Social Movements in the Nordic Countries by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9783837510997
Google: rawtnwEACAAJ
Publisher: Klartext Verlag
Published: 2012-01-15T03:52:42+00:00

The Campaign to Rescue Mullvaden and Urban Occupation in Stockholm

The occupation of the “quarter” Mullvaden in Stockholm began in the autumn of 1977. The buildings on Krukmakargatan were constructed in the 1880s and privately owned until 1973 when they were purchased by the municipal housing authority. Krukmakargatan is in the southern part of Stockholm and close to Hornsgatan, a thriving cultural quarter supporting a young and self-consciously bohemian population. Its significance to the city’s alternative scene was established from the late 1960s when Alternativ Stad mounted a successful campaign to stop the destruction of older buildings threatened by reconstruction nearby.

By November 1977 sixty people were living in the four houses comprising the quarter Mullvaden. The houses had been condemned by the housing authority as structurally unsound and identified for demolition. Micke Berg, a young photographer who had recently returned from Christiania, was amongst the occupiers. As he recalled “Mullvaden was more than four houses […] it was a place where those who wished to could appreciate that our modern society is completely idiotically organised”.46 Berg’s recollection of Mullvaden as a self-evident and much anticipated crisis of Swedish urban modernity belies the more haphazard reality of contemporary mobilisation, at least initially. As elsewhere a range of interests coalesced during the occupation in 1977. Moreover, in contrast to Berg, many contemporaries were noticeably surprised by the direct action taken at Mullvaden. Linje 19, Stockholm’s youth radio channel acknowledged this as: “rather unusual behaviour in Sweden where people usually use the democratic processes to mount their protests.”47 Superficially the occupiers were quick to harness a language that indicated they were mobilised by, or wishing to tap into, a wider societal critique of planning and housing policy. One notable slogan captured by Berg’s striking photo montage read: “Make plans for people not for money.”48 But a number of often diffuse ambitions were discernible amongst the occupiers. Some were original residents inhabiting the rather dilapidated buildings. But others had moved to the area because they felt passionate about the rescue of Mullvaden.49 Ceci Wickham had been contacted by the Mullvaden “action group” who asked for help to occupy the empty flats. She was not deterred by the rudimentary living arrangements: the four houses and sixty occupants shared one kitchen for an entire year. Many occupants were women, some of them very young. Fifteen year old Marika had been working as a waitress in the old town when her mother had encouraged her to join the occupation. This was her first experience of living away from home and she described how they loved the old buildings with their stoves, high ceilings and uneven walls that they adorned with tapestries and posters.50 Eva Bygren was only 13 when she started hanging around the area. As a politically aware teenager she thought the campaign to save these lovely old houses super cool. This was no mere youthful fancy, but proved to be a departure for the beginning of a decade of collective living for Eva. Following the clearance

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