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Comment by fnatreq | Hacker News Reader

No true Scotsman, true?

If they act like anarchists and smell like anarchists, they are anarchists.

They also proudly use the squatting symbol: https://twitter.com/besetzenberlin

The occupiers are not anarchists. It's a diverse group of people that carry the protests, some even with ties to the established political parties. Some of them certainly have ties with anarchist movements, but placing them all in the same bucket is willfully ignoring the diversity. While I'm not certain that the methods they are using will help their cause or whether the problem is actually even solvable, I understand their grievance:

The area around the new google campus used to be one of the cheapest in Berlin, partly because it was a triangle that jutted out from West Berlin into the eastern parts and a large chunk of it was close to the wall. That area was marked for redevelopment and intended to be torn down pretty much from the beginning until the 60ies when a large grassroot movement started occupying the buildings and refurbishing them. Parts of the original plans can be witnessed in the area around the Kottbuser Tor, which is a prime example of failed grand city architecture plans. All the concrete blocks their replaced existing buildings which were torn down.

The area became attractive after the 1990ies, because all of a sudden, the whole chunk of land was quite central in Berlin. As a consequence, many people that had been living there for decades and sometimes were quite involved in the improvement of the area are now forced to move and there's a fear that Google moving into the building will accelerate the process. To add on top of that, the building was recently sold to a holding that resides in one of the British tax havens, so all earnings go offshore and do little to benefit the area around. Google hasn't exactly been very forthcoming in its communication regarding their plans for the space, which makes an already complicated and heated issue even more heated.

Thanks for the local perspective.

This is correct, my office is on the same street. You can see the protest posters already for a year in coffee shops, hair dressers etc. It's a broad, if not very big, group.

"many people that had been living there for decades and sometimes were quite involved in the improvement of the area are now forced to move"

Please slow down with fake news. No eminent domain ever happened in that area since 50 years ago, hence literally NOBODY was forced to move out.

No? I remember at least three demos that were happening down the street from our office because people had to move out in the last few years. And eminent domain is not the only way to force people to move. Renovate the building, you may now raise the rent so people can't afford it. No eminent domain, people were still forced to move.

"And eminent domain is not the only way to force people to move. Renovate the building, you may now raise the rent so people can't afford it. No eminent domain, people were still forced to move."

So it's not just fake news from you, it's Communist fake news. Because you claim that market transactions are FORCED. You have the right to your own opinions, but you don't have the right to your own facts. You claimed FALSELY that people are forced our of that Berlin district, while what actually happened is that some people did not want to enter into voluntary transactions.

War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newspeak

If acknowledging that force can take other forms than physical or legal restraint and that not all market interactions are equal and necessarily borne of free will is now a communist position, then yeah, I’m a communist now. Wouldn’t have expected that to happen, but life is full of surprises.

On a somewhat related note, google translate has gotten mind openly good. I read the translated text from that twitter account as if it was written in perfect english.

Ok, so called anarcho communists to be exact. Still, bunch of bullies.

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