Gottenburg (2001)

The Swedish EU presidency ended in mid June 2001 with a summit in the city of Gothenburg. All the heads of state of all the EU countries were present and there was a special visit by George W Bush. As the world elite gathered once more behind fences and lines of riot police, a diversity of activists with many backgrounds descended on the city. By the end of the week, three people had been shot, hundreds of people had been arrested and the general attitude towards activists in the media and in public was very hostile. Some commented that the police should have better training so that they could shoot activists in the head instead of through the stomach.

During these days and their aftermath I lived in central Gothenburg. I have been asked to summarise some of the experiences of that time. Leading up to the protests and counter-conferences I was working with a mainstream environmental organisation, planning events for the Free Forum, a tent camp with info tables and stages for debates, speeches and music. After the protests it seemed that there was almost no political representation or organisation in the city. Most of the organisations and people involved in planning the protests had either left or were burnt out. The police were rounding up people and this scared many activists, and a general silence existed from the protestors. Because of this, and because some of our friends had been arrested and hurt, (and also because we had been in the streets and were very frustrated by the construction of reality that was being put together by police, media and politicians), some friends and I became involved in the work which was necessary after the so-called Gothenburg riots.

Events:

ECOFIN:

The Gothenburg summit was the final summit of the EU presidency and it was the site of the biggest protests, but the Ecofin summit in Malmo is also of importance when looking at the events in Gothenburg. On April 21st 2001 there was an informal meeting between the finance ministers of the European Union, and a demonstration was held against this. At this demonstration the black bloc was ambushed and boxed in, in what one policeman (the only one to be suspected of a crime during that action) claimed was an exercise which was meant to prepare the police for the coming summit in Gothenburg.

The demonstration was diverted and the police, who had been waiting behind corners, blocked off the Black Bloc and redirected the rest of the demo. The demonstrators were detained for about 40 minutes until they were violently arrested and photographed. More than 260 people where boxed in and taken away. The police claimed that weapons found, such as potatoes punctured by nails, firecrackers, fire extinguishers, eggs and canned vegetables were the reason for the mass arrests. However, there is evidence to suggest that the action was planned ahead of time and that it was an exercise in preparation for Gothenburg. This type of pre-emptive arrest was exactly what we were to experience a few months later in Gothenburg.

GOTHENBURG:

Thursday 14^th June:

Many activists had arrived in Gothenburg on the Wednesday and were staying in different schools that the city was renting out cheaply. One of these schools was Hvitfeldska and it was not only used for accommodation but also for talks and workshops. This school was a little bit different from the other ones since it was used by a coalition of groups that I will refer to as Ya Basta. This group was involved in organising a White Overall action against the EU-summit. The Ya Basta group had publicly announced that they were going to march towards the fences around the summit and non-violently try to breach the security perimeter in white overalls and padding. The police saw this as a great threat, but the actions taken against Ya Basta could not have been predicted.

A protestor is attacked outside Hvitfeldska School

At around 11am on Thursday, at the same time as president Bush landed at the airport outside Gothenburg, the Hvitfeldska School was surrounded by a large wall of containers. 650 people were trapped inside without explanation. The main organisers of the political events of the coming days immediately tried to negotiate with the police and as the afternoon progressed it became clear that the police were most concerned about the Ya Basta group. Just before 5pm negotiations had reached a compromise which the people at the school could agree to, but then all negotiations were broken off by the police who decided that everyone in the school were to be arrested for ‘violent rioting’. Some people had managed to leave the school during the day by identifying themselves and having their bags searched and others had jumped the containers but there were about 450 left. Ya Basta! tried to break out using their padding but the police fought back and attacked the school grounds using horses, dogs and riot police on foot. This led to people barricading themselves in the school, but several did not make it into the school or decided to stay outside peacefully. These people were beaten, harassed and made to sit around for hours. Also, the police smashed the windows of cars parked on the school grounds, threw the contents of the cars out on the ground and sabotaged the soup kitchen.

