Kattenkwaad: “Turn your rage into something beautiful: a world without cops or cages!” (video)

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Woensdag demonstreerden zo’n 200 mensen in Rotterdam tegen politiegeweld. Aanleiding was het geweld tegen de Woonopstand-demonstratie van 17 oktober op de Erasmusbrug, maar dat was zeker niet het enige ‘incident’ of de enige vorm van politiegeweld waartegen de manifestatie gericht was. De Coalitie tegen Politiegeweld, waaraan ook Doorbraak meedoet, had daarom een zeer diverse groep sprekers uitgenodigd. Hier de toespraak van een spreker van het anarcha-feministische Kattenkwaad.

Ik ben verkleed als spook omdat ik een beetje anoniem wil blijven. Ik wil niet met zijn gezicht op het podium.

Tijdens de Woonopstand werd het zogenaamde zwarte blok gecriminaliseerd. Mensen met zwarte kleren werden extra in de gaten gehouden door de politie. Waarom? De mensen met zwarte kleren identificeerden zich als anarchist. Anarchisten willen een wereld zonder macht of autoriteit. Kapitalisten voelen dat hun macht en autoriteit wordt bedreigd door de anarchisten. Zij hebben hiervoor al meer dan tweehonderd jaar geleden een speciale groep mensen de opdracht gegeven om iedereen waardoor ze zich bedreigd voelen te straffen. Deze groep mensen is de politie.

In 1897 werd in Nederland de geheime politie opgericht omdat de koningin bang was voor anarchisten. In 1865 werd de slavernij in Amerika afgeschaft. De slavenpatrouilles die eerst de taak hadden om ontsnapte slaven neer te schieten, werden politieagenten. Hun kerntaak was de zwarte bevolking extra te onderdrukken. In 1829 werd de politie in Engeland opgericht om de arbeidersopstanden neer te slaan, stakingen te breken en het eigendomsrecht van kapitalisten te beschermen. De politie is inherent klassistisch, racistisch en anti-anarchistisch. Ze zijn er om de gevestigde orde in stand te houden, ze zijn de knokploeg van de staat.

We should be careful not to fall in the trap of getting lost in the debate of violent versus non-violent demonstration. This is a false narrative. Media shows the perspective of the police because they want to be neutral. But neutrality is a joke. The state can kill without consequence, directly or indirectly, but we do as much as pick up a rock and we are considered violent. And it’s comfortable to just not look at the videos of police violence, to say to yourself it doesn’t happen in the Netherlands. But the truth is: violence happens under the radar all the time.

Violence comes in different forms. Evictions are violence. Ethnic profiling is violence. The rising rent prices, being pushed out of our cities by gentrification is violence. Homelessness is violence. Many of us experienced structural violence and violence of the state every day. We are not surprised when the police beat us. We have learned to expect it. How dare they speak to us about violence? When they lock people in cages for the crime of crossing an imaginary border, let children freeze to death and drown at the borders of Fortress Europe. As we are speaking Frontex, the European Border and Coastguard Agency, is forming an army with permission of the EU to kill migrants.

We reject our laws and their authority, they have nothing to do with morality. So what the fuck do they talk to us about violence? When they shot, executed, murdered Sammy Baker, when he was going through a mental health crisis. These are not accidents, not exceptions, not a few rotten appels but a system that is rotten to the core.

So don’t talk to us about whether or not some people brought flashes, or some might have lit a flare, that is a joke compared to the violence that we experience every day at the hands of the state. We should not assert our nonviolence and celebrate it: we have every right to defend ourselves. Nothing we could do compares to the violence that people experience at the hand of the state and its toxic system. It’s important that we respect the diversity of tactics, and we do not police each other.

When we say “fuck the police”, this means also to not act like cops to each other. Some of us might like to cover up our faces, and some chose not to. We need each other, we fight the same fight. And if we saw anything at the Woonopstand, it’s how important it is that we stand in solidarity with each other. Two weeks ago it was us in the kettle, tomorrow it could be you.

We should not waste our time trying to convince people whether or not we are peaceful at Woonopstand, whether we deserved to get beaten or not. When they control the narrative, the answer will always be that we do. Instead we should focus on why we were there, what kind of world we want to live in, to stand up against the violence of capitalism and the state, to fight for a liveable planet where everybody can live a meaningful and fulfilling live without exploitation, for affordable housing for all, to look out for each other like we did on the seventeenth of October, to stand up against injustice and brutality.

And for those of us who witnessed this kind of police violence for the first time, who feel gaslighted by the media, the police, the state, who feel this burning rage that comes with witnessing and experiencing injustice: hold on to this rage. Now you understand. Hold on to this rage and let’s turn it into something beautiful: a world without cops or cages!

Abolish the police!

Kattenkwaad

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