Bordercamp 2000

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Reclaim the Station - disturbing the border police in Cottbus

Today, around a hundred people vistited the main station of Cottbus. The action aimed at disturbing the racist controls of the border police. In 1992, the traditionally external border has become an internal border in the interior of the country. Since then, the border police turns up quite often in railway stations, randomly controlling people whose appearence seems suspicious to them. Criteria for stopping people can be a skin colour other than white, a hair colour other than the natural one, or a shave that isnīt fresh. These racist and otherwise discriminating controls inspired us to temporarily disrupt the selective activities of the border police. We created a control-free zone, symbolically marked by a red-and-white ribbon, played some music from our tape-recorder, and generally spread out through the whole station. When we heard that one of us had been arrested and abducted somewhere into the huge office building of the border police, some activists started looking for him. They suddenly found themselves on the first floor of the office building in a dull, boring corridor. Obviously, this depressing interior had to be redesigned - we used the slogans which are unfortunately still the most relevant: "No one is illegal" and "For the abolition of the border police".

Meanwhile, the action developed into a Reclaim-the-Station party: participants of the camps were dancing away to the sounds of African music, while distributing leaflets and camp-magazins. The "Hütchenspiel", a game of chance well-known in German cities, was playfully redefined by using the hat of a police woman. She had lost it because she had ignored the ban against police within the control-free zone.

After only half an hour, the "robocop" squad of the border police appeared. Our presence magnetically attracted them. With a spring in their steps, they were proudly showing off their new trendy outfits, colletion "00". Like every other policeperson, they were accompanied by a living text (people carrying signs): "Attention! Racist control!" Unfortunately, due to the noice of our own slogans, we couldnīt understand what the leader of the robocops was trying to tell us. Visibly confused by our not very cooperative behaviour, he couldnīt communicate a strategy to his crew, so it didnīt take us much to send them out of the reclaimed station.

It was a shame that we had to stop the party in the station - but we had to get the early train where our cheap tickets where valid.