The anti-Bush demo proceeded without the Hvitfeldska activists being able to participate; though many people did gather outside the school in solidarity throughout the day and blocked roads and confronted the police. The inhabitants of the school were arrested and put in custody over night. They were given only small amounts of food and many had to share cells and were held for longer than is legally allowed. Most were released early the next day and only a few were questioned.

Containers being put up around Hvitfeldska

Friday 15^th June

Early on Friday many people gathered by Gotaplatsen, a square located very close to the safety perimeters of the summit, for a manifestation and speeches. After this there was an anti-capitalist march, though it must have been the shortest march ever as it was merely a movement of people down a small street towards the fences that were erected at the safety perimeters. The march did not have a permit, though this did not make it illegal according to Swedish law, and a few thousand people participated. The demonstration was supposed to have been carried out together with Ya Basta and even the group Anti-Fascist Action (AFA) were supposed to have been active around the same time. However, the raid at the Hvitfeldska School had prevented any organised actions by these groups. A line of police quickly blocked the march and for about half an hour, people stood still and chanted but nothing much happened.

Police attack demo with crazy dogs

Then the police charged the front of the demonstration with about twenty police with dogs. The dogs were very worked up and attacked everything in their way, including police officers and other police dogs. They tried to single out the Black Bloc part of the demo and beat people randomly. Amidst the panic that was quickly created by the sudden excessive violence from the police, an attack from a side street scattered the demonstrators who fled up to the square where the speeches had been held a little bit earlier. By this point several people had broken up cobblestones and the police where surprised to be attacked strongly by hundreds of stone throwing protestors who forced the police into a retreat. The square where the protestors now found themselves is the end of Gothenburg’s main parade street The Avenue. Since the police had retreated, and seemed to be re-grouping or trying to find somewhere else to attack from, the parade street was completely unprotected and as windows were smashed and burning barricades were built, the riot roamed freely down it. In the end the police did attack from a side street and started hurling stones back at protesters, but the riot was mostly over and the police tried in vain to round up the scattering protestors.

Fires on the Avenue

After this the sunny day passed calmly until the evening. A big anti-EU demo gathered at around six and was attacked by nazis without the police interfering. The nazis were chased away but appeared later at the reclaim the city party that was planned for 8pm. As the big anti-EU demo passed Vasaplatsen, two cars with sound systems pulled up and the music started as people gathered. People were dancing but also breaking up cobblestones for defence. At first there were no police, but suddenly the lines started approaching, cutting off street after street.

Police fire towards protestors

Suddenly someone screamed ‘Nazis!’, and people started masking up as a bunch of nazis randomly attacked people and did the ‘sieg heil’ salute. The nazis had to flee the scene quickly, and ran towards the police lines and then straight through them. Then they ran back through the police lines and attacked again and threw stuff over the lines towards the street party and the anti-fascists who were chasing them. The police made no attempt to stop them or arrest them but instead attacked the party. The people dancing got boxed in but many people had gathered in a park next to the square and down various roads and the police were attacked from several angles.

A group of six police who had arrested some protestors in the area earlier returned alone, and were attacked by a lone protestor at a street corner. Then a huge mob came out of the nearby park and forced the police down a street where the police were suddenly attacked from behind. At this point they pulled their guns and started shooting into the mass of people. One young German was shot in the leg and a photographer in the thigh. People fled as the bullets flew into the crowd. When the area cleared, and between 40 and 60 police arrived at the scene, one young protestor remained. He picked up a stone and threw it, missing completely, then another one, a very small one, that missed and the police shot. The bullet went straight through the stomach, exiting through the back. He was in a coma for 2 weeks and they put 100 litres of blood through his body. After they had removed his spleen, one kidney and parts of his liver, he made a full recovery – against all the odds.

