Regicollis
26th April 2012, 23:12
The idea behind occupying the central institutions of capitalism is not new. In 1918 unemployed anarcho-syndicalists occupied the Copenhagen stock exchange.
The following is a translation of the syndicalist Andreas Fritzner's account on the events.
http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3625/3507047753_19658ff1d0.jpg
The Copenhagen Stock Exchange
At the end of the first world war there was a colossal amount of unemployment here in Denmark and meanwhile we had a harsh rationing of foodstuffs as well as shortages of fuel and housing which hit the unemployed especially hard. The meager unemployment benefits did not allow them to buy replacements for the rationed goods, they could not afford replacement fuels like wood or peat etc. that the more well-off and those who was at least partially employed could. For the unemployed were especially disadvantaged during the first world war. There was no such thing as a relief fund in Copenhagen then (a such was first introduced in 1921 through special legislation) and when the transient benefits from the unemployment funds was used up there was only the Copenhagen Relief Society, a kind of charitable institution, that you had to apply to to get help from. It was more a charity than a right to unemployment benefits.
On the initiative of FS (Fagoppositionens Sammenslutning, a syndicalist organisation) the unemployed organised in the winter of 1917-1918 and sought to gain responsiveness for their demands through demonstrations. Especially a large demonstration at Parliament in 1918 led to better conditions for the unemployed as they gained larger and mandatory benefits. Sometimes those who were employed supported the cause by striking on the demonstration days and taking part in the demonstrations and it showed also in this instance that the direct action that we syndicalists were proponents of had led to results.
In spite of this the conditions for the unemployed were still meager and there was still great discontent among the unemployed who knew that the bourgeoisie had golden days back then. Denmark was neutral during World War I, was able to conduct trade to all sides and to make money on both one side and the other of the war what "smart" businessmen shamelessly made use of. Danish foodstuffs were thus shipped to Germany on a large scale with the consent of the government and partially as a kind of payment for the German coal we managed to get up here. It played a huge role in the revolutionary agitation during World War I that the standard of living of Danish workers had to be decreased to get German coal and the transactions of certain social democratic leaders during this period were also criticised. It was a huge story by itself that one maybe should cover but there are too many murky points in the affair for me to take it up for further description here.
But anyway the shipping magnates, the stockbrokers, the shareholders, the goulash barons etc. made huge amounts of money while the working class was impoverished. The shares rose from day to day. There were examples of steamship shares reaching rates of 12-, 13,-, even 1400 in few months. So fantastic sums were made on the stock exchange that the bourgeoisie wallowed in luxury, in money and in power which naturally stirred the unemployed greatly who themselves had to tighten their belts to a scary extent.
At meetings of unemployed throughout the city it was often mentioned that the unemployed had to use direct actions to draw attention to their problems and to show that they would not be content with being pariahs. After an unemployment meeting on Enghavevej (street in Copenhagen) the unemployed had marched through Istedgade (street in Copenhagen) and looted some food stores. Back then demonstrations and direct actions like this could happen more easily than now. When I later tell about the assault on the stock exchange and the market square affair (another significant struggle in those times) this will be even clearer. The police was not geared for quick and massive deployment, didn't have the deployment apparatus, cars, radios etc. that they have now so it took them a little longer to show up when something happened which made it possible for things like food riots to take place. - But anyway there were many at the meetings in the winter 1917-1918 who argued that the unemployed had to shake up the consciousness of the society in one way or another and we thus decided - those of us who had talked so much about the benefits of direct action - that we would attack the stock exchange. The idea for this came from editor Christian Christensen, machinist Lauritz Hansen and carpenter Alfred Mogensen but the practical organisation of this was left to other comrades.
Back then the stock exchange was the meeting point for the clique who made huge amounts of money off the war: stock sharks, shipping magnates, shareholders, brokers etc. and we decided that we one day after a meeting would attack the stock exchange, chase all the stockbrokers out of the place and put a sign on the door saying "The unemployed have closed the gambling joint".
I had two meetings that day. One at Jagtvejen (Copenhagen street) and one in Rømersgade (Copenhagen street) and at those it was decided to march through the city. We had planted the rumour that the objective was to loot the meat packing district. We were aware that there were some snitches among the unemployed and that there were civilian policemen at our meetings and thus the rumour had been planted to throw the police off. After the two previous lootings it seemed plausible and the police believed the story. I had spoken at the meeting on Jagtvejen and the demonstration went through Nørrebrogade until it reached Farigsmagsgade where it joined those who had been at the meeting in Rømersgade. There had been full house at both places and it was thus a huge demonstration that now moved towards Købmagergade and the stock exchange.
