assumed during the Bambule demonstrations in the
preceding weeks. The broadcaster's increasingly important
position in the reporting and discussion of political
events is essentially derived from the fact that it
is not only an observer, but also part of the movement
in the street in the sense of being a movement radio.
Ligna speak of movement radio (a term derived from the
pirate broadcasters and resistant Free Broadcasters
of the 80s), when radio does not report on a movement
in a journalistic sense, but rather is itself part of
the movement, when listeners become transmitters. The
term movement is in no way intended to indicate an organized
homogeneity at this point. It is instead much more a
question of asserting positions and voices on the radio,
which are part of what is being reported.
The current situation in Hamburg is open - even the
future of Bambule is not yet secured, and the urgent
problem of closed homes, the retrograde traffic and
education policies of the senate, the demolition of
social facilities will keep resistance very busy in
Hamburg. What has been proven in recent weeks, however,
is the tenacity of the demonstrators, radio-carriers
and radio producers, who have not grown weary of expressing
indignation, despite the overbearing police presence.
This is, not least of all, one of the achievements of
the many radio groups that multiply information on FSK,
thus providing the necessary infrastructure for a movement
in the streets. The method of the radio demo - and the
development and testing of further alternative forms
of resistance - is equally open to other producers and
recipients. The scattering of political content in public
space has only just begun.
Reports on the radio ballet in May 2002
http://www.glizz.net/artikel/artikel_12.php
http://de.indymedia.org/2002/05/21525.shtml
Ole Frahm on the current situation in Hamburg
http://www.nadir.org/nadir/periodika/jungle_world/_2002/50/
sub08a.htm
FSK homepage
http://www.fsk-hh.org
Audio Portal for Community Radios including contributions
from FSK
http://freieradios.nadir.org/
Translated by Aileen Derieg
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