Avalanche - The Anarchist correspondence zine Avalanche - The Anarchist correspondence zine 1 | Page 22

Air!

The struggle against the building of a maxi-prison
and the offensive of power in Brussels
February 2014 - Belgium

The context of Brussels,
a becoming European metropole
To explain the choice anarchist comrades made to start a
specific struggle against the building of a maxi-prison in
Brussels, it seems us necessary to give some analytic elements about the ongoing transformations in the city and to
shortly speak again about the revolts, uprisings and struggles inside of the Belgian prisons in these last years.
In contrast to the image of a well secured European
capital and social graveyard the authorities are trying
to spread, social contradictions are very present. As
elsewhere in Europe, the conditions of survival in the
popular areas are sorely deteriorating. To put an end
to the recurring riots in the neigboorhouds, riots which
are quantitatively speaking certainly not big, but quite
significant; to the diffuse criminality on which depends
an ever increasing part of the population of Brussels to
ensure their survival; and more generally to the refusal,
certainly not generalized but well tangible, of the authorities, forces of order and legality, power launched
a true offensive. This offensive to “pacify Brussels” has
several aspects. Since it is not the goal of this text to analyze these aspects with the depth they would deserve,
we will limit ourselves to outline them.

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First of all, there are the very numerous projects linked
to redevelopment of the urban space, all based on the
logic of control and capitalist economy. Where in the
past the city of Brussels was a bit left behind, we see today construction sites popping up everywhere. Building
of new commercial centers, development of new neighbourhoods on abandoned or industrial sites, extension
of the “European zone” where the institutions of the European Union are concentrated, building of a Regional
Express Railroad based on the model of any metropole,
linking Brussels to smaller cities and villages in the surroundings and of course, the redevelopment of the poor
areas with luxury estates and the invasion of all the
services the middle class demands.
Secondly, we assist an important reinforcement of repression. The numbers of police officers are growing
rapidly, making Brussels one of the European cities with
the highest number of cops for 100 residents. These new
units are more and more structured in different services
to cover specific tasks: metro police, neigbourhood police, anti-hold up brigades, reinforcement units (used
to crush riots, ready 24/24h). And then, like in other
metropoles, we see a militarization of the public transport; a video-surveillance (as well public as private)
which has considerably extended; a brutal, systematic