We were aware that when the unemployed neared the stock exchange the custodian at the entry could simply slam the door shut and thus thwart the entire operation. We were thus a little vanguard of four who had gone ahead to prevent that from happening. In a way we were only three as the fourth was my wife and she was naturally not to take part in any of it but she followed us down Købmagergade. it was Shrove Monday, february 11th 1918 that day and we stopped at a shop called The China and Japan House and bought three clubs (a piñata-like game involving a barrel is a Danish Shrovetide tradition) that we put in our inner pockets. We were to smash up the barrel that day and we went ahead of the demonstration to the stock exchange.
http://www.sa.dk/media(194,420,0,0,True,0,1030,73M51M10347M97M47M81 M11850M71M11471M48M97M76M11488M78M56M10086M50M67M1 1473M98M10761M)/1030_194.jpg
The demonstration stops at Kultorvet. This image was later used by the police to identify demonstrators
We did not know that there was a small halt in the demonstration due to an improvised meeting at Kultorvet so we thought it took a long time before the demonstration arrived while we stood at the ramp leading up to the stock exchange waiting for it to arrive. But at last we saw them come down Højbro Plads. A police chain tried to block they way but it was not very strong and made no serious attempt at stopping the unemployed so the demonstration continued along the castle and now things sped up. When they reached the Frederick VII statue the three of us in the vanguard went up the ramp to the stock exchange, forced our way into the trading floor, drew our clubs and started pounding on the stockbrokers.
I have often thought that the custodian at the door must have been shocked when he saw us. He could simply have closed the door and then the three of us had been locked inside with hundreds of stockbrokers and then we would be between a rock and a hard place. But none of that happened and my colleague Poul Gisselmann who together with Jørgen Mogensen from the young socialists and myself formed the small vanguard shouted in his famously strong voice when we drew the clubs "Get out of here all you villains, thieves and bandits!" We beat the stockbrokers up and soon the demonstrators poured in through the door and the the stock exchange had been cleared of its usual clientèle.
Some parts of the battle i have no memories of but I remember that at some point in time I helped to clear a small side room of speculants and stockbrokers and when I entered the large trading floor again it was completely deserted. I was a little startled but the police had arrived and had occupied the entrances to the stock exchange at both the front and the back doors. However, I went out the front door and strangely enough I was allowed to walk unharmed through the policemen and down on the street where there were still fights between police and demonstrators who defended themselves with rubble from the newly built Christiansborg castle.
A lot of arrests were made after the the assault on the stock exchange of demonstrators as well as assumed ring leaders but although Gisselmann and I had been spokespersons and ring leaders of the demonstrators and the assault itself we got away with a fine of DKK 500 - for disorderly conduct! When one remembers how the courts struck us down during those years with sentences of shorter or longer duration both prison sentences, bread and water sentences etc. then such a fine was a ridiculously small sentence. Other demonstrators were punished much harder for instance five of them were convicted to 120 days to two years of prison although they had played minor roles. The last sentence went to machinist Aage Jacobsen presumably because he had held a speech at the improvised meeting at Kultorvet. Among those arrested were also editor Christian Christensen who sent five days in custody although he had spend the entire day at "Solidaritet" (syndicalist publication) far from the stock exchange. Gisselmann and I showed up to have the fine converted to jailtime which would take a month but since the FS congress was to take place in the Easter of 1918 the comrades there collected the money to bail us out before the month had passed.
I will add two point of information concerning the assault on the stock exchange.
Only the leaders of the demonstration knew that the destination was the stock exchange. The directions given to the other demonstrators was: follow the man with the red piece of cloth.
The sign with the words "The unemployed have closed the gambling joint!" was never put up. Carpenter Alfred Mogensen had brought the sign as well as nails and boards to block the door to the stock exchange and put the sign on it as soon as the place had been cleared but the police arrived shortly before that and thwarted the plan.
This assault on the stock exchange gained much notoriety. It was completely unheard of that the unemployed could close down a stock exchange and the different papers especially the so-called liberal Politiken and Ekstrabladet and to a certain degree Socialdemokraten did not know how to cover this affair.
