The State of Anarchism in Freetown Christiania

This is based on an article I wrote a year ago for Warwick University’s Politic’s Society magazine ‘Perspectives’. Though a little outdated and based more from a tourists perspective, hopefully itgives you the idea of Christiania and is something I’ll be able to build upon when I take up residency.

“Anarchism is often derided by the politics student as at best a nice ideal that could not possibly work in the real world, but there is an unlikely part of the world where the ideal has been real for 42 years: Freetown Christiania, Copenhagen, Denmark. I had the pleasure of passing through Copenhagen this summer and having studied Christiania a number of years ago, I was excited to pay it a visit. This article is about the state of anarchism.

The night before, I typed ‘Christiania’ into Google and found a delve of stories. As recent as 2009 a hand grenade was thrown into a café blowing off a mans jaw, in 2005 several gunmen shot into the crowd injuring three people and killing one and in 2007 police entered to demolish a single house resulting in a riot. Standing across the street from the entrance the next morning with my parents and thirteen year old brother (who I had not shared these stories with), I was slightly anxious. This leafy suburb of Copenhagen was without law, I step in and I can’t call the police, I can’t expect an ambulance to turn up, I can’t expect.

So I’ve set up a very dramatic scene, but not without reason. Yes my trip there of course went without incident, infact Christiania is beautiful, I would love to spend more time there in a place that truly is a colourful community, but this only serves to illustrate the juxtaposition between perceptions of anarchism. Think about what anarchism would be, depending on you bias, you may see a romanticised utopia others will visualise something akin to Hobbes’ State of Nature, a land where life is ‘solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short’, but this, this is theory, intellectual speculation. The beauty of Christiania is that it is a radical social experiment, something so rare in the field of political theory, and the reality I read and observed interestingly dispels neither of these conceptualisations: it is romantic and it is dangerous.

In this light, Christiania’s statement that through “the individual Christianit’s self-discipline and the community’s close network have we created a district, almost without crime, violence and fear” seems laughable. But it is my belief that incredibly, they are right, or at least have done no worse than ordinary society. In 42 years, Christiania has suffered one murder, that’s not a bad record. Yes there has been violence as shown, but Christiania is a radical community. It is paranoid of the government who wants to sell the land to developers and picking apart these stories, you soon realise that these infrequent outbreaks of violence are provoked by people from outside Christiania, not Christianians, the anarchists, themselves.

This is only reinforced by resident’s feelings towards its infamous drugs trade. A massive amount of drugs are traded in the inner part of Christiania known as ‘Pushers street’. What I saw was a very colourful and vibrant street that stank of cannabis, but the actual people who live here resent the trade. They have nothing against drugs as such, but they are against the market principle of profits, selling a drug to friend for the price you brought it for is acceptable, but outsiders bringing the unstable, violent drug community into an otherwise principled space. This infact is the source of conflict and suggests that anarchism here is in no way pre-disposed to descend into violence.

About 900 people live here and work here, they build they own houses and raise their families here and simply expect no favours from anyone. Ironically anarchism is infact the ultimate expression of responsibility. You take total responsibility for your life. This is why the casual rebel without a cause is not an anarchist, the people taking advantage of this lawless space to sell drugs are not anarchist. To purport anarchist means something, to live by your principles is to be respected. From this perspective there is an individual self-discipline and because people take their responsibility seriously, they have built a relatively stable and safe society.

I am not saying at all that anarchism is the solution, that it is the Utopian ideal, to me it’s not, I want to live in a land of law because I think that though Christiania works roughly for 900 people, it won’t for the seven billion on this planet. Yes the residents themselves are principled people, but in the world there are going to be those few people who risk the lives of the rest as they have done with the residents of Christiania, this is why law is preferable in wider society. Even Christiania has some laws (though they require a unanimous vote of residents to pass). Saying that, I respect and support the right for people to choose how they live. Christiania is brave, radical and so far, enduring. I may not support anarchism, but I support Christiania and its people in living by their principles, this is why I purchased shares in Freetown Christiania to ensure its continued survival (from http://www.christiania.org) and advocate you to do the same.”