Saturday 16^th June

The big demonstration was planned for the Saturday and at 11am when it should have started, people were still arriving and it is estimated that around 20 000 people participated. The rumours about the death of the injured activist were heard everywhere and many people I met were angry and ready to fight if the police would attack again. A decision was made to move the Black Bloc in front of the syndicalist union SAC instead of behind as previously planned. This turned out to be very valuable as the police had been preparing to box in the Black Bloc as they had done in Malmo. The Black Block was only a few hundred activists and passed by the road where the police were preparing the ambush very quickly. The sea of red and black flags that followed as the SAC marched down the street in their thousands prevented the police from any offensive and suddenly they looked very defensive instead. The demonstration was carried out without incident and marked the end of the planned activities of the opposition to the EU-summit and the Bush visit.

Saturday demo

In the late afternoon of the Saturday I was told that there was to be a manifestation against police brutality at 7pm. As I was approaching the square where it was to be held I saw lots of police down side streets and before I could reach the square they passed me and boxed in the people on the square. Everyone was rounded up and forced to sit down in the middle of the square in a big group. Several busloads of people were driven away and kept in cages in an old military complex until the morning. The majority of the people on the square were finally let out after five hours. The police who let them go did so against orders because they could not understand why they were keeping the people there and they had not had a break for a long time.

Manifestation against police brutality surrounded by police

The reason for the police action against the manifestation is unclear. No body knew who called the manifestation and it was actually talked about on the radio before it had happened. Many believe that the police did it not only to try to catch some of the participants from the Friday riots, but also to direct attention from another police action that took place close by. At the Schillerska school, (close to the Hvitfeldksa school), the police claimed that an armed German terrorist was staying. According to the police, this German was going to shoot a cop. Most people think that the police action was just revenge for the riots the previous day. At about 10pm, when hundreds of protestors were boxed in, masked police in black clothes, carrying automatic weapons with mounted flashlights, stormed the school. Seventy-eight people were brutally dragged out of the school and forced to lie face down on the asphalt of the schoolyard for between 45 minutes and several hours. The police terrorised them and beat them and said things like, ‘Yesterday you had your fun, tonight we’ll have ours’. Seven foreigners were deported but no one was charged with a crime.

Aftermath:

The days after the summit were strange. All the activities, the forum and the people were gone. Mass media had constructed a picture of a city raped by the violence brought forth by professional international troublemakers. At work places and in public, one could hear people talking about how they wished the critically injured protestor would die. The social democrats (the strongest party in Sweden) gave roses to the police. If you talked about the police brutality and the absurdity of the mass arrests people just said that it was wrong to throw stones. Many activists I knew fled the city because they could not handle the way people looked at the events that had passed.

As the days progressed, we realised that the mainstream media was creating a picture of the events that was dangerous for people who had been involved. Some friends and I decided to contact media and try to show our side of the events. We were very lucky in that one of our parent’s old friends was a leading investigative journalist in Sweden. We called this person and met a colleague of his to talk about what had happened. This led to a series of TV programs into the riots that fall and following spring. Through the reports we were able to show footage that had not been shown earlier and the reporters investigated the actions of the police and found both manipulation of evidence and false testimonies. Though the programs concentrated on very many things, one of the most important themes was about the man who was shot through the stomach. The reporters managed to show that when the man was shot there were between 40 to 60 police on the scene and that the man was alone as all others had fled after the first shots had been fired. A Belgian cameraman had footage of the man as he stood by himself and picked up two small stones and threw them badly towards the police. The camera then pans 180 degrees and one can see police all down the street and hardly anyone behind him. Then the police shoot and he stumbles away from the scene and falls down. In the trial against the young man, the police did not show the footage around the area and added sounds over the footage. They added a chorus of people chanting, ‘ein zwei, drei, nazi polizei!’ (one, two, three nazi cops!) which made it seem as if there were lots of people behind him cheering him on. These chants were taken from a later moment in the evening when people realised that he had been shot.