There was an understanding in large parts of the population and especially in the working class that the unemployed could be driven to such acts and although one can say that an action like this in itself produces no direct results one should never deny the effects of such episodes on the views of those in power. I have often experienced that even though an action like for instance a strike is lost at the moment those kinds of actions have their effects. Often an employer becomes more tractable after a lost strike, although the workers get convicted of it he now knows what can happen to him. Thus those kinds of actions have a certain importance and I believe that those improvements that were made for the unemployed in those years was a consequence of the the demonstrations and other actions of the unemployed back then.
http://www.leksikon.org/images/fritzner_andreas.jpg
Andreas Fritzner
The following is a translation of the syndicalist Andreas Fritzner's account on the events.
http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3625/3507047753_19658ff1d0.jpg
The Copenhagen Stock Exchange
At the end of the first world war there was a colossal amount of unemployment here in Denmark and meanwhile we had a harsh rationing of foodstuffs as well as shortages of fuel and housing which hit the unemployed especially hard. The meager unemployment benefits did not allow them to buy replacements for the rationed goods, they could not afford replacement fuels like wood or peat etc. that the more well-off and those who was at least partially employed could. For the unemployed were especially disadvantaged during the first world war. There was no such thing as a relief fund in Copenhagen then (a such was first introduced in 1921 through special legislation) and when the transient benefits from the unemployment funds was used up there was only the Copenhagen Relief Society, a kind of charitable institution, that you had to apply to to get help from. It was more a charity than a right to unemployment benefits.
On the initiative of FS (Fagoppositionens Sammenslutning, a syndicalist organisation) the unemployed organised in the winter of 1917-1918 and sought to gain responsiveness for their demands through demonstrations. Especially a large demonstration at Parliament in 1918 led to better conditions for the unemployed as they gained larger and mandatory benefits. Sometimes those who were employed supported the cause by striking on the demonstration days and taking part in the demonstrations and it showed also in this instance that the direct action that we syndicalists were proponents of had led to results.
In spite of this the conditions for the unemployed were still meager and there was still great discontent among the unemployed who knew that the bourgeoisie had golden days back then. Denmark was neutral during World War I, was able to conduct trade to all sides and to make money on both one side and the other of the war what "smart" businessmen shamelessly made use of. Danish foodstuffs were thus shipped to Germany on a large scale with the consent of the government and partially as a kind of payment for the German coal we managed to get up here. It played a huge role in the revolutionary agitation during World War I that the standard of living of Danish workers had to be decreased to get German coal and the transactions of certain social democratic leaders during this period were also criticised. It was a huge story by itself that one maybe should cover but there are too many murky points in the affair for me to take it up for further description here.
But anyway the shipping magnates, the stockbrokers, the shareholders, the goulash barons etc. made huge amounts of money while the working class was impoverished. The shares rose from day to day. There were examples of steamship shares reaching rates of 12-, 13,-, even 1400 in few months. So fantastic sums were made on the stock exchange that the bourgeoisie wallowed in luxury, in money and in power which naturally stirred the unemployed greatly who themselves had to tighten their belts to a scary extent.
At meetings of unemployed throughout the city it was often mentioned that the unemployed had to use direct actions to draw attention to their problems and to show that they would not be content with being pariahs. After an unemployment meeting on Enghavevej (street in Copenhagen) the unemployed had marched through Istedgade (street in Copenhagen) and looted some food stores. Back then demonstrations and direct actions like this could happen more easily than now. When I later tell about the assault on the stock exchange and the market square affair (another significant struggle in those times) this will be even clearer. The police was not geared for quick and massive deployment, didn't have the deployment apparatus, cars, radios etc. that they have now so it took them a little longer to show up when something happened which made it possible for things like food riots to take place. - But anyway there were many at the meetings in the winter 1917-1918 who argued that the unemployed had to shake up the consciousness of the society in one way or another and we thus decided - those of us who had talked so much about the benefits of direct action - that we would attack the stock exchange. The idea for this came from editor Christian Christensen, machinist Lauritz Hansen and carpenter Alfred Mogensen but the practical organisation of this was left to other comrades.
Back then the stock exchange was the meeting point for the clique who made huge amounts of money off the war: stock sharks, shipping magnates, shareholders, brokers etc. and we decided that we one day after a meeting would attack the stock exchange, chase all the stockbrokers out of the place and put a sign on the door saying "The unemployed have closed the gambling joint".
I had two meetings that day. One at Jagtvejen (Copenhagen street) and one in Rømersgade (Copenhagen street) and at those it was decided to march through the city. We had planted the rumour that the objective was to loot the meat packing district. We were aware that there were some snitches among the unemployed and that there were civilian policemen at our meetings and thus the rumour had been planted to throw the police off. After the two previous lootings it seemed plausible and the police believed the story. I had spoken at the meeting on Jagtvejen and the demonstration went through Nørrebrogade until it reached Farigsmagsgade where it joined those who had been at the meeting in Rømersgade. There had been full house at both places and it was thus a huge demonstration that now moved towards Købmagergade and the stock exchange.
