The protests during the EU summit in Gothenburg 2001, parts of which are often called the Gothenburg Riots (Göteborgskravallerna in Swedish), took place in the Swedish city of Gothenburg during the three days of the EU summit (the European Council) and EU–US Summit, June 14–16, 2001. The EU Summit focused upon EU enlargement, sustainable development, economic growth and structural reform issues. The EU–US summit included a visit by U.S. president George W. Bush on June 14. It was the first U.S. presidential visit to Sweden, and was intended as an opportunity to discuss differences on climate negotiations, WTO and Middle East issues with the EU leaders.
The school of Hvitfeldtska Gymnasiet had been lent out by the municipality of Gothenburg to Gothenburg Action and Attac to be used as a convergence center and for housing for the out-of-town protesters. More than 650 people were living at Hvitfeldtska and some also came to the information center and to attend conferences, meetings and seminars. At the school there was also a workshop for preparing white overalls activists planning to oppose the Schengen agreement by dressing up in ice-hockey and other similar defensive material and then by non-violent means try to enter the EU Summit the following day. On the morning of June 14, the police decided to surround and close off Hvitfeldtska at 11 am. This occurred at the same time as U.S. president George W Bush’s plane, the Air Force One, landed outside the city.
Hundreds of policemen surrounded the school. No one was allowed to leave or enter, and the people inside were given no information of what was going on. Journalists were not allowed to come near the area. At noon, the police chief Håkan Jaldung spoke at a press conference and declared that almost all of the people inside Hvitfeldtska were suspected of preparing different crimes. However, at this time, no criminal activity had taken place at the school according to both the security police units that had infiltrated the school and the organisations renting the school.
After a while, the police constructed a wall consisting of more than 100 containers around the school. Inside the school, and in the schoolyard, the demonstrators held meetings and discussed how best to handle the situation. Negotiations started with the police with mediators in collaboration with the psycho-tactic police unit. Around 3 pm, a few of the demonstrators were allowed to leave the school area during a period of uncertainty amongst the policemen. Approximately 100 people left the school at this point after agreeing to being searched by the police, but without promise of what they could keep with them. However, most of the people inside the school didn’t know this was happening and missed the opportunity to leave Hvitfeldtska and many stayed in solidarity with the white overalls who tried to negotiate their terms to get out. The police chief took away the mandate for the psychotactic unit and the negotiations ended in confusion. According to the police chief this was due to that the negotiations did not come to a conclusion, according to the mediators a conclusion on the last issue of white overall material was at hand and the problems could be solved.
200 people lined up to demand their right to go to the ongoing demonstration against Bush. In total some 200 people with some 30 white overalls in the front followed by some 50 syndicalist trade unionists, a black bloc and a mixed group of pacifists and others at the rear. The attempt to get through the police cordon through white overall tactics failed when the front white overalls where severely beaten while they themselves did not hit the police. When, at half past four, the demonstrations peacefully backed in a narrow alley towards the school the police charged violently on horses, with batons and with dogs provoking a violent reaction by the use of throwing cobblestones from some demonstrators.
Some demonstrators were able to block themselves in the school. Finally, at 10 pm the battle was over and police invaded the school, detaining approximately 500 people and removing them by bus.
Outside Hvitfeldtska the closing of the convergence center and the trapping of more than 500 persons inside caused immediate reactions. In the streets nearby and in the Vasa park clashes between police and protesters occurred that turned into riots. The police charged on horses against protesters and the demonstrators used cobblestones against the police. The protests reached their climax in the evening when some 2,000 people gathered outside the container wall to show their support. No violence occurred whatsoever but having the policemen focused on the crowd, some 30 people that had been trapped inside Hvitfeldtska were able to flee across the container wall and come outside the police cordon.
Big Bang, the acting preformace I'm in, is about Göteborgskravallerna. I’ll be playing the daughter of an Iraqi communist who flew to Sweden during the war against Iran in the 80’s. The daughter, who is born in Sweden, does not agree with her father’s vision and beliefs of life, instead she chooses to be a fundamentalist.
It's sad to see what the visit of the American president did to Gothenburg in the summer of 2001.
Source; Wikipedia
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