Through these TV shows we managed to counter the one sided propaganda of the mainstream press and it opened up space for a debate and people did start to question the role of the police. This was beyond our wildest dreams and we really thought that it would change the legal processes that were going on at the time. To our surprise, nothing much happened on the legal front. The trials continued in much the same manner as they had from the beginning. They were fuelled with political motivations and many trials seemed to be about explaining the brutal police behaviour, rather than objectively deciding if people were guilty or not. Most people were charged with ‘violent rioting’, a crime that usually does not carry a sentence of more than a month. Activists were receiving very long sentences based on contradictory or poor evidence and suddenly the norm for violent rioting became 1 year in jail.

However, many have received longer sentences. An Italian, for instance, received a sentence of 2 years for violent rioting for throwing a branch that did not actually hit anything. A contact person for the Ya Basta group received 2 years and 6 months for instigating a riot. The evidence against him is that he waved his arms towards a mass of people and that he had held a press conference several weeks before the summit. The man who was critically injured recovered fully and received a sentence of 8 months. His trial was completely dominated by trying to show how the lives of the police had been in danger. Eight Swedish youth received sentences of between 1 year and 4 months to 2 years and 4 months for collecting and sending out information to activists from an ‘information central’ that consisted of some computers and police radios. Some people were kept in isolation cells for several months and their testimonies were falsified and they were given drugs to help them cope with the stress but also to break them down.

There is a pattern in the events that took place the summer of 2001 in Gothenburg. All the legal demonstrations were carried out without incident. When the demonstrations were not taking place the police provoked violence and took away people’s right to protest and organise. Every time the police appeared they surrounded people and attacked and then used any resistance that they met as justifications for their violations. The US secret service had 1000 people in Gothenburg and many believe that they influenced the Swedish police to use tactics that have been effective in the US-such as surrounding locations where many activists are gathered. It felt like there were traps everywhere and no matter what you did you could be arrested and put in jail for something. The trials that followed were hugely political and the sentences people received were much stronger than what is the norm for the crimes they were convicted for. The trials are almost over now but people are still waiting to go to jail.

The EU-summit in Gothenburg may seem like a horrible story of repression and abuse but many good things did come out of it. Huge demonstrations and manifestations were held and many people became politicised. We managed to bring an alternative view of what happened into the mainstream media and in this way criticise the police and the justice system. In the end, after hundreds of people had tried to report the police for crimes committed against them without success, the chief of police was put on trial. He is charged with the illegal action against the Hvitfeldska School and faces a sentence between 1 and 10 years - a sentence that falls on the 20^th of February. (NEEDS TO BE CLARIFIED)

In Gothenburg we learned that it is important never to trust the police. They can do whatever they want and the more they know the more trouble they can create. It is important to have legal groups and to be organised in many places so that the police will be unable to shut you down. After the summit it was important that there was a solidarity group that assigned good lawyers to the arrested and gave legal advice. This group also raised money for the prisoners and helped organise demonstrations and manifestations. Also, the media contacts that we made proved incredibly useful, but it would have been good to have had them beforehand.

All over the world there were solidarity manifestations and many enjoyed the fact that Swedish embassies had to step up their security. A month after the riots in Gothenburg the police fired at protestors again, this time in Genoa at the G8 summit, and this time they managed to kill someone. They also attacked the Indymedia Centre, and the Diaz School where demonstrators were sleeping, in much the same way as they did in Gothenburg, only with much more brutality. In Gothenburg we held manifestations against the brutality of the Italian police, as did people all over the world. This kind of international solidarity is important as it becomes more difficult to demonstrate and the police state grows ever stronger.

Disclaimer: the events described above have been simplified and there are many versions of them and many may disagree with me on my descriptions. The use of violence by some groups and individuals is a difficult debate that I intentionally do not touch on. It may seem that there were lots of nice demonstrators in Gothenburg who got into trouble and that no one was planning militant actions. This is not the case but in the end there were really no planned illegal actions as far as I know, everything was in reaction to the tactics of the police who always managed to strike first.

Cops get their ass kicked