cannabisnews.com: Protest To Preserve Denmark's Hippy Enclave





Protest To Preserve Denmark's Hippy Enclave
Posted by CN Staff on August 30, 2003 at 13:52:25 PT
Hippy community is recognised by the government 
Source: BBC News 
Thousands of people have held a protest in Copenhagen to voice support for the city's famed hippy enclave Christiania. The crowd was protesting against government plans to build expensive homes in the area. Up to 7,000 people turned out for the protest, including many of the area's 1,000 residents, known as Christianites. They waved banners and Christiania's flag - three yellow dots on a red background - many of them openly smoking marijuana.
"The government doesn't want ordinary Danes to see that there is an alternative way to live," writer Ebbe Kloevedal Reich told supporters. When the Liberal-Conservative government took office in 2001, it promised to end the sale of hashish in Christiania, and redevelop the area. A timetable for the government's plans is expected later this year.  'Social experiment' Christiania - the name given to the area by its hippy inhabitants - is a former 18th Century navy fort, occupying 34 hectares (84 acres) of state-owned land behind Copenhagen's old ramparts. The hippies moved into the derelict area in 1971. The flower-power community supported nudity and free marijuana and opposed the concepts of government and police. It also opposed European integration. In 1987, the Danish Government recognised Christiania as a "social experiment". Four years later it approved the community, and in return the residents started paying community taxes. Christiania allows the sale of illegal marijuana but keeps out hard drugs such as heroin. However the government is trying to crack down on all drugs in the area and has ordered police raids on street booths, where marijuana is openly sold. Kjeld Olesen, who served as a Social Democratic foreign and defence minister in the 1960s and 1970s, was among the protesters. "Christiania is here to stay," he told the Associated Press news agency. "Technically speaking, Christiania is still a social experience and the use of the land is legal." Source: BBC News (UK Web) Published:  August 30, 2003Copyright: 2003 BBC Contact: newsonline bbc.co.ukWebsite: http://news.bbc.co.uk/ Related Articles: Politicians Lay Siege To Copenhagen Hippies http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread16462.shtmlDenmark's Hippies Hit Their Golden Yearshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread7469.shtml 
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Comment #1 posted by FoM on December 10, 2003 at 20:17:25 PT
Related News Article From The Associated Press
Hippies in Denmark May Be EvictedThe Associated PressPublished: December 10, 2003COPENHAGEN, Denmark -- The residents of Copenhagen's famed hippie enclave can be evicted because the Danish state gave them the right to borrow the land - not rent it - in 1989, government lawyers said in a legal review released Wednesday.In 1971, hippies moved into a derelict 18th century navy fort and proclaimed their freewheeling society on 84 acres of state-owned land behind Copenhagen's old ramparts. They dubbed it Christiania and turned it into a flower-power community with psychedelic-painted buildings, where people advocated nudity, free marijuana, no government, no cars and no cops.In 1987, Christiania was recognized as a "social experiment" and two years later the then-government allowed the residents to use the land.Since the Liberal-Conservative government took office in 2001, it has promised to end the open sale of hashish at Christiania, clear the former navy barracks-turned-community and erect upscale housing complexes on what it called an attractive real estate."Christiania has been borrowing the area from the state, they have not been renting it," said Karsten Hagel-Soerensen, representing the government's law firm.The 1989 agreement "can be terminated" because they are not renting the land, Hagel-Soerensen concluded in a 23-page legal report. "A one-year (eviction) notice is considered an acceptable notice," he added.There was no immediate reaction from the government or Christianites, as the 1,000 residents are known. In the past two years, they have staged several demonstrations to protest the government's plan.The legal report will be included in the government's official outline for Christiania's future, which is expected to be presented next year. Copyright: 2003 Associated Press
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