We were aware that when the unemployed neared the stock exchange the custodian at the entry could simply slam the door shut and thus thwart the entire operation. We were thus a little vanguard of four who had gone ahead to prevent that from happening. In a way we were only three as the fourth was my wife and she was naturally not to take part in any of it but she followed us down Købmagergade. it was Shrove Monday, february 11th 1918 that day and we stopped at a shop called The China and Japan House and bought three clubs (a piñata-like game involving a barrel is a Danish Shrovetide tradition) that we put in our inner pockets. We were to smash up the barrel that day and we went ahead of the demonstration to the stock exchange.
http://www.sa.dk/media(194,420,0,0,True,0,1030,73M51M10347M97M47M81 M11850M71M11471M48M97M76M11488M78M56M10086M50M67M1 1473M98M10761M)/1030_194.jpg
The demonstration stops at Kultorvet. This image was later used by the police to identify demonstrators
We did not know that there was a small halt in the demonstration due to an improvised meeting at Kultorvet so we thought it took a long time before the demonstration arrived while we stood at the ramp leading up to the stock exchange waiting for it to arrive. But at last we saw them come down Højbro Plads. A police chain tried to block they way but it was not very strong and made no serious attempt at stopping the unemployed so the demonstration continued along the castle and now things sped up. When they reached the Frederick VII statue the three of us in the vanguard went up the ramp to the stock exchange, forced our way into the trading floor, drew our clubs and started pounding on the stockbrokers.
I have often thought that the custodian at the door must have been shocked when he saw us. He could simply have closed the door and then the three of us had been locked inside with hundreds of stockbrokers and then we would be between a rock and a hard place. But none of that happened and my colleague Poul Gisselmann who together with Jørgen Mogensen from the young socialists and myself formed the small vanguard shouted in his famously strong voice when we drew the clubs "Get out of here all you villains, thieves and bandits!" We beat the stockbrokers up and soon the demonstrators poured in through the door and the the stock exchange had been cleared of its usual clientèle.
Some parts of the battle i have no memories of but I remember that at some point in time I helped to clear a small side room of speculants and stockbrokers and when I entered the large trading floor again it was completely deserted. I was a little startled but the police had arrived and had occupied the entrances to the stock exchange at both the front and the back doors. However, I went out the front door and strangely enough I was allowed to walk unharmed through the policemen and down on the street where there were still fights between police and demonstrators who defended themselves with rubble from the newly built Christiansborg castle.
A lot of arrests were made after the the assault on the stock exchange of demonstrators as well as assumed ring leaders but although Gisselmann and I had been spokespersons and ring leaders of the demonstrators and the assault itself we got away with a fine of DKK 500 - for disorderly conduct! When one remembers how the courts struck us down during those years with sentences of shorter or longer duration both prison sentences, bread and water sentences etc. then such a fine was a ridiculously small sentence. Other demonstrators were punished much harder for instance five of them were convicted to 120 days to two years of prison although they had played minor roles. The last sentence went to machinist Aage Jacobsen presumably because he had held a speech at the improvised meeting at Kultorvet. Among those arrested were also editor Christian Christensen who sent five days in custody although he had spend the entire day at "Solidaritet" (syndicalist publication) far from the stock exchange. Gisselmann and I showed up to have the fine converted to jailtime which would take a month but since the FS congress was to take place in the Easter of 1918 the comrades there collected the money to bail us out before the month had passed.
I will add two point of information concerning the assault on the stock exchange.
Only the leaders of the demonstration knew that the destination was the stock exchange. The directions given to the other demonstrators was: follow the man with the red piece of cloth.
The sign with the words "The unemployed have closed the gambling joint!" was never put up. Carpenter Alfred Mogensen had brought the sign as well as nails and boards to block the door to the stock exchange and put the sign on it as soon as the place had been cleared but the police arrived shortly before that and thwarted the plan.
This assault on the stock exchange gained much notoriety. It was completely unheard of that the unemployed could close down a stock exchange and the different papers especially the so-called liberal Politiken and Ekstrabladet and to a certain degree Socialdemokraten did not know how to cover this affair.
There was an understanding in large parts of the population and especially in the working class that the unemployed could be driven to such acts and although one can say that an action like this in itself produces no direct results one should never deny the effects of such episodes on the views of those in power. I have often experienced that even though an action like for instance a strike is lost at the moment those kinds of actions have their effects. Often an employer becomes more tractable after a lost strike, although the workers get convicted of it he now knows what can happen to him. Thus those kinds of actions have a certain importance and I believe that those improvements that were made for the unemployed in those years was a consequence of the the demonstrations and other actions of the unemployed back then.
http://www.leksikon.org/images/fritzner_andreas.jpg
Andreas